ARLANXEO launches Keltan KSA - EPDM rubbers produced in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

MOSCOW (MRC) -- ARLANXEO (JV of Lanxess and Saudi Aramco), one of the world’s leading suppliers of synthetic elastomers, has signed an agreement with Saudi Aramco Products Trading company, headquartered in Dhahran, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, pertaining to the marketing and sales of EPDM (Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer) rubber, as per the company's press release.

By entering into this agreement, ARLANXEO is strategically expanding its activities in the market for EPDM rubbers. ARLANXEO will start to supply the new EPDM grades within the first half of 2018 under its own Keltan trademark with the extension KSA, that represents the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Extending the Keltan portfolio underscores ARLANXEO’s strong commitment to these products. With Keltan and Keltan KSA, ARLANXEO will provide a unique and broad EPDM portfolio in order to serve customers in a comprehensive manner. "Keltan KSA will have its own brand identity and positioning supported by a dedicated organization," explains Jasvinder Kaur, Head of Keltan KSA.

The EPDM Keltan KSA grades will be produced in Rabigh, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The EPDM plant in Rabigh is part of a fully integrated chemical complex which operates under the name Petro Rabigh with Saudi Aramco as a shareholder.

"Saudi Aramco Products Trading Company is pleased to partner with ARLANXEO to introduce Keltan KSA, a combination of Petro Rabigh manufacturing strength and ARLANXEO’s global market expertise. This partnership between Saudi Aramco Products Trading Company and ARLANXEO will leverage the highest value for all stakeholders." underlines Muhammad Al-Arfaj, Vice President of Saudi Aramco Products Trading Company.

Christian Widdershoven, member of ARLANXEO’s executive board and Head of the High Performance Elastomers division highlights "Through this agreement, we are further strengthening ARLANXEO’s position as the global supplier for synthetic rubbers in the world market."

EPDM rubbers are used to manufacture seals and hoses in the automotive industry, gaskets and sheeting in the building and construction industry and bulls-eye and seals in the consumer goods industry. EPDM rubbers stand out thanks to their high resistance to water, ozone, UV, heat, and weather. In addition, they offer excellent dynamic properties and a wide temperature range, are extremely flexible, durable, and have outstanding electrical properties.

As MRC wrote previously, ARLANXEO is expanding its global chloroprene rubber (CR) production at the site in Dormagen, Germany. The production capacity there will be increased to as much as 70,000 tons per year overall that will be available to the market already during the first quarter of 2019. ARLANXEO is investing an upper single-digit million in the expansion project overall.

ARLANXEO was established in April 2016 as a joint venture of Lanxess - a world-leading specialty chemicals company based in Cologne, Germany - and Saudi Aramco - a major global energy and chemicals enterprise headquartered in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. The two partners each hold a 50-percent interest in the joint venture. The business operations of ARLANXEO are assigned to the High Performance Elastomers and Tire & Specialty Rubbers business units.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Japan's Cosmo Energy Holdings said on Friday its subsidiary, Maruzen Petrochemical Co, failed to properly inspect 30 percent of its products for petrochemicals and tyres, the latest quality assurance scandal involving a Japanese company, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Maruzen Petrochemical said it was involved in "inappropriate conduct regarding quality inspection" on 21 products such as propylene and benzene produced at its two factories.

It said it failed to conduct some of the tests and analysis on products that are outlined in contracts with customers.

Maruzen Petrochemical President Masaru Nabeshima told reporters the misconduct had no impact on quality or safety and that it has continued to supply products to customers. The revelation is the latest in a slew of scandals to rock Japan's manufacturing industry. Similar lapses have occurred at Kobe Steel and Toray Industries Inc, and incorrect final inspection procedures have been found at automakers Nissan and Subaru.

As of now, it does not appear that any laws have been broken, the company said. The products in question are likely to have been shipped to 121 corporate customers, it said.

President Nabeshima said the company would set up an internal investigative committee to make thorough checks on the issue and come up with measures to prevent their recurrence by around April. Cosmo Energy Holdings has a 52.7 percent voting right in Maruzen Petrochemical. Other major shareholders include Ube Industries, Denka Co and JNC Corp. A Cosmo Energy spokeswoman said some of the products in question had been manufactured by Maruzen's naphtha cracker at its Chiba plant, adding that it had rectified the misconduct by late January. The revelation would not lead to a halt in manufacturing units operated by Maruzen or Cosmo, she said.

Shares in Cosmo Energy fell as much as 10 percent before closing down 2.5 percent, against a 0.9 percent decline in the Nikkei average.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Russia's energy minister and senior executives from Russian oil majors discussed the quality of Russian oil on Tuesday, a day after Reuters reported some European refiners are threatening to cut purchases due to worsening quality, as per Reuters.

