Epoxy

March 3, 2023

Epoxy Highlights from Westlake Investors Call

Westlake Corporation (WLK) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Feb. 21, 2023 2:46 PM ETWestlake Corporation (WLK)

Q4: 2023-02-21 Earnings Summary

EPS of $1.86 misses by $0.43 | Revenue of $3.30B (-5.93% Y/Y) misses by $111.98M

Westlake Corporation (NYSE:WLK) Q4 2022 Results Conference Call February 21, 2023 11:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Jeff Holy – Vice President & Treasurer

Albert Chao – President and Chief Executive Officer

Steven Bender – Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Roger Kearns – Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President, Performance and Essential Materials

Albert Chao

Thank you, Jeff. Good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us to discuss our fourth quarter and full year 2022 results. For the full year of 2022, we reported record net income of over $2.2 billion or $17.34 per share and record EBITDA of $4.2 billion on record sales of $15.8 billion.

While 2022 was a record year, it was also a challenging year as we experienced energy volatility, rapidly rising interest rates, evolving COVID policies impacting Asian demand and market dislocations due to the war in Ukraine. As these obstacles evolved and drove more difficult economic conditions in the second half of the year, Westlake took proactive actions to navigate a slower GDP growth with cost savings initiatives.

These broad-based 2022 initiatives included reductions in overhead and energy costs, synergies from acquisitions and investments in digital and automation that lowered our cost by approximately $50 million and also drove operational efficiencies. Thanks in part to these actions and despite the challenging external environment. For a second consecutive year, we achieved records for sales, EBITDA and net income, with EBITDA almost doubling from the previous cycle high in 2018.

I want to take a few minutes to review several of our major accomplishments in 2022. We generated record cash from operations of $3.4 billion. This significant level of cash flow allowed us to return $270 million to investors in the form of dividends and share repurchases, retire $250 million in debt, deploy $1 billion to improve the reliability of our plants and grow our production capacity to meet customers’ needs, close $1.4 billion in acquisitions and grow our ending cash balance by $300 million.

The evolution and integration of our business continued in 2022 as we closed the Epoxy acquisition and increase our ethylene integration with the additional investment into our LACC Ethylene joint venture. Integrating these businesses into Westlake, as we have with Boral, DASCO and Dimex acquisitions which closed in 2021, drove synergies in 2022.

This evolution of our business spurred the changing of our name from Westlake Chemical to Westlake Corporation, which better represents the significant breadth of the products we produce and industries we serve. Decarbonizing our assets and drive sustainability remain important initiatives and growth opportunities for Westlake. As part of our sustainability efforts, we established a carbon reduction goal to reduce our Scope 1 and Scope 2 emission intensity by 20% by 2030.

Albert Chao

Thank you, Steve. During the fourth quarter, we saw deteriorating economic conditions that led to inventory destocking, resulting in lower demand for our products in well-supplied markets. Since year-end, we have seen modest improvements early in the first quarter in demand for polyethylene and PVC with improving feedstock and energy costs providing some margin tailwinds.

The large market for epoxy in Asia and Europe reflect sluggish demand as China begins its economic recovery and Europe continues to address its own economic and energy challenges. Looking ahead, while uncertainties remain in the macroeconomic outlook, we believe there are some positive trends appearing.

Energy costs have improved, particularly in Europe, albeit still at elevated levels. Forecast for U.S. housing starts ranging from 1.1 million to 1.3 million units over the next two years, which will be a 20% decline from the 2021, 2022 levels.

Even with the strength in housing construction that occurred over the past two years, annual new housing construction largely remained below the 50-year average of 1.5 million units. Therefore, we continue to have a deficit from underbuilding that occurred since 2007.

Duffy Fischer

Good morning. First question is just around the Epoxy acquisition. You’re kind of a year into it now. It’s been at the tough year here. So, can you do an after-action review? I mean, does the industry need to have some structural change? Does your business need to have some structural change? Or is this just really kind of a bad supply-demand setup right now that will fix itself over the next couple of years?

