Hyundai Oilbank and Lotte Chemical to jointly build petrochemical complex

MOSCOW (MRC) -- South Korea’s major refiner Hyundai Oilbank Co. and petrochemical firm Lotte Chemical Corp. have joined hands to build a heavy-feed petrochemical complex (HPC) at a combined investment of KRW 2.7 trillion (USD 2.5 billion), as per GV.

Hyundai Oilbank CEO Moon Jong-bak and Lotte Chemical CEO Kim Gyo-hyun signed an agreement on Wednesday (9 May 2018) in Seoul to invest additionally in their joint-venture Hyundai Chemical, to construct an HPC on a 500,000 square-meter site at Hyundai Oilbank’s manufacturing plant in Daesan, South Chungcheong Province. The new facility will produce 750,000 t/y of ethylene, 750,000 t/y of polyethylene and 400,000 t/y of propylene.

The business partnership would help Hyundai Oilbank reinforce the vertical integration of its businesses ranging from refining to manufacturing petrochemical products including aromatics and olefins. Lotte Chemical has been bolstering its business around the world by conducting various projects including ethane cracker construction in the U.S. and Central Asia, naphtha business in Southeast Asia and large-scale residue cracking business in Korea.

"The new HPC would improve profitability by KRW 200 billion a year compared to a naphtha cracking center (NCC)," an official from Hyundai Oilbank said. An HPC significantly reduces manufacturing cost by using oil residue compared to an NCC that uses naphtha to produce petrochemical products like polyethylene or polypropylene. An official from Lotte Chemical said Hyundai Oilbank’s strong raw material business and Lotte Chemical’s technology and marketing capabilities would create a huge synergy effect in the business partnership.

Hyundai Chemical plans to initiate the construction of the HPC in the latter half of this year with an aim to start operation at the end of 2021. The companies said they expect the facility would contribute to increasing the nation’s export by KRW 3.8 trillion a year as they plan to sell most of the products manufactured at the facility to the global market.

As MRC informed before, in January 2018, Abu Dhabi National Oil Co signed a three-year agreement with Lotte Chemical Titan (part of Lotte Chemical), one of the largest polyolefin producers in southeast Asia, to sell the Malaysian firm up to 1 million tonnes of naphtha annually.

Lotte Chemical Titan produces Malaysia's most comprehensive portfolio of olefins and polyolefins which contribute to the enhancement of everyday life. Lotte Chemical Titan's production site in Malaysia consists of eleven process facilities, two co-generation plants and three tank farms. They are located on 2 sites in Pasir Gudang and Tanjung Langsat in the state of Johor. In 2006, Lotte Chemical Titan acquired PT Lotte Chemical Titan Nusantara, Indonesia’s first and largest polyethylene plant in the country. This acquisition boosted the polyolefins capacity by approximately 50%, thus making the company one of the largest producers in South East Asia. Lotte Chemical Titan was acquired by Lotte Chemical Corp., forming part of the Lotte conglomerate of Korea, in 2010. The company thus became one of Lotte Chemical Corp.’s largest overseas subsidiaries.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- JBF Group has entered into an arrangement with KKR, an existing financial investor with 20% stake in the company, for restructuring of the equity holding and management structure of JBF Global Pte Limited (Singapore), a subsidiary of JBF Industries Limited. Until now, JBF Global Pte Limited held 100% of JBF Petrochemicals Ltd (under which Mangalore purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant is established) and JBF RAK LLC, as per Indiainfoline.

Following are the highlights of the new arrangement
KKR will hold 51% economic interest whereas JBF Industries Limited will have 49% economic interest, in the PTA business.
KKR will arrange for last mile funding to complete the PTA plant, expected to be completed in 4-5 months’ time.
This arrangement will effectively reduce around USD500mn of debt, on a consolidated basis.
The PTA business is expected to produce a sizeable EBITDA in the first full year of operations.
The above is subject to approval of the lenders to JBF Petrochemicals.
In addition, JBF Industries has entered into discussions with its consortium of lenders for a restructuring of its debt of around Rs2,600cr.
The restructuring process is expected to be completed by August 2018.
The above measures are aimed at deleveraging its balance sheet which is currently burdened with a consolidated debt of ~Rs11,000cr.

JBF has spent over US$700-750mn for its Mangalore PTA plant with a capacity of 1.25 million metric tons. Private equity firm KKR had invested US$150-160mn (~Rs490cr) in December 2015 at Rs300per share, to support the completion of the plant. In addition, JBF had raised external commercial borrowings (ECBs) of USD464mn. However, recommissioning of the plant was delayed due to financial constraint. The plant was expected to produce US$85-90EBITDA/ton and likely to contribute Rs500-600cr to the consolidated EBITDA at 100% capacity utilization.

