Schneider electric improves time to production

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Schneider Electric, the leader in the digital transformation of energy management and automation, released EcoStruxure Field Device Expert, an application that improves how engineers commission, configure and maintain field devices throughout the lifecycle of the plant, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Field Device Expert’s Intelligent Commissioning Wizard completely automates detection, configuration, commissioning and testing of HART field instrumentation connected to an EcoStruxure Foxboro distributed control system (DCS). Automatic binding and configuration of HART devices has been shown to reduce commissioning schedules by more than 75 percent, leading to faster time to profit.

Traditional, manual device commissioning methodology is manpower intensive, making it error-prone, time-consuming and expertise dependent. By automating the configuration and commissioning process, Field Device Expert drastically changes automation project execution by minimizing hardware dependencies and custom engineering and offers more flexibility in the design, timing and sequence of activities. For example, with traditional commissioning methods, it can take up to 50 minutes to configure each asset. Field Device Expert’s Intelligent Commissioning Wizard shortens that time to 15 minutes, which is a 70 percent reduction. Once the plant is operating, Field Device Expert continues to ease field device configuration and condition monitoring throughout the plant lifecycle which means restarts?like those that occur after a maintenance turnaround or any shutdown?are also faster and easier.

As part of Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure architecture and platform, Field Device Expert improves efficiency, safety, productivity and profitability. EcoStruxure is Schneider Electric’s open, interoperable, IoT-enabled system architecture and platform and delivers enhanced value around safety, reliability, efficiency, sustainability and connectivity.
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MOSCOW (MRC) - Mexican conglomerate Alfa said that its net profit more than doubled in the second quarter compared to the year-earlier period, helped by a record quarter at its petrochemicals unit Alpek, as per Reuters.

Alfa, which has units in industries such as food packaging and car parts, said net profit was 3.59 billion pesos (USD180 million) between April and June, compared to 1.37 billion pesos last year. Revenue rose 19 percent to 93.7 billion pesos.

The results were helped by petrochemicals unit Alpek, which benefited from higher oil and raw materials prices, as well as the consolidation of Brazil’s Petroquimica Suape and Citepe, the company said.

Alpek’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) hit a record high, according to the company.

Earlier this year, the company said it had teamed up with Thailand’s Indorama Ventures (IVL.BK) and Taiwan’s Far Eastern to buy a chemical plant in Corpus Christi, Texas, as well as other assets.

Alfa said it was in the process of getting government approvals for the operation.

As MRC informed before, in late December 2016m, Petrobras said its board had approved the sale of two petrochemical companies, Petroquimica Suape and Citepe, to Mexico's Alpek SAB de CV for USD385 million.

Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Petrobras is an integrated energy firm. Petrobras' activities include exploration, exploitation and production of oil from reservoir wells, shale and other rocks as well as refining, processing, trade and transport of oil and oil products, natural gas and other fluid hydrocarbons, in addition to other energy-related activities.

Alpek is the petrochemicals unit of Mexican conglomerate Alfa.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- DowDuPont Inc said it expects higher raw material costs to hit all its units for the rest of the year even as an uptick in its agriculture business helped the U.S. chemicals producer beat Street estimates for the fourth straight quarter, as per the company's press release.

"We see some discrete headwinds, most notably currency fluctuations, particularly in agriculture, and higher raw materials costs in all three divisions," Chief Financial Officer Howard Ungerleider said.

Dow and DuPont completed their USD130 billion merger last September to form DowDuPont. It will create three separately traded companies next year, splitting into companies that look at agriculture, plastics and specialty products.

On a conference call with analysts, CEO Ed Breen said trade tensions have increased volatility in agricultural commodity prices.

"U.S. soybean exports that normally go to China are simply being shifted to other countries."

Last month, Washington imposed tariffs on USD34 billion of Chinese imports. In return, China levied taxes on the same value of products from the United States, including soybeans and sorghum. Traders rushed shipments of U.S. soy to China before the tariff took effect on July 6.

However, the company, which has global operations and often sources materials locally, does not expect any tariff-related impact on overall business this year.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Shenhua Ningxia Coal Industry Group (SNCG), a subsidiary of Shenhua Group, one of the largest petrochemical producers in China, has shut one of its two polypropylene (PP) units for a maintenance turnaround, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source informed that the company has halted operations at the unit on August 2, 2018. The unit is likely to restart in mid-August, 2018.

Located at Ningxia province of China, the PP plant comprising of two units have a production capacity of 200,000 mt/year each.

As MRC informed earlier, on March 29, 2018, SNCG restarted its HDPE/LLDPE swing plant following an unplanned outage. The plant was shut on March 1, 2018 on account of the fire occcured in ethylene tank on February 28, 2018. Located at Ningxia province of China, the HDPE/LLDPE swing plant has a production capacity of 450,000 mt/year.

Shenhua Ningxia Coal Industry Group Co., Ltd. engages in coal mining and washing, coal deep processing, coal chemical industry, electric power, real estate, and other businesses.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Bharat Petroleum Corp will shut its 120,000 barrels-per-day (Mbpd) joint venture Bina refinery from mid-August for 45 days, a month ahead of the previous plan after a minor fire at the delayed coker, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing with reference to two sources.

The refiner has shut the delayed coker after a fire during the weekend and has decided to advance the September shutdown, one of the sources said. The sources did not wish to be identified as they are not authorized to speak to media.

During the 45-day shutdown, BPCL will carry out modifications at various units to raise the capacity of the plant to 156 Mbpd

BPCL’s head of refineries R. Ramachandran did not respond to calls from Reuters seeking comment.

The Bina refinery is operated by Bharat Oman Refineries Ltd (BORL), a 50-50 joint venture between Oman Oil Co and state-run BPCL.
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