LyondellBasell reports net income of US$467 million for Q3-2010

LyondellBasell has reported a net income of US$467 mln for Q3-2010. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) stood at US$1.23 bln (excluding a US$32 million non-cash LCM inventory charge). Sales during the quarter stood at US$10.30 billion. There were no comparisons as the company was under restructuring in the previous year. Year-to-date EBITDA (excluding non-cash LCM charges of US$365 mln) stood at US$3.27 bln. Listing of its stock in the New York Stock Exchange was also completed. "We achieved excellent results in the third quarter as most of our segments performed very well," said LyondellBasell chief executive Jim Gallogly. "Globally, our olefins and polyolefins results were approximately equal to the strong results of the second quarter. As a result, we again generated significant cash during the quarter and further improved our liquidity. In early October, we completed our listing on the New York Stock Exchange, another milestone in the creation of the new LyondellBasell," he added. In the near term, the industry conditions have held up reasonably well during October. However, the company did not expect to see the typical seasonal impacts in the refining and oxyfuels area as well as end-of-year holiday reduced sales to some customers. "Our outlook for the quarter is somewhat tempered compared to the strong second and third quarters," Gallogly said. On a sequential basis, excluding non-cash LCM inventory charges of US$171 mln and US$26 mln in the second quarter and third quarters 2010, respectively, underlying EBITDA declined by US$67 mln versus Q2-2010, as an average ethylene sales price decrease of approximately 10 cents/lb was partially offset by an approximately 2 cent/lb decline in the company's average cost-of-ethylene-production metric (COE). Ethylene sales volume increased by approximately 130 million lbs compared to the second quarter 2010, as the scheduled maintenance turnaround at the Morris, Ill. facility was completed during the second quarter. Polyethylene (PE) results improved by approximately US$75 mln vs Q2-2010 as PE benefited from the lower ethylene price and additional production at Morris. Polypropylene results for the third quarter improved approximately US$10 mln. Total polyolefins sales volumes increased approximately 275 million lbs (14%) vs the second quarter with polyethylene sales accounting for the majority of the increase. LyondellBasell operates in five business segments: olefins and polyolefins in the Americas; olefins and polyolefins in Europe, Asia and globally; intermediates and derivatives; refining and oxyfuels and technology.