Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Sergey Vasnetsov - Barclays Capital.
Sergey Vasnetsov - Barclays Capital
I think your results have shown what strong incremental margins you could bring once the [inaudible] comes back and it sounds from commentaries the fourth quarter could be a combination of seasonal weakness and some incremental recovery. Would you think that those factors would roughly offset each other?
Charles E. Bunch
Yes, I think, Sergey, what you're seeing from us is that we're going to have seasonal weakness in many of the construction related businesses. These would be our Architectural Coatings businesses in Europe or in North America and also some seasonal weakness in our chlor-alkali business.
But we feel that with the cost reduction actions that we've taken and the momentum we have in some of the industrial businesses where you see in markets like North America or China in particular where auto builds are continuing to increase, I think we are going to have somewhat of an offset to the seasonal weakness that we traditionally experience in the fourth quarter.
Sergey Vasnetsov - Barclays Capital
And so on the acquisition front given as you get more comfortable on your overall debt structure, as you think about the [inaudible] would you expect minor opportunities or reasonable size opportunities for you?
Charles E. Bunch
We are beginning to look now, Sergey. Obviously this year we've been focused on our restructuring actions and making sure the company was well positioned. We're very pleased with our cash generation capabilities here over the last couple of quarters. We have a good cash balance now. And we will begin to look for acquisition opportunities in coatings in particular and we hope that, you know, in the coming quarters that, you know, some of these may develop into legitimate opportunities for us.
Operator
Your next question comes from Frank Mitsch - BB&T Capital Markets.
Frank Mitsch - BB&T Capital Markets
On Slide, Page 16, you showed the trend on the chlor-alkali side having bottomed in the July/August timeframe and moving up in the September timeframe. We're halfway done with October. Would you anticipate that that trend coming off the bottom is where you would see the ECU such that the fourth quarter average ECU might be above the third quarter average ECU?
Charles E. Bunch
We think the ECU will be modestly improved in the fourth quarter. The one factor we’ll have in this business unit is the seasonal volume weakness that we traditionally get typically towards the end of the fourth quarter, but we do have some positives that are working for the industry in general because of the weaker dollar, the strength in the Asian markets where I think we’re going to see less exports out of Asia, more use of their domestic chlor-alkali capacity in the region, so I think that it will set the stage for improvement as we go through the fourth quarter and into 2010, but we still expect some seasonal trends here, especially on the volume side.
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