Vietnam plans oil reserves equivalent of 90 days of imports by 2020

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Vietnam's prime minister has approved a plan for the country's total crude oil and oil product stocks to be at least 90 days' worth of net imports by 2020, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The southeast Asian country joins developing nations such as China and India in establishing an oil buffer that will enhance their energy security as imports have jumped while domestic production is on the decline.

The 90-day net import level is a standard set by the International Energy Agency for its OECD members.

Vietnamese refineries will be required to maintain crude stockpiles equivalent to 15 days of their processing capacity and 10 days of oil products output, a government statement said on Friday. These would be equivalent to 30–35 days of Vietnam's net imports, it said.

The government said it planned to keep commercial oil stockpiles stable at 35 days of net imports while crude and oil products reserves at import terminals and those held by trading companies are expected to reach 20 days of the country's net imports by 2025.

The statement did not provide details on where the oil reserve storage facilities are located.

Vietnam has imported 280,492 t of crude oil in the first half of this year, up 1.6% from a year earlier, according to government data.

The country's two refineries are estimated to meet about two-third of Vietnam's demand when its second refinery starts operations later this year.

We remind that, as MRC reported earlier, the commercial start-up of Vietnam's new USD7.5 B Nghi Son oil refinery will be delayed to 2018, from an initial expected start-up in the third quarter of this year. Japan's Idemitsu Kosan and Kuwait Petroleum International each own 35.1% of Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemicals, while PetroVietnam has 25.1% and Mitsui Chemicals 4.7%.
MRC

Arsenal Capital closes on purchase of Spartech for USD115 million

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Private equity firm Arsenal Capital Partners closed on its USD115 million acquisition of Spartech LLC from PolyOne Corp, reported 4-traders.

As part of the sale, Cleveland-based chemical company PolyOne divested its Designed Structures and Solutions segment that includes packaging, visual and structural sheet and rollstock materials.

Upon finalization of the deal Wednesday, New York-based Arsenal renamed the segment Spartech LLC, its name prior to PolyOne's purchase of Clayton-based Spartech Corp. in 2013 for USD393 million. Some operations PolyCorp acquired from Spartech Corp., including compounding, were integrated into other PolyOne divisions and are not part of the sale.

The newly formed Spartech LLC, whose brands include Polycast, Royalite and SoundX, has 15 manufacturing facilities and its headquarters will be in Maryland Heights, Arsenal said in a statement.

George Abd, an Arsenal senior adviser and former Spartech Corp. executive, is Spartech LLC's CEO and president. Bob Robison is CFO.

"We are excited to return to the Spartech name and its great customer focused heritage, including the commitment to work hard and drive great service for our customers every day," Abd said in a statement.

As MRC informed before, expanding on its global footprint and expertise in thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) innovation and design, PolyOne Corporation announced it has acquired certain technologies and assets from Kraton Performance Polymers, Inc., in February 2016. Two companies also entered into a supply agreement, whereby Kraton will provide PolyOne certain raw materials used in production for the acquired business.

PolyOne Corporation, with 2014 revenues of USD3.8 billion, is a premier provider of specialized polymer materials, services and solutions with operations in specialty polymer formulations, color and additive systems, polymer distribution and specialty vinyl resins.
MRC

Force majeure on PE, PP from Formosa Plastics Point Comfort plant to run through July

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Formosa Plastics' force majeure and sales control on its polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) from its Point Comfort, Texas, complex will last through the end of July, the company has told its customers, as per Plastemart.

All PP and PE units have resumed production, the company said in a letter to customers sent late Monday and obtained by obtained by S&P Global Platts on Tuesday.

Capacities at Point Comfort complex include almost 1.5 mln mtpa of high density polyethylene, 582,000 mt/year of linear low-density polyethylene, 1.9 mln mt/year of polypropylene. Polyethylene and polypropylene markets have been talked tighter in July, with some sources pointing to the outages as one contributing factor. Formosa Plastics declared force majeure on both polymers June 27, three days after multiple units at Point Comfort - about 90 miles from Corpus Christi - unexpectedly went down due to a weather-related event, which multiple sources with knowledge of company operations attributed to lightning strikes.