Roger Kearns

Yes. Thanks, Duffy, it’s Roger. Maybe a couple of comments there. I think Epoxy business for our first year, we started extremely strong. The first part of the year was a very strong part of the business. But as we move through the year, it certainly got weaker.

And by the end of the year, I would say the fourth quarter was really quite weak. I think there’s a couple of things as we look forward. We have seen China announced already in ’23 nearly a doubling of the wind energy installations over ’22. So, we’ll have to watch and see how that plays out.

But that should be kind of a nice boost in the markets. As you know, there’s — I mean, there’s a limited number of Western players. We’ll continue to do what we do, which is make our plants run more efficiently, more cost effective.

We’ll copy our Westlake model into those sites. So, I think there’s some self-help work we’ll do, but hopefully as well with aviation, automotive and some wind energy picking up a little bit in ’23, we can get the ’23 looking better than certainly the end of ’22.

Duffy Fischer

Fair enough. And then the stat or the projection you threw in there on remodel and repair at 2.6% for the year, one, is you’re just talking to your customers as you’re looking at your order book, does that feel like kind of the right number? And then maybe like a follow-on to the last question, if that ends up being the right number, how does that look first half versus second half do you think?

Steven Bender

So, Duffy, it’s Steve. And I would say that the tone that we saw at the builder show recently was constructive, and I think it aligns with the tone that we saw from those that visited the builder show. And certainly, there is some expectation that will continue on as we go forward. Typically, when housing starts slow, repair and remodeling show strength.

And so, there is a typical investment cycle that homeowners always undertake. And that is they’re either improving their home either to sell to move forward or improving their home because affordability to move on to a new home is too expensive.

So, we do think that, that aligns with the tone we’re hearing from our customers and consistent with the contributions we think it will make to the business over the course of ’23.

Jeffrey Zekauskas

Okay. My follow-up, there was the vinyl chloride release in Ohio. Do you think that, that has implications for the chlorovinyl industry? Or do you think that, that will lead to some kind of change? Or do you have any general comment?

Albert Chao

Yes. I think people are waiting for the surface transportation safety board come back with the report. I’m sure there’ll be more government regulation on railroads and possibly on the shippers on safety.

These are very important products that ship around the country. So, the demand has to be satisfied. But definitely, we need to increase the safety by the variables primarily. I will think on the equipment, some of them getting old, and we heard new technologies out there to improve the safety aspect of the railroads.

Eric Petrie

Thank you, Albert. And then maybe a question for Roger on your comment of the doubling of installations in China. What does that do to kind of supply-demand balances in the country? And then how much capacity is China adding this year and kind of what needs to be absorbed from last year?

Roger Kearns

Yes. So, I think wind in China is — China is a big driver of the wind market. And so, they’ve got RFQs out there, say, about double this year what they’ve done last year. That’s a good first step, I think, in really starting to absorb the extra capacity that’s come in as well as avoid the exports, right?

So as Albert mentioned, with the China domestic market so slow, the China producers are exporting significant amounts. I think that will turn back inside and be used in China as opposed to hitting the export markets.

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4580333-westlake-corporation-wlk-q4-2022-earnings-call-transcript

February 28, 2023

New Epoxy Line From PPG

PPG launches an epoxy fire protection coating

MOSCOW (MRC) — PPG announces the launch of PPG STEELGUARD 951 coating, an innovative epoxy intumescent fire protection coating designed to meet the demands of modern architectural steel, including up to three hours of cellulosic fire protection, said the company.

In a fire situation, the coating expands from a thin, lightweight film into a thick, foam-like layer that insulates the steel and maintains its structural integrity, providing more time for people to escape and limiting damage to buildings and assets.

PPG STEELGUARD® 951 coating also provides effective corrosion protection for very corrosive atmospheric environments up to ISO 12944 C5 without the need for a topcoat, which also reduces project time and costs to achieve results. It can provide up to 3,500 microns dry film thickness in a single coat and cures rapidly, making it ready to handle the day after application.

“Structural steel plays a critical role in modern architecture by enabling buildings to meet specific fire protection and corrosion resistance according to their function,” said Richard Mann, PPG global product manager, passive fire protection, Protective and Marine Coatings.

