Indesit sees flat sales in 2014 as Q2 swings to net profit

MOSCOW (MRC) - Italian white goods maker Indesit , which is being taken over by larger U.S. rival Whirlpool, said it expected revenues to be flat for the year after sales dropped 3.8 percent in the second quarter, said Reuters.

Net profit for the period stood at 5.3 million euros (USD7 million) against a loss of 21.2 million euros a year earlier.

Indesit forecast an adjusted operating profit for the full-year equal to at least 3.5% of sales which in 2013 stood at 2.67 billion euros.

Revenue fell to 624.2 million euros in April-June as sales of finished products suffered due to lower volumes and negative currency effects.

But adjusted operating profit rose to 21 million euros in the second quarter, from 13 million euros in the same period a year earlier, thanks to a better price mix and lower costs.

Whirlpool, the world's largest maker of home appliances, has agreed to pay 758 million euros to buy a 60% stake in Indesit.

Indesit has eight industrial sites in Italy, Poland the United Kingdom, Russia and Turkey and employs 16,000 workers. The Group’s main brands are Indesit, Hotpoint and Scholtes.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Belgian chemicals company Solvay reported better-than-expected core profit in the second quarter, as it managed to drive down costs and offset currency impacts, said Reuters.

Solvay said group core earnings (REBITDA) rose 10% year-on-year to 485 million euros (USD649.66 million) in the April-June period, above the average 479 million euros forecast in a Reuters poll of six analysts.

Sales were up 2% at 2.64 billion euros, just below analyst expectations, as weaker foreign currencies balanced out volume increases. The core profit gain came from a widening of the margin by 140 basis points to 18.4%.

It reiterated its forecast of a high single-digit percentage increase in core profit this year.

The group said earlier on Thursday that it had agreed to sell its U.S. based sulphuric acid production unit Eco Services to private equity group CCMP Capital, based on an enterprise value of USD890 million.

As MRC wrote before, Solvay has signed a binding agreement to sell its sulfuric acid virgin production and regeneration business Eco Services to affiliates of CCMP Capital Advisors, LLC.

Solvay S.A. is a Belgian chemical company founded in 1863, with its head office in Neder-Over-Heembeek, Brussels, Belgium. The company has diversified into two major sectors of activity: chemicals and plastics. Solvay supplies over 1500 products across 35 brands of high-performance polymers – fluoropolymers, fluoroelastomers, fluorinated fluids, semi-aromatic polyamides, sulfone polymers, aromatic ultra polymers, high-barrier polymers and cross-linked high-performance compounds.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi International Petrochemical Co (Sipchem) has commenced trial runs at a new ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA)/low density polyethylene (LDPE) swing plant, reported Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Saudi Arabia informed that test runs at the plant commenced on July 26, 2014.

Located in Jubail Saudi Arabia, the plant has a production capacity of 200,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote before, in late 2013, Saudi International Petrochemical Co. (SIPCHEM) said it expects to sign a share-swap merger agreement with Sahara (SPC) Petrochemicals Co. in the first half of 2014, seeking to create a company with about USD5 billion in market value.

Established in 1999, Saudi International Petrochemical Company (Sipchem) manufactures and markets methanol, butanediol, tetrahydrofuran, acetic acid, acetic anhydride, vinyl acetate monomer. Besides, it has launched several down-stream projects to manufacture ethylene vinyl acetate, low density polyethylene, ethyl acetate, butyl acetate, cross linkable polyethylene, and semi conductive compound that are scheduled to start in 2013.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Royal Dutch Shell plc has announced the appointment of Harry Brekelmans as Projects & Technology Director with effect from October 1, 2014, as per the company's press release.

In his new role, Harry will become a member of the Executive Committee and will take over from Matthias Bichsel who will be leaving the company after 34 years’ distinguished service.

Harry is a Dutch national and currently Executive Vice President Operated, Upstream International. He joined Shell in 1990 and has held a variety of international management positions in Geosciences, Field Development, Operations, Internal Audit and Strategy & Planning. Harry graduated from Delft Technical University, Netherlands in 1990 with a degree in Petroleum Engineering. Harry is married with two children.

As MRC informed previously, last year, Royal Dutch Shell took a final investment decision tol increase production capacity at its Singapore petrochemical plant to meet demand for specialized materials used in the automotive and furniture industries. The upgrade will increase the plant's capacity to produce polyols -- industrial chemicals used to make high-quality foams -- by more than 100,000 metric tpy to 360,000 tpy. The project is expected to be completed in 2014.

Royal Dutch Shell plc is an Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the biggest company in the world in terms of revenue and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors". Shell is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Williams Olefins, the world's only processor of oil sands upgrader offgas, is restating its ethylene force majeure allocation, reducing its August sales allocation from 25% to 0%, as per Plastemart with refrence to industry sources.

As MRC reported before, in mid-June 2013, Williams Olefins declared force majeure on ethylene supplies out of its Geismar, Louisiana, olefins complex that was impacted by an explosion and fire.

Earlier this year, the company has notified customers of the change, stating that the Geismar, Louisiana, ethylene plant would not restart until Q2-2014. The plant has been offline since an explosion in July 2013. On July 23, the company told customers it would be able to supply 25% of the ethylene allocation and there were expectations that the plant would restart in August.

One source said he was told that the restated force majeure event was due to "operational restrictions" and Williams estimated a 100% loss of production for August, which would lead to a 0% sales allocation for the month. The force majeure and the subsequent 0% allocation follows a six-to-eight week restart delay announced Wednesday in the second-quarter financial guidance update.

The Geismar, La. plant is a natural gas liquids cracker that processes olefins used in the petrochemical industry. Williams Partners produces approximately 1.3 billion pounds of ethylene and 90 million pounds of polymer grade prophylene from the plant.
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