Total halts three French refineries amid strike

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Workers at three out of five French refineries operated by Total, the nation’s biggest oil company, voted to halt production amid industrial dispute over pay increase, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing with reference to a union official's statement.

The Feyzin refinery was in the process of shutting units after a vote yesterday, Christian Votte, a CGT union representative, said Tuesday by phone. Operations at La Mede have already stopped, while the Gonfreville site is still in the process of halting production, he said. Officials for Paris- based Total weren’t immediately available for comment after being contacted by phone and e-mail.

"If shutdowns at these French refineries do go ahead - it would take a couple more days for output to be halted completely - it could potentially provide regional margins with a boost," Vienna-based researcher JBC Energy GmbH said in an e-mailed report. "The issue has the potential to see more than 600,000 bpd of the country’s refining capacity idled."

Total’s five refineries in France, including the Donges and Granpuits facilities, have a capacity to process about 800,000 bpd of crude, or 60% of the nation’s output, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Demand for oil products in France averaged 1.76 million bpd in the third quarter, according to data from the International Energy Agency published on 11 December.

Separately, the Donges refinery, where workers voted yesterday to end strike, was operating at a very low rate because of a "technical incident," CGT’s Votte said.

As MRC informed previously, French refinery losses may reach EUR500 million (USD689 million) this year as demand falls and profit margins are eroded by US imports, according to the country oil lobby. Workers at all five of Total’s French refineries have participated in a strike in recent days, demanding the explorer use profit from other parts of the business to pay bigger salary increases.

Total S.A. is a French multinational oil and gas company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world with business in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia. The company's petrochemical products cover two main groups: base chemicals and the consumer polymers (polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene) that are derived from them.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Hyosung Corporation, a South Korean maker of textiles and heavy machinery, will spend 280 billion won (USD266 million) to build a propylene plant by May 2015, reported Yonhap News Agency.

The plan was launched on expectations that the recent brisk development of shale gas may send the prices of propane, a raw material for propylene, down and help Hyosung profit more from the propylene production, it said.

Hyosung plans to build the plant in Ulsan, 414 kilometers southeast of Seoul.

Once completed, the company's propylene production capacity will more than double to 500,000 tons from the current 200,000 tons.

As MRC wrote previously, in November, Hyosung Group developed high-performance thermoplastic polymers called polyketones, which will be used in various types of value-added industrial products. The firm claimed the company is the first in the world to commercialize the material, saying it is one of the greatest achievements in the materials industry, tantamount to the development of nylon by American chemical giant DuPont more than seven decades ago. Unlike many other engineering plastics, polyketones are relatively easy to synthesize and could be derived from inexpensive monomers.

Propylene is a raw material used for making auto parts, textiles and home appliances.

Hyosung Corporation is a Korean industrial conglomerate, founded in 1957. It operates in various fields, including the chemical industry, industrial machinery, IT, trade, and construction.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Brazilian production of plastics will increase 1.8% in volume in 2014, after rising 1.6% in 2013, said Bnamericas , citing plastics industry association Abiplast.

According to a report from Agencia Estado, Abiplast expects total plastics demand in Brazil to rise by 9% in value in 2014, a similar increase to that of 2013.

However, whereas in 2013 much of the rise in demand has been supplied by imported products, in 2014 local producers should benefit more.

Abiplast president Jose Ricardo Roriz Coelho said that the recent depreciation of the Brazilian real will lead to a slowdown in the imports of food products, which are already packaged.

Packaging for food is the largest source of demand for the Brazilian plastics industry. Roriz said demand from the sector will drive the performance of plastics converters in the country in 2014.

Roriz said that the plastics sector in Brazil continues to be squeezed by rising prices of thermoplastic resins. According to Abiplast, the rise of the dollar and of international resin prices increased costs by 18% in the first nine months of the year, while the prices of plastic products sold by the companies only increased by 4.55% in the same period.

"The margin of the plastic converter industry is being transferred to the resins industry," Roriz said.

As MRC wrote before, Brazilian trade deficit in chemicals in the first nine months of 2013 was 19.7% greater than in the same period in 2012. The total deficit of USD23.8bn for the year to September reflected a 10.8% increase in chemical imports to USD34.4bn, and a 4.9% drop in Brazil's chemical exports to USD10.6bn. Abiquim expects Brazil to post a record annual trade deficit in chemicals in 2013 of more than USD33bn.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF SE, a nearly 150-year-old German company whose operations sprawl across this Rhine River city, is shifting more of its production and research investment to the U.S. to ride the nation economic recovery and shale-gas boom, said The Wall Street Journal.

