Westlake Chemical's latest offer to acquire Georgia Gulf is featured in this week's Material Insights video. Houston-based Westlake increased its offer to buy Georgia Gulf of Atlanta from $30 to $35 per share, but Georgia Gulf officials rejected it just as they did last month. Dow Chemical's full-year 2011 financial results also are feature in this week's video. The firm's Performance Plastics unit -- including polyethylene and elastomers -- saw sales grow almost 7 percent, but pretax profit slipped almost 4 percent. Dow's Performance Materials unit --- including polyurethane, epoxies and polymer additives -- was more consistent, with 5 percent sales growth and a 2 percent gain in pretax profit. The video wraps up with news of another acquisition made by materials firm A. Schulman. This time, Schulman has bought French color concentrates maker Elian SAS from British Vita plc for $63 million. Annual cost synergies from the deal are expected to total $2.5 million by 2013.
N. American PET bottle resin prices fall 7 cents
May 20, 2013 12:18 pm ET
