Westlake

Westlake turns two cheap raw materials, ethane from natural gas and salt, into plastics and building products. Founded in 1986 by Ting Tsung Chao and based in Houston, it runs two arms: a Performance and Essential Materials segment that makes ethylene, polyethylene, PVC and chlor-alkali chemicals, and a Housing and Infrastructure Products segment selling pipe, siding, roofing and other building goods. That second business, built through acquisitions, was meant to smooth out the notorious swings of the commodity chemical cycle, where margins depend on the spread between feedstock costs and product prices. Westlake is one of the largest North American makers of PVC and low-density polyethylene, so its earnings track construction demand and global petrochemical supply. Cheap US natural gas is the structural advantage, giving its ethane-based crackers a cost edge over naphtha-based rivals abroad.

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