Evonik Industries supports Mercedes with adhesion promoter

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Effectively immediately, Mercedes, a leader worldwide in the manufacture of automobiles, will be using the adhesion promoter from Evonik Industries in several of its mass-produced models, said Puworld.

Although it is used inside the vehicle and thus concealed from view, the VESTAMELT-based hybrid component performs an important job. The aluminum tubing connects both A-pillars together and supports the entire dashboard—from the steering wheel to the glove compartment.

These elements used to be welded or screwed together with metal connecting plates, a stable solution, but one that involves more weight.

"Together with automobile manufacturers, we’re developing even more applications worldwide for VESTAMELT," says Martin Risthaus, the global business manager for Lightweight Design at Evonik. "Structural components or doors, for example, still have considerable weight-saving potential." Machine construction and the construction industry are also examples of segments in which the VESTAMELT concept can be applied to hybrid machine parts.

An EU Regulation requires that the emissions values of all vehicle fleets be drastically reduced by 2015. Replacing metal with plastic is an especially promising way to reach this weight-saving goal. The less a vehicle weighs, the less fuel it consumes, and thus the less carbon dioxide it emits.

As MRC wrote earlier, the international rating agency Moody's has upgraded the credit rating of the German speciality chemicals group Evonik Industries AG from Baa3 with a positive outlook to Baa2 with a positive outlook. The rating agency quotes, among other things, the robust operational performance and the clarity regarding the steps for the real estate disposal as key reasons for the upgrade.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical has warned that cheap natural gas in the United States and coal from the mainland pose serious competitive threats to mainland crude oil refiners, said Scmp.

The subsidiary of China Petroleum & Chemical (Sinopec) that operates its second-largest oil refinery will have to cut costs and boost the uniqueness of its products, said Sinopec Shanghai vice-chairman Wang Zhiqing.

The firm produces petrol, diesel and jet fuel, as well as many downstream chemicals.

"We can't tell how severe the blow will be, but it will pose a serious challenge, and the entire industry will need to brace itself for the hit," he said. "We need to reduce costs and differentiate our products by adding more value."

He said about a dozen firms in the US have plans to build over 10 million tonnes of annual ethylene output capacity in the next three to five years, using gas as the raw material. Ethylene is a key base chemical used to make many downstream chemicals.

Technological advances in the extraction of previously uneconomic gas trapped between rock formations in recent years have seen US gas output rise an average 4.4% annually for the past five years after flat or negative growth since the beginning of last decade.

Another threat comes from domestic producers of petrochemicals using coal as feedstock. So far only Shenhua Group and Datang International Power Generation have entered commercial production of downstream chemicals from coal that directly competes with producers that use crude oil.

"There is a lot of investment fervour on coal-based chemicals, with [Beijing] having received … applications totalling 50 million to 60 million tonnes of annual output capacity," Wang said.

Such projects first turn coal into methanol before processing methanol into polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE) used to make plastic products.

Since methanol is in oversupply and Shanghai Petrochemical does not have an advantage in obtaining coal resources, Wang said it will only consider investing in projects that turn methanol into PP and PE.

As MRC wrote earlier, Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Company announced the audited operating results of the Company and its subsidiaries for the year ended December 31, 2012. The turnover of the Group for the Year amounted to RMB93,008.3 million, representing a slight decrease of 2.63% over the previous year. Loss attributable to equity shareholders of the company amounted to RMB1,528.4 million.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mexichem, Mexican chemicals company, has announced that its sales in the first quarter of the year likely rose 18% to 15.47 billion pesos (USD1.23 billion) on the acquisition of Dutch PVC pipe maker Wavin and higher prices for PVC plastics, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Mexichem, a major producer of plastic pipes and other chemicals, said in a preliminary earnings report filed with the Mexican stock exchange that operating cash flow measured by earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, is expected to be down 8% from the first quarter of 2012 at MXN2.7 billion.

The company said a maintenance shutdown at a plant run by state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, led to lower sales volumes for caustic soda, while lower prices for refrigerant gases had a negative impact on Ebitda.

Mexichem, which has expanded rapidly in recent years through acquisitions, said its net debt was about USD819 million at the end of March, or 0.8 times one year's Ebitda.

As MRC wrote previously, in February, 2012, Dutch polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe producer Wavin agreed to a takeover bid from Mexichem for EUR531mln (USD708mln). The combination of Wavin and Mexichem creates the global market leader in plastic pipe systems with total annual sales of around EUR 4.0 billion.

We remind that in late March, 2013, PolyOne, a premier provider of specialized polymer materials, agreed to sell its vinyl dispersion, blending and suspension resin assets to Mexichem.

Mexichem is a Mexican company and one of the largest leader in the Latin American chemical and petrochemical industry. Its is also the Latin American leader in the production of polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The company operates in North, Central and South America, Europe and Asia and exports its products to more than 50 countries.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Petrobras, Brazilian state-run energy company, expects to raise about USD20 billion in 2013 from debt issues and bank loans to fund the company's USD237 billion investment plan, reported The Wall Street Journal
with reference to the company's Chief Financial Officer Almir Barbassa.

According to A. Barbassa, the financing would be in line with the amount raised from global capital markets in 2012. Petrobras plans to make single, separate issues in U.S. dollars and euros each year, similar to what the company has announced to the market in the past, as well as secure loans from local and overseas banks, the executive said.

"We are looking at all mechanisms," Mr. Barbassa added. "We don't have any date set to do this, but we are always accompanying the market," Mr. Barbassa said.

Petrobras will tap global debt markets to finance its latest five-year investment plan that covers the 2013-2017 period. With the spending, the company aims to boost crude-oil production to 2.75 million barrels a day by 2017, with a hefty share of that output coming from the subsalt region offshore Brazil. Billions of barrels of crude were discovered trapped beneath a thick layer of salt deep under water.

We remind that Petrobras warned its financial picture will deteriorate further in 2013 as the large investment comes just as revenues are at a low. That's bad news for investors who watched the company post its worst annual net profit since 2004 last year. The company blamed the depreciation of the real against the dollar and higher operational costs for falling profits over the past year among the other reasons.

Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. or Petrobras is a semi-public Brazilian multinational energy corporation headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is the largest company in the Southern Hemisphere by market capitalization and the largest in Latin America measured by 2011 revenues.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) has signed an initial agreement with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States, a world leader in scientific research, reported SABIC on its site.

The agreement paves the way for SABIC and MIT to work together to develop new practical innovation for the company’s solutions and processes in order to meet important global needs from developing unconventional feedstock to innovating new material solutions for challenging applications.

This future collaboration will also allow SABIC researchers to work with world class teams of scientists at MIT in the respective joint research areas.

The research relationship with MIT is just one of many SABIC has already established around the world to bring world-class expertise to the company and its customers.

As MRC informed earlier, in October, 2012, Sabic signed a multi-year agreement with the University of Cambridge, UK, to allow Sabic researchers to work with world class teams of scientists in the areas of chemical engineering, biotechnology, energy, functional materials and modeling.

Besides, SABIC is currently has research relationships with the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics in China, ETH Zurich in Switzerland, the National Research Council in Italy and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft in Germany.

SABIC (Saudi Basic Industries Corporation) is a diversified manufacturing company, active in chemicals and intermediates, industrial polymers, fertilizers and metals. It is the largest public company in Saudi Arabia. SABIC is currently the second largest global ethylene glycol producer, the third largest polyethylene (PE) manufacturer, the fourth largest polyolefins manufacturer and the fourth largest polypropylene (PP) manufacturer. SABIC is also the world’s largest producer of mono-ethylene glycol (MEG).
MRC