Reliance begins crude, fuel trading in Singapore

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Reliance Industries, the operator of India’s largest oil refinery, started trading crude and refined products in Singapore this month as it seeks to expand supplies to markets including Indonesia and Australia, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The Mumbai-based company currently trades products including naphtha and fuel oil from the Indian city, according to Mike Omar, the head of Reliance Global Energy Services.

The Singapore unit has joined the trade ministry’s global traders program, which offers lower tax rates to businesses that set up trading operations in the country, he said.

"Singapore will have its own trading book," Omar said. "We’re looking to grow the manpower size over time. The increase will be dependent on the growth of the portfolio."

Reliance will lease storage facilities in Singapore to blend gasoil, or diesel, and gasoline to supply the Southeast Asian and Australian markets, according to Omar. Singapore is Asia’s biggest oil-trading center.

Reliance, which operates the Jamnagar refining complex in western Gujarat state, with a total capacity of 1.24 million bpd, also exports gasoline to the US. The company will continue to trade crude and fuels from Mumbai, Omar said.

India has shipped 183,000 bbl of the fuel to the US this year, data from the Energy Information Administration in Washington show. That’s down from 518,000 bbl for all of last year and 2.7 million bbl in 2010.

Singapore supports international traders who set up physical trading and corporate functions in the city-state, said International Enterprise, a unit of the Trade and Industry Ministry. It declined to provide details of tax rates offered to Reliance.

As MRC wrote before, Reliance Industries is implementing a new project to source 1.5 million tpy of ethane feedstock from the US to feed its crackers in India.

Reliance Industries is one of the world's largest producers of polymers. The company's polymer production in 2010-11 (polypropylene, polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride) made 4,094 kilo tonnes.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Samsung Heavy Industries has cancelled previously announced plans to merge with Samsung Heavy Industries, reported Bloomberg.

The two companies disclosed plans this past September to merge in order to create a "world-class total solution provider for shipbuilding and onshore and offshore services".

The merger was called off after investors asked the two companies to buy back the shares they held. Samsung Heavy Industries bought back 923.5 billion won of stock from shareholders opposed to the merger. Investors in Samsung Engineering returned 706.3 billion won in stock.

According to South Korean regulations, a company can call off a merger if the buyback requests reach a level that could increase its financial burden, the report said.

We remind that, as MRC wrote previously, Samsung Total Petrochemicals Co Ltd announced in late May that a small quantity of a petrochemical product leaked into the sea from a newly-built paraxylene plant in South Korea. The company has cleaned it up. About 2.4 kilolitres of para di ethyl benzene leaked while flowing to test pipelines of the new plant at the company's Daesan petrochemical complex. The leak occurred during testing of the new paraxylene plant, and the clean-up has already been completed.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Idemitsu Kosan, one of Japan’s largest refining and petrochemical companies, will be shutting its refinery for maintenance turnaround, reported Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Japan informed that the refinery will be shut in April 2015. It is likely to remain off-stream for around one month.

Located at Chiba in Japan, the refinery has a crude processing capacity of 220,000 bpd.

As MRC wrote previously, Idemitsu Kosan shut down a naphtha cracker in Japan for maintenance turnaround on September 9, 2014. The company restarted the plant's operations on 24 October. But then the cracker was unexpectedly shut down again during a start-up after the scheduled maintenance. In early November, the company began a gradual launch of production at the cracker.

Located at Tokuyama in Japan, the cracker has an ethylene capacity of 623,000 mt/year and propylene capacity of 450,000 mt/year.

Idemitsu Kosan is a Japanese petroleum company. It owns and operates oil platforms, refineries and produces and sells petroleum, oils and petrochemical products. The company runs two petrochemical plants in Chiba and Tokuyama. The two naphtha crackers can produce up to 997,000 tonnes of ethylene per year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Representatives of European Union member states hammered out a deal Nov. 21 to reduce consumption of lightweight plastic bags to 40 bags per person per year by 2025, said Plasticsnews.

National governments will have to either reduce average lightweight plastic bags consumption to 90 bags per person per year by 2019 and 40 by 2025 or ensure that, by 2018, consumers pay for their bags. A second unanimous vote was needed because the original agreement had been opposed by the European Commission, the EU’s executive body.

In response, European trade body PlasticsEurope said that it was concerned about the deal because it could create a precedent for banning specific packaging products. The organization said, however, that it supported mandatory pricing for the bags and a ban on the use of oxo-biodegradable plastics in them.

PlasticsEurope Executive Director Karl-H. Foerster said: "The possibility to ban plastics bags goes against the general principle of the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive. It is concerning as it opens the door for countries to ban not only plastics bags but other types of packaging as well. Such an inconsistent political framework that would allow member states to introduce different regulations on packaging would hinder investments and innovation and would create barriers to trade in packaged goods in Europe."

He added that that the possibility for EU member states to ban lightweight plastic bags could set a precedent which will lead to a patchwork of national regulations on other types of packaging as well, thereby creating trade barriers and hindering the EU internal market.

"The European plastics industry, however, supports the imposition of a fee or tax on all carrier bags irrespective of the material, as it helps to raise consumers’ awareness and effectively prevents littering. "A mandatory charge is the best option as it has been proved to be an effective tool to reduce the over-consumption of lightweight plastic bags," said Foerster.

"We should understand that plastics are too valuable to be thrown away. Charging for bags can have a positive effect on raising consumers’ awareness of the economic value of the resources that have been used to produce the bag."
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Onex Corp. will buy SIG Combibloc Group, the Switzerland-based manufacturer of aseptic carton packaging and plastics closures from New Zealand’s Rank Group in a deal announced Nov. 24, said Plasticsnews.

Private equity firm Onex, based in Toronto, has agreed to pay up to 3.75 billion euros (USD4.66 billion). When the deal closes, Rank will receive 3.575 billion euros (USD4.44 billion) with another 175 million euros (USD217 million) will be payable based on the financial performance of SIG in 2015 and 2016. Onex said it expects the transaction to close in the first quarter of 2015, subject to regulatory approvals.

SIG says it is the second largest provider of aseptic cartons globally. It operates seven facilities globally, based in Europe, South America and Asia Pacific, where the company makes packaging and closures, as well as filling machines. The group had sales of 1.68 billion euros (USD) in 2013, and has 5,200 employees.

"SIG’s management team has successfully proven its ability to enter and grow in new markets, while maintaining its standard of excellence in existing markets," said Nigel Wright, a managing director in Onex’ London office, in a news release. "We look forward to partnering with Rolf Stangl (CEO of SIG) and his team to further build upon SIG’s impressive track record and continue its growth."

Stangl said: "Our commitment to providing customers with a premier aseptic carton packaging system has made SIG a leader within our industry. We are excited about our next phase of growth in partnering with Onex."

The acquisition agreement also involves an equity investment of approximately USD1.25 billion by Onex Partners IV, and co-investors, including Onex, and SIG’s management team.

Onex funds own other companies in the plastics sector, including machinery firms Krauss-Maffei and Davis-Standard.
SIG is currently part of Rank’s Reynolds Group Holdings, which also owns other plastics packaging companies including Closure Systems International, which has been reported to be up for sale.

Onex Corporation is a Toronto based private equity investment firm and holding company. The Company has approximately USD14 billion of assets under management, including USD4.8 billion of proprietary capital, in private equity, credit securities and real estate. Onex invests its proprietary capital directly and as a substantial limited partner in its Funds.
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