China independent refiners group applied for 2018 fuel export quotas

MOSCOW (MRC) — A newly formed group of China's independent oil refiners filed an application with the country's Ministry of Commerce on Wednesday for fuel export quotas next year, a source with one of the group's member companies said on Thursday, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The government has excluded independent plants this year from exporting refined fuel, having granted quotas only to state refiners. In September, a group of six independent oil refiners set up the USD5 B joint venture, named the Shandong Refining & Chemical Group, to compete with the state-owned oil companies and privately owned chemical companies.

Many of China's independent refiners count on the country's state-owned refiners as their main customers for their refined products because they have limited infrastructure such as storage tanks or a retailing network to sell directly to consumers.

Jiao Chong, the managing director of Qingyuan Group, a founding member of the Shandong Refining Group, said the government shall consider rewarding plants with fuel quotas that have moved quickly to upgrade their fuel quality to meet more stringent emissions standards and established credit in the crude oil market.

"Allowing these plants to export fuel will open a new channel for independents' fine quality products and help boost margins," said Jiao by cellphone from Shandong. He said he was not aware of the actual application and was not able to give a size of the quotas the group has applied for.

Qingyuan is based in the city of Zibo in the eastern province of Shandong where a majority of China's independent refiners, sometimes called teapots, are located.
MRC

Shell Canada, Syncrude cut synthetic crude volumes

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Shell Canada, a unit of Royal Dutch Shell, has warned customers synthetic crude volumes from its 255,000-bpd Scotford, Alberta, upgrader may be reduced in November and potentially December, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing with reference to traders.

A Shell spokeswoman declined to comment.

In a separate incident, the Syncrude oil sands project in northern Alberta has also told customers it will cut synthetic crude volumes by around 5% in November, two trading sources said.

Syncrude has capacity to produce nearly 350,000 bpd.

A Syncrude spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

As MRC wrote previously, in November 2017, Royal Dutch Shell Plc canceled a plan to permanently close the gasoline-producing unit at its 227,586 bpd Convent, Louisiana, oil refinery.

Royal Dutch Shell plc is an Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the biggest company in the world in terms of revenue and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors". Shell is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading.
MRC

Wacker opens new technical center in Istanbul

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Wacker Chemie AG is expanding its range of services in Turkey with official opening of a technical center for construction, textile and consumer-care applications in Istanbul, as per the company's press release.

The technical facility serves as an application and test laboratory for polymeric binders and silicones needed in the region’s construction, textile, household and cosmetics industries. By broadening its local expertise in application technology and service, the Group can now offer its customers and business partners even better local support.

Technical service engineers test regional products and formulations. The new laboratory focuses on polymeric binders used in construction applications such as tile adhesives and external thermal insulation composite systems (ETICS).

This new technical center is Wacker Chemie AG’s response to Turkey’s sustained economic growth. "Our customers' rising sales volumes are being joined by higher quality and service requirements, which we are now even better able to meet with our new local test facility," said WACKER Executive Board member Auguste Willems during the opening ceremony. The region’s construction industry, in particular, is experiencing an upturn, resulting in a growing need for advice.

WACKER’s new technical center is ideally positioned for this trend. The new facility enables, for example, testing of specific properties of tile adhesives and external thermal insulation composite systems (ETICS), the two key applications for VINNAPAS dispersible polymer binders from Wacker. It has, for example, modern laboratory equipment for analyses of viscosity and air-pore content or the curing time of fresh mortars. Furthermore, it offers the possibility of testing the properties of hardened mortars as required by various standards, such as EN 12004 or EN 13499. The properties that can be tested include adhesive, flexural and compressive strengths, as well as water-vapor permeability and impact resistance. Moreover, the new center is equipped to examine products under varying climatic conditions, for instance applying ETICS adhesives at low temperatures. "The new laboratory for construction polymers represents an important contribution on our part toward expanding modern construction materials in Turkey and adjacent countries," explained Hande Bucuklar, managing director of Wacker Kimya Ticaret.

The new facility also has a laboratory for silicones used in the textile industry. It allows in-depth studies to determine the thermal and shear stability, foaming tendency, gloss and color stability, as well as the water repellency or hydrophilicity of the products on offer and of customer formulations. Different formulations can be applied and tested in the new laboratory under realistic conditions, such as padding or exhausting. In addition, the equipment enables specific tests and formulations tailored to the needs of the local cosmetic and household-care industries. The laboratory is also well equipped for developing local formulations. For example, shampoos, creams or fabric softeners that contain Wacker’s silicones can be formulated to help customers with their development projects.

