Westlake to create new publicly traded ethylene feedstock business

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Westlake Chemical Corporation has announced that one of its wholly owned subsidiaries, Westlake Chemical Partners LP, has filed a Registration Statement on Form S-1 with the US Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") relating to its proposed initial public offering of common units representing limited partner interests, reported Westlake on its site.

Chemical Partners is a Delaware limited partnership recently formed by Westlake to operate, acquire and develop ethylene production facilities and related assets. Chemical Partners' initial assets are expected to consist of the general partner interest and a portion of the limited partner interest in Westlake Chemical OpCo LP, which will own and operate ethylene production and pipeline assets.

The number of common units to be offered and the price range for the offering have not been determined. Westlake will own the general partner of Chemical Partners and all of its incentive distribution rights and expects to retain a majority of Chemical Partners' units representing limited partner interests.

A registration statement relating to these securities has been filed with the SEC but has not yet become effective. These securities may not be sold nor may offers to buy be accepted prior to the time the registration statement becomes effective.

As MRC wrote earlier, in late December 2013, Westlake Chemical Corporation started-up its new chlor-alkali plant located at its vinyls manufacturing complex in Geismar, Louisiana. This new chlor-alkali plant has the capacity to produce 350,000 electrochemical units (ECU's) annually and utilizes state of the art membrane technology. The plant is adjacent to the existing vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) facilities at the Geismar complex.

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) -- In its constitutive meeting, the new Supervisory Board of BASF has elected Dr. Jurgen Hambrecht as its new chairman, as per the company's press release.

Hambrecht thus succeeds Dr. h.c. Eggert Voscherau, who took over as chairman following the annual shareholders’ meeting 2009 and who was no longer available for re-election.

As vice chairmen, the Supervisory Board elected Michael Diekmann and Robert Oswald, both of whom had previously held this function.

The annual ahareholders’ meeting of BASF SE elected the following shareholder representatives as members of the Supervisory Board: Dame Alison Carnwath DBE, London; Professor Dr. Francois Diederich, Zurich; Michael Diekmann, Munich; Franz Fehrenbach, Stuttgart; Dr. Jurgen Hambrecht, Neustadt/Weinstrasse; Anke Schaferkordt, Cologne.

The appointments of the Supervisory Board members are valid until the end of the annual shareholders’ meeting 2019.

As MRC informed previously, in September 2013, the Supervisory Board of BASF Coatings appointed Thomas Hartmann as Managing Director and Industrial Relations Director of BASF Coatings. He succeeded Eva Muller who assumed a new position within the BASF Group.

BASF is the largest diversified chemical company in the world and is headquartered in Ludwigshafen, Germany. BASF produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Indian chemicals firm Artek Surfin Chemicals now is the sole owner of PVC additives maker Galata Chemicals after buying out partner Aterian Investment Partners, said Plasticsnews.

No purchase price was disclosed in the transaction, which was announced April 30. The two investors had unveiled plans for the deal in February. At that time, Galata President and Chief Operating Officer Steven McKeown said that Galata "was thankful for Aterian’s significant contribution to the turnaround and growth" of the firm.

After the transaction, Galata will continue to operate as usual with its current organization in place, officials said.
Mumbai-based Artek and New York-based Aterian had formed Artek Aterian Holding Co. LLC in 2010 when they paid USD16.2 million in cash for the PVC additives business of Chemtura Corp. They then renamed that business as Galata.

Galata is based in Southbury, Conn., and operates plants in Hahnville, La., and Lampertheim, Germany. The firm’s products include plasticizers, lubricants and foaming agents.

Artek and its Sterling Auxiliaries unit specialize in metal-finishing chemicals. Aterian is a private equity firm that invests in small and middle-market companies that are financially or operationally constrained. Chemtura was operating under bankruptcy protection when it sold the PVC additives business to Artek Aterian.

