Pricing Momentum Continues Chemical makers continue to post stronger than expected first-quarter earnings, despite weaker volumes and another surge in energy and raw material costs. A key factor behind the resilient earnings has been improved pricing efforts. DuPont says it achieved... R&H Adds Index-Based Surcharge to Specialty Material Businesses Rohm and Haas (R&H) says it will impose an index-based raw material and energy surcharge starting this month to products made by its specialty material businesses. R&H says it developed the index based on costs of crude oil, natural gas, and its major... |
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Leading Indicators
Economy Stagnates The leading indicator for the chemical industry fell 1.9% in April, following a rise in March. The overall industrial sector also declined. Output in manufacturing fell at an annualized rate of 0.5% in the first quarter, after dropping 0.6% in fourth-quarter... Vital Statistics
Vital Stats: Manufacturing Slump Shipments of chemical products fell 1.2% in February, following a 0.2% advance in January. Shipments of manufactured products fell 1.1% in February, the second decline in the last three months. Sales of durables were down 2.7%, and nondurables dropped 1.5%... |
Prices
Solvay to Add Sulfur Surcharge Solvay Chemicals, a Solvay subsidiary, says it will add a sulfur surcharge on all sulfite products, effective May 1, because of an... CW75
CW75 Stock Performance The CW75 Index fell 5.1% for the week ending April 29, lagging broader market indexes including the Morgan Stanley global composite and Standard and Poor’s 500, which both declined by about 1%. The stock market is down because of a drop in consumer... |