Westlake CEO Albert Chao says the company’s record earnings were “driven by strong demand across our product portfolio.”
Westlake Corp. rode strong demand for chemicals and acquisitions that expanded its business into materials into the top 10 of the Chronicle 100.
Westlake’s revenues jumped more than 50 percent to nearly $12 billion in 2021 and profits increased sixfold to $2 billion. The banner year put Westlake at No. 7 on the Houston Chronicle’s list of top performing public companies.
The sterling results were payoff for an acquisition strategy that broadened the company’s products beyond chemicals. The diversification led the company, once known as Westlake Chemical Corp., to drop the chemical from its name.
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Record-shattering housing demand drove more customers to the segment of its business that provides materials used in construction, such as PVC resin. The booming real estate market also spurred Westlake to spend $2 billion on Boral Industries' North American building products businesses, which makes roofing, siding, decorative stone and windows.
It also bought Ohio-based Dimex, which converts recycled plastic into garden edgings available at Home Depot, and Lasco Fittings, a manufacturer of polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, pipe fittings.
The company also was boosted by strong demand and pricing for its chemicals. A renewed interest in online ordering and delivery drove sales of its line of products used in consumer packaging, such as caustic soda and polyethylene.
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Founded in 1986 with a plant in Lake Charles, La. with 100 workers, the company today operates in 100 locations around the world and employs about 16,000.
Westlake reported record profits of $2 billion last year, six times the $330 million earned in 2020. It continued to break records in the first quarter, earning $756 million during the first quarter, triple the $242 million during the same period last year.
“Our record earnings in 2021 were driven by strong demand across our product portfolio while delivering life enhancing benefits to people every day,” Westlake’s CEO Albert Chao said.
Amanda Drane is an energy reporter for the Houston Chronicle.
Amanda covers the Texas energy industry and the people affected by it, with a particular focus on fuel production, refining, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and petrochemicals. Before joining the paper's business desk in May 2020 she worked as a City Hall reporter in Massachusetts, where she won regional awards for covering issues such as police accountability and the exploitation of undocumented restaurant workers.
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