Russian PP output exceeded 1 mln tonnes in 2014

MOSCOW (MRC) - The total volume of polypropylene (PP) production in Russia exceeded 1 mln tonnes in 2014, up 20% year on year. The main increase in production volumes occurred for Tobolsk-Polymer (SIBUR) and Poliom (Titan Group), according to MRC ScanPlast.

December PP production in the country dropped to 96,600 tonnes, compared to 105,000 tonnes in November, mainly because of the lower capacity utilisation at Tobolsk-Polymer. Total PP production in Russia was 1.035 mln tonnes in 2014, compared with 861,000 tonnes in 2013. A big contribution to the growth of production made new plants in Omsk and Tobolsk, which were launched in 2013. The structure of PP production in 2014 looked as follows.

The largest producer of polypropylene in Russia - Tobolsk-Polymer launched its PP production in a test mode in May 2013. The plant was officially opened in September 2013. Production is based on INEOS technology with annual capacity of 500,000/tonnes. The producer's PP production in 2014 exceeded 263,000 tonnes.

Poliom launched its 180,000 tonnes/year PP production in February 2013. In the middle of 2014 the plant's capacity was expanded to 210,000 tonnes/year. The producer kept its PP output in December 2014 at the level of November.
Total PP production at Poliom exceeded 168,000 tonnes in 2014. |

Nizhnekamskneftekhim (TAIF) in December increased its PP output, having produced 18,300 tonnes compared to 17,300 tonnes in November. Total PP production of the producer reached 213,200 tonnes in January - December 2014, up 2% year on year.

Tomskneftekhim (SIBUR) in December produced a little less than 11,000 of PP, down 4% from the November level.
Total PP production at the plant was about 126,800 tonnes in 2014, compared with 127,600 tonnes in 2013.

Ufaorgsintez in December decreased PP production to 9,800 tonnes, compared with 11,000 tonnes in November.
The producer's PP output grew to 121,500 tonnes in 2014, up 5% year on year. Neftekhimia (SIBUR) increased its PP output to 7,800 tonnes in December, from 2,200 tonnes in November because of the scheduled maintenance works. The producer reduced PP production in 2014 to 100,500 tonnes, down 17% year on year because of the scheduled shutdown October - November. |

Stavrolen (LUKOIL) shut its PP production because of the emergency shutdown in February 2014; the producer resumed PP production in October. The producer's PP output over the operational period was a little more than 42,000 tonnes.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Total, the French oil and gas giant, plans to reduce group-wide capital spending by 10% this year and speed up billions of dollars in asset disposals, under an accelerated cost-cutting plan led by new chief executive Patrick Pouyanne, reported The Financial Times.

The move comes as thousands more job cuts were announced in the energy industry on Tuesday, with Baker Hughes, the oilfield services provider being acquired by Halliburton in a USD26.8bn deal, saying that it would lay off 7,000 employees.

Global crude prices have tumbled nearly 60 per cent since June to trade at less than USD49 a barrel, as a result of weaker growth in demand for oil, booming US shale production and Opec’s decision in November not to cut output.

In a Financial Times interview, Mr Pouyanne - appointed to the top role at Total after the death last year of Christophe de Margerie in a Moscow plane crash - said the majors, the world’s biggest energy companies, could emerge as "the winners" from the market turmoil because they have greater flexibility to respond by using strong balance sheets to borrow more while interest rates were at historic lows.

Total, he said, would first make deeper and swifter cuts to this year’s spending. These would include cuts to exploration and development in the UK region of the North Sea, Canada’s oil sands and mature fields in west African states such as Gabon and Congo.

The group is also looking at imposing a group-wide hiring freeze for 2015. Capital spending is now expected to fall USD2bn-USD3bn from last year’s total of USD26bn.

Patrick Pouyanne looks to offload some projects but stresses 'nobody will be fired'.

Mr Pouyanne said Total would press ahead with a restructuring of lossmaking refineries in Europe. "We have some assets on which we may need to make some efforts," he said. "We have three assets, one of them being in the UK, but we have some in France."

Regarding France, a restructuring plan will be presented in the spring, but Mr Pouyanne confirmed that it "will include capacity reductions" at refineries.

"When you have a plant losing more than EUR100m a year, it’s not sustainable. And it is my duty to find solutions. We are losing money and it doesn’t work."

As MRC wrote previously, in late December 2014, Total Petrochemical permanently shut down production of high density polyethylene (HDPE) with a capacity of 70,000 tonnes in Antwerp, Belgium.