“PPG Steelguard 951 coating is unique in combining an aesthetically pleasing finish with high corrosion protection and, most importantly, the ability to maintain the steel’s stability in the event of a fire,” added Mann.

We remind, PPG will invest USD11 million to double the production capacity of its powder coatings plant in San Juan del Rio, Mexico. The expansion project is expected to be completed by mid-2023 and will allow the plant to meet the expected future demand for powder coatings in Mexico.

PPG is a leading supplier of powder coatings to the automotive, transportation, appliance, furniture and other markets. The company expanded the business with its 2020 acquisition of Alpha Coating Technologies, which manufactures powder coatings for light industrial applications and heat-sensitive substrates, and its 2021 acquisition of Worwag, which makes liquid, powder and film coatings for industrial and automotive applications. PPG recently agreed to acquire the powder coatings business of Arsonsisi, including a manufacturing plant in Verbania, Italy.

https://www.mrchub.com/news/406444-ppg-launches-an-epoxy-fire-protection-coating

February 21, 2023

Huntsman Q4 Results

Huntsman Announces Fourth Quarter 2022 Earnings; Approximately $1.2 Billion in Buybacks and Dividends in 2022; Huntsman Board Approves 12% Dividend Increase

Download as PDFFebruary 21, 2023 6:00am EST

Wind-Power Makers Suffer Huge Losses, Want To Abandon Major Project

by Tyler Durden

Monday, Feb 06, 2023 – 11:10 AM

Authored by Thomas Lifson via AmericanThinker.com,

The dream of “clean” (except for millions of dead birds) energy from wind farms is dying in the face of the poor economics (even with tax subsidies) and unreliable technology. The big players in constructing wind turbines are facing massive losses and write-downs and cancelling big offshore wind projects. Brace yourself for demands for even more subsides to the failing industry.

The green energy subsidiary of German electrical equipment giant Siemens just reported Thursday that it lost nearly a billion dollars in the last quarter. Via Fox News (Hat tip: Beege Welborn, Hot Air):

Global green energy company Siemens Gamesa reported Thursday that it had lost a staggering $967 million during the three-month period from between October to December.

The Germany-based company, which dubs itself as “the global leader in offshore power generation,” noted the wind industry has faced various unfavorable pressures leading to negative growth in recent months and years, in its earnings report for the first quarter of fiscal year 2023 released Thursday morning. The company added that governments would need to further assist the industry to ensure future positive growth.

“The negative development in our service business underscores that we have much work ahead of us to stabilize our business and return to profitability,” Siemens Gamesa CEO Jochen Eickholt said in a statement.

“The beginning of fiscal year 2023 saw a further increase in global wind demand prospects for the next ten years, but further governmental action is needed to close the gap between ambitious targets and actual installations,” the company added in its release.

The translation of “further government action” is increased subsidies, beyond those already offered in the misnamed “Inflation Reduction Act,” which mostly subsidizes green energy. Think Solyndra-like loan guarantees beyond those already available.

The big problem for Siemens and other makers (see below) is equipment failure and the need to lay out huge warranty expenditures. Reuters:

The company last month flagged increased failure rates of unspecified components of its installed onshore and offshore wind turbines, triggering higher warranty provisions that have also plagued Danish rival Vestas (VWS.CO).

One fundamental problem with wind energy (aside from the meager amount of power delivered compared to coal and natural gas fired generators) is the variability of the wind. It changes both intensity (speed) and direction unpredictably. I know from work in my consulting career long ago (which I can’t discuss in detail owing to confidentiality agreements) that incredible stresses are placed on the generators, blades, and transmissions (akin to a car’s drive train) when the wind abruptly changes speed or direction. In order to get a meaningful amount of power, the blades have to be BIG, which is why the towers of major wind farms are very tall). But long blades spinning rapidly can have the tips break the sound barrier, and the stresses on the materials used in the blades (often carbon fiber because the blades have to be light weight) are intense. And changeable rapidly.

As a result, the order books of the major manufacturers are drying up:

Interesting slide from Siemens Gamesa, the 2nd world’s largest manufacturer of wind turbines.

