The Urethane Blog

Everchem Updates

VOLUME XXI

September 14, 2023

Everchem’s Closers Only Club

Everchem’s exclusive Closers Only Club is reserved for only the highest caliber brass-baller salesmen in the chemical industry. Watch the hype video and be introduced to the top of the league: read more

February 15, 2022

Huntsman Results

Huntsman Announces Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2021 Earnings; Fourth Quarter Buybacks of over $100 million and Dividend Increased 13%

Download as PDF February 15, 2022 6:00am EST

THE WOODLANDS, Texas, Feb. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ —

Fourth Quarter Highlights

  • Fourth quarter 2021 net income of $607 million compared to net income of $360 million in the prior year period; fourth quarter 2021 diluted earnings per share of $2.73 compared to diluted earnings per share of $1.54 in the prior year period.
  • Fourth quarter 2021 adjusted net income of $207 million compared to adjusted net income of $113 million in the prior year period; fourth quarter 2021 adjusted diluted earnings per share of $0.95 compared to adjusted diluted earnings per share of $0.51 in the prior year period.
  • Fourth quarter 2021 adjusted EBITDA of $349 million compared to adjusted EBITDA of $240 million in the prior year period.
  • Fourth quarter 2021 net cash provided by operating activities from continuing operations was $790 million. Free cash flow from continuing operations was $698 million for the fourth quarter 2021, which includes a $332.5 million cash benefit from the Albemarle settlement.
  • Repurchased approximately 3.1 million shares for approximately $101 million in the fourth quarter 2021.
  • On February 14, 2022, the Board approved a 13% increase to the quarterly dividend.
  • In December 2021, we initiated a strategic review of our Textile Effects segment, including a possible sale of the segment.
  • Received first payment from Albemarle arbitration award of approximately $332.5 million on December 2, 2021. The final payment of $332.5 million will be received by early May 2022. In total, the Company is expected to receive pre-tax proceeds of approximately $465 million after legal fees.
Three months endedTwelve months ended
December 31,December 31,
In millions, except per share amounts2021202020212020
Revenues$     2,307$     1,668$     8,453$     6,018
Net income$        607$        360$     1,104$     1,066
Adjusted net income (1)$        207$        113$        784$        218
Diluted income per share$       2.73$       1.54$       4.72$       4.66
Adjusted diluted income per share(1)$       0.95$       0.51$       3.54$       0.98
Adjusted EBITDA(1)$        349$        240$     1,343$        647
Net cash provided by operating activities from continuing operations$        790$        167$        953$        277
Free cash flow from continuing operations(2)$        698$          88$        611$          28
See end of press release for footnote explanations and reconciliations of non-GAAP measures.

Huntsman Corporation (NYSE: HUN) today reported fourth quarter 2021 results with revenues of $2,307 million, net income of $607 million, adjusted net income of $207 million and adjusted EBITDA of $349 million. 

Peter R. Huntsman, Chairman, President and CEO, commented:

“We concluded 2021 with the best year in our history with our current portfolio of businesses. The transformation of our portfolio has enabled our company to generate not only our highest ever adjusted EBITDA margins but consistent profit margins quarter on quarter throughout 2021, a hallmark of a more differentiated chemical business. We remain committed to a balanced capital deployment as we repurchased over $200 million of our own shares in the second half of the year and we have just announced a 13% increase to our quarterly dividend. While we view 2021 as a highly successful year for Huntsman, we see this is as just the beginning and we expect to build upon this momentum.

In 2022, as we outlined at our Investor Day, we expect to grow earnings further, expand adjusted EBITDA margins and deliver improved free cash flow and cost optimization. This year in the second quarter we will complete our Geismar Louisiana, MDI splitter project which will expand our differentiated Polyurethanes business in the Americas, and we will continue to progress our previously announced investments targeting electric vehicle batteries, semi-conductors, and polyurethane catalysts.

Following our portfolio transformation, we are now a focused, differentiated chemical company with a strong balance sheet providing financial flexibility to grow the company through organic investments and select bolt-on M&A while ensuring that we can provide strong returns of capital to our shareholders.

We continue to seek opportunities for optimization as evidenced by our recent announcement on Textile Effects. In addition, to align our leadership team to the goals we set out at our Investor Day in November, we have implemented a multi-year compensation program for the top 80 senior leaders in our company, that focuses on the delivery of improving EBITDA margin, free cash flow and cost optimization.