The quality of Russia's flagship Urals oil grade was one of the topics on the agenda at a meeting at the energy ministry in Moscow between the executives and the minister, Alexander Novak, the ministry said in a statement. A ministry spokeswoman declined to comment on the outcome of the meeting. A source familiar with the discussions, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said no decision has been taken on how to tackle the worsening quality. The source said though there is concern in the ministry that the quality issues could lead to a drop in the price of Urals.

The meeting at the energy ministry was attended by, among other executives, Vagit Alekperov, president of Russia's No.2 oil producer Lukoil, Vladimir Bogdanov, the head of Russia's third largest oil producer Surgutneftegaz and Pavel Fedorov, a vice president of country's largest oil company Rosneft. Maxim Grishanin, the deputy chief executive of Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft was also present, according to a Reuters reporter who was at the ministry.

European refineries which process Russian oil have been complaining about the worsening quality of Urals, including rising sulphur content and higher gravity, making the oil harder to refine. The quality has deteriorated so much that several buyers are reviewing how much they buy and the price they are willing to pay for it, according to traders and sources close to European refiners. Some industry sources linked the drop in quality to rising supplies of the lighter, higher-quality ESPO blend to China.

The oil exported by Russia is a blend of crude cargoes of different chemical compositions, that are mixed inside the domestic pipeline network. If better-quality cargoes are diverted eastwards, that results in a lower aggregate quality being exported to Europe. The worsening quality of Urals has had a negative effect on prices. On Monday, Urals crude differentials in northwest Europe eased to their lowest levels since October on sluggish demand for the grade.
MRC

Russian companies significantly reduced PP imports in December to 10,400 tonnes from 16,300 tonnes a year earlier. Imports of propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) raffia and block copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymer) decreased. Overall, 171,200 tonnes of propylene polymers were imported in 2017, compared to 167,200 tonnes a year earlier. Deliveries of homopolymer PP accounted for a major reduction, whereas PP block copolymers accounted for the greatest increase in imports.

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

December imports of homopolymer PP fell to 2,400 tonnes from 4,500 tonnes a month earlier, shipments of homopolymer PP raffia from Central Asia, particularly, from Turkmenistan, decreased significantly because of technical issues of the local producer. Overall imports of this PP grade reached 55,100 tonnes last year, compared to 72,400 a year earlier.

December imports of PP block copolymers were 1,900 tonnes versus 3,300 tonnes in November. Local companies reduced their purchasing of PP block copolymer for extrusion injection moulding in Europe. Imports of PP block copolymers into Russia rose to 43,000 tonnes in 2017, compared to 30,800 tonnes a year earlier.

Imports of PP random copolymers dropped to 3,200 tonnes in December from 3,600 tonnes a month earlier, local pressure pipes producers reduced their purchasing of PP under the pressure of seasonal factors, whereas purchases of injection moulding PP increased. Overall imports of this propylene copolymers grade totalled 33,600 tonnes in 2017, compared to 34,800 tonnes a year earlier.

Imports of other propylene polymers were 39,300 tonnes over the stated period, compared to 29,200 tonnes a year earlier.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The construction of a polypropylene plant in Azerbaijan’s Sumgait city will be completed in the second quarter of 2018, reported Vestnik Kavkaza with reference to head of SOCAR Polymer company’s planning department Vugar Aslanov.

"The work has been completed by 97.2%. The detailed engineering work has been completed by 99.9%, production and delivery - by 99.6%, while construction work - by 93.4%," he said at the conference on expansion of production of import-substituting products in industry by using local raw materials in Baku.

According to Aslanov, this year 70,000-71,000 tons of polyethylene are planned to be produced at the plant. The plant will reach the full production capacity of 180,000 tons next year.

"We intend to launch test work in April, while production will begin in June 2018," abc.az cited him as saying.

As MRC informed before, in October 2015, State Oil Co. of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) subsidiary Azerikimya Production Union (PU) has entered two units into operation at its ethylene and polyethylene (PE) plant in Sumgait, north of Baku.

SOCAR, which is keen on expanding operations in the retail oil products market abroad, is involved in exploring oil and gas fields, producing, processing, and transporting oil, gas, and gas condensate, marketing petroleum and petrochemical products in the domestic and international markets, and supplying natural gas to industry and the public in Azerbaijan.

SOCAR Polymer is a subsidiary of the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR). The entity was formed at the end of 2013 to run investments at the Sumgait Chemical Industrial Park, a production park which intends to become a chemical hub in central Asia.
MRC