Business Roundup

LG Chem's net income fell 45% in the first quarter of 2006 compared with first-quarter 2005. The company blames high raw material prices and weak demand for its petrochemical products and construction materials.

Hexion Specialty Chemicals has increased the price range of its planned initial public stock offering to $26 to $28 per share from $21 to $24 per share, according to an amended filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

BASF, in a move widely seen as giving itself time to raise its offer to acquire Engelhard, has extended the expiration date of its $37-per-share cash offer for all shares of common stock of Engelhard to April 28. The offer, already extended, had previously been set to expire on April 14.

DuPont plans to spend asmuch as $20 million to construct a flood wall to protect its DeLisle, Miss., plant against future hurricane damage. The titanium dioxide plant was badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina last year.

Kraton Polymers is evaluating the construction of a 30,000-metric-ton-per-year hydrogenated styrene block copolymer plant to be built in the Asia-Pacific region by 2009.

Cognis has opened a new unit to make oleochemical dimethylamides in Zona Franca, near Barcelona. The vegetable-oil-based green solvents replace petrochemical solvents used in agricultural chemicals.