Westlake Chemical declares two-for-one stock split and increases quarterly dividend by 12%

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Board of Directors of Westlake Chemical Corporation declared a two-for-one split of the company's common stock and increased the quarterly cash dividend on the company's common stock by 12% to USD0.252 per share on a pre-split basis, according to the company's press release.

"These actions reflect the financial strength of the company," said Albert Chao, President and CEO. "The cash dividend increase, the second in less than a year, and the stock split demonstrates the Board's continued confidence in our ability to deliver strong earnings."

The two-for-one common stock split will be accomplished by means of a stock dividend, to be distributed March 18, 2014 to stockholders of record as of February 28, 2014. Stockholders will be issued one additional share of common stock for each share held. Westlake Chemical expects that its common stock will begin trading on a split-adjusted basis on March 19, 2014.

The cash dividend is payable on March 18, 2014 to stockholders of record as of February 28, 2014, and will be paid on the pre-split shares.

As MRC wrote previously, in late August 2013, the board of directors of Westlake Chemical Corporation declared a dividend of 22.5 cents per share, an increase of 20% from the 18.75 cents per share paid in the second quarter of 2013. This was the 36th successive quarterly dividend that Westlake had declared since completing its initial public offering in August 2004.

Westlake Chemical Corporation is a manufacturer and supplier of petrochemicals, polymers and building products with headquarters in Houston, Texas. The company's range of products includes: ethylene, polyethylene, styrene, propylene, caustic, VCM, PVC resin and PVC building products including pipe and specialty components, windows and fence.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Styron, the global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex and rubber, has announced two new additions to its SPRINTAN rubber range, which have been tailored to meet the evolving needs of the global tire industry, reported the company on its site.

Styron’s SPRINTAN rubber portfolio offers an array of high performance solutions to fit specific tire industry needs. The range includes rubber grades with enhanced wet grip and wear performance, as well as grades that provide a good balance between traction and rolling resistance.

The newest members of the SPRINTAN family are the SPRINTAN SLR 3402 and SLR 4502, two next generation solutions adjusted for improved low-temperature performance. SPRINTAN SLR 3402 and SLR 4502 offer the combined benefits found in existing SPRINTAN grades, namely excellent low rolling resistance, as well as other significant advantages, such as reduced stiffness at low temperatures boosting snow grip potential in winter tread application.

Both solutions can be blended with other polymers, offering customers greater flexibility.

Olivier Veron, Marketing Manager of Styron’s Rubber Business explains: "The microstructure of these new grades clearly differentiates them from our existing rubber portfolio and can be positioned as best-in-class among our products of non-oil extended grades."

As MRC reported earlier, Styron Europe GmbH and its affiliate companies in Europe have recently announced price increases for all polystyrene (PS) and copolymer grades in February, as follows:

- STYRON general purpose polystyrene grades (GPPS), STYRON and STYRON A-TECH high impact polystyrene grades (HIPS) by EUR40/tonne;
- MAGNUM ABS resins by EUR50/tonne;
- TYRIL SAN resins by EUR40/tonne.

Styron is a leading global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex and rubber, dedicated to collaborating with customers to deliver innovative and sustainable solutions. StyronпїЅs technology is used by customers in industries such as home appliances, automotive, building & construction, carpet, consumer electronics, consumer goods, electrical & lighting, medical, packaging, paper & paperboard, rubber goods and tires. Styron had approximately USD 5.5 billion in revenue in 2012, with 20 manufacturing sites around the world, and 2100 employees.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Imports of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) into Russia surged in January 2014 by 68% from December 2013 and totalled 25,500 tonnes, which was abnormally high for the imported PET market at this time of the year, according to MRC ScanPlast.

January PET imports are traditionally significantly lower than in December, which is usually explained by long New Year holidays and sluggish buying activity in the market of finished products at the beginning of the year. Although, the situation was absolutely different this year. Some market players explained such importers' behaviour by prolonged outages and force majeures at Russian plants in late 2014. Two plants (Kaliningrad Alco-Naphtha and Solnechnogorsk Senezh) were idle during virtually the whole November and a part of December, the companies also anticipated a force majeure for shipments of material from Ufa in early 2014.

Pricing of Chinese plants only added to all these factors. In dollar terms, December PET prices in China were at their bottom for the year of 2013, which gave a good opportunity for buying in advance of long holidays in Russia and the Lunar New Year in China in late January.

In rouble terms, given the old exchange rate (about Rb32,25 per USD1), prices of Asian imports in the Central region should have been Rb62,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT. At the same time, the devaluation of the national currency negatively affected prices of January imports for Russian buyers.

Imports of Chinese PET totalled 19,500 tonnes. Imports of Lithuanian PET chips have been high for the second consecutive month. The overall imports of Lithuanian PET totalled 2,200 tonnes in January.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russian companies have reduced imports of suspension polyvinyl chloride (SPVC) to a record low for the last four years amid weak seasonal demand for finished products and higher prices in foreign markets, according to MRC DataScope.

January SPVC imports into Russia fell to 11,600 tonnes, the bottom level since February 2010. The main reason for the slump in imports was weak demand for finished products and higher prices in foreign markets, particularly, in the US and China.

Imports of suspension dropped from all countries-importers. Thus, PVC imports from the United States fell to 6,100 tonnes from 7,100 tonnes in December 2013 (the overall imports from the US totalled 179,200 tonnes in 2013). Shipments of acetylene PVC from China decreased to a record 1,700 tonnes last month from 5,000 tonnes in December 2013 (the overall imports of acetylene resins totalled 136,300 tonnes last year).

The January devaluation of the Russian rouble and weak demand for finished products from PVC will restrict imports of resin to the local market in the next couple of months.

As reported earlier, weaker demand for finished products from SPVC in 2013 led to a reduction of 11% in imports in comparison with 2012 to 367,000 tonnes.

MRC