As MRC informed earlier, Wacker Chemie AG is expanding its existing production plants for dispersions and dispersible polymer powders in South Korea. In early November 2017, Wacker celebrated the official start of construction on the major project during a symbolic ground-breaking ceremony. The Group is building a new spray dryer for dispersible polymer powders at its Ulsan site, which will have a total capacity of 80,000 metric tons per year. The Munich-based chemicals company is also constructing an additional reactor for dispersions based on vinyl acetate-ethylene copolymer (EVA), which are needed as the raw material for the spray dryer to produce dispersible polymer powders.

Wacker Chemie AG is a worldwide operating company in the chemical business, founded 1914. The company is controlled by the Wacker-family holding more than 50 percent of the shares. The corporation is operating more than 25 production sites in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. The product range includes silicone rubbers, polymer products like ethylene vinyl acetate redispersible polymer powder, chemical materials, polysilicon and wafers for semiconductor industry.
MRC

GPPC to undertake maintenance at SM plant

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Grand Pacific Petrochemical Corp (GPPC) is likely to shut its styrene monomer (SM) plant for a maintenance turnaround, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Taiwan informed that the plant is planned to be shut for maintenance in mid-April 2018. It is slated to remain off-line for a period of around four weeks.

Located at Kaohsiung in Taiwan, the SM plant has a production capacity of 250,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed before, this year, GPPC conducted maintenance at this SM plant from mid-February to 9 April.

Grand Pacific Petrochemical Corp (GPPC) was founded in 1973. Starting with styrene monomer, commonly known as SM, GPPC and its subsidiaries have gradually broadened the product line to include SM, ABS, SAN, PS, and H2. Currently, GPPC has two SM plants with a total annual capacity of 330,000 metric tons, an ABS/SAN plant producing 80,000 metric tons per annum and a hydrogen plant with a capacity of 600 cubic meters per hour. In addition, two GPPC's subsidiaries, GPPC chemical and BC chemical, are engaged in the polystyrene (PS) production with a combined annual capacity of 100,000 metric tons. Anticipating the regional fast growth, GPPC invested in Grand Pacific Chemical (Thailand) Co., Ltd. and founded Zhenjiang GPPC Chemical Co., Ltd.(China) for the ABS production in 1991 and 1996, respectively.
MRC

PP imports to Ukraine up by 3% in January-October 2017

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Overall imports of polypropylene (PP) into the Ukrainian market decreased in the first ten months of 2017 by 3% year on year to 100,500 tonne, as per MRC's DataScope report.

October PP imports into Ukraine rose to 11,100 tonnes, compared with 9,300 tonnes in September; the main increase accounted for the supply of homopolymer PP raffia grade. Overall imports of propylene polymers reached 100,500 tonnes in January-October 2017, compared to 97,800 tonnes a year earlier. Demand for all PP grades increased, but PP block copolymers accounted for the greatest growth.

The structure of PP imports by grades looked the following way over the stated period.

Last month's imports of homopolymer PP to the Ukrainian market grew to 8,600 tonnes from 6,600 tonnes in September. The main increase in deliveries fell on polypropylene from Saudi Arabia and Russia. Imports of homopolymer PP into the country over the ten months reached 76,600 tonnes, up 3% year on year.

October imports of PP block copolymers into the country decreased to 1,100 tonnes, which practically the same as in September. Local companies kept their demand for injection moulding and pipe propylene copolymers at high level. Imports of PP block copolymers into the country were about 10,800 tonnes in January-October, compared with a little more than 10,000 tonnes. Local pipes producers accounted for the greatest increase in demand.

October imports of PP random copolymers into Ukraine decreased to 1,100 tonnes against 1,500 tonnes in September, with decrease in purchases provided by local producers of pipes and injection moulding products. Overall imports of PP random copolymers reached 11,300 tonnes in January-October 2017, whereas this figure was 11,100 tonnes a year earlier.

Total imports of other propylene copolymers over the reporting period were 1,800 tonnes, compared with 2,000 tonnes in the same time a year earlier.

MRC