Daelim to take off-stream HDPE plant in South Korea for maintenance

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Daelim Industrial is likely to shut its high density polyethylene (HDPE) plant for a maintenance turnaround, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in South Korea informed that the plant is planned to be shut in October 2018 and it is likely to remain off-stream for around 30 days. The exact date of the shutdown could not be confirmed.

Located in Yeosu, South Korea, the plant has a production capacity of 270,000 mt/year.

As MRC reported earier, Daelim Industrial took off-stream its HDPE plant in Yeosu for a turnaround in November 2016. The maintenance lasted for about 15-20 days. But the exact date of the shutdown were not confirmed.

Daelim Industrial was established in 1939, and its E&C (Engineering & Construction) and Petrochemical Groups are the main lead of the Daelim Business Conglomerate (Chaebol). The fields covered by Daelim Industrial as one of the top EPC Company in Asia to the Middle East include gas, petroleum refining, chemical and petrochemical, power and energy plants, building and housing, civil works, and industrial facilities. Daelim Group has 17 subsidiary companies under its umbrella which includes Daelim Industrial (Construction Division), Daelim Industrial (Petrochemical Division), etc.
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Chinese producers have been traditionally the key foreign PVC suppliers for the past several years. Imports of acetylene resin from China were virtually absent in July, whereas 2,100 tonnes were shipped a month earlier. At the same time, it should be noted that June deliveries of Russian companies were agreed back in late March. Overall imports of resin from China were 10,900 tonnes in January-July 2018, compared to 37,100 tonnes a year earlier.

A slight surge in imports of acetylene PVC is expected in August.

Weaker domestic demand and the weakening of the rouble against the dollar allowed Russian producers to increase their export sales. July exports dropped to 3,900 tonnes (excluding deliveries to the countries of the Customs Union) from 11,800 tonnes a month earlier. 70,200 tonnes of SPVC were shipped for export in January-July 2018, compared to 53,400 tonnes a year earlier.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Celanese Corporation, a global specialty materials company, has increased August list and off-list selling prices for Vinyl Acetate Ethylene (EVA) emulsions sold in China and Asia Outside China (AOC), as per the company's press release.

The price increases below are for orders shipped and are effective as of 9 August, or as contracts otherwise allow, and are incremental to any previously announced increases.

Thus, Celanese raised list and off-list selling prices for VAM by RMB200/mt for China and USD50/mt for AOC.

As MRC reported earlier, Celanese last increased its prices for VAM sold in Asia on 15 June, 2018, as follows:

- by RMB200/mt for China and USD50/mt for AOC.

Celanese Corporation is a global technology leader in the production of differentiated chemistry solutions and specialty materials used in most major industries and consumer applications. Based in Dallas, Celanese employs approximately 7,600 employees worldwide and had 2017 net sales of USD6.1 billion.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc is restarting a heavy oil hydrocracker at its 209,787 barrel per day (bpd) refinery in Convent, Louisiana, said sources familiar with plant operations, reported Reuters.

The 45,000 bpd hydrocracker, called the H-Oil Unit, was shut earlier on Sunday after a fire, the sources said.

"No injuries, no offsite impact," said Shell spokesman Ray Fisher.

The fire broke out at about 1:30 a.m. (0630 GMT) on Sunday, the sources said.

The H-Oil Unit is an atypical hydrocracker because it converts residual crude oil into motor fuels, especially diesel. Residual crude is normally processed by coking units.

Hydrocrackers use hydrogen and a catalyst under high heat and pressure to produce motor fuels, usually starting with gas oil as a feedstock.

As MRC wrote before, in May 2018, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) and Shell Nanhai B.V. (Shell) announced the official start-up of the second ethylene cracker at their Nanhai petrochemicals complex in Huizhou, Guangdong Province, China. The new ethylene cracker increases ethylene capacity at the complex by around 1.2 million tonnes per year, more than doubling the capacity of the complex, and benefits from a deep integration with adjacent CNOOC refineries. The new facility will also include a styrene monomer and propylene oxide (SMPO) plant, which will be the largest in China when it begins operations.

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

MOSCOW (MRC) -- State-run Oil India Ltd (OIL) has posted a 56% increase in net profit to Rs 7.03 billion for the first quarter of the financial year 2018-19, compared to Rs 4.5 billion during the same period last year, owing to better crude realisation, as per Business-standard.

The company's total income for the April-June quarter of the current financial year also increased 42 per cent from Rs 24.85 billion during the first quarter of 2017-18 to Rs 35.17 billion. The rise in net profit was mainly owing to better crude realisation, which increased by USD23.59 a barrel to USD72 a barrel during the first quarter of the current financial year, as against USD48.41 a barrel. On the other hand, average natural gas price realisation during the first quarter was USD3.06 per million metric British thermal unit (mmBtu) as compared to USD2.48 per mmBtu during the first quarter of 2017-18.

Crude oil production for the quarter under review remained static at last year's level of 0.844 million tonnes (MT). However, natural gas production declined by 3.87 per cent to 696 million metric standard cubic meter (MMSCM) as compared to 724 MMSCM during the first quarter of 2017-18 due to short upliftment by certain consumers.

During the recently concluded ninth round of city gas distribution (CGD) bidding conducted by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB), a consortium of Oil India, Assam Gas Company and GAIL Gas was allotted two geographical areas — covering Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj Districts and Kamrup and Kamrup Metropolitan Districts — in the state of Assam.

The company has also formed a joint venture, named Indradhanush Gas Grid, partnering with Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Indian Oil Corporation, GAIL and Numaligarh Refinery, with equal equity contribution, to construct Gas Grid infrastructure covering 1,450 kilometres of pipeline to connect eight North-Eastern States from Guwahati.
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