Company News
February 6, 2023
Highlights from LyondellBasell’s Earnings Call
LyondellBasell Industries N.V. (LYB) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript
Feb. 03, 2023 2:22 PM ETLyondellBasell Industries N.V. (LYB)
Q4: 2023-02-03 Earnings Summary
EPS of $1.29 beats by $0.02 | Revenue of $10.21B (-20.45% Y/Y) misses by $487.87M
LyondellBasell Industries N.V. (NYSE:LYB) Q4 2022 Results Conference Call February 3, 2023 11:00 AM ET
Company Participants
David Kinney – Head, IR
Peter Vanacker – CEO
Michael McMurray – CFO
Kenneth Lane – EVP, Global Olefins and Polyolefins
Kimberly Foley – EVP, Intermediates & Derivatives & Refining
Torkel Rhenman – EVP, Advanced Polymer Solutions
Michael McMurray
This represents our 12th consecutive year of annual dividend growth. We continue to invest in maintenance and growth projects with $1.9 billion in capital expenditures. A significant portion of this capital funded the final stages of construction of our world-scale PO/TBA plant.
Startup activities remain on track for the end of this quarter. Our transformation of is working across our company to rigorously manage and track the progress of our value enhancement program. We look forward to sharing the progress of this program at our Capital Markets Day in March.
As a reminder, volatility in natural gas prices impacts our cost for not only gas, but also steam and electricity. We estimate that a $1 per million BTU change in the price of natural gas impacts the energy cost of our directly operated assets by approximately $175 million per year across the company with 80% of this impact in North America and 20% in Europe.
These estimates do not include the impact of gas price on feedstock cost. Before I turn the call over to Ken and then to each of our business leaders, who will describe our segment results in more detail, let me address some of your annual modeling questions for 2023 on Slide 11.
As our new world-scale PO/TBA plant ramps up, we expect to produce and sell about half of the asset’s nameplate capacity in 2023. We remain confident that our value enhancement program can achieve recurring annual EBITDA of $150 million by the end of 2023 through the execution of about 1,000 projects.
In order to achieve this benefit, we expect to incur a similar amount of onetime capital and operational cost of about $150 million, with the majority of these costs allocated to capital. Major planned maintenance for 2023 included a turnaround at one of our Midwest ethylene crackers in the O&P Americas segment, turnarounds at our acetyls assets and 3 propylene oxide plant turnarounds within our I&D segment.
Kimberly Foley
Thank you, Ken. Please turn to Slide 14 as we take a look at our intermediates and Derivatives segment. Fourth quarter EBITDA was $291 million. Styrene margins improved due to lower feedstock costs. Oxyfuel margins remained well above historical fourth quarter averages.
Oxyfuel volumes declined as the timing of the vessel sailings resulted in unusually high third quarter volumes. We operated our assets at rates of approximately 75%. Our propylene oxide and styrene joint venture in the Netherlands is expected to restart this month after 3 months of downtime in response to volatile European energy costs and lower demand.
We look forward to initial volumes from the new PO/TBA asset in Houston by the end of the quarter. We plan to operate our assets across the IND segment at approximately 80% in the first quarter. In January, we are encouraged by unseasonably strong oxyfuel margins with low butane feedstock costs and strong oxyfuel blend premiums.
We expect relatively stable margins for the segment for the first quarter. We developed multiyear maintenance schedules to ensure that our plants can safely and reliably serve our customers. As it works out, 2023 will be a heavy year for maintenance across several of our PO/TBA assets.
Maintenance is scheduled for 2 of our 3 PO/TBA plants at our Bayport, Texas facility in the second and fourth quarters. Our [indiscernible] PO/TBA facility in the Netherlands will also undergo maintenance from September through November. We expect the ramp-up in volumes of our new plant will be partially offset by loss production from this planned maintenance.
Nonetheless, the incremental 2023 PO and TBA volumes should be sufficient to capture typical market growth. In 2024, we expect less scheduled maintenance and the full year of production from our new assets will provide additional volumes to serve market growth.
Duffy Fischer
Two quick questions. One, in the increase in your operating rates across segments, does that contemplate some inventory build for the summer season? Or does that also — or do you see that as kind of sell-through as well for Q1? And then on the polymers for Americas, what — or what’s your plan, I guess, for the split between U.S. sold and export this year versus next year? Do you have to improve your export percent meaningfully with the new capacity in North America?
Peter Vanacker
Thank you, Duffy. I mean, let me split it up in 2 parts on your working capital question on the inventory question. First of all, Kim will give a bit of overview on the PO side. And then Kim can also talk about the olefins, polyolefins.
Kimberly Foley
Thank you, Peter. So as it relates to the propylene oxide side, yes, we’re building a a slight bit of working capital as a contingency for the startup. But once the startup is successful, which we have tremendous confidence in that inventory level will come down. And we expect throughout the year to operate at about 85% capacity based on the modest demand we see in propylene oxide right now.
February 3, 2023
Patten Jr. Joins Everchem Specialty Chemicals
Everchem Specialty Chemicals today announced that Dave Patten Jr. has joined the company as Director of Marketing
Patten Jr. comes from the film and commercial production background, having run his production company South9 since 2009. He has produced and sold films to Netflix and series to Comcast, directed/produced music videos for record labels including Atlantic Records, RocNation and Warner Brothers, as well as commercials for brands like Under Armour, NFL, Lincoln, and Jack Daniel’s.
