Cepsa set to sell off PET/PTA operations

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Compania Espanola de Petroleos, S.A.U. (CEPSA), an integrated energy company, through its subsidiary Cepsa Quimica S.A., intends to sell two Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and purified terephthalic acid (PTA) production plants in southern Spain and Canada, according to Researchviews.

According to the reports, Indorama Ventures PCL will be the bidder for the transaction.

Cepsa Quimica operates one Guadarranque facility near Gibraltar at San Roque, Spain, with capacities of 480,000 tpa of PTA, 175,000 tpa PET and 220,000 tpa of purified isophthalic acid (PIA). The other facility is located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, with a capacity of 550,000 tpa of PTA.

The Spanish group is reported to be planning greater internationalisation of its overall chemicals business. Cepsa is understood to have informed its San Roque workforce representatives of its ongoing negotiations, according to Spanish media reports.

Cepsa acquired the former Artenius PET line, already fed by its San Roque PTA operation, for €32m back in January 2011 from the since bankrupt Catalan PET packaging group La Seda de Barcelona.

Indorama group subsidiary Indorama Ventures (IVL) has been building up its PET operations in southern Europe since last year with two recent acquisitions in Turkey. In the second quarter of last year, IVL bought La Seda’s local 130,000 tpa Artenius Turkpet PET plant in Adana.

This month, IVL announced it was raising its Turkish capacity to 346,000 tpa by taking over the new 228,000 tpa Istanbul PET facility of Polyplex Europa Polyester Film San ve Ticaret A.S.

Indorama has stated that it aims to consolidate its position in southern Europe to improve its costs and competitiveness in key regional beverage industry markets.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has identified deficiencies in current industry standards related to mechanical integrity and leak evaluation and response in a draft final investigation report issued on Chevron's Richmond refinery fire in 2012, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

According to the CSB’s news release, the agency found shortcomings in industry standards related to comprehensive inspection, effective facility upgrades, and the need for minimum safety requirements. The draft report is the third and final one in the agency’s investigation of the August 2012 fire in Richmond, Calif., that started when light gas oil leaked from a ruptured pipe and ignited.

CSB’s draft report also details failures in Chevron’s emergency response to the incident, including a lack of leak response guidance or formal protocol for operations personnel, refinery management, or emergency responders. The agency concludes its report with safety recommendations to help promote safer operations at petroleum refineries and protect workers and communities from similar accidents. Based on its findings, CSB recommends that the American Petroleum Institute establish and strengthen minimum requirements for preventing potentially catastrophic sulfidation corrosion failures and safety guidance for responding to hazardous process fluid leaks.

The CSB also urged Chevron to ensure process safety and employee safety by developing an accountability method to identify and track effective implementation of industry best practices. Finally, the agency recommends revisions to the Richmond, Calif., Industrial Safety Ordinance to provide stronger regulatory oversight with community involvement to the existing safety culture review program.

The full draft report is available for review on the CSB’s website. The first CSB report on the incident, an interim investigation report, cited “missed opportunities to apply inherently safer design, failure to identify and evaluate damage mechanism hazards, and [a] lack of effective safeguards” as contributors to the fire, which was caused by a catastrophic pipe failure.

The second, a regulatory report, called on California to enhance its process safety management regulations for petroleum refineries and recommended “substantial” changes to the way those refineries are regulated in the state.Nineteen refinery employees were endangered during the 2012 fire at the Chevron refinery. Following the accident, 15,000 people sought medical attention due to a vapor cloud that was released into the surrounding area.

Chevron Phillips Chemica, headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas (north of Houston), US,l is one of the world’s top producers of olefins and polyolefins and a leading supplier of aromatics, alpha olefins, styrenics, specialty chemicals, piping, and proprietary plastics. Chevron and Phillips 66 each own 50% of Chevron Phillips Chemical.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Yet another attempt by the government of Romania to privatise the insolvent national PVC producer Oltchim has failed after none of four potential buyers finally submitted a firm bid by the deadline, said Plasticsnews.

Now, administrators of the loss making chemical company will present a new reorganisation plan for Oltchim later this month (February). The plan is expected to be submitted to the firm’s creditor representatives for approval in March.
It was in December last year that the latest bid to sell off the Romanian government’s 54.8% stake in Oltchim collapsed when the would-be investors pulled out at the last moment.

