Petrobras incurs 2014 net loss on writedowns

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Brazil's scandal-hit state oil giant Petrobras lost USD7.2 billion last year, it said Wednesday, releasing its first audited account of the damage from a massive kickbacks scheme, said Businessinsider.

The corruption scandal, in which Petrobras executives allegedly colluded with construction companies to massively inflate contracts and bribe politicians, has badly hurt Brazil's largest company and President Dilma Rousseff's government.

Petrobras said it lost 6.2 billion reals (USD2.1 billion) to the scheme from 2004 to 2012, which it included in its long-delayed 2014 results. The company’s overall net loss last year totalled R21.6bn, according to its latest earnings statement. The results also included impairment charges of R44.6bn reflecting the decreased value of company assets, it said.

The company announced a devaluation of its assets of USD14.8 billion, largely because of postponed refinery projects.

We remind that, Petrobras kept its five-year investment plan flat for the first time in years. The company's new investment plan is a relief to those investors who'd feared another increase. Petrobras has one of the largest investment budgets of any firm in the world at USD236.7 billion for the next five years, as it seeks to develop some of the biggest oil discoveries the world has found in decades. But its ambitions have weighed heavily on its share price in recent years, as production increases have failed to materialize and some projects have been mired by delays and cost overruns.

Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Petrobras is an integrated energy firm. Petrobras' activities include exploration, exploitation and production of oil from reservoir wells, shale and other rocks as well as refining, processing, trade and transport of oil and oil products, natural gas and other fluid hydrocarbons, in addition to other energy-related activities.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mitsubishi Chemical is in plans to shut its phenol-acetone plant for maintenance turnaround, according to Apic-online.

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

Located at Kashima in Japan, the plant has a phenol capacity of 250,000 mt/year and acetone capacity of 150,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed previously, in October 2014, Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co. told "PetroChemical News" (PCN) that it had decided to discontinue its purified terephthalic acid (PTA) business. Mitsubishi currently operates a 260,000-t/y PTA plant at Mizushima, Japan, through its Mizushima Aroma joint venture with Toyobo Co.

A spokesperson at Mitsubishi, when asked for the reason behind its decision to quit the PTA business, said "we cannot anticipate improvement of the profit without global oversupply." The company is "now examining" when to exit the business, he added.

Mitsubishi Chemical with headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, is a diversified chemical company involved in petrochemicals, polymers, agrochemicals, speciality chemicals and pharmaceuticals. The company's main focus is on three business pillars: petrochemicals, performance and functional products, and health care.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- DuPont Co. won the backing of investor advisory group Proxy Mosaic, the first signal the chemical maker may have an edge in next month’s showdown with activist investor Trian Fund Management, said Bloomberg.

In the first of four expected opinions from advisory firms to institutional investors, Proxy Mosaic recommended shareholders support the Wilmington, Delaware-based company’s incumbent directors. "DuPont’s board is one of the few areas of the company that isn’t broken, and it is unclear how the rest of the dissident’s underwhelming candidates will add any value," the New York-based advisory firm said.

Larger proxy advisers Institutional Shareholder Services Inc., Glass Lewis & Co., and Egan-Jones Ratings Co. are expected to issue recommendations in the coming weeks. The opinions aim to influence the vote of fund managers and other shareholders in the increasingly acrimonious battle between Trian and the 212-year-old chemical maker.
Trian co-founder Nelson Peltz is running himself and three others for board seats at DuPont’s May 13 shareholders meeting, saying the company has excessive corporate expenses and should be broken up. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ellen Kullman has fought back, arguing integration is key to DuPont’s success and dismantling DuPont would be costly and high-risk.

"While the dissident is long on criticism of the company’s financial performance, it is short on plans for a turnaround," according to Proxy Mosaic, which is run by Brittany Wedereit, a former Glass Lewis vice president.

Kullman is cutting USD1 billion in costs this year and buying back shares to help boost earnings. She plans to spin off DuPont’s performance chemicals business -- maker of pigments, refrigerants and Teflon non-stick coatings -- as a new company called Chemours on July 1.