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.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Moody's downgrades ratings of 8 non-financial corporations, including Rosneft, Gazprom Neft, Lukoil, Russian Railways, reported the agency.

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded the ratings of Rosneft, Gazprom Neft and 6 other non-financial corporations and their subsidiaries after downgrading Russia's sovereign rating, which it announced in a statement.

In particular, Moody's downgraded to Baa3 from Baa2 the ratings of the following companies: Rosneft and its subsidiaries Rosneft Finance SA, Rosneft International Finance Limited and Rosneft International Holdings Limited; Gazprom Neft and its subsidiary GPN Capital S.A., the Federal Passenger Company, Lukoil and its subsidiary LUKOIL International Finance, MMC Norilsk Nickel and its subsidiary MMC Finance Ltd., Russian Railways and its subsidiary RZD Capital Plc.

All these ratings have been placed under review for further possible downgrade.

The rating action followed Moody's decision to downgrade Russia's sovereign ratings to Baa3 from Baa2 on January 16, 2015.

Rosneft became Russia's largest publicly traded oil company in March 2013 after the USD55 billion takeover of TNK-BP, which was Russia’s third-largest oil producer at the time.

Lukoil is one of the world's biggest vertically integrated companies for production of crude oil & gas, and their refining into petroleum products and petrochemicals. The company is a leader on Russian and international markets in its core business, which accounts for over 20% of Russian oil production and 18% of the total Russian oil refining. Lukoil also controls two of the largest petrochemical plants in Russia and Ukraine: Stavrolen and Karpatneftekhim.

Gazprom Neft, is the fourth largest oil producer in Russia and ranked third according to refining throughput. It is a subsidiary of Gazprom, which owns about 96% of its shares. The company is registered and headquartered in St. Petersburg after central offices were relocated from Moscow in 2011.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- South Korean petrochemical company LG Chem is in plans to shut its phenol-acetone plant for maintenance turnaround, reported Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in South Korea informed that the plant is likely to be shut in May 2015. It is likely to remain off-stream for around one month.

Located at Daesan in South Korea, the plant has a phenol capacity of 300,000 mt/year and acetone capacity of 180,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote earlier, LG Chem restarted its bisphenol-A (BPA) plant in South Korea in late November 2014 after a maintenance turnaround. The plant was shut on October 26, 2014. Located in Yeosu, South Korea, the plant has a production capacity of 150,000 mt/year.

LG Chem Ltd., often referred to as LG Chemical, is the largest Korean chemical company and is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. According to ICIS report, it is 15th biggest chemical company in the world in 2011. It has eight domestic factories and global network of 29 business locations in 15 countries. LG Chem is a manufacturer, supplier, and exporter of petrochemical goods, IT&E Materials and Energy Solutions.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Japan-based Asahi Kasei Chemicals (AKC) is planning to build a new validation plant at the Mizushima manufacturing complex at Kurashiki, for its newly developed diphenyl carbonate (DPC) production process, as per Chemicals Technology.

The plant, which is scheduled for start-up in January 2017, will produce up to 1,000t per year of DPC, a monomer used in polycarbonate (PC) production, through dialkyl carbonate (DRC).

AKC has built a successful business worldwide, licensing its non-phosgene process for PC using carbon dioxide (CO2) as feedstock. Validation of the new process will help the company to licence it as the intermediate process for DPC, strengthening the competitiveness of the licensing business.

Development of the newly developed process and construction of the validation plant have been supported by grants provided by Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO).

The new process uses a catalyst developed by the company to obtain DRC from CO2 and alcohol, with DPC obtained from DRC and phenol in a second step.

As the second step also yields alcohol needed for the first step, the only starting materials are CO2 and phenol, therefore the new process provides better freedom in selection of a plant location than the non-phosgene PC process currently used by AKC, which relies on ethylene oxide (EO) as feedstock.

The new process is said to be more energy-efficient, enabling substantially reduced production costs.

As MRC reported earlier, Asahi Kasei’s (Tokyo, Japan) Fibers division will expand production capacity for polypropylene spunbond nonwovens in Thailand at its subsidiary Asahi Kasei Spunbond (Thailand) Co. AKST will add a new production line of 20,000 metric tons per year capacity which, combined with its existing production line, will double its capacity for spunbond nonwovens to 40,000 m.t/yr. The investment for the capacity expansion is approximately USD5 billion, with a scheduled startup of November 2015.

Asahi Kasei Corporation is a global Japanese chemical company. Its main products are chemicals and materials science.
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