It reports that onshore turbine orders dropped 46.3% y-on-y in the last quarter. And the cost of those turbines (€ per MWh) went up 25% y-on-y |

Siemens Gamesa didn’t receive any single order for offshore wind turbines on its last quarter

As Beege Wellborn reports, another major player, General Electric, is also facing losses and is cutting back:

Here in the U.S., General Electric was humming along in its financials except…*sad trombone*…when it got to their turbine business. Ooo, they took a hit, too. Really fugly numbers.

…The company’s renewable energy business has been facing challenges due to inflation and supply chain pressures. The unit reported a loss of $2.2 billion in 2022.

GE is reducing global headcount at the onshore wind unit by about 20% as part of a plan to restructure and resize the business.

What a surprise. Look who GE is counting on to save the windy day! Tax credit bailout.

…Culp said the onshore business is expected to get a boost following the restoration of the tax credit for wind projects.

At least one major project faces abandonment, as Wellborn points out:

In an interesting turn of events in New Hampshire, a company contracted with the state for an offshore wind farm is embroiled in a major tussle with the state’s department of utilities. Avangrid has told the state they can’t afford to move forward, so “we’re not building it anymore.”

The state says differently.

The developer behind the largest single offshore wind farm in the state’s pipeline on Thursday filed a formal notice of appeal to contest the Department of Public Utilities’ approval of contracts that the developer agreed to but says will no longer allow its project to be financed or built.

The DPU last month determined that the contracts, which the wind developers and utility companies agreed to in May, “are in the public interest” and approved them over the developer’s objections. Commonwealth Wind parent company Avangrid has said for months that increases in commodity prices, rising interest rates and supply shortages mean that its 1,200 megawatt renewable energy project “cannot be financed and built” under the terms of those power purchase agreements (PPAs).

With wind power, Kenny Roger’s song provides wise advice. “You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em.” It’s time to walk away from wind power subsidies.

It is beyond the time to end subsidies for wind power. Not only has atmospheric CO2 risen without serious consequence, the doomsaying models proven consistently wrong, but the financial thumb on the scale via subsidies has encouraged development of a technology that is still immature, if it ever will be viable.

https://www.zerohedge.com/weather/wind-power-makers-suffer-huge-losses-want-abandon-major-project

January 27, 2023

Olin Q4 Earnings Call Highlights

Olin Corporation (OLN) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Jan. 27, 2023 12:48 PM ETOlin Corporation (OLN)

Q4: 2023-01-26 Earnings Summary

EPS of $1.49 beats by $0.08 | Revenue of $1.98B (-18.66% Y/Y) misses by $131.89M

Olin Corporation (NYSE:OLN) Q4 2022 Results Conference Call January 27, 2023 9:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Steve Keenan – Director, IR

Brett Flaugher – President, Winchester

Damian Gumpel – President, Epoxy

Patrick Schumacher – President, Chlor Alkali

Scott Sutton – CEO

Todd Slater – CFO

Scott Sutton

Yes. Thanks, Steve, and good morning to everyone. In 2022, Olin generated $12 per share of levered free cash flow, repurchased more than 25 million shares and reduced our net debt by $200 million.

It was a massive team effort after generating $9 per share of levered free cash flow in 2021. As we head into 2023, our markets are not healthy, yet our focus on levered free cash flow remains the same and we expect to generate approximately $7 per share of levered free cash flow in this recession year.

From an EBITDA perspective, we worked in the $2.4 billion to the $2.5 billion range the last 2 years and we expect to generate at least 2/3 of that average in the trough that is 2023.

For Olin, the key features of early 2023 include continuing to idle our complete global epoxy resin business due to suspended demand in the largest consuming regions of China and Europe, rectifying a transient fat supply channel in commercial ammunition via lower Olin participation rate, kicking off the operation of the blue water…

I understand that we dropped. I won’t repeat the first part of my comments, but I’ll start where I think we dropped off. So for Olin, the key features of early 2023 include continuing to idle our complete global epoxy resin business due to suspended demand in the largest consuming regions of China and Europe, rectifying a transient fat supply channel in commercial ammunition via lower Olin participation rate, kicking off the operation of the Bluewater alliance with Mitsui to manage much more the world’s liquidity in chlor alkali and recognizing another solid pricing lift in our merchant chlorine business.

