CHEMICAL EARNINGS SHOW INCREASE: Aggregate rise in earnings among 25 CHEMICAL FIRMS was 11.3% in the second quarter, with 18 companies seeing higher results

THE U.S. CHEMICAL INDUSTRY posted relatively good sales and earnings increases in the second quarter over second-quarter 2006, especially when compared with a lackluster year-over-year first-quarter increase. In the second three-month period this year, aggregate earnings for the 25 major U.S. chemical firms that G&EN surveys rose 11.396 to $4.26 billion from the comparable period in 2006, as sales increased 7.8% to $49.3 billion. These results are much improved from those of the first quarter, when earnings rose just 0.7% from the year-earlier period on a sales increase of only 5.6%. Earnings are from continuing operations, excluding significant nonrecurring and extraordinary items. The total profit margin for the group of companies in the second quarter was 8.6%, up from 8.4% in the second quarter last year and from 8.0% in first-quarter 2007. The lower results in the first quarter naturally pull the results for the first half down. In the first six months, sales for ...