News about chemicals

In its Q3 2026 investor letter, White Brook Capital highlighted Ascent Industries (ACNT), a specialty chemical maker that closed at $13.78 with a $124.15 million market cap and is down 14.89% year to date. The fund said the problem has been profits lagging sales: first-quarter sales rose about 9% but the company lost $2 million, due to high winter utility bills, startup costs and higher raw-material and shipping costs tied to Middle East tensions. Second-quarter sales rose about 38% on a May acquisition and profitability turned positive, while management expects most of a $3–5 million cost-saving program by year-end and warned of a fourth-quarter margin dip. White Brook bought the stock after the news, arguing that cash makes up nearly a quarter of its market value and the operating business trades at about 1.1 times trailing annual sales, so the stock looks attractive if the savings turn revenue into cash generation.

The fair value estimate for Tronox Holdings has moved from US$6.63 to US$5.50, as Truist, Goldman Sachs, UBS and Mizuho have trimmed their price targets and several banks now cluster between US$4 and US$5.50. Goldman Sachs keeps a Sell rating, while Mizuho and JPMorgan point to titanium dioxide oversupply, weak paint and coatings demand and high interest rates. On the business side, Tronox and JX Advanced Metals plan to split about US$32 million on a 50/50 basis for a feasibility study in Australia and a pilot rare earth processing facility in the United States. They are also assessing an integrated rare earth refinery next to Tronox's Hamilton, Mississippi TiO2 plant, targeting up to 10,000 tonnes of rare earth oxides per year.