Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics acquires composite materials maker HyComp

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Performance Plastics business of Saint-Gobain has acquired HyComp LLC, an Ohio-based manufacturer of advanced proprietary components for the aerospace and industrial markets, as per Canplastics.

The terms of the deal have not been disclosed. Founded in 1986, HyComp operates from a single location in Cleveland where it has approximately 120 employees. In a statement, Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics described HyComp as a “leading supplier” of composite components made with proprietary carbon fibres and thermoplastic materials, used in applications such as actuation and electric systems on aircraft, as well as wear rings and air rotary valves for the canning and rolling mills markets.

"HyComp’s joining Saint-Gobain gives us the opportunity to broaden our portfolio of critical parts for high-temperature and long-life applications in aerospace and industrial applications,” said Jean Angus, general manager of Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics’ seals division. “The HyComp management team’s years of experience will help us to continue to make a material difference for our customers. The operation’s design, engineering, and quality control processes, coupled with pioneering, advanced thermoplastic and thermoset manufacturing capabilities, have provided customers with unique, complex parts critical for demanding applications over the years. It’s a perfect fit for Saint-Gobain."

Also headquartered in Ohio, Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics has about 6,500 employees across 58 manufacturing sites. The business is part of building materials company Saint-Gobain, which is based in France and had about US$46 billion in global sales in 2017. In Canada and the U.S., Saint-Gobain has approximately 150 locations and more than 15,000 employees, and reported sales of approximately USD6 billion in 2017.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chad’s Djarmaya refinery stands to benefit following the resurrection of a deal last week between the government and oil trading house Glencore, as per Yourpetrochemicalnews.

The 20,000 bpd facility is the country’s sole refinery and is located 40 km north of the capital N’Djamena. Glencore made an oil-backed US$1.4 billion loan in 2014, under which it would offtake output from the landlocked state.

However, oil prices fell dramatically soon after, putting pressure on oil-dependent Chad and slowing down deliveries. Glencore owns stakes in the operational Mangara and Badila oilfields, giving the company a producing entitlement output of 2.52 million barrels in 2017, down 35% from 3.88 million barrels in 2016.

The slide in production reflected disagreements among the parties over how to amend the deal in the wake of substantially altered market conditions. The deal was criticised by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2017 for having vague terms with regard to loan repayments.

However, it emerged again last week after protracted negotiations, and, eased by a recovery of global oil prices, that new terms have been approved. These include a lengthening of the tenor of the loan from Glencore, originally set for 2022, until 2030, and a reduction of the applicable interest rate from LIBOR plus 7.5% to a more manageable LIBOR plus 2%.

Alongside the more favourable terms for Chad, assurances have been made that secure oil supplies will be made to the Djarmaya facility, which produces diesel, gasoline and kerosene.

This amendment is designed to ensure that the refinery’s oil supplies are guaranteed and have no risk of being relegated to secondary status in competition with the export market. This will be particularly important if global crude oil prices continue to recover.

Djarmaya has a volatile history, with 60% shareholder China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) becoming embroiled in disputes with Chadian authorities over pricing of oil products output. The plant, which cost US$758 million to complete in 2011, provides valuable fuel supplies in the north of the country, and is connected with the southern Mimosa and Ronier oilfields via pipeline.

It was closed twice in 2011 and 2013 as a result of the disagreements. However, CNPC has remained a shareholder in the plant, and despite its problems, the refinery is to some extent regarded as a model of collaboration, with Ugandan officials paying it a visit in the process of their studies to develop a new oil refinery at Hoima.

The Chinese operator will be greatly encouraged that security of supplies to the refinery form part of the revised agreement, as this supports the predictability of the plant’s operational status.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Germany's BASF said it was aiming for a gain of up to 10 percent in group operating profit this year as it bets on a rebound in specialty chemicals to offset an expected weaker performance in basic petrochemicals, reported Reuters.

The chemicals maker is coming off a strong year where supply bottlenecks and strong demand across the petrochemicals industry boosted earnings.

Its basic chemicals unit saw earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) adjusted for one-off items surge by 67 percent in the fourth quarter, the company said on Tuesday.

However, it expects adjusted EBIT at the unit to drop by 11 percent or more in 2018, it said.

That forecast, combined with a proposed annual dividend of 3.10 euros per share which fell short of expectations, saw BASF shares fall 1.6 percent to 87.44 euros as of 1128 GMT, making them the third-worst performer on Germany's blue-chip DAX index.

BASF, which last month reported a 2017 operating profit up 32 percent, issued divisional results on Tuesday which showed that specialty products, something the company is looking to for growth, underperformed.

Morgan Stanley analysts said its performance in specialty products was "a little disappointing".

Helping, however, were profit margins at its commodity chemicals unit which rose to close to 26 percent of sales in 2017, almost double their average over the previous five years, mirroring similar developments at rivals such as Covestro.

BASF and its rivals are ramping up output capacity, most notably for chemicals used in building insulation or furniture, which will likely ease supply shortages.

