Ashland reports results following ISP acquisition

ERJ staff report (DS)

Covington Kentucky - Ashland Inc has reported its first-quarter results, the first since the acquisition of International Specialty Products Inc. (ISP) in August 2011. ISP has a large facility for making emulsion-SBR in Port Neches, Texas. The 60-year-old unit has capacity for around 240,000 tonnes annually.

Ashland has placed the elastomers activity within its performance materials division, but in communications to shareholders, highlighted ISP's activities in the skin care, oral care and hair care segments.

Discussing the Performance Materials unit, Ashland's CFO, Lamar Chambers said, “raw material declines were greatest within the elastomers business which is relatively large purchaser of butadiene. We buy approximately 165 million pounds per year of those raw materials and over the course of the quarter costs fell by roughly $0.80 per pound. Pricing within the elastomers business was highly indexed and we generally push through our cost for the four to six-week delay.

Chambers added, “As of January, butadiene has reversed course and costs are beginning to rise.”

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Press release from Ashland

Transcript of analyst conference from Ashland, via Seeking Alpha