Mitsui Chemicals opened new compound plants in Shanghai

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. has celebrated the official launch of its new manufacturing and sales company for performance compounds, Mitsui Chemicals Functional Composites (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., said the producer on its site.

At the ceremony, MFS president, Hideshi Kawachi promised attending Shanghai Jinshan District Government officials and other important guests that, "We will undertake every effort to make a significant contribution to the development of the automotive and packaging industries in China together with our customers through environmentally friendly, safe, and stable plant operations."

MFS is strategically situated in Eastern China and targets the capture of China’s rapidly growing automotive and packaging material markets. Leveraging the company’s advantages, this March the company commenced manufacture and sales of Milastomer, a thermoplastic elastomer used in automotive window frames and as interior material, and Admer, an adhesive polyolefin used in automotive fuel tanks and food packaging materials.

The Mitsui Chemicals Group, through Mitsui Chemicals Functional Composites (Shanghai) operations, will expand manufacturing, sales, and technical services for its high quality products, to further strengthen and expand its compound business.

As MRC wrote before, in November 2015, Mitsui announced that its Shanghai Sinopec Mitsui Elastomers Co. joint venture with Sinopec had launched commercial production of ethylene propylene diene terpolymer (EPT). In 2012, the two companies created the equally-owned joint venture to build a 75,000-t/y EPT plant using metallocene catalyst technology in China's Shanghai Chemical Industry Park. A separate joint venture of Mitsui and Sinopec, Shanghai Sinopec Mitsui Chemicals Co., began production of phenol and acetone in December 2014. The plant is designed to produce 250,000 t/y of phenol and 150,000 t/y of acetone.

Mitsui Chemicals,a Japanese chemical company, is a part of the Mitsui conglomerate. The company has a turnover of around 15 billion USD and has business interests in Japan, Europe, China, Southeast Asia and the USA. The company mainly deals in performance materials, petro and basic chemicals and functional polymeric materials.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Austria’s integrated international oil and gas company OMV showed signs of difficulties, announcing a 35% decrease in sales in the third quarter of the year with respect to the same period in 2014, said Naturalgaseurope.

On the other hand, it also reported a 31% increase in clean CCS net income.

"Given the ongoing challenging oil price environment, we have decided to reduce our future oil price assumptions resulting in asset impairments in the Upstream business" Rainer Seele, CEO of OMV, commented in a note.

Production of oil, NGL and gas registered a 6% decrease in the quarter, due to the shut-downs in Libya and Yemen, and lower gas production in Romania and Pakistan. Production increases in Norway (up by 18%) and New Zealand (up by 16%) partly offset this decline.

The company’s strategy seems to hinge on the Downstream and on stronger ties with Gazprom.

"We have achieved several strategic milestones. We have signed a term sheet with Gazprom for OMV’s participation in the project Achimov IV/V based on an exchange of assets as well as the shareholder agreement for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project. Additionally, we decided to sell a stake of up to 49% of Gas Connect Austria and reached a provisional agreement on the full takeover of EconGas by OMV, both of which mark important steps towards the optimization of the Downstream Gas portfolio" Seele explained.

As it was informed earlier, Russia's Gazprom said it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Austrian energy group OMV on the supply of oil. The document reflects the intention of the parties to consider the possibility of organizing the supply to OMV of oil from the Gazprom Group's portfolio.

OMV is an integrated international oil and gas company, headquartered in Vienna. Its main businesses are exploration and production of oil and gas, natural gas distribution and power generation, and refining and marketing oil products. OMV is the largest listed manufacturing company in Austria.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Trinseo (former Styron), a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex and synthetic rubber, has reported its third quarter 2015 financial results with record net income of USD52 million and EPS of USD1.06 per diluted share, as per the company's report.

Additionally, results for the third quarter included adjusted EPS of USD1.07 per diluted share, adjusted EBITDA of USD116 million, and adjusted EBITDA excluding inventory revaluation of USD144 million.