Among groups that had shown interest in Oltchim are a Chinese business consortium of Baota Petrochemical Group and Junlun Petroleum Co.; the Romanian SIF Transilvania investment firm; the Romanian chemicals group Chimcomplex Borzesti owned by businessman Stefan Vuza and an unnamed Turkish company.

“No one showed up, neither the Chinese group, nor the Turkish group, nor businessman Stefan Vuza, nor the Romanian investment fund SIF Transilvania. They proved to be unreliable investors,” the firm’s judicial administrator Gheorghe Piperea told the local news portal Economcia.net.

This was the latest of numerous abortive attempts by the government to dispose of its majority share in Oltchim since the troubled firm was declared insolvent in January 2013.

Ramnicu Valcea-based Oltchim is aiming to invest in new technology that will enable it to achieve lower energy consumption in order to improve its financial performance. Reorganisation of the business is essential for Oltchim to attract serious investor interest and a buyer, the government believes.

In the last year, Oltchim has improved its financial results, increasing its operational profit. In January this year, the firm is reported to have recorded a EUR700,000 profit although the government said it still only operated at 30% of capacity.

Oltchim administrators comprise BDO Business Restructuring and RomInsolv who are currently developing the restructuring plan.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- France-based automotive supplier Faurecia has announced its 2014 annual financial results, reporting a 5.5% increase compared to 2013 from EUR18.03bn to EUR18.83bn, as per Europeanplasticsnews.

In Europe, product sales totalled EUR7.87bn in 2013 versus EUR7.41bn in 2013, an increase of 6.2%. In Asia, product sales reached EUR2.03 billion, compared with EUR1.71 billion in 2013, an increase of 19.0%. However in North America sales were down 5.7% from EUR3.71bn in 2013 to EUR3.50bn in 2014.

The company states that in 2014 global automotive production is estimated to have grown by 3.3%. In North America and Asia, automotive production increased by 5.0% and 4.1% respectively. Meanwhile automotive production grew by 3.2% in Europe, representing a total increase of 5.7% excluding Russia, where production fell by 16.0%.

Yann Delabriere, chairman and CEO of Faurecia said: "In 2014, Faurecia achieved a solid sales increase, mainly driven by outstanding growth in China, where sales rose by over 20% for the sixth consecutive year, and in Europe, where growth stood at 7%, much higher than the growth of automotive production. Faurecia accelerated its technological leadership in all of its Business Groups, with first orders for new technologies in emissions control for commercial vehicles, energy recovery and composite tailgates. Faurecia is well on the way to meeting its targets for 2016. I would like to thank the Group’s entire workforce for their contribution to our performance."

In 2015, Faurecia says that it expects global automotive production to grow by 3%, Europe (excluding Russia) between 2% and 4%, North America to grow at 3% and China at 7%. Faurecia anticipates for 2015 an increase in sales of 5%.

As of 31 December 2014 Faurecia employed 99,500 people in 34 countries at 330 sites and 30 R&D centres.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Formosa Petrochemical Corp (FPCC) is likely to shut a residual fluid catalytic cracker (RFCC) in March, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Taiwan informed that the RFCC unit is planned to be taken offstream in March 2015. The unit will be taken offstream on March 11, 2015 and will remain shut till the end of March.

Located in Mailiao, Taiwan, the RFCC unit has a propylene production capacity of 375,000 mt/yr.

As MRC informed before, in August 2014, The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recently issued three final GHG Prevention of Significant Deterioration construction permits for the Formosa Plastics facility in Point Comfort, Texas. Formosa is expanding its chemical complex, located near Victoria, and taking three actions with its turbines unit, olefins unit and low-density polyethylene (LDPE) unit.

Formosa Petrochemical is involved primarily in the business of refining crude oil, selling refined petroleum products and producing and selling olefins (including ethylene, propylene, butadiene and BTX) from its naphtha cracking operations. Formosa Petrochemical is also the largest olefins producer in Taiwan and its olefins products are mostly sold to companies within the Formosa Group. Among the company's chemical products are paraxylene (PX), phenyl ethylene, acetone and pure terephthalic acid (PTA). The company's plastic products include acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) resins, polystyrene (PS), polypropylene (PP) and panlite (PC).
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