PS plant to be brought on-stream by DFE Chemical

MOSCOW (MRC) -- DFE Chemical is likely to restart its polystyrene (PS) plant following an unplanned shutdown, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in the Philippines informed that the company is expected to restart production in the second half of June 2018. The plant was shut owing to shortage of feedstock in second half of May 2018.

Located in Manila, the Philippines, the plant has a production capacity of 30,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote before, on 2 April 2018, DFE Chemical restarted its PS plant in Manila following a maintenance turnaround. The plant was shut for maintenance in mid-December 2017.
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MOSCOW (MRC) - Oil and gas major Total said that 3.5 percent of its petrol stations in France had run out of fuel on the second day of a blockade of refineries and fuel depots by farmers that has disrupted distribution, as per Reuters.

Farmers are protesting against France's decision to allow Total to use imported palm oil at a biofuel plant, which would compete with biodiesel made from locally produced oilseed crops, further souring relations between the EU's biggest farm sector and the government of President Emmanuel Macron.

The blockade now concerned a total of 18 refineries and depots across France, and would continue until the farm minister agreed to some of the farmers' demands, said the FNSEA, the country's largest farm union, which is organizing the protests.

"It is really an alarm call that 3,000 farmers on 18 blocked sites have sent out to say, please listen to us and take up this message at a European level," FNSEA President Christiane Lambert said after meeting Agriculture Minister Stephane Travert.

"The negotiation is not over, we do not have what we want. But by mutual agreement we decided to meet again at the end of the day to move forward on our claims," she added.

Total, which operates 2,200 petrol stations and five of France's seven refineries and nine depots, said the depots and four refineries were still blocked. The refineries were still operating.

"There are some difficulties in supplying petrol stations particularly in Paris and the Ile-de-France region," a Total spokesman said.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sinopec Zhenhai Refining & Chemical Company plans has restarted its 620,000 mt/year styrene monomer (SM) plant at Zhenhai in eastern China's Zhejiang province June 10, following planned maintenance, as per Apic-online.

The plant was taken offline April 21, in line with planned maintenance at its upstream naphtha-fed steam cracker over the same period.

The cracker is able to produce 1 million mt/year of ethylene, 550,000 mt/year of propylene and 180,000 mt/year of butadiene.

As MRC informed before, on 2 January, 2018, Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical took off-stream a high density polyethylene (HDPE) plant owing to technical issues. Further details of duration of shutdown could not be ascertained. Located at Shanghai in China, the plant has a production capacity of 250,000 mt/year.

China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, or Sinopec Limited is a Chinese oil and gas company based in Beijing, China. It is listed in Hong Kong and also trades in Shanghai and New York . Sinopec is the worlds fifth biggest company by revenue.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mexico’s Pemex said that a fire at its Minatitlan refinery was under control and the plants were operating normally, as per Reuters.

The state-run oil company said the fire at its facilities in the southern state of Veracruz had been put out by 7 a.m. There were no injuries, the company added.

Pemex said it would investigate the cause of the incident.

As MRC informed earlier, in November 2015, Fluor Corp. announced that ICA Fluor, its industrial engineering and construction joint venture with Empresas ICA, had signed a contract with Pemex to supply detail engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services for the utilities and offsites that are part of the Tula refinery upgrade at Hidalgo, Mexico. The total contract value is USD1.1 billion.

Pemex, Mexican Petroleum, is a Mexican state-owned petroleum company. Pemex has a total asset worth of USD415.75 billion, and is the world's second largest non-publicly listed company by total market value, and Latin America's second largest enterprise by annual revenue as of 2009. Company produces such polymers, as polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS).
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Celanese Corporation, a global specialty materials company, has announced it will increase the price for Vinyl Acetate Ethylene (EVA) emulsions sold in Europe, as per the company's press release.

The price increase of EUR100/mt is for orders shipped on or after June 15, 2018.

Celanese has also increased list and off-list selling prices for Vinyl Acetate Monomer (VAM) sold in China and Asia Outside China (AOC) by RMB200/mt for China and USD50/mt for AOC.

As MRC reported earlier, Celanese raised its June prices for VAM sold in Europe, Middle East, Africa and the Americas, as follows:

- by EUR150/mt - for Europe, Middle East & Africa;
- by USD0.05/lb - for the USA and Canada:
- by USD150/mt - for Mexico & South America.

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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