Business segment information (Tables)

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2013

Segment Reporting [Abstract]

Holding Percentage of Subsidiaries

Business segment	Entity	% controlled at March  31, 2013
Chemicals	Kronos		80	%
Component products	CompX		87	%
Waste management	WCS		100	%

Segment Operating Performance

	Three months ended March  31,
	2012			2013
	(In millions)
Net sales:
Chemicals	$	561.3		$	463.6
Component products		20.4			21.5
Waste management		1.1			14.1
Total net sales	$	582.8		$	499.2
Cost of sales:
Chemicals	$	300.4		$	460.3
Component products		14.4			15.5
Waste management		7.6			10.5
Total cost of sales	$	322.4		$	486.3
Gross margin:
Chemicals	$	260.9		$	3.3
Component products		6.0			6.0
Waste management		(6.5	)		3.6
Total gross margin	$	260.4		$	12.9
Operating income (loss):
Chemicals	$	211.3		$	(45.1	)
Component products		1.6			1.5
Waste management		(9.6	)		(1.6	)
Total operating income (loss)		203.3			(45.2	)
Equity in earnings of investee		.1			(.3	)
General corporate items:
Securities earnings		7.1			6.6
Insurance recoveries		1.1			.6
Loss on prepayment of debt		—			(6.6	)
General expenses, net		(20.3	)		(9.7	)
Interest expense		(13.5	)		(15.4	)
Income(loss) from continuing operations before income taxes	$	177.8		$	(70.0	)