The world's largest chemical maker by sales says the move is designed primarily to take advantage of America's cheaper energy and greater support for emerging biotechnology research. It comes amid a wave of U.S. investments by chemicals and fertilizer makers cashing in on its plentiful shale gas.

"At this point in time, the overall framework - if you consider all the factors including economic growth, the cost of raw materials and the cost of energy - is more favorable in the U.S. than in some European countries," said Hans-Ulrich Engel, BASF's group finance officer and chief executive of its North American division.

BASF has estimated it could save EUR500 million (USD688 million) a year in energy costs if its massive chemicals plant here was instead in the U.S. The company isn't thinking of moving the 148-year-old operation abroad, but it is building up existing plants along the U.S. Gulf Coast and may launch new production there in coming years.

BASF has doubled its investment in its U.S. plants to an average USD1 billion a year in 2012 from about USD500 million a year in the decade to 2010. It also has earmarked about USD4 billion in capital spending in the U.S. through 2017.

Thanks to discoveries of shale-gas in Texas, North Dakota and Pennsylvania, the U.S. price of natural gas is about USD4.30 a million British Thermal Units, about one-third of the price paid by German industry. Germany's push to phase out nuclear for renewable energy has lifted electricity prices this year to 14.87 euro cents a kilowatt hour, about twice the price in some parts of Texas.

A example of BASF's new U.S. investments is its 60/40 joint venture with Total Petrochemicals & Refining USA, which produces chemical building blocks at a plant in Port Arthur, Texas. This year, it converted a steam cracker, which can produce as much as 935,000 metric tons of ethylene a year, to use a natural-gas feedstock, ethane, instead of an oil, naphtha.

The change allowed "substantial margin improvements," BASF said. When the conversion began operation in May naphtha cost about USD100 for a barrel of oil equivalent, compared with about USD30 for an equivalent amount of ethane.

BASF is considering a new ammonia plant in the U.S. in a joint venture with Norway's Yara International AS YAR.OS -2.65% A. The plant, considered for the U.S. Gulf Coast, would produce ammonia for BASF.

The U.S. is also more conducive to developing new growth industries. Last year, BASF moved its global headquarters for plant biotechnology from Germany to Raleigh, N.C., because of restrictions on biotech research and public opposition to the technology in Germany.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- INEOS Enterprises announced that it has agreed to purchase Sasol Solvents Germany GmbH, one of European leading solvent manufacturers, said the producer in its press release.

The acquisition which is conditional on approval by the relevant competition authorities comprises production facilities in Germany, based at Herne and Moers, employing around 520 people.

The addition of Sasol’s German based European Solvents businesses provides a complementary fit with the portfolio and expertise of INEOS and opens up the possibility of integration into its existing manufacturing sites in Germany.

The facility at Herne, in Germany's industrial Ruhr district, manufactures ethanol and isopropyl alcohol, as well as catalysts for both processes.

The Moers site, on the Lower Rhine, produces oxygenated solvents isopropyl alcohol (IPA) and secondary butyl alcohol (SBA), which is upgraded on site into methyl ethyl ketone (MEK). The plant also produces plasticisers, synthetic resins and fine chemicals such as alkyl chlorides and aluminium organic compounds.

INEOS will also continue to operate the Maleic Anhydride plant at the Moers site for the ongoing joint venture between Sasol and Huntsman. This building block for unsaturated polyester resins is used mainly in fibreglass reinforced resins for construction, automotive and marine products.

The value of the deal is not disclosed.

As MRC wrote before, INEOS Enterprises announces the closure of its Vinyl Acetate Monomer Unit at Saltend, Hull. 04 Oktober 2013. Low cost imports and a hostile trading Environment made closure inevitable.

INEOS Enterprises is a standalone business, a part of INEOS AG. INEOS Enterprises is a portfolio of ten businesses manufacturing chemical products in Northern Europe, with sales of these products to customers around the world. The Company is focused on the developing needs of customers and rapid growth through investment in new products and manufacturing facilities or by acquisition. INEOS Enterprises now employs some 800 people across sites in the UK, France, Germany.
MRC