ABOUT WESTLAKE CHEMICAL CORPORATION
We are an international manufacturer and supplier of petrochemicals, polymers and building products with its headquarters in Houston, Texas.
Highly integrated along our olefins and vinyls product chains, the Company produces: ethylene; polyethylene; propylene; styrene; chlor-alkali and derivative products; polyvinyl chloride (PVC) suspension and specialty resins; PVC
compounds; building products including pipe, fittings and specialty components, decking, roofing, siding, trim and molding, and window lineals; and PVC film.
We began operations in 1986 after our first polyethylene plant, an Olefins segment business, near Lake Charles, Louisiana was acquired from
Occidental Petroleum Corporation. We began our vinyls operations in 1990 with the acquisition of a vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) plant in Calvert City, Kentucky from Goodrich Corporation. In 1992, we commenced our Vinyls segments
building products operations after acquiring three PVC pipe plants. Since 1986, we have grown rapidly into an integrated global producer of petrochemicals, vinyls, polymers and building products. We achieved this growth by acquiring existing plants
or constructing new plants and completing numerous capacity or production line expansions. We regularly consider acquisitions and other internal and external growth opportunities that would be consistent with, or complementary to, our overall
business strategy.
In 2014, we formed Westlake Chemical Partners LP (Westlake Partners) to operate, acquire and develop
ethylene production facilities and related assets. Also in 2014, Westlake Partners completed an initial public offering (the Westlake Partners IPO). Currently, Westlake Partners assets consist of a 22.8% limited partner interest in
Westlake Chemical OpCo LP (OpCo), as well as the general partner interest in OpCo. OpCos assets include two ethylene production facilities at our olefins facility at our Lake Charles site, one ethylene production facility at our
Calvert City site and a 200-mile common carrier ethylene pipeline that runs from Mont Belvieu, Texas to the Longview, Texas site, which includes our Longview polyethylene production facility. Prior to the
Westlake Partners IPO, OpCos assets were wholly owned by us. We retain a 77.2% limited partner interest in OpCo, a 40.1% limited partner interest in Westlake Partners (consisting of 14,122,230 common units), a general partner interest in
Westlake Partners and Westlake Partners incentive distribution rights. The operations of Westlake Partners are consolidated in our financial statements. We are party to certain agreements with Westlake Partners and OpCo whereby, among other
things, OpCo sells us 95% of the ethylene it produces on a cost-plus basis that is expected to generate a fixed margin per pound of $0.10. We use this ethylene in the production processes of both our Olefins and Vinyls segments.
On August 31, 2016, we completed the acquisition of Axiall Corporation (Axiall) for $33.00 per share in an all-cash transaction (the Axiall Merger). Axiall was a manufacturer and international marketer of chemicals and building products, with manufacturing sites in North America. After the Axiall Merger, we
are the second-largest global chlor-alkali producer and the second-largest PVC producer in the world.
On January 2, 2019, we
completed the acquisition of NAKAN, a global compounding solutions business. NAKANs products are used in a wide-variety of applications, including in the automotive, building and
construction, and medical industries. With this acquisition, our compounding business now has facilities worldwide in China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, the United States and Vietnam, as well as a world-class research facility in
France and several application laboratories.
We benefit from highly integrated production facilities that allow us to process raw
materials into higher value-added chemicals and building products. As of February 13, 2019, we (directly and through OpCo and our 95%- and 60%-owned joint ventures in China and Taiwan, respectively) had approximately 42.1 billion pounds
per year of aggregate production capacity at numerous manufacturing sites in North America, Europe and Asia.
We are a Delaware
corporation with our principal executive offices located at 2801 Post Oak Boulevard, Suite 600, Houston, Texas 77056. Our telephone number at such address is (713) 960-9111.
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