BASF also aims to overcome the weakness at its advanced and customised products, such as food nutrients, ingredients for household products or engineering plastics.

"The downstream segments in 2018 clearly need to improve their performance," said Kepler Cheuvreux analyst Christian Faitz.

BASF also said its Wintershall oil and gas division, which it is seeking to merge with Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman's DEA, should help raise profits this year helped by a strong oil price.

As MRC informed previously, in December 2017, BASF’s Coatings division inaugurated a new automotive coatings plant at its Bangpoo manufacturing site, Samutprakarn province, Thailand. The new plant is the first BASF automotive coatings manufacturing facility in ASEAN, and will produce solventborne and waterborne automotive coatings to meet growing market demand in the region.

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. BASF generated sales of about EUR58 billion in 2016.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- AkzoNobel today announces the nomination of Nils Smedegaard Andersen as member of the Supervisory Board with the intention to elect him as Chairman following his successful appointment at the Annual General Meeting in April, as per the company's press release.

This announcement concludes an extensive search and selection process conducted by the Supervisory Board, led by Byron Grote, Deputy Chairman, including consultation with major shareholders.

Nils Andersen, a Danish citizen, is Non-Executive Director at BP and Unilever, where he serves on the Audit Committees of both companies. Nils was Group Chief Executive of A.P. Moller - M'rsk from 2007 until 2016 and had previously been President and Chief Executive Officer of Carlsberg and Carlsberg Breweries.

Byron Grote commented: "We are very pleased to nominate Nils Andersen. He has a wealth of relevant experience gained during an extensive international career in the consumer goods, energy, and shipping industries. Nils will bring this broad business insight to the Supervisory Board as AkzoNobel becomes a focused, high-performing Paints and Coatings company."

Nils Andersen added: "I am excited to be nominated for the role of Chairman of the Supervisory Board and look forward to being able to play my part in the transformation of AkzoNobel and delivering further value creation for shareholders and other stakeholders."

The appointment of Mr. Andersen to the Supervisory Board of AkzoNobel is subject to shareholder approval and as such will be added to the agenda of the Annual General meeting to be held on April 26, 2018.

As MRC informed before, in December 2016, AkzoNobel finalized the acquisition of BASF’s global Industrial Coatings business, which supplies a range of products for industries including construction, domestic appliances, wind energy and commercial transport, strengthening its position as the global number one supplier in coil coatings. The transaction included relevant technologies, patents and trademarks, as well as two manufacturing plants in the United Kingdom and South Africa.

Akzo Nobel N.V., trading as AkzoNobel, is a Dutch multinational, active in the fields of decorative paints, performance coatings and specialty chemicals. Headquartered in Amsterdam, the company has activities in more than 80 countries, and employs approximately 55,000 people.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) – Honeywell announced that Jiangsu Sailboat Petrochemical Company, Ltd. has accepted a new methanol-to-olefins (MTO) unit provided by Honeywell UOP, and that the plant is operating and has met all guarantees, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

With a production capacity of 833,000 metric tons per year, the unit is the largest single-train MTO unit in the world.
Honeywell UOP, which pioneered MTO technology, started its first MTO unit for China’s Wison Clean Energy in 2013.

The Sailboat facility in Lianyungang City in Jiangsu Province manufactures propylene to make acrylonitrile for clothing and fabrics, and high-performance polymers used in automotive parts, hard hats and other hard plastic products. The plant also produces ethylene for ethylene vinyl acetate copolymers that are used to make adhesives, foams, medical devices, photovoltaic cells, and other products, and C4 olefins for butadiene, an ingredient in synthetic rubber.

“The Jiangsu Sailboat unit is now, by far, the largest single-train MTO unit in the world,” said John Gugel, vice president and general manager of Honeywell UOP’s Process Technology and Equipment business. “At this scale, Honeywell UOP’s Advanced MTO process leads the industry in terms of scale and operating efficiency.”

The two most widely used components to make plastics are ethylene and propylene, and both have traditionally been derived from crude oil. Regions such as China that lack domestic sources of crude oil have turned to MTO technology to take advantage of alternative feedstocks such as coal and natural gas.

Jiangsu Sailboat chose the Advanced MTO process because it produces the highest yields of light olefins at the lowest cost of production, with the lowest catalyst consumption and the lowest operating cost. In addition, the unit is configured for production of C4 olefins as well as ethylene and propylene.

Honeywell UOP’s Advanced MTO process combines the UOP/Hydro MTO process and the Total/UOP Olefin Cracking Process to significantly increase yields and feedstock efficiency. The process converts methanol from coal and natural gas into ethylene and propylene. At the heart of the technology are UOP’s proprietary catalysts, which make it possible to efficiently adjust the ratio of propylene and ethylene produced so operators can most effectively meet demand for those products.

Jiangsu Sailboat Petrochemical Co., Ltd. is a wholly-owned subsidiary company of Shenghong Holding Group, located in Xuwei new district Industrial Park, Lianyungang City, Jiangsu province. When fully completed, the 500-hectare facility will produce about 2.5 million tons of short-supply high-end petrochemical products annually.
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