While some of these features of the first quarter of 2023 are already impactful in a slightly negative way, it is still possible that we may have to take more drastic action in a subsequent quarter to recoil further and preserve product values for the rebound toward the latter part of the year.

In 2023, expect us to hold our current net debt position, keep buying shares throughout the year, gain an investment-grade rating, complete our asset footprint adjustment decisions and prepare for a quality growth story in 2024.

We’ve also updated our 2022 ESG scorecard progress on Page 10 of the presentation. This is a growing theme for Olin, and we look forward to showing the results from our focus in this area. Now Damian, Patrick and Brett will each make a few brief comments on both the situation and our initiatives across all 3 businesses and then Todd will follow with additional commentary on our 2022 accomplishments and 2023 outlook.

Damian Gumpel

Thank you, Scott, and good morning. On Slide 4, Epoxy Q4 results are partly a reflection of seasonal demand, but principally our disciplined approach to water the most challenging landscape in 14 years which led us to deeply pull back resin production that would have otherwise harmed the landscape.

While anticipating improvement in the back half of ’23, we focus today on productivity, optimizing our asset base, enhancing our sustainability profile and positioning for value-based growth.

On this last point, we supercharged the business during Q4 of 2022. Putting our differentiated systems product portfolio under seasoned leadership in new product commercialization. I look forward to sharing on future calls the role Olin epoxy plays in addressing global energy, mobility and infrastructure challenges in a sustainable way and how that translates into shareholder value growth. I’ll now turn it over to Patrick Schumacher for chlor alkali.

Mike Sison

I guess my question was, where are your operating rates now? And do you think they will — based on your guidance, stay similar through the rest of the year, given the outlook for demand?

Scott Sutton

Well, look, I would say overall, I mean, we’re certainly running lower operating rates. I mean, the highlights of those lows really are that if you went all the way down into our epoxy resin, you’d find that we’re running below 50% capacity. And that situation is certainly going to continue because we’re just not going to sell too much volume into an undervalued marketplace.

Arun Viswanathan

So first off, on that note of operating rates, it says you can run at 50% for 1 year. I think we’ve been at these low rates now for a little while. Are we — how long does that year last? I mean, how much time do we have left in that? And then I had a couple of questions on Blue Water and hydrogen as well.

Scott Sutton

Yes. Sure. Yes, I mean, that 50% rate was across effectively the whole company for a whole year. If we ran at the pricing levels established in the middle of last year, that would still deliver our recession case. So against that standard, there’s still quite a bit of room left, Arun.

Vincent Anderson

I just wanted to clarify your comments on Epoxy, just I had it clear. You said a global idling but naming just Europe and Asia markets is the reason. And I ask only because U.S. resin prices are still holding up fairly well. So is this really all epoxy resin assets are going down in the first quarter?

Scott Sutton

Well, I would say we’ve been running those at a lower level, but I’ll let Damian give a little more color on where we are right now.

Damian Gumpel

Sure. Thanks, Scott. Vince, on Epoxy, what we’ve said is that this is a globally challenged situation, the worst that we’ve seen in 14 years since the financial crisis. Most of epoxy consumption does take place in China and in Europe. And so that’s where we’ve seen the greatest impact on the landscape. Now as a result, we’ve been — for over a year now, we’ve been adjusting our production, our market participation in order to preserve value, that’s led us to continue to successfully challenge ourselves to operate at lower rates across our portfolio. We’re going to continue to do that as long as it takes and frankly, we can still go further. And it’s — for us, it’s a question of taking this opportunity to rightsize our global epoxy portfolio to focus on the assets that our customers value the most. And we’ve done a lot of that already, but we still have a lot more that we are going to do here under this challenging environment.

Jeffrey Zekauskas

And secondly, Scott, can you remind me when do the contracts with Dow expire? Is the beginning of ’25 or the end of ’25 and is that a big event for the company?

