Indorama Ventures completes acquisition of fabric company Avgol

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Global chemical producer Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited (IVL) has announced that it has completed the acquisition of Israeli nonwoven hygiene fabrics manufacturer Avgol Nonwoven Industries Ltd, as per Calcalistech.

Indorama bought a controlling 66% stake in Avgol from Ethemba and Leumi Partners for NIS 5.88 per share at a company valuation of NIS 1.7 billion/ The sellers recorded more than 100% profit.

Indorama Ventures first announced its agreement to acquire Avgol two months ago. The acquisition is well aligned with IVL’s strategy of pursuing accretive growth opportunities in the high value-added hygiene segment.

Avgol is a leading manufacturer of high-performance nonwovens for hygiene applications serving the global baby diaper, adult incontinence and feminine hygiene markets. Avgol offers a comprehensive range of nonwoven fabrics and has broad expertise in developing and manufacturing customized solutions to address consumer requirements. The company has six production sites globally in Israel, the US, Russia, China and India, with a combined production capacity of 203,000 tonnes/annum, and has around 900 employees worldwide.

The acquisition offers extensive value creation and synergy within Indorama Ventures, including growth opportunities in adjacent segments through the strong innovation pipeline. The addition of Avgol reinforces IVL’s existing leading position in this segment. IVL now offers a full suite of personal hygiene-oriented nonwoven products that best serve customer needs.

Group CEO of Indorama Ventures Group CEO Aloke Lohia said, "Avgol is an excellent complement to the IVL’s HVA portfolio, and brings a unique expertise in high-performance nonwoven. Given their distinctive position and strong reputation in the personal hygiene segment, IVL now have significant presence in this high-growth market, and are well-positioned to capture new growth opportunities."
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. and Prime Polymer Co., Ltd. owned 65 percent by Mitsui Chemicals and 35 percent by Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd. announced today that the Group will establish Mitsui Prime Advanced Composites Europe B.V. in the Netherlands, together with Mitsui & Co., Ltd., as per the company press release.

The new company will be Mitsui Chemicals’ first European production base for polypropylene (PP) compounds in response to growing global demand for automotive-use PP, it is scheduled to start operations in June 2020.

Mitsui Chemicals Group currently operates eight production bases around the world (Japan, the U.S., Mexico, Europe, Thailand, China, India and Brazil) and has five research bases (Japan, the U.S., Europe, Thailand and China) and has continued to enhance its production systems, sales and R&D of high-performance PP compounds, which can be used to help reduce the weight of automobiles.

Recently strengthened environmental regulations have driven an increasing global need for lighter automobiles. As a result, demand for PP compounds is rising each year to meet light-weighting needs in bumpers, instrument panels and more. Mitsui Chemicals Group’s light-weight solutions are well accepted by automobile manufacturers all over the world and the Group expects to see its business expansion in Europe.

By establishing the new company with production, sales, technology service, and R&D function in the Netherlands, the Group reinforce close customer support providing effective light-weight solution in Europe and bolster the Group’s global network.

Mitsui Chemicals Group will continue to strengthen and expand PP compounds business through enhancing production, sales and technology service structure to supply high-quality products, responding to automobile manufacturers’ light-weight needs and their global development.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- DuPont Clean Technologies (DuPont) has signed contracts with Honeywell UOP to provide STRATCO alkylation and MECS Advanced sulfuric acid regeneration (SAR) technologies for the Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company (KIPIC), as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The 9,100 bpsd STRATCO alkylation unit and 70 mtpd MECS Advanced SAR unit were secured for the Petrochemical Refinery Integration Al-Zour (PRIZe) project in Al-Zour, Kuwait.

PRIZe is the largest greenfield refinery ever built and is currently under construction in southern Kuwait. This 615,000 bpsd mega refinery is part of Kuwait’s strategy to reduce sulfur emissions from vehicles and power plants. Startup is targeted for the second quarter of 2022. With the PRIZe project, Kuwait aims to become a major player in the ultra-low sulfur fuel market and plans to increase KNPC’s domestic refining capacity from 0.94 million bpd to 1.42 million bpd.

"With highly innovative technology enhancements, the new STRATCO alkylation and MECS® Advanced SAR units will help KIPIC to fulfill its ambitious target for desulfurization," said Eli Ben-Shoshan, global business director, DuPont Clean Technologies. "This is the first DuPont MECS Advanced SAR license, a technology that delivers low CAPEX, improved OPEX, and best in class emissions to sulfuric acid producers around the world. We are delighted to be supporting KIPIC in making a project that is of such vital importance to Kuwait’s national refining capacity sustainable with our clean air and clean fuel technologies."