The business that became Galata had annual sales estimated at USD240 million when it was acquired. A current annual sales total was unavailable.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The EU chemicals sector continued to show a strong trade surplus, but growth of the surplus has slowed markedly in recent years, swelling only EUR1.0 billion to EUR48.8 billion in 2013, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Confidence levels for the sector remained broadly unchanged in March 2014 compared to February 2014. But trends in capacity utilization and employment were negative. Capacity utilization eased, to 78.8% in the fourth quarter, from 79.1% in the third quarter, while employment in the EU chemical industry fell 1% during 2013.

Cefic Director Hubert Mandery said: "Growth is recovering only slowly; we have yet to return to the level of output achieved seven years ago, before the crisis. The data highlight the urgent need to bring about the European industrial renaissance proposed by European policymakers".

The EU chemicals net trade surplus continued to grow, reaching a record EUR48.8 billion during 2013. The biggest surplus of EUR15 billion, up EUR0.9 billion was with non-EU countries in Europe, including Russia. The EU chemicals trade surplus with Asia, excluding Japan and China, reached EUR7.3 billion, EUR2.3 billion more than during 2012. The EU net chemicals trade surplus with China decreased slightly from EUR1.5 billion in 2012 to EUR1.3 billion in 2013. And the US continued to reduce its chemicals trade deficit with the EU, which fell by EUR2.1 billion to EUR6.4 billion.

Petrochemicals output continued to contract in January 2014, down by 4.2% compared with January 2013. This steep drop was partially offset by a 7.2% surge in output of polymers and a 6% expansion in basic inorganics. Specialty chemicals grew by 4.9% month-on-month while consumer chemicals output rose 3.3%. Petrochemicals monthly output has continued to perform below trend growth rates since September 2011.

The EU chemical industry confidence indicator (CCI) generated by Cefic remained flat in March. The CCI monthly reading reflected companies’ lower output expectations, although the total order bookings for the coming months and current stock levels improved slightly. This is in line with the EU manufacturing confidence indicator, showing a marginal decrease of 0.3 points in March 2014 compared to February 2014. During the fourth quarter of 2013 capacity utilization in the EU chemical industry decreased slightly, to 78.8%. It remains 6.6% below the post-crisis peak recorded in the first quarter of 2011.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF SE may undertake its single biggest plant investment to date, spending more than 1 billion euros (USD1.4 billion) to target cheaper US shale gas with a facility to convert methane to propylene used in coatings, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Plans for the new facility are being evaluated, the Ludwigshafen, Germany-based company said in a statement. Until now, the largest single-factory investment is BASF’s 1 billion-euro plant in Ludwigshafen for toluene diisocyanate (TDI), a component used in seating cushions and mattresses.

BASF competitors have ramped up US expansion plans on the growth of shale gas. Dow Chemical (DOW) Co. is adding plastics capacity in the US, using the low-cost natural gas. Axiall Corp., North America’s largest producer of vinyl building products, is considering a USD3 billion ethylene plant in Louisiana. The US market produced BASF’s fastest sales growth in euro terms, with revenue rising 5% in the first quarter, it said today.

The chemical maker will reduce the portion of investments allocated to Germany to about a quarter from a third within the next five years because of rising energy costs in its home country, Bock said earlier this year.

First-quarter earnings before interest, tax and one-time items fell 3.3% to 2.14 billion euros, beating a 2.12 billion-euro analyst estimate in a Bloomberg survey. The company saw more demand from the automobile and agricultural industries, it said.

Sales fell 1.1% to 19.5 billion euros in the quarter, compared with a 19.3 billion-euro analyst estimate. Net income gained 2.1% to 1.48 billion euros.

BASF is transferring its gas trading unit to OAO Gazprom (OGZD) in an asset swap and in return will receive stakes in two Siberian oil fields.

BASF is the world’s leading chemical company. Its portfolio ranges from chemicals, plastics, performance products and crop protection products to oil and gas.

MRC