BASF to divest its oleochemical surfactants business in Mexico

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF Mexicana, S.A. DE C.V. has entered an agreement to sell a portion of the oleochemical surfactants business in Mexico to the Stepan Company for an undisclosed price, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The transaction is expected to close in Q4 2017, subject to applicable regulatory approvals and the satisfaction of certain other requirements.

The Mexico oleochemical surfactants business is part of BASF's Care Chemicals division. The transaction includes the Mexico oleochemical surfactants product portfolio and associated intellectual property, as well as the production assets at the Ecatepec manufacturing site in Estado de Mexico. Under the terms of the agreement, most of the BASF employees at the Ecatepec site will transfer to the Stepan Company.

"The sale of the oleochemical surfactants business in Mexico to Stepan will allow us to focus on other areas of our broad portfolio and provide continuity for our customers," said Michael Stumpp, President, BASF Mexicana. "Ensuring a smooth transition to Stepan and honoring our obligations to customers, suppliers and employees will be a priority."

"With this divestiture, BASF’s Care Chemicals business will help our customers in Mexico grow further by focusing on more strategic aspects of our home care, personal care and industrial solutions portfolio, including optical effects, specialty co-surfactants, actives, emulsifiers and polymers," said Scott Thomson, Senior Vice President, Care Chemicals for BASF, North America.

BASF’s oleochemical surfactants business in the US, Europe, and Asia is not impacted by this decision. Oleochemical surfactants are used primarily for making soaps and detergents in a wide range of home care and personal care products.

As MRC informed previously, in November 2016, BASF unveiled plans to invest globally within the next five years more than EUR200 million in its plastic additives business, approximately half of which in Asia, focusing on capacity expansions and operational excellence. Plastic additives improve product properties such as scratch resistance or light stability, and optimize plastics manufacturing processes. As the leading global supplier of plastic additives with manufacturing assets in all regions, BASF is a major partner to the plastics industry.

BASF is the largest diversified chemical company in the world and is headquartered in Ludwigshafen, Germany. BASF 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) — Brazil's state-controlled oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA reduced on Wednesday its average prices at refineries by 2.3% for gasoline and 5.8% for diesel, said Reuters.

The price change in Brazil reflects international oil prices, added Petrobras, as the company is known. The gasoline prices for consumers may drop up to 0.9% and diesel prices, up to 3.5%, the company said.

As MRC informed earlier, Alpek, S.A.B. de C.V. has announced that it obtained all necessary corporate approvals to acquire 100% of PetroquimicaSuape and Citepe from Petrobras for USD385 MM.

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.

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has brought on-stream its purified terephthalic acid (PTA) unit in Dahej, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in India informed that the company has resumed operations at the unit on June 15, 2017. The unit remained under maintenance for around 4-5 days.

Located in Dahej, Gujarat in India, the PTA unit has a production capacity of 1.1 million mt/year.

As MRC informed earlier, in April 2015, RIL successfully put into operation two plants in Dahej, Gujarat, India. The first is a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resin plant, which consists of two lines with a combined manufacturing capacity of 650 KTA. The second facility was a new PTA plant that provides a capacity of 1,150 KTA. With the commissioning of this plant, also built with Invista technology, Reliance’s total PTA capacity increased to 3.2 MMTPA, and its global capacity share rose to 4%.

Reliance Industries is one of the world's largest producers of polymers. Thus, the company produces among others polypropylene, polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Forecast world production of crude oil and other liquids in 2017 and 2018 was revised slightly downward in the June edition of EIA’s Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), which was issued after the May 25 announcement by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) of an extension to production cuts that were originally set to end this month, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

OPEC’s crude oil production target will remain at 32.5 MMbpd through the end of the first quarter of 2018. Given the extended production cuts, EIA now forecasts OPEC members’ crude oil production to average 32.3 MMbpd in 2017 and 32.8 MMbpd in 2018, down 0.2 MMbpd and 0.4 MMbpd, respectively, from the previous STEO. Total OPEC liquid fuels production is also expected to be lower than previously forecast. However, continuing production growth in many non-OPEC countries is expected to moderate the pace of global liquid fuels inventory draws in 2017. EIA expects a small inventory build in 2018.

Inventory draws expected in the second and third quarters of 2017 suggest the possibility of some increases in crude oil prices over the coming months. However, because US tight oil production is relatively responsive to changes in oil prices compared with offshore production, and even given an estimated six-month lag between a change in oil prices and realized production, higher crude oil prices in mid-2017 have the potential to raise US supply in 2018.

The largest global inventory increase in the forecast occurs in the second quarter of 2018, when Brazilian and OPEC production are expected to increase by 570,000 bpd and 220,000 bpd, respectively. Supply growth in 2018 could contribute to downward pressure in oil prices as early as late 2017. EIA’s STEO forecast assumes OPEC cuts will be extended beyond March 2018 but that non-compliance will begin to grow late in 2017 and increase in the second half of 2018. Although this forecast reflects the assumption of increased non-compliance with a second production-cut extension in 2018, any extension provides some support for crude oil prices, even if only temporarily, which would partially offset downward price pressure from growing inventories.

The June STEO forecasts a 2017 average spot price for Brent crude oil of USD53/bbl (b), with prices increasing to USD56/bbl in 2018. Average West Texas Intermediate (WTI) prices are forecast to be USD2/bbl lower than Brent prices in both 2017 and 2018. As always, all oil price forecasts are subject to considerable uncertainty. For example, EIA’s forecast for the average WTI price in September 2017 is USD51/bbl, but analysis of options trading suggests market expectations range from USD39/bbl to $-USD64/bbl at the 95% confidence interval.

EIA expects US crude oil production to increase through 2018, averaging 9.3 MMbpd in 2017 and 10.0 MMbpd in 2018. The 2018 STEO forecast exceeds the previous record US production level of 9.6 MMbpd set in 1970. Growth in US production of crude oil and hydrocarbon gas liquids has been the largest contributor to the 820,000 bpd of non-OPEC liquids supply growth from January through May 2017. Continued increases in drilling activity in US shale basins, particularly in Texas, support production increases throughout the forecast.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Tekni-Plex Inc, the US-based provider of innovative packaging materials, medical compounds and precision-crafted medical tubing solutions, will invest USD15 million to set up a manufacturing facility in Suzhou, near Shanghai (China), said Business-standard.

It represents the single largest recent investment by Tekni-Plex and reflects the growing needs of the Asia-Pacific pharmaceutical and medical device market. Production for some product lines has already begun.

Initially, the facility will manufacture products for Tekni-Plex’s Natvar, Colorite and Action Technology business units. The facility will feature three Class 100K cleanrooms to accommodate medical-grade tubing and components production plus one Class 10K cleanroom that will produce Natvar’s pharma-grade tubing.

The facility also will produce Natvar’s recently-announced silicone extrusion tubing for catheters, feeding tubes, drug delivery and peristaltic pump applications, as well as microextrusion tubing that targets a wide variety of demanding neurovascular interventional therapies and surgical applications. The facility will also manufacture Colorite custom compounds for medical device applications, and Action Technology’s dip tubes used in a wide variety of food/beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, industrial and household pump applications.

"Tekni-Plex’s investment in our new China facility is another step in our continuing commitment to support our customers with robust global supply. Pharmaceutical, medical device and other manufacturers want access to exactly the same components and materials regardless of where in the world their manufacturing facility is located. It is our goal to meet those objectives," said Paul Young, chief executive officer, Tekni-Plex.

The company is in the process of phasing out production at its existing facility in Suzhou that it has operated since 2005.

MRC