Axiall Sees Planned Outage Costs Increasing, Sees Operating Rates Slightly Lower in Q3

Axiall Corporation AXLL today provided an update to its outlook for the third quarter of 2013. On August 1, company officials shared expectations that planned outage costs would increase in the third quarter compared to the second quarter of 2013 and that operating rates would be slightly lower in the third quarter than the second quarter. The company also expected that caustic prices, PVC margins, building products volumes and margins, and aromatics volumes would remain near second-quarter levels. “Since that time, we elected to extend our planned VCM and PVC turnarounds to further improve reliability,” President and CEO Paul Carrico said today. “Also, we accelerated two turnarounds from the fourth quarter of 2013 to the third quarter in our aromatics and chlorinated derivatives businesses. We expect the combined impact of the operating plan changes in maintenance and the associated reductions in operating rates to be approximately $10-12 million of lower third-quarter Adjusted EBITDA, as compared to our original expectation. Additionally, current market prices and margins in our chlor-alkali and vinyls businesses are trending lower than our expectations on August 1, which we believe will have a further impact on third quarter Adjusted EBITDA. “Long-term, we remain confident that our integrated chemicals and building products business will continue to benefit from low-cost natural gas in North America and growing global demand for our broadened product portfolio,” Carrico said.