Grupa Azoty beats expectations with PLN 73.6 mln in Q3 attrib. net profit

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Listed chemical firm Grupa Azoty posted an attributable net profit of PLN 73.6 mln in Q3 2015 versus PLN 39.8 mln net take expected, the group's Q3 report showed.

Revenues increased by 5.8% to PLN 2.40 bln, which combined with a slow increase in costs of goods sold translated in the gross profit on sales growing 35% to PLN 444 mln in Q3.

Costs increased on both cost of sales and G&A level, but only at a single-digit pace.

The tie-up of strong increase in gross profit on sales and rather contained cost increase boosted EBIT to PLN 104 mln, up from a mere PLN 2 mln a year earlier.

In segments: fertilizers were the sole positive contributor to EBIT, with segment EBIT at PLN 131 mln, up from PLN 33.7 mln a year earlier. Plastics segment recorded an EBIT loss of PLN 18.4 mln, flat y/y. Losses also held at PLN 5.8 mln for the chemicals segment, while in the power segment they were somewhat trimmed to PLN 3 mln.

As MRC informed earlier, in the late September, Azoty launched construction of a PLN 320 million polyamid-6 plant at its Tarnow operations, southern Poland.

Grupa Azoty Spolka Akcyjna manufactures and sells mineral fertilizers, engineering plastics, and OXO alcohols in Poland, Germany, South America, Asia, Europe, and other European Union countries. It operates in Agro Fertilizers, Plastics, Chemical, Energy, and Other Activities segments. The company provides nitrogen fertilizers, nitrogen fertilizers with sulfur content, compound fertilizers, and phosphorites; engineering plastics, including caprolactam, polyamide, polyacetal, cyclohexanone, and cyclohexanol; and chemicals comprising oxo alcohols, plasticizers, titanium dioxide, tytanpol, melamine, maleic anhydride.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Maku Free Trade Zone is in negotiations with firms from Germany and Turkey for investment in launching petrochemical units in north western Iran, managing director of the zone said, reported GV.

"A delegation from Germany will visit the Maku FTZ in coming weeks and Turkish companies are also interested to invest in the Zone," Hossein Foruzan told Shana. "Petrochemical plans have investment priority in the zone," he added, "The infrastructure is inviting the investors too."

Foruzan cited rich water resources and feedstock supply as major advantages of the zone which justify investment in launching petrochemical industry.

As MRC wrote previously, in early October, Director general of the Association of Petrochemical Industry Corporations (AIPC) referred to the talks with some European petrochemicals distributors estimating increased export in petrochemicals after the removal of sanctions. Before the rise of sanctions, 10 to 14 percent of Iranian petrochemical products were exported to Europe bringing a profit of about 2 to 2.5 billion dollars to the country.

Currently number of active Iranian Petrochemical complexes are 53, with total production capacity of 59 million metric ton, producing range of polymers, chemicals, aromatics & liquid gas, located mainly at Iranian south region, next to Persian Gulf, called Assaluyeh and Mahshahr Special Economic Zones.

At the moment, there are 67 developments projects in the country which are under construction, adding 61 million metric ton on total production and estimated to fully run till 2018.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Samsung Engineering has been awarded an early works contract from Lotte Chemical for a 700,000-t/y monoethylene glycol (MEG) project at Lake Charles, La., according to GV with reference to Korean news reports.

Under the contract, Samsung will provide detailed engineering, procurement and construction plans for the plant. Samsung's consortium partner, CB&I, will perform pre-construction consultation. Financial details and a schedule for the project were not given.

Lotte is building the MEG facility adjacent to its proposed joint venture ethane cracker with Axiall Corp. Once operational, the cracker would produce about 1-million t/y of ethylene.

LACC LLC, a joint venture of Lotte and Axiall, recently awarded CB&I an early works contract for the planned ethane cracker.

At the time, the joint venture said a final investment decision is expected this year, subject to approval by both companies' board of directors. If approved, ethylene production would begin at the end of 2018. Axiall will not hold an interest in the MEG unit.

As MRC wrote before, South Korean conglomerate Lotte Group will acquire Samsung Group's chemical businesses for more than 3 trillion won (USD2.63 billion). The newspaper said Lotte Group affiliate Lotte Chemical Corp will acquire various assets, including a 31% stake in Samsung Fine Chemicals and 90% of Samsung SDI Co Ltd's chemicals business. Samsung SDI said it is in talks with Lotte Chemical for a potential sale of its chemical business without disclosing further details.

Lotte Chemical Corporation manufactures a wide range of petrochemical products such as high density polyethylene, polypropylene, and ethylene glycol. The company's products are used in manufacturing general housewares, pipes, films, fabrics, bottles, containers, and automotive parts.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF is participating with USD4 million through BASF Venture Capital in the U.S. technology firm QD Vision Inc., Lexington, Massachusetts, said the company on its site.

QD Vision is a technology leader for quantum dots, a class of nanomaterials with unique electro-optical properties and a wide range of applications in display, lighting, photo-voltaic, sensors, and diagnostics. QD Vision has developed and commercialized performance and cost-leading quantum dot-based components that enable a significantly improved color gamut of Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD) at minimal incremental cost.

The two companies also announced a joint development agreement for a quantum dot-enhanced backlight and a color filter for use in LCD displays. The collaboration responds to a growing demand for wide color gamut technologies. Wide color gamut technology will enable displays to show millions more colors than today’s Ultra High-Definition (UHD) or 4K displays.

Conventional LCD TVs use white LEDs in the system backlight. These white LEDs have broadband light emission, and as a result the red, green and blue colors generated by the color filter are not fully saturated. By comparison, the color IQ™ technology of QD Vision emits very pure, saturated, narrow bandwidth red, green and blue light that is optimized for LCDs. With this, QD Vision is well positioned to participate in the trend of UHD displays, which combine higher resolution, better contrast, as well as wider color gamut.

QD Vision will use the investment to further increase its global customer base and to extend its portfolio of advanced color solutions for its customers.

As MRC informed earlier, BASF is substantially expanding the scope of its research and development (R&D) capabilities in Asia Pacific, with a series of initiatives to bring innovation closer to customers in the region. Overall, BASF aims to locate around a quarter of its global R&D activities in Asia Pacific. The second phase of the BASF Innovation Campus Asia Pacific was inaugurated on 9, November, a EUR90 million expansion located at BASF's Greater China headquarters in Pudong, Shanghai.

BASF is the leading chemical company. It produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- SK Advanced Co. Ltd., a joint venture of Advanced Petrochemical Co.'s Advanced Global Investment Co. (AGIC) subsidiary and SK Gas, has achieved mechanical completion of a new propane dehydrogenation (PDH) unit in Ulsan, South Korea, as per GV.

The unit, completed one month ahead of schedule, has the capacity to produce 600,000 t/y of propylene using Lummus Technology's Catofin dehydrogenation process.

The project, earlier estimated to cost USD1-billion, is expected to start trial production in the first quarter of 2016. Commercial operations are also scheduled in 2016.

SK Gas holds a 65% interest in the new joint venture while AGIC holds the remaining 35%.

As MRC wrote before, Saudi Arabia's Advanced Petrochemical Company had raised the production capacity of its polypropylene plant in Jubail to more than 500,000 mtpa, from the current 450,000 mtpa, by mid-2105.

SK Advanced Co. Ltd. manufactures propylene. The company is based in Ulsan, South Korea. SK Advanced Co. Ltd. operates as a subsidiary of SK Gas Co., Ltd.
MRC