Our Board of Directors is fully aligned to our strategic intent and brings the relevant skills and experiences to help us achieve our targets. We expect 2022 to be another strong year for Huntsman and I look forward to updating you as the year progresses.”

Segment Analysis for 4Q21 Compared to 4Q20

Polyurethanes

The increase in revenues in our Polyurethanes segment for the three months ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020 was primarily due to higher MDI average selling prices and higher sales volumes. MDI average selling prices increased in all regions. Sales volumes increased primarily due to growth in the Americas region and across multiple markets. The increase in segment adjusted EBITDA was primarily due to higher MDI volumes and higher equity earnings.

Performance Products

The increase in revenues in our Performance Products segment for three months ended December 31, 2021, compared to the same period in 2020 was primarily due to higher average selling prices and higher sales volumes.  Average selling prices increased primarily due to stronger demand and in response to increased raw material costs. Sales volumes increased largely due to stronger demand. The increase in segment adjusted EBITDA was primarily due to increased revenue and margins, partially offset by increased fixed costs.

Advanced Materials

The increase in revenues in our Advanced Materials segment for the three months ended December 31, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020 was primarily due to higher average selling prices, higher sales volumes and the favorable net impact of the Gabriel acquisition and India-based DIY divestiture.  Excluding the Gabriel acquisition and India-based DIY divestiture, sales volumes increased across all markets, primarily in relation to the ongoing recovery from the global economic slowdown. Average selling prices increased largely in response to higher raw material costs and due to the impact of a weaker U.S. dollar against major international currencies. The increase in segment adjusted EBITDA was primarily due to higher sales volumes and the benefits, including synergies, from our recent acquisitions, partially offset by higher fixed costs.

https://www.huntsman.com/news/media-releases/detail/511/huntsman-announces-fourth-quarter-and-full-year-2021

February 15, 2022

Wood Structural Panel Primer

Look for quality mark on wood structural panels

By Larry Adams February 14, 2022 | 9:55 am CST

TACOMA, Wash. — When ordering or specifying wood structural panels, it is important to receive the right panel for the application, and equally important that the panel is manufactured with the required quality, according to the APA – The Engineered Wood Association.

Wood structural panels trademarked by APA meet both criteria, based on qualification tests in compliance with Product Standards PS 1 for plywood and PS 2 for plywood and oriented strand board (OSB), as well as on-going quality assurance tests on every production period with a robust quality assurance system. In Canada, APA panels are trademarked to similar standards, which include CSA O121 for Douglas fir plywood, CSA O151 for Canadian softwood plywood and CSA O325 for OSB and plywood.

APA’s Quality Assurance System
APA’s quality assurance system includes review of mill quality procedures, independent third-party audits of the mill quality program and regular independent testing that verifies the quality and performance of wood structural panels. Also, APA’s quality assurance system has proactive steps to ensure any product quality issues are addressed promptly and properly in the manufacturing plant.

APA-certified products are authorized to bear a trademark clearly identifying the appropriate standard and product application. The qualification and quality assurance system apply evaluation methods that are appropriate for many end-use applications, including span ratings for roof, wall and floor construction, and for a wide variety of other uses, such as in concrete forming, upholstered furniture frames, recreational vehicles and other manufactured products where materials with high strength-to-weight ratios, durable exterior adhesives and known mechanical properties are important. 

Occasionally, imported wood structural panels are sold in North America. Those imported panels may be manufactured with foreign wood species of a low density or with adhesives of unknown durability, or they may be qualified by testing to a foreign standard that is not developed and intended for North American markets. Furthermore, the in-plant quality program, and especially the independent third-party quality assurance system of imported panels might be untested and unproven in North America.

In the past, APA has been asked to evaluate imported panels available in local markets by testing them with requirements specified in PS 1 and PS 2. In some cases, the panels were found to be lacking in stiffness and bond quality and emitting formaldehyde in excess of certified products conforming to North American standards. 

Formaldehyde regulations and structural wood products
Since North American structural wood products produced under the PS 1 and PS 2 standards are designed for construction applications governed by building codes, they are manufactured only with moisture-resistant adhesives that meet Exterior or Exposure 1 bond classifications.