Commenting on the company’s performance, Chris Pappas, Trinseo President and Chief Executive Officer, said, "After a very strong first half, Trinseo continued with strong results in the third quarter. We had net income of USD52 million and earnings per diluted share of USD1.06. Adjusted EBITDA excluding inventory revaluation of USD144 million in the third quarter was our second highest ever, and we had very strong free cash flow of USD95 million."

Pappas continued, "As expected, Performance Materials adjusted EBITDA excluding inventory revaluation returned to a more normalized run rate at USD72 million. We continue to be encouraged by the results in Basic Plastics & Feedstocks, which had adjusted EBITDA excluding inventory revaluation of USD93 million, making this the third straight quarter with adjusted EBITDA higher than all of 2014. We are seeing further evidence of the supply/demand improvements driving higher margins in styrene monomer, polystyrene, and polycarbonate."

Revenue in the third quarter decreased 21% versus prior year due to the pass through of lower raw material costs, with the significant decline in the overall energy complex, and currency, as the euro weakened in comparison to the U.S. dollar. Sequentially, revenue remained flat.

As MRC reported before, effective February 1, 2015, Styron announced it had changed its name to Trinseo.

Trinseo is a leading global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex and rubber, dedicated to collaborating with customers to deliver innovative and sustainable solutions. Trinseo’s technology is used by customers in industries such as home appliances, automotive, building & construction, carpet, consumer electronics, consumer goods, electrical & lighting, medical, packaging, paper & paperboard, rubber goods and tires. Trinseo had approximately USD5.1 billion in revenue in 2014, with 19 manufacturing sites around the world, and approximately 2,100 employees.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- LyondellBasell, one of the world's largest plastics, chemical and refining companies, has announced that its Management Board has declared an interim dividend of USD0.78 per share, as per the company's press release.

The interim dividend will be paid December 7, 2015 to shareholders of record November 23, 2015 with an ex-dividend date of November 19, 2015.

As MRC informed previously, in November 2014, LyondellBasell Industries said "tight" markets for its products may stall the narrower margins that it expects will ultimately come from lower oil prices.

LyondellBasell Industries NV is a manufacturing company. The company produces chemicals, fuels, and polymers used for packaging, clean fuels, durable textiles, medical applications, construction materials, and automotive parts. LyondellBasell Industries operates globally and is headquartered in the Netherlands. LyondellBasell is also a leading licensor of polypropylene and polyethylene technologies. The more than 250 polyolefin process licenses granted by LyondellBasell are twice that of any other polyolefin technology licensor.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sumitomo Chemical, during a discussion of its business strategy for the petrochemicals and plastics sector, has disclosed it is considering restructuring options for its Ehime Works in Japan, as well as uses for the former site of its Chiba, Japan, ethylene plant, as per GV.

Sumitomo Representative Director and Senior Managing Executive Officer Tomohisa Ohno said as business becomes more global, it is important to maintain our domestic operations, and stressed that the "core" businesses of polyethylene, polypropylene and propylene oxide "will remain in Japan."

He noted that the company produces a wide variety of products at Ehime. Among them, the performance of the caprolactam business is "especially weak," and a 95,000-t/y liquid-phase caprolactam plant, influenced by market prices of ammonium sulfate, was closed in September.

Unlike the Chiba complex, where restructuring has been completed, restructuring of the Ehime complex is not over yet. "We will carefully consider the restructuring of the Ehime Works by closely examining structural changes in the business environment."

At Chiba, the company closed a 425,000-t/y styrene plant and 181,000-t/y propylene oxide unit in conjunction with the mothballing of its 415,000-t/y naphtha cracker in May.

Ohno said the site of the former Chiba cracker is very conveniently located and well equipped with utilities, so it could be used for a plant in the process industry. "We want to consider various possible uses of the land and have not yet made any final determination."

Sumitomo Chemical is a Japanese based manufacturer of a diverse range of products, including basic chemicals, petrochemicals and plastics, fine chemicals, agricultural chemicals, IT-related chemicals and pharmaceuticals.
MRC