Bolstered by strong performance in its Olefins and Polyolefins divisions in the Americas, LlyondellBasell saw net income for 2013 climb to $3.853 billion, up $1.019 billion from the same period last year.Â
In 2013, LyondellBasell reported record results, led by improvements in global olefins and polyolefins. Fourth quarter 2013 EBITDA was relatively unchanged compared to the third quarter of 2013 despite the impact of normal seasonal slowdowns. Income from continuing operations increased relative to the third quarter due to a lower effective tax rate related to the release of reserves against certain European net operating losses (NOLs).
“We achieved record earnings in 2013, capped by the best fourth-quarter results in our history,” said CEO Jim Gallogly. “Our performance for the quarter and the year continued a pattern of solid financial results built on our back-to-basics strategy and supplemented with high return growth projects. During the quarter, we completed the methanol restart project at Channelview, Texas. This project and other announced projects focus on capturing additional advantages from U.S. shale gas ahead of our competition,” he said.
“We advanced our cash deployment strategy in 2013; we increased the quarterly interim dividend over the year by 50 percent to $0.60 per share and initiated a share repurchase program. Shareholders realized a total stock return of 45 percent in 2013 versus the S&P 500 return of 32 percent,” Gallogly said.
Olefin results benefitted from improved olefin margins and higher volumes compared to the prior year period. Cracking advantaged feedstocks and lower naphtha prices in 2013 were major drivers of higher olefin margins. The production volumes in 2012 were impacted by a turnaround at Wesseling, Germany. Combined polyolefin results increased compared to the prior year driven by higher polyethylene margins and a 2 percent higher polyolefin sales volume. Polypropylene compounds and polybutene-1 results increased by approximately $15 million as a result of higher margins and volumes.
“The fundamentals supporting our businesses have remained strong. The U.S. natural gas liquids advantage continues to evolve in a very positive way, and we are executing our growth projects rapidly to take advantage of these market opportunities. We believe olefins in North America will continue to benefit from strong margins created by cost-advantaged NGLs. We will commence an olefins turnaround at La Porte late in the first quarter which will extend into the second quarter. European olefins and polyolefins demand should improve from a seasonally-low fourth quarter,” Gallogly said. “Intermediates and Derivatives continues to realize solid, steady performance and will additionally benefit from the methanol restart. The global refining market has been volatile, but improving of late. We expect that our refining position should strengthen in 2014 as North American crude production grows and the delivery infrastructure expands.”
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