These adhesives, such as phenol formaldehyde and diphenylmethane diisocyanate (MDI), are chemically reacted into stable bonds during pressing. The final products have such low formaldehyde emission levels that they easily meet or are exempt from the world’s leading formaldehyde emission standards and regulations.

Learn more about formaldehyde emission standards and regulations for structural wood products.  Specifying APA-trademarked panels manufactured by trusted North American manufacturers is an assurance of getting the right product for the right application at a recognized quality level.

For more information, visit https://www.apawood.org.

https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/news/look-quality-mark-wood-structural-panels

February 15, 2022

Wood Structural Panel Primer

Look for quality mark on wood structural panels

By Larry Adams February 14, 2022 | 9:55 am CST

TACOMA, Wash. — When ordering or specifying wood structural panels, it is important to receive the right panel for the application, and equally important that the panel is manufactured with the required quality, according to the APA – The Engineered Wood Association.

Wood structural panels trademarked by APA meet both criteria, based on qualification tests in compliance with Product Standards PS 1 for plywood and PS 2 for plywood and oriented strand board (OSB), as well as on-going quality assurance tests on every production period with a robust quality assurance system. In Canada, APA panels are trademarked to similar standards, which include CSA O121 for Douglas fir plywood, CSA O151 for Canadian softwood plywood and CSA O325 for OSB and plywood.

APA’s Quality Assurance System
APA’s quality assurance system includes review of mill quality procedures, independent third-party audits of the mill quality program and regular independent testing that verifies the quality and performance of wood structural panels. Also, APA’s quality assurance system has proactive steps to ensure any product quality issues are addressed promptly and properly in the manufacturing plant.

APA-certified products are authorized to bear a trademark clearly identifying the appropriate standard and product application. The qualification and quality assurance system apply evaluation methods that are appropriate for many end-use applications, including span ratings for roof, wall and floor construction, and for a wide variety of other uses, such as in concrete forming, upholstered furniture frames, recreational vehicles and other manufactured products where materials with high strength-to-weight ratios, durable exterior adhesives and known mechanical properties are important. 

Occasionally, imported wood structural panels are sold in North America. Those imported panels may be manufactured with foreign wood species of a low density or with adhesives of unknown durability, or they may be qualified by testing to a foreign standard that is not developed and intended for North American markets. Furthermore, the in-plant quality program, and especially the independent third-party quality assurance system of imported panels might be untested and unproven in North America.

In the past, APA has been asked to evaluate imported panels available in local markets by testing them with requirements specified in PS 1 and PS 2. In some cases, the panels were found to be lacking in stiffness and bond quality and emitting formaldehyde in excess of certified products conforming to North American standards. 

Formaldehyde regulations and structural wood products
Since North American structural wood products produced under the PS 1 and PS 2 standards are designed for construction applications governed by building codes, they are manufactured only with moisture-resistant adhesives that meet Exterior or Exposure 1 bond classifications.

These adhesives, such as phenol formaldehyde and diphenylmethane diisocyanate (MDI), are chemically reacted into stable bonds during pressing. The final products have such low formaldehyde emission levels that they easily meet or are exempt from the world’s leading formaldehyde emission standards and regulations.

Learn more about formaldehyde emission standards and regulations for structural wood products.  Specifying APA-trademarked panels manufactured by trusted North American manufacturers is an assurance of getting the right product for the right application at a recognized quality level.

For more information, visit https://www.apawood.org.

https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/news/look-quality-mark-wood-structural-panels

February 14, 2022

Tupelo Furniture Market

Back to Basics: Downsized Tupelo Furniture Market to have first event since 2020

1 of 2

TUPELO • For the first time since 2020, the Tupelo Furniture Market is hosting an industry trade show. The Winter Market will be an abbreviated one, starting Wednesday and wrapping up Friday. 

“We’re getting back to the basics,” said TFM Chairman V.M. Cleveland. “We’re not going to have the awards ceremonies or the free buffets or entertainment or anything like that. We’re just going to match up the vendors with the buyers and retailers and just do business like the way we started 35 years ago.”

The market’s last trade show was the summer market of 2020. It skipped all of last year over concerns with the pandemic, although High Point and Las Vegas had their markets. Cleveland said Tupelo wasn’t in a position to host a market, however.