The STRATCO alkylation unit will feature the Contactor XP2 technology in the STRATCO Contactor reactors. This innovative, patented reactor enhancement makes extremely effective use of the tube bundle heat transfer area, ensuring the highest quality alkylate product from the MTBE raffinate feedstock.

Licensed and designed by DuPont, the STRATCO alkylation technology is the established global leader in the industry with over 90 units licensed worldwide and more than 850,000 bpsd (33,300 kmta) of installed capacity. For over 80 years, the STRATCO alkylation technology has helped refiners safely produce cleaner-burning fuel with high octane, low Rvp, low sulfur and zero olefins.

The MECS Advanced SAR technology, also licensed and designed by DuPont, is the leading technology for sulfuric acid regeneration in the market and is part of the DuPont suite of MECS MAX3 technologies. This reliable, dry gas technology produces the desired 99.2 wt percent sulfuric acid strength for optimum alkylation unit performance. Reliability and on-stream time are the most important considerations when selecting an SAR technology. The MECS Advanced SAR units are designed for a high on-stream time to avoid disrupting the alkylation unit’s operation and production schedule.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- US refiners will import a record monthly volume of crude from the Caspian region in July after snapping up the cargoes when prices reached near six-year lows, according to market sources and Thomson Reuters shipping data.

The unusually large volume of crude is one of many changes in the international oil trade caused by a flood of U.S. shale oil headed overseas.

Record exports of crude from the United States to Europe and Asia have pushed down the price of comparable oil, such as the crude produced near the Caspian in Kazakhstan and Russia. That oil is pumped through the CPC pipeline and loaded in the Mediterranean.

U.S. East Coast refiners, which rely on crude imports, have bought most of the 3.7 million barrels of CPC crude that will reach the United States in July, according to the Thomson Reuters data.

The East Coast refiners have limited access to the oil produced in the shale fields hundreds of miles away in Texas or North Dakota. They buy additional crude from West Africa, Middle East, and Europe.

That is because U.S. domestic shipping rules can make it more expensive for East Coast refiners to ship crude from the Gulf coast to the northeast than it is to import oil.

East Coast refiners "can get oil cheaper from the Urals than the Eagle Ford," said Kyle Cooper, a consultant for options broker Ion Energy.

During May, the price of CPC Blend crude fell to a six-year discount to Dated Brent BFO-CPC, making it relatively cheaper than West African grades.

Other factors pushed CPC lower. U.S. exports are locked in further in advance than CPC cargoes. As European refiners locked in cheap U.S. supply, there was less demand for CPC when it reached the market.

And East Coast refiners such as Monroe Energy were not the only ones that bought it, market sources said. Valero Energy Corp and Marathon Petroleum Corp also bought the light CPC oil for their Gulf Coast refineries.

Marathon Petroleum declined to comment. Valero and Monroe did not respond to requests for comment.

U.S. refiners purchased about 9.6 million barrels of CPC Blend so far this year, about 10 times as much as for the whole of 2017, flows data showed.

"Most of this (CPC imports) is going to the East Coast because East Coast refineries will refine lighter crudes," said Reid I’Anson, economic analyst at shipping intelligence firm Kpler.

Weekly imports from Nigeria dropped to the lowest in nearly two years in early July while imports from Angola remain near the lowest levels for the year, according to preliminary data from the Energy Information Administration.

Asian refiners have also bought more CPC. South Korea has imported four times more CPC Blend crude to date in 2018 than in the same period last year, as refiners there seek to replace Iranian supplies to comply with U.S. sanctions on Tehran that will kick-in from November.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) – BASF announced the commercial launch of Fourte™, which represents a new generation of Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) catalysts for gasoil feedstock. Fourte is based on BASF’s new multiple framework topology (MFT) technology offering and has been optimized to deliver superior selectivity to butylenes while maintaining catalyst activity, which helps refineries maximize their profits, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

BASF’s innovative MFT technology enhances performance through the use of more than one framework topology that works together to tailor the catalyst selectivity profile. Successful evaluations of the new MFT technology have demonstrated Fourte’s ability to help maximize margins and provide operating flexibility to make more butylenes to feed the alkylation unit. The technology provides an answer to the increased demand for octane since today’s tighter sulfur regulations often requires post-treatment on the gasoline stream, which can negatively impact the octane pool.

"Fourte is the latest addition to BASF’s industry-leading, advanced refinery catalysts portfolio,” said Detlef Ruff, Senior Vice President, Process Catalysts at BASF. “This new technology will provide our customers operating flexibility to make their refineries more profitable."

"The first thing we did on our path to develop Fourte was to listen to our customers," said Jim Chirumbole, Vice President, Refining Catalysts at BASF. “They told us they needed an innovative, flexible solution to help them make more octane for the marketplace, and we are happy to deliver on that need today and into the future."
MRC