Saudian Yansab Q1 net profit drops 16.7% on lower prices

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Yansab said the profit fall was due to lower prices and higher sales and maintenance costs.Saudi Arabia’s Yanbu National Petrochemical Co (Yansab) missed the average forecast of analysts as it posted a 16.7% decline in first-quarter net profit, citing lower prices for some of its products, said Gulfbusiness.

The firm, a subsidiary of Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC), made a net profit of SAR555.7 million (USD148.2 million) in the opening three months of the year, compared with SAR667.1 million in the same period of 2013, a statement to the Saudi bourse said.

Seven analysts polled by Reuters had forecast an average net profit for the quarter of SAR773.7 million. As well as lower prices, Yansab said the profit fall was due to higher sales and maintenance costs.

On Sunday, fellow SABIC unit Saudi Arabia Fertilizers Co beat estimates but still saw its first-quarter net profit dip 9.6%. SAFCO also cited lower product prices for its lower earnings.

As MRC wrote before, Yansab reported a net profit of SAR2.64 billion in full-year profit for 2013 , versus SAR2.45 billion in 2012, citing higher prices for its products and lower financing costs.

The objectives of Yansab are to engage in manufacturing of petrochemical products (Ethylene, Ethylene Glycol, High Density Polyethylene, Low Linear Density Polyethylene, Polypropylene, Butene 1, Butene 2, MTBE and BTX) in accordance with its Articles of Association, and other applicable regulations in the Kingdom. The Company commenced its Commercial operations on 1 March 2010 .
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - JSC "Crimean Titan", owned by Group DF of Ukrainian businessman Dmitry Firtash, can be shut because of the restrictions in the feedstock supply from Dnepropetrovsk and Zhytomyr regions, according to a draft report to the Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The main suppliers of feedstock - ilmenite concentrate for Crimean Titan are Irshansky mining and processing combine in Zhytomyr region and Volnogorskiy MMC in Dnipropetrovsk region.

Crimean Titan, based in Armyansk, is the largest in Eastern Europe producer of titanium dioxide, which is used for the production of paints and varnishes, plastics, rubber, paper and other products. The nominal production capacities at the plant is 80,000 tonnes of titanium dioxide per year, the company employs about 4,900 people.

About 80% "Crimean Titan" production is exported to the Western Europe. "Crimean Titan" takes about 30% of the Russian market of titanium dioxide.

Dmitry Firtash has another major asset in Crimea - "Crimean Soda Plant", which accounts for about 2% of world production of soda ash. "Crimean Titan" and "Crimean Soda Plant" are leading chemical enterprises in Ukraine.

As it was previously reported, Firtash was arrested in Vienna on request of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation on suspicion of bribery and creating a criminal association. According to Ukrainian media Firtash ranked fourth in the ranking of the richest people in the country with the state of USD3.3 billion
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Imports of polycarbonate (PC) to the Russian market decreased to 10,600 tonnes in Q1 2014, down 22% compared to the same period last year, according to a MRC DataScope report.

The decrease in PC imports resulted from the increased domestic prices for imported goods on the back of rouble devaluation. Importers do not want to increase shipment volumes because of the price volatility. Buyers, in their turn, preferred to buy Russian PC, which is cheaper and equal in quality to imports.
The only PC producer in Russia is Kazanorgsintez (KOS). Demand for extrusion PC is traditionally growing in spring from the construction sector. However, PC imports in this sector decreased to 7,000 tonnes in Q1 20014, down 12% compared with the same period last year.
Kazanorgsintez produced 12,800 tonnes of extrusion PC in Q1 2014, with 97% of the material delivered to the domestic market (12,400 tonnes).

The main importer of extrusion PC to the Russian market was Sabic Innovative Plastics, with more than 90% from the total Russia's imports in Q1 2014.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF, the world's largest petrochemical producer, has invested EUR2.5 million in its Demarchi coatings site, located in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil, to expand its capacity to service Brazil’s automotive industry with waterborne automotive coatings, as per the company's press release.

The goal is to meet market demands generated by new car makers setting up their plants in the country and by the trend of using waterborne technology rather than solvent-borne. BASF is the pioneer in developing waterborne basecoats for the automotive industry. The technology is eco-efficient because water replaces most of the organic solvents.

In addition to the traditional clients such as GM, Volkswagen, Fiat and PSA, and a strong presence in the segment of coatings for trucks, BASF has in the past years conquered new supply contracts which include car makers such as Hyundai and Chery.

In South America, BASF has two plants where automotive coatings are produced, one in Demarchi, Brazil, and the other in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

In 2013, Brazil was the fourth biggest car sales market in the world and on the seventh place worldwide as car producer, according to the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (OICA).

As MRC informed before, BASFand its customers are innovating with plastics solutions in Asia Pacific to address the sustainability challenges of the region and the world. Thus, BASF has developed new solutions that will help local and international companies compete in areas such as lightweight solutions that improve automotive fuel efficiency and comfort; consumer product safety; buildings with better environmental performance; and manufacturing efficiency, which is enhanced through accelerated polymer densification and other process innovations.

BASF is the world’s leading chemical company. Its portfolio ranges from chemicals, plastics, performance products and crop protection products to oil and gas. BASF had sales of about EUR74 billion in 2013 and over 112,000 employees as of the end of the year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- US supermajor Chevron expects its first quarter earnings to fall from fourth-quarter levels due to impairments and foreign exchange losses, according to its interim quarterly update, said Upstreamonline.

The first two months of 2014 showed hits from "adverse foreign exchange effects" and selected asset impairments, Chevron said. "Absent these impacts, first quarter 2014 earnings are expected to be comparable with the prior quarter’s results," the California-based company said.

Chevron reported net income in the three months to December last year of USD4.93 billion, or USD2.57 per share. That represented more than a 30% drop from a year earlier.

Upstream downtime caused, in part, by weather in early 2014 has affected production so far this year "across multiple regions" including Kazakhstan, Canada, and the US.

But higher demand in Thailand and increased production at the company's LNG facility in Angola have offset some of that decline.

Chevron produced 637,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in the US in 2014 through February, down from 650,000 in the fourth quarter. Internationally, production came to 1.94 million boepd, up slightly from the 1.93 million boepd produced in the previous quarter.

The company took an impairment of between USD400 million and USD500 million in the first two months of the year, a loss it chalked up to "primarily mining" and "various upstream assets". The foreign exchange hit resulted in an approximate USD100 million loss. Downstream earnings were also expected to be lower in the first quarter.

As MRC wrote before, Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LP (Chevron Phillips Chemical) held a groundbreaking ceremony for its U.S. Gulf Coast (USGC) Petrochemicals Project at the Cedar Bayou plant in Baytown, Texas. The USGC project includes a 1.5 mln metric tpa (3.3 bln lbs/year) ethane cracker to be built at the Cedar Bayou facility in Baytown, and two 500,000 mln metric tpa (1.1 bln lbs/year) capacity polyethylene facilities to be built in Old Ocean, Texas.

Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LP is an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LLC, one of the world’s top producers of olefins and polyolefins and a leading supplier of aromatics, alpha olefins, styrenics, specialty chemicals, plastic piping and polymer resins. Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LLC is equally owned by Chevron U.S.A. Inc., an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Chevron Corporation, and by wholly-owned subsidiaries of Phillips 66, and is headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas.
MRC