“We really didn’t want people from 40-50 states exposed to COVID or bringing COVID here to us,” he said. “But the industry itself was part of the reason, because the delivery times for a lot of manufacturers went from 30 days to 60 days to 90 days to six months or more.”

The slow delivery times made hosting a market with something new to show difficult, if not impossible.

“What were we going to show?” he said. “You might be getting something by the time the second show came around if you were lucky, and most people didn’t want to take part in that. It was hard to justify a market. Vegas and High Point had markets, but they weren’t great.”

Supply chain disruptions did cause some manufacturers to push back delivery schedules. That affected smaller companies the most — the ones that most often show in Tupelo.

Still, it was a difficult decision to make for a market that had held consecutive twice-yearly markets since 1987.

“So we’ll do a little market this year because we have vendors who said they can ship, and this market is for them,” Cleveland said. “We’re not going to drag it out over the weekend – it’ll be a compact three days for the vendors who contacted us, and it’ll be all business.”

Debbie Henry, the market’s director of sales, said retailers and exhibitors alike expressed an interest in having a winter market.

“We knew in order to have something for them worth coming for, we had to have at least 50 vendors, which made sense,” she said. “We thought it would be difficult, but we have 75 with no problem at all, and we could have 100 by the time it opens.”

Henry said the market recruited companies that could ship product within weeks. It didn’t go after companies that couldn’t ship until a few months down the road.

“The beauty of this smaller market is that the vendors who are here can ship their products in the normal four to six weeks,” she said. “I think that will be a good draw for the market.”

https://www.djournal.com/news/business/back-to-basics-downsized-tupelo-furniture-market-to-have-first-event-since-2020/article_25bda0bd-a2de-58ad-a329-db712c7e3246.html

February 14, 2022

Tupelo Furniture Market

Back to Basics: Downsized Tupelo Furniture Market to have first event since 2020

1 of 2

TUPELO • For the first time since 2020, the Tupelo Furniture Market is hosting an industry trade show. The Winter Market will be an abbreviated one, starting Wednesday and wrapping up Friday. 

“We’re getting back to the basics,” said TFM Chairman V.M. Cleveland. “We’re not going to have the awards ceremonies or the free buffets or entertainment or anything like that. We’re just going to match up the vendors with the buyers and retailers and just do business like the way we started 35 years ago.”

The market’s last trade show was the summer market of 2020. It skipped all of last year over concerns with the pandemic, although High Point and Las Vegas had their markets. Cleveland said Tupelo wasn’t in a position to host a market, however.

“We really didn’t want people from 40-50 states exposed to COVID or bringing COVID here to us,” he said. “But the industry itself was part of the reason, because the delivery times for a lot of manufacturers went from 30 days to 60 days to 90 days to six months or more.”

The slow delivery times made hosting a market with something new to show difficult, if not impossible.

“What were we going to show?” he said. “You might be getting something by the time the second show came around if you were lucky, and most people didn’t want to take part in that. It was hard to justify a market. Vegas and High Point had markets, but they weren’t great.”

Supply chain disruptions did cause some manufacturers to push back delivery schedules. That affected smaller companies the most — the ones that most often show in Tupelo.

Still, it was a difficult decision to make for a market that had held consecutive twice-yearly markets since 1987.

“So we’ll do a little market this year because we have vendors who said they can ship, and this market is for them,” Cleveland said. “We’re not going to drag it out over the weekend – it’ll be a compact three days for the vendors who contacted us, and it’ll be all business.”

Debbie Henry, the market’s director of sales, said retailers and exhibitors alike expressed an interest in having a winter market.

“We knew in order to have something for them worth coming for, we had to have at least 50 vendors, which made sense,” she said. “We thought it would be difficult, but we have 75 with no problem at all, and we could have 100 by the time it opens.”

Henry said the market recruited companies that could ship product within weeks. It didn’t go after companies that couldn’t ship until a few months down the road.

“The beauty of this smaller market is that the vendors who are here can ship their products in the normal four to six weeks,” she said. “I think that will be a good draw for the market.”

https://www.djournal.com/news/business/back-to-basics-downsized-tupelo-furniture-market-to-have-first-event-since-2020/article_25bda0bd-a2de-58ad-a329-db712c7e3246.html