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Business segment information (Tables) | 3 Months Ended
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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 | )

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- Definition Tabular disclosure of the profit or loss and total assets for each reportable segment. An entity discloses certain information on each reportable segment if the amounts (a) are included in the measure of segment profit or loss reviewed by the chief operating decision maker or (b) are otherwise regularly provided to the chief operating decision maker, even if not included in that measure of segment profit or loss. + References Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 280 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 22 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6534315&loc=d3e8736-108599 Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 280 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 25 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6534315&loc=d3e8813-108599 Reference 3: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 350 -SubTopic 20 -Section 50 -Paragraph 1 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=14024403&loc=d3e13816-109267 Reference 4: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Statement of Financial Accounting Standard (FAS) -Number 131 -Paragraph 27, 28 -LegacyDoc This reference is SUPERSEDED by the Accounting Standards Codification effective for interim and annual periods ending after September 15, 2009. This reference is included to help users transition from the previous accounting hierarchy and will be removed from future versions of this taxonomy. Reference 5: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 280 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 30 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6534315&loc=d3e8906-108599 Reference 6: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 280 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 21 -Subparagraph (b) -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6534315&loc=d3e8721-108599 + Details
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