Covestro launches online store on Alibaba

MOSCOW (MRC) -- As part of its digitalisation strategy, leading German speciality chemicals supplier Covestro AG has started cooperation with Chinese internet giant Alibaba, as per Plasticsnewseurope.

The company announced 23 April that it is now offering its polymer materials in a flagship store on 1688.com, an online platform of Alibaba. The link covestrochina.1688.com will offer high-tech material polycarbonate as well as pre-products for polyurethane foams, coatings and adhesives.

The platform is the biggest online business-to-business marketplace in China. The Chinese economy, said the Leverkusen-based materials supplier, has shown “tremendous progress” in innovation and digitalisation over the recent years.

"Digitalisation rapidly changes customer needs and preferences and offers new business opportunities, especially in the fast-growing Chinese economy," said Markus Steilemann, Chief Commercial Officer and future CEO of Covestro.

According to Steilemann, China plays an important role for Covestro, not only in terms of market size but also with regard to innovation in relevant markets and technologies. "With the launch of an online store on Alibaba we follow our strategy by innovating our business models in close cooperation with our customers," he added.

The main goal of the online launch, added Covestro, is to give customers an "efficient purchasing experience".

"We want to make the customer experience more convenient and efficient. Particularly in a market like China, which is at the forefront of digitalisation, we need to be where the customers are," added Xiaobin Zhong, head of commercial operations for the coatings, adhesives and specialties business of Covestro in the Asia Pacific region.

As a start, Covestro will offer around 50 products on 1688.com. The second wave of products to launch, said Covestro, is already being planned. The company expects online commerce to contribute up to €1bn in accumulated sales by the end of 2019.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chinese private chemical producer Hengli Group has won state approval to import 400 Mbpd crude oil, the largest quota ever for a private refiner, as it challenges the country's smaller independent plants in an oversupplied Chinese fuel market, as per Reuters.

The group's listed unit Hengli Petrochemical said in an exchange filing late on Thursday that the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the state economic planner, had approved the quota.

The firm aims to start trial runs in October at a newly built refinery in the northeastern port city of Dalian that will be among the five biggest refineries in China. "We will start using our quota this year," said a senior Hengli official, who declined to be identified because he was authorized to speak to the media. "We hope to get enough allowances for the refinery to start trial operations in October."

Another private chemical firm, Zhejiang Ronsheng Group, is also expected to start operating a new 400 Mbpd refinery in the eastern city of Zhoushan later this year. The additional production capacity in China is likely to add to pressure on the country's small, independent, or "teapot", refineries, which are vulnerable to increased competition because of their modest output. Many "teapot" refineries produce less than 100 Mbpd.

"Hengli's world-class scale, sophisticated refinery configuration that favors high-end petrochemicals and its location means it will be a killer competitor to teapots," said Harry Liu. With the government stepping up scrutiny over their tax and environmental practices, Liu predicted some of the smaller of the independents close in the next two years as a result of the competition.

Hengli started as a small chemical fiber maker and operates a 6.6 million tonnes per year plant making purified terephthalic acid (PTA), the world's largest. PTA is a feedstock for producing polyester.

Although the NDRC grants approval for quotas, the Commerce Ministry determines how much of a quota can be put to use. "For next year, we are confident of getting 20 million tonnes of allowances from the government," the senior Hengli official said.

He said the refinery's two crude distillation units (CDU) are designed to process 30 percent of Saudi Arabia's Arab Medium crude, 60 percent of Saudi Heavy and 10 percent Qatar Marine crude. The company has recently applied for a quota to export fuel oil.

The senior Hengli official and another company official said Hengli would market its refined fuel to state-owned Sinopec and PetroChina, as well as independent wholesalers and distributors. There is no near-term plan to build its own retailing network because of the cost.

In January, Hengli signed a framework deal with state-run Sinochem Group to cooperate on imports of crude oil and the marketing of refined fuel.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- CB&I announced it has been awarded an ethylene technology contract by Lianyungang Petrochemical Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Zhejiang Satellite Petrochemical Co., Ltd. CB&I's scope of work includes a process design package, heater engineering and technology license for two ethylene plants with a capacity of 1,250 kta each at Lianyungang's petrochemical facility in Jiangsu Province, China, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

This design will utilize CB&I's market-leading, low-cost ethane cracker flowsheet which reduces investment costs by eliminating plant equipment. Once complete, these will be China's first ethylene plants to crack 100 percent ethane feed, signifying a new wave of ethylene projects fed by shale gas ethane sourced from the U.S. Currently, all large ethylene plants in China crack mixed feeds or liquid feeds.

"CB&I is already a leading technology provider for the Chinese petrochemical industry," said Daniel M. McCarthy, CB&I's Executive Vice President of Technology. "Being the first company to license a unit in this new wave of ethane-only cracker projects in China not only enhances our business in the region, it puts CB&I in a better position to win future awards in the market."
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- As part of its strategy to secure and make the hydrogen supply to its refineries more efficient, Petroleos Mexicanos entered into a partnership with the German company Linde for the supply of hydrogen gas to the Francisco I. Madero refinery in Ciudad Madero, in the state of Tamaulipas, on a long-term basis, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

This will ensure both companies combine forces. On one hand, Linde will make an investment of around 40 million dollars for the joint operation of the hydrogen plant, which has the capacity to produce 42 million cubic feet of gas per day.

Petroleos Mexicanos, on its part, will provide the totality of the operating structure; the company has highly-qualified personnel with wide-ranging experience in the refining field, mainly of whom live in the region.

As is the case with many refining companies worldwide, with this agreement Pemex Transformacion Industrial entrusts its hydrogen supply to a highly-specialized, widely recognized company such as Linde, which will increase the operating reliability of Pemex as a whole, reduce the number of unscheduled shutdowns, and increase the company’s savings.

Linde is a pioneer in the field of hydrogen production technology development and currently operates over 120 production plants in the world.

Thus, both companies strengthen their existing commercial bond, as Linde has supplied nitrogen for the Cantarell production field, located in the Campeche region, for many years now.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Russia's production of high density polyethylene (HDPE) was about 237,700 tonnes in January-March 2018, down 0.3% year on year, according to MRC ScanPlast.

March production of HDPE in Russia increased to 83,100 tonnes, whereas a month earlier this figure did not exceed 73,500 tonnes; Kazanorgsintez and Stavrolen increased capacity utilisation. Overall HDPE production reached 237,700 tonnes in the first three months of 2018, compared to 238,400 tonnes a year earlier. The growth in production volumes at Gazprom neftekhim Salavat and Stavrolen failed to compensate for the significant reduction in output from Nizhnekamskneftekhim.

The structure of HDPE production by plants looked the following way over the stated period.
Russia's March HDPE production at Kazanorgsintez increased to 46,900 tonnes from 41,200 tonnes a month earlier. The Kazan plant's overall HDPE production was 132,900 tonnes in January-March 2018, which practically corresponded to the last year's figure.

Stavrolen also increased output of HDPE last month, the final figure exceeded 27,000 tonnes against 23,300 tonnes in February. The plant's HDPE output reached 76,300 tonnes in January-March 2018, up 4% year on year.
Gazprom neftekhim Salavat cut capacity utilisation and March HDPE production at the plant reached about 8,700 tonnes, compared with 9,000 tonnes in February. Total HDPE production at the plant reached 28,000 tonnes in January-March 2018, up 28% year on year.

Nizhnekamskneftekhim in the beginning of November last year, switched to the production of linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) and only on the last day of March began production of HDPE. Thus, the production of this polyethylene in the first three months was not actually carried out.


MRC