Trian wants to go further, advocating the separation of DuPont’s faster-growing agriculture and nutrition businesses from more cyclical units such as safety and protection, which makes Kevlar anti-ballistic fiber and Nomex heat-resistant fabric used by firefighters.

DuPont had offered to settle the proxy fight by giving Trian nominee John H. Myers a seat, but those talks ended when Peltz insisted that the seat go to him.

As MRC informed earlier, DuPont Co. said first-quarter profit declined from the previous year, as revenues dropped amid adverse currency and decreased volumes. The company now expects higher-than-previously estimated negative currency impact in 2015, and as a result sees full year earnings at the low end of its prior outlook.

DuPont shareholders will vote to select the board at the company’s annual meeting in April.
DuPont is an American chemical company that was founded in July, 1802. The company manufactures a wide range of chemical products, leading extensive innovative research in this field. The company is the inventor of many unique plastics and other materials, including neoprene, nylon, Teflon, Kevlar, Mylar, Tyvek, etc. DuPont was the developer and main producer of Freon used in the production of refrigeration equipment.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- INEOS Technologies is pleased to announce that it has licensed its Innovene S Process for the manufacture of medium density and high density polyethylene to SOCAR Polymer for their HDPE project in the Chemical Industrial Park located in Sumgait, Azerbaijan, said the producer in its press release.

The Innovene S HDPE plant will produce a wide range of polyethylene grades to serve the growing demand for high performance products.. These grades include commodity grades made from Ziegler and Chrome catalysts as well as speciality grades such as bimodal PE 100 pipe products.

Peter Williams, CEO of INEOS Technologies, commented: "INEOS is very pleased to support the development of the petrochemical industry in Azerbaijan and looks forward to working with SOCAR Polymer to deliver a first class manufacturing asset"SOCAR Polymer is a subsidiary of the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR). The entity was formed at the end of 2013 to run investments at the Sumgait Chemical Industrial Park, a production park which intends to become a chemical hub in central Asia.

As MRC informed earlier, SOCAR-Polymer signed an EUR350 mln-agreement on construction of Sumgayit polypropylene (PP) plant at the Azerbaijan-Italy business meeting on 15 April, 2015.

SOCAR Polymer is a subsidiary of the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR). The entity was formed at the end of 2013 to run investments at the Sumgait Chemical Industrial Park, a production park which intends to become a chemical hub in central Asia.

INEOS Technologies is a leading developer and licensor of technologies for the global petrochemicals industry. It offers the broadest range of petrochemical technologies on the market today and also supplies catalysts, additives and coatings that our customers require to obtain the best possible performance from their investments.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Lubrizol has started construction for expanding its manufacturing facility in Painesville Township, Ohio, US, with an investment of USD100 m, said the producer in its press release.

Planned to be carried out over a period of five years, the expansion will include additional manufacturing capacity, increase in warehouse space, and enhanced automated packaging, staging and loading of truck shipments capabilities.

As part of the project, the company will add bulk transfer technology to ensure product integrity and reduce in-plant traffic, as well as improve efficiency of handling product drums and totes.
The expansion will support the region with approximately 25 new jobs at the plant, which currently has workforce of more than 300.

Lubrizol Painesville plant manager Craig Hupp said: "The Painesville Township community has been a supportive partner of Lubrizol since we began our operations there in 1956 and we are pleased to further reinvest and expand at the location.

"Through this important initiative, we will be better positioned to meet the changing demands of our customers, ensure the integrity and quality of our products, reinforce personal and environmental safety and attract the workforce talent that is required to run our operations."

For the expansion, the company has been offered tax incentives, as well as a grant from JobsOhio and refundable job creation tax credits from the state.

As MRC informed earlier, Lubrizol Corporation in February 2015 announced that it had acquired EcoQuimica Industria e Comercio Produtos Quimica Ltda., a manufacturer and supplier of coatings technology for products sold into decorative paints, textiles, cement, elastomeric coatings and paper coatings.

Lubrizol produces technologies for global transportation, industrial and consumer markets, including lubricant additives for transportation-related fluids, ingredients and additives for home care and personal care products and pharmaceuticals and performance coatings in the form of specialty resins.

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