However, minority shareholders may have little to gain as the company has ceded control of the plant to KKR. Also, cash flows generated from the PTA plant will be used to pay off the debt. Nevertheless, if KKR is able to arrange for the funding and commission the PTA plant, it may lead to an up-move in the stock which can be used as an exit point by the investors.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- France has allowed a limited use of palm oil at Total’s new La Mede biofuel refinery, a move that prompted an outcry from French farmers who said most of the palm oil would be imported, reported Reuters.

The environment ministry said in a statement that Total’s newly granted permit for the refinery specified that at least 25 percent of feedstock used to make the biofuel should come from recycled oil. The rest would come from crude vegetable oils, including palm oil.

Environment Minister Nicolas Hulot, a fierce opponent of palm oil use because it is linked to deforestation, also asked that Total use oils meeting sustainability criteria fixed by the European Commission to protect biodiversity and the environment, the ministry said.

French oilseed producers, whose products are used to make biodiesel in France, strongly condemned the decision to allow the use of mostly imported palm oil, which they stressed was also a big component of recycled oils.

"This decision is incomprehensible. Besides its ecological nonsense, it is a slap in the face of our industry," Arnaud Rousseau, head of French Oilseed Producers (FOP) group, said in a statement.

Total said in 2015 it would halt crude refining at the loss-making La Mede site near Marseille and invest 200 million euros (USD236 million) there to create a biorefinery set to produce 500,000 tonnes of biodiesel per year.

French farmers and environmental activists have expressed strong concerns since then that Total would mainly turn to palm oil, accused of causing deforestation and unfair competition against local vegetable oil, to supply the refinery.

Total committed in a statement to use less than 300,000 tonnes of crude palm oil per year at La Mede out of a total processing capacity of 650,000 tonnes, and to use oils from other plants such as rapeseed, sunflower seed and maize (corn).

As MRC wrote before, in December 2017, Total inaugurated the new units at its Antwerp integrated refining & petrochemicals platform, which haв progressively started up in the past few months of 2017.

Total S.A. is a French multinational oil and gas company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world with business in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia. The company's petrochemical products cover two main groups: base chemicals and the consumer polymers (polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene) that are derived from them.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chemical maker Royal DSM NV has announced plans to increase its global production capacity for its plastics-based fibers and laminates Dyneema products, as per Canplastics.

Strong demand for both Dyneema UD, a unidirectional laminate, and Dyneema-brand fiber is prompting the increase, the company said in a statement.

Dyneema UD is a composite unidirectional laminate that offers energy absorption and enhanced protection. It is available as both a hard and soft ballistic material.

Netherlands-based Royal DSM is investing to install additional new UD technology at its plant in Heerlen, the Netherlands, and its plant in Greenville, N.C., and will also make improvements to existing production lines to expand Dyneema UD and Dyneema fiber capacity.

The global production capacity of Dyneema UD will be increased by more than 20 per cent.

The additional Dyneema UD and Dyneema fiber capacity will become available during 2018 and is due be fully on stream by the first quarter of 2019, Royal DSM said.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- hte - the high throughput experimentation company has been selected by BP to evaluate commercial catalysts for both naphtha reforming and hydrocracking applications using high throughput technology under commercially relevant conditions for its refineries around the world, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

BP selected hte for the evaluation study in order to benchmark commercial naphtha reforming and hydrocracking catalysts and compare their performance against incumbent catalysts. The resulting testing program at hte will provide BP with the data to make selections for its upcoming naphtha reforming and hydrocracking catalyst change-outs. The overall aim of both projects is to measure activity, yields, and stability. In naphtha reforming, these performance parameters will be determined at constant octane operation, whereas in hydrocracking, the catalysts will be tested under various process conditions including the evaluation of product qualities. The two projects will start in the third quarter of 2018.

"We selected hte as a partner for our qualification project because of its reputation in independent catalyst testing and its ability to provide experimental services across the major refining processes," says Belma Demirel, Senior Engineer at BP Refining Technology and Engineering in Naperville, USA.

"We are very pleased to be selected as a partner for independent commercial catalyst testing by BP," says Wolfram Stichert, CEO at hte. "Our focus here is to help refineries to be cost-effective in the catalyst selection process. We are looking forward to continuing our reliable and long-lasting partnership with BP."

As MRC reported earlier, British oil and gas company BP will increase investment in the United States after the lowering of tax rates under President Donald Trump, Chief Executive Bob Dudley said in early February 2018.
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