Formosa Plastics spokesman Steve Rice Friday said all lines were running, or "scheduled to be so very soon." Multiple market sources said late last week that the final polyethylene line - which produces high density polyethylene grades including high molecular weight film - could be back up by the weekend. Formosa Plastics said in the letter that all August orders would be subject to ability to suppl, "based upon ongoing normal operations of our facilities."

As MRC informed before, in 2015, Formosa Plastics unveiled plans to build a monoethylene glycol (MEG) plant and another polyethylene (PE) unit at its Point Comfort complex in Texas, according to air-permit applications. The initial pages of the applications do not list the capacity of the plants or the grade of the PE. Construction on the second PE plant started in Q4-2015, and it should start operations in December 2017. Construction on the MEG plant started in November 2015, and operations should start in September 2017.

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).
MRC

Kuwait Ethylene 2 Plant resumes operations after last weeks shutdown

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Kuwait's Ethylene 2 Plant has resumed operation following a brief shutdown for technical considerations last week, according to Plastemart.

"Operations at our EU2 have resumed normally in record time following repairs. Both the Ethylene Glycol and Polyethylene plants in Kuwait have returned to the usual production levels as they were impacted by the temporary shutdown of EU2," the Kuwait News Agency, KUNA, quoted EQUATE Group’s President and CEO Mohammad Husain as saying.

The EU2 has a production capacity of 850,000 metric tons annually and is owned by The Kuwait Olefins Company, TKOC, part of the EQUATE Group.

As MRC informed before, Kuwait-based Equate Petrochemical Company continued its global growth through its wholly owned subsidiary MEGlobal with the launch of work on a new world-scale ethylene glycol (EG) manufacturing facility in Freeport, Texas, US, in August 2016. With this plant, Equate is the first Kuwaiti petrochemical company to invest in the US. The new facility, to be completed during 2019, will increase Equate’s monoethylene glycol (MEG) capacity by 750,000 metric tonnes annually and will enhance the company’s global presence to meet customer needs.

Equate is the world’s second largest EG producer with 12% of the global market share.

Equate Petrochemical Company K.S.C.C., together with its subsidiaries, manufactures, markets, and distributes petrochemical products. The company produces ethylene, polyethylene terephthalate, polypropylene, styrene monomer, paraxylene, heavy aromatics, and benzene; polyethylene for various applications, including flexible and food packaging, industrial packaging, agricultural films, HIC, and others; and monoethylene and diethylene glycol that are used in polyester fiber for fabrics, water-based adhesive materials, shoe polish, and printer inks, as well as automotive anti-freeze and coolants. The company sells its products in Kuwait and other Gulf Cooperation Council countries, North America, Asia, Europe, and internationally. Equate Petrochemical Company K.S.C.C. was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Safat, Kuwait.
MRC

Lotte Chemical resumes PP production in South Korea

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Lotte Chemical has restarted its polypropylene (PP) plant following an unplanned outage, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in South Korea informed that the company has brought on-stream its plant early this week. The plant was shut on July 10, 2017 on account of fire.

Located at Yeosu, South Korea, the plant has a production capacity of 300,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed before, in May 2016, Lotte Chemical Corp. has finalized the takeover of Samsung Group’s chemical units.The company said that it paid for money to acquire Samsung SDI Chemical on Apr. 29 and completed the acquisition of Samsung Group’s chemical businesses in about six months after the announcement of "Big Deal" in October 2015. Samsung Fine Chemicals, which was completely taken over by Lotte in Feb., changed its name to Lotte Fine Chemical, while SDI Chemical, which completed the acquisition process on the 29th, changed its name to Lotte Advanced Materials through the general meeting of stockholders.

Established in 1976, Lotte Chemical has been solidifyng its position by localizing cutting-edge petrochemical technologies. Among the high-quality products produced by Lotte Chemical through its efficient processes are ethylene, HDPE, LDPE, LLDPE, PP, functional resin, EG, SM, PIA, PET, etc. Lotte Chemical’s products are being distributed to 152 countries around the world. With the acquisition of Pakistan’s PTA in 2009, Artenius in the UK in 2010 and Titan Chemical Corp., Lotte Chemical is now able to efficiently supply excellent products to an increasing number of countries. The company is further accelerating its efforts to strengthen its global competitiveness by establishing overseas branches in Hong Kong, Russia, and USA, along with the sales corporation in China for active sales activities both in domestic and abroad.
MRC