Scott Sutton

Yes. Jeff, we really weren’t going to comment on any specific customer or supplier arrangements.

Angel Castillo

Understood. No worries. And then second question, just going back to some of the discussions around the macro and some of the demand picture of what you’ve been seeing. You noted, I think, in the slide, vinyl troughing here in the first quarter and epoxy improving in the second half. I was curious, one, as we think about the 2023 outlook, how much of this — are you seeing anything in orders that gives you confidence in those rebounds? Is it more just destocking abating? Or anything that — how do you get kind of comfortable with those factors? And then as you think about just overall kind of recovery in some of that, how much of it is macro versus your ability to pull levers in parlay?

Scott Sutton

I mean we’ll start with epoxy. I mean it’s — of course, it’s very challenged right now as we’ve tried to lay out. But Damian, do you want to give a little guidance on back half.

Damian Gumpel

Sure. I mean when we look at some of the factors in the back half, we’re seeing some improved demand. I think you see the news. China, as I said, being the largest consuming region of epoxy, it’s looking like it’s emerging from its almost a year-long slumber. But we also see other areas that are starting to pull epoxies as well. If we highlighted our growth platforms and our macro trends around wind, infrastructure, electrification, mobility. Those are all that — we’re already starting to see some of that demand profile improved with our valued customers. So it’s a combination of what we see in the landscape, but more purposely, our participation in some of these platforms that are going to look to drive some improved demand recovery in the second half.

Eric Petrie

What’s embedded in your earnings outlook in terms of China and domestic consumption and at the end of last year, we saw a ramp-up of exports in epoxy as well as caustic soda. So any comments on those export levels into 2023 and impact on earnings?

Scott Sutton

Yes. No, what’s embedded is still that demand stays fairly muted, suspended for the better part of the first half of the year and then recovers. Specifically in epoxy by trade flows actually reversed out of China. But even when China recovers, still the amount of imports going into China is likely to be less than it was before because there have been some structural capacity adds there. And what this has taught us knowing that we really didn’t expect sort of the worst conditions in 15 years. But what it has taught us here is that we certainly have more trough minimization footprint work to do there. So we’re working on that.

Unidentified Analyst

This is [Matt Sharansky] on for John. Scott, while Epoxy has been down or operating at lower rates, have you made any structural changes such as operational or with your customer base? So when demand finally returns, Epoxy will look different than it has previously?

Scott Sutton

Yes. The answer is yes, but completely in process now. When I said we’re going to do more trough minimization footprint work, that’s something that we’re analyzing right now. So when demand does return yes, that business is going to look a little different. It’s going to be more focused on systems where we’ve had staying power even through these really sloppy recessionary conditions.

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4573050-olin-corporation-oln-q4-2022-earnings-call-transcript?mailingid=30380368&messageid=2800&serial=30380368.1190

	Three months ended	Twelve months ended
	December 31,	December 31,
In millions, except per share amounts	2022	2021	2022	2021

Revenues	$ 1,650	$ 2,112	$ 8,023	$ 7,670

Net (loss) income attributable to Huntsman Corporation	$ (91)	$ 597	$ 460	$ 1,045
Adjusted net income ⁽¹⁾	$ 8	$ 195	$ 636	$ 726

Diluted (loss) income per share	$ (0.48)	$ 2.73	$ 2.27	$ 4.72
Adjusted diluted income per share⁽¹⁾	$ 0.04	$ 0.89	$ 3.13	$ 3.28

Adjusted EBITDA⁽¹⁾	$ 87	$ 327	$ 1,155	$ 1,246

Net cash provided by operating activities from continuing operations	$ 297	$ 733	$ 892	$ 915
Free cash flow from continuing operations⁽²⁾	$ 211	$ 648	$ 620	$ 589

Epoxy

Westlake Corporation (WLK) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Q4: 2023-02-21 Earnings Summary

PPG launches an epoxy fire protection coating

Huntsman Announces Fourth Quarter 2022 Earnings; Approximately $1.2 Billion in Buybacks and Dividends in 2022; Huntsman Board Approves 12% Dividend Increase

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