“I’m excited to spice up the current paradigm of Chemical Industry marketing where I can. The team at Everchem are a lot of fun and open to atypical ideas I throw their way. Most of the time, anyway.” Patten Jr said. “More than anything though, I love that I get to work with my dad.”
Media PA, February 3, 2023
February 1, 2023
Bustynowicz Named President of Everchem Specialty Chemicals
Everchem Specialty Chemicals, a sales and marketing distributor of Urethane, Epoxy, Industrial Chemicals and Energy Curing products, today announced that Walt Bustynowicz has been named President.
Bustynowicz has more than 25 years of experience in the Urethane and Epoxy industries, working in various Technical and Commercial roles at companies which include ICI, Huntsman, CVC Thermoset Specialties, Emerald Performance Materials Company, and Cardolite Corporation. Bustynowicz transitions from his most recent role as Vice President and General Manager at Everchem.
“I am very honored to take on this new position at Everchem,” said Bustynowicz. “Our employees are what differentiate us from all other suppliers. We have dedicated people that go the extra mile to serve our customers. Everchem is uniquely positioned to bring cost effective solutions to urethane and epoxy formulators in North America. We have a wide range of raw materials that support our customers in growing their businesses.”
Dave Patten will continue as CEO and CFO of Everchem.
Media PA, February 2, 2023
About Everchem Specialty Chemicals:
Everchem Specialty Chemicals is a sales, marketing and technology driven company that operates in the North American marketplace, promoting urethane commodity, and specialty industrial chemicals. Our sourcing abilities and technical and market expertise result in real savings of both time and money for customers. Our market expertise helps our suppliers reach additional customers and markets in an easy and efficient way.
January 31, 2023
Felter Joins Everchem Specialty Chemicals
Everchem Specialty Chemicals announced today that Del Felter has joined the company as Vice President of Market and Business Development.
Del has over 35 years’ experience in the polyurethane manufacturing industry and over 20 years of experience in executive management. Del has spent the majority of his career with Carpenter Co., holding positions ranging from plant management to development of their consumer products business to running the strategic chemical businesses.
Additionally, Del has been a Senior Vice President with INOAC USA responsible for facilitating profitable growth for the company within North America and globally by managing the Industrial, Consumer and Medical business units.
Del recently held positions at FXI, Inc as the Senior Vice President of the newly created Product Management Group and previously as Senior Vice President – Corporate Development & Strategy, Del was involved by leading the integration planning teams through the acquisition of INNOCOR.
Media, PA, February 01, 2023
January 31, 2023
Daubert Management Changes
Daubert Chemical promotes Mike Duncan to President, CEO
By Larry Adams
January 30, 2023 | 6:26 pm CST
CHICAGO — Daubert Chemical Company Inc. recently announced a series of key promotions and new hires within the company, including the role of president and CEO. Dr. Mike Duncan, previously executive vice president of technology at Daubert, will succeed Matt Puz as president and CEO.
“Matt Puz has played an indispensable role in Daubert’s success throughout his tenure over the past seven years,” said Matthew McGinnis, vice president of commercial development. “Under his leadership, we’ve grown our automotive coatings business through the launch of Nox-Rust 1290HP and other products, and launched a new, innovative coating, Nox-Rust ChipShield, designed to provide enhanced durability versus road debris as well as corrosive conditions. On behalf of the rest of the leadership team here at Daubert Chemical, we are delighted to congratulate Matt Puz on his upcoming retirement, as well as to celebrate Mike’s promotion into the role of president and CEO. The insight and expertise Mike brings to the table will continue to usher in a new era of innovation at Daubert.”
Duncan brings more than 30 years of industry experience to the role – and 10 of those years have been spent with Daubert as the vice president of technology. Duncan began his career at Keil Chemical, and has held leadership roles at companies such as D-A Stuart Company, Castrol, and Fuchs Lubricants. Duncan holds a doctorate in Organic Chemistry from the University of Illinois Chicago. An active supporter of industry organizations, Duncan held the role of president of STLE in 2019-2020.
Duncan’s promotion to president and CEO leads a series of personnel moves for Daubert Chemical Company that also includes:
- Dr. Aaron Sanders was hired for the role of vice president of technology. Sanders brings over 20 years of experience to Daubert, and most recently held the title of R&D director – Oilfield Solutions at Stepan Company. Sanders holds a doctorate in Organic Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin – Madison.
- Mark Pawelski, is retiring from his role as executive vice president of operations. Pawelski devoted 44 years of service to Daubert, and will continue to consult for special projects.
- Greg Merchen, formerly the vice president of manufacturing, succeeded Mark Pawelski as vice president of operations. Merchen will cover all of Daubert’s manufacturing areas as well as customer service and engineering. He holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University and an MBA from Keller Graduate School of Management.
“It’s an exciting time for Daubert,” said Puz. “As we welcome new leaders into the fold and continue our tradition of meeting customer needs with high-quality products and service, the next generation of Daubert solutions is sure to exceed expectations.”
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