Sabic profits decline on China slowdown

(news.szenergy) -- Saudi Basic Industries, the world's largest petrochemical company by market value, said profit declined for a second quarter in the three months to the end of March because of a slowdown in demand from China and high oil prices.

The company, which is majority owned by the Saudi government, posted a 5 per cent decrease in net profit in the first quarter from the same period a year ago, according to a statement posted on Tuesday on the stock exchange. Profit totalled SR7.27bn (USD1.94bn) compared with SR7.69bn, the company said.

Sabic's products are used for a wide range of goods from retail to car manufacturing, meaning that the company's performance is tightly correlated to global economic activity. In recent years, the chemical maker has turned its focus to China and the east to serve demand for its products.

"China was growing at a higher rate before, then there was a slowdown in its economy, also the European slowdown and high oil prices had an impact on raw materials cost," chief executive Mohamed al-Mady told reporters in Riyadh.
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(news.szenergy) -- Argentina's move to nationalize local oil company YPF, controlled by Spain's Repsol, has scuppered years of planning by China's Sinopec Group to buy the South American company, sources said.

Bankers said China's second-largest oil company had held talks with Repsol to buy its controlling 57-percent stake in YPF. Chinese website Caixin.com cited a source as saying Sinopec had reached a non-binding agreement to take over YPF for more than USD15 billion.

But plans by Argentine President Cristina Fernandez to seize control of YPF, which have incensed Spain and sparked international criticism, have killed any hopes that state-owned China Petrochemical Corp (Sinopec) could seal a deal, they said.

"It's too hairy for any Chinese major to put in that much money, unless there is a special relationship with the Argentinian government, which I doubt," said a mergers and acquisitions banker, who has advised Chinese state-run oil companies on overseas acquisitions.

"This is a challenging situation for anybody given the government action. To me it looks like political suicide to now allow a Chinese company to own YPF soon after announcing the nationalization. I don't they can go flipflop like that."

Bankers said Sinopec's interest in YPF went back at least five years.

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(rogtecmagazine) -- Rhodia, member of the Solvay group, and SIBUR have taken significant further steps in their project to create a joint venture in specialty surfactants. The aim of this strategic partnership is to create a surfactant specialty leader in the CIS market focused on the home & personal care and oil & gas markets, two sectors growing at more than 6% per year.

The two partners have completed studies to set up local production of surfactants in Russia at Dzerzhinsk, at SIBUR's petrochemicals site (400km east of Moscow), expected to be operational in 2014.

In the home & personal care market, Rhodia and Sibur are working together with customers to build business opportunities to support their growth strategy in this region, where the consumer demand is growing rapidly (CAGR 8%) and moving towards more sophisticated products in categories such as shampoos, conditioners, shower gels, laundry and household detergents.

In the oil & gas market, a series of successful trials of Rhodia's high performance solutions have been carried out with several companies to adapt formulations to the specific conditions required for the local market.

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(chron) -- Aiming to reduce environmental footprint, the European PET industry prepares to include a new variety of green PET resin in their products.

"Artenius has successfully created a PET packaging material that includes recycled resin in its manufacturing process, but with the same quality as virgin PET," said Jorge Foguet, Technology Manager for PET resin firm Artenius Elite.

A new green PET resin developed by the firm is to soon be released into the market.
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(Reuters) - French specialty chemical group Arkema, one of the top three suppliers of auto resins in Europe, said on Monday it did not see the production of resin PA-12 returning to normal for several weeks, risking a slowdown in global auto production.

An explosion at the end of March at a chemical plant in Germany owned by Evonik industries is blamed for the shortage of PA-12, a resin used in the making of automobiles' break and fuel components.

"We are in a situation of force majeure," said a spokesperson for Arkema, France's leading PA-12 producer. "We cannot reach full capacity in the coming weeks."

PSA Peugeot Citroen and Renault, would not comment on the affect the slowdown in production of PA-12 has on their car production.

She added that the group is currently looking for other suppliers of PA-12 and would offer clients two other polyamides, PA-11 and PA-10, to replace PA-12 when possible.

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