Americas top stories: weekly summary

HOUSTON (ICIS)–Here are the top stories from ICIS News from the week ended 25 June.

Westlake seeks to profit from US housing growth with Boral deal
Westlake’s pending $2.15bn acquisition of the North American building-products business of Boral should allow the vinyls producer to profit from what could be several years of catch-up housing construction, the result of more than a decade of underinvestment that took place in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, the company said on Monday.

Supply chains, shortages, inflation biggest risks to US economy – ACC
Global supply chain constraints, shortages of materials and labour, and inflation are the biggest risks to the US economic outlook, the chief economist of the American Chemistry Council (ACC) said on Tuesday.

Little relief expected for tight US acetic acid supplies until late Q3
The start of Q3 was expected to bring some resolution to US acetic acid availability concerns, but with producers unable to keep pace with demand for both domestic and export markets, this is likely to push back any improvement on inventories to later that quarter.

US PBF mulls $550m renewable diesel project at Chalmette refinery
PBF Energy is considering a $550m project that would retrofit an idled hydrocracker to produce renewable diesel at its Chalmette refinery in Louisiana, the US-based refiner and the state said on Thursday.

President Biden announces $579bn bipartisan infrastructure deal
US President Joe Biden announced a bipartisan infrastructure deal to provide about $579bn in new investments in roads, clean transportation, water infrastructure, the electric grid, broadband internet, and other projects to pass part of his economic agenda through Congress.

Plastics compounding and packaging firms to see growth – analysts
Plastics compounding and packaging companies are poised to see continuing volume growth amid improving economic conditions while passing on higher raw material costs, Wall Street analysts said.