Chinese September refinery output hits record daily high

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China’s refinery throughput hit a record daily high in September as some independent plants restarted operations after prolonged shutdowns over summer to shore up inventories amid better fuel demand and robust margins, reported Reuters with reference to data.

China’s crude oil throughout rose to 12.49 million barrels per day (bpd) in September, up from 11.85 million bpd in August, according to Reuters calculations based on National Bureau of Statistics data.

The higher processing rate came as China raised its crude oil imports to a four-month high.

Year-to-date processing volumes rose 8.1 percent on a year earlier to 452.54 million tonnes, or 12.1 million bpd, the data showed.

China’s September domestic crude oil production fell 2.4 percent on a year earlier to 15.18 million tonnes, or 3.69 million bpd, according to the data.

Output in the first nine months came in at 141.13 million tonnes, down 1.9 percent from a year earlier. That equates to 3.77 million bpd.

Refinery output is expected to rise further in the fourth quarter as several state refiners resume operations after scheduled major overhauls.

These include PetroChina’s 130,000-bpd Daqing refinery in the northeast and the newly upgraded 200,000-bpd Huabei plant.

Natural gas production rose 8.5 percent in September from a year earlier to 12.2 billion cubic meters (bcm). Output for the year to date was 116.2 bcm, up 6.2 percent.

PetroChina has stepped up drilling at top gas field Changqing, which makes up about a quarter of the national total, and is aiming for record output this year to help meet a winter demand spike.
MRC

SIBUR Tobolsk resumed PP production

MOSCOW (Market Report) - SIBUR Tobolsk, which is part of SIBUR, and is the largest polypropylene producer in the CIS, has resumed its production of PP after a scheduled maintenance works, according to the ICIS-MRC Price Report.

As the plant's customers' said the outage began on 23 October. The scheduled maintenance works was the second this year for the Tobolsk producer. Maintenance works lasted three weeks. The plant's annual production capacity is 500,000 tonnes.

It is also worth noting that at the end of last week, Ufaorgsintez begun resumption of the production after a month long scheduled maintenances. The company's clients said, the resumption of the production to the full capacity utilisation at the Ufa producer was quite long, the first shipments of polypropylene are scheduled for Wednesday - Thursday. Thus, the resumption of PP production at SIBUR Tobolsk from maintenances was the last in the October series of the turnarounds.

Poliom and Stavrolen shut their capacities for scheduled maintenances for 10 days and 7 days, respectively.

SIBUR Tobolsk operates as a subsidiary of Public Joint-Stock Company SIBUR Holding. The production facilities of SIBUR Tobolsk include a central gas fractionation unit for processing a broad fraction of light hydrocarbons with a capacity of 8 mln tonnes per year, production of monomers for the production of liquefied hydrocarbon gases, butadiene, isobutylene, and methyl tert-butyl ether; production of polymers for the production of polypropylene with a capacity of 500,000 tonnes per year.

MRC

PP production in Russia up by 2.2% in January-September 2018

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russia's overall production of polypropylene (PP) fell in January-September 2018 by 2.2% year on year, totalling about 1.073 mln tonnes. At the same time, only three Russian producers from seven ones increased their PP output, according to MRC ScanPlast report.

September output of polypropylene by local producers decreased to 118,800 tonnes against 125,100 tonnes a month earlier, the most decrease accounted for Ufaorgsintez’s shutdown. Russia's overall PP production reached 1.073 mln tonnes in the first nine months of 2018, compared to 1.050,200 tonnes a year earlier. Only Neftekhimiya, Poliom and Ufaorgsintez managed to increase production figures.

The structure of PP production by plants looked the following way over the stated period.

Sibur Tobolsk kept capacity utilisation in September at the high level, total polypropylene production reached 45,600 tonnes, which virtually corresponded to the figure a month earlier. The Tobolsk plant's total PP production reached 365,200 tonnes in the first nine months of 2018, down by 2% year on year. The decline in production was a result of an early shutdown in prevention this year.

Poliom (Titan Group) last month produced about 18,000 tonnes of polypropylene, compared with 19,400 tonnes in August. Total PP production at the plant over the reported period was about 165,900 tonnes, up 3% year on year.

Nizhnekamskneftekhim produced 18,300 tonnes of propylene polymers in September versus 18,800 tonnes a month earlier. Total polymer output at Nizhnekamskneftekhim in January-September was practically at the level of last year - about 160,700 tonnes.


Tomskneftekhim produced about 11,900 tonnes of propylene polymers last month against 8,300 tonnes in August, the low indicator of in the last month of the summer was caused by the scheduled maintenance works. The Tomsk plant's PP output reached 103,700 tonnes in the first nine months of 2018, compared to 105,000 tonnes a year earlier.

Ufaorgsintez's PP output fell to 6,200 tonnes in September from 11,300 tonnes a month earlier, the producer shut down its production capacities for a month long turnaround on 20 September. Overall output of polymer at the Ufa plant rose to 94,700 tonnes in January-September 2018, compared to 91,900 tonnes a year earlier.

Neftekhimiya (Kapotnya) last month produced about 9,400 tonnes of PP, compared with 11,900 tonnes in August. The plant's overall PP output reached 99,100 tonnes over the stated period, up 30% year on year. A low indicator of the current year was a result of a long scheduled maintenance works in March-April.

Stavrolen (LUKOIL) produced 9,500 tonnes of propylene polymers in the country compared with 9,800 tonnes in August. Overall production of propylene polymers at the Budenovsk plant reached 83,600 tonnes in the first nine months of 2018, which practically corresponded to the figure a year earlier.


MRC

Merck opened packaging centre in Darmstadt

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Merck recently celebrated the opening of its new packaging center at the science and technology company’s headquarters in Darmstadt, Germany, as per Businessfacilities.

"Darmstadt is our prime hub for the manufacturing of medicines and it plays a key role in our plans for future growth,” said Stefan Oschmann, Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO of Merck. “This latest investment in a new state-of-the-art packaging center reflects our commitment to our headquarters and is a compelling example of how we use the latest technological advances to always better serve our patients."

The new 161,458-square-foot facility will be dedicated to the packaging and shipping of Merck’s current portfolio of pharma medicines in more than 90 countries and help meet increasing patient needs for flagship medicines Glucophage®, Concor and Euthyrox in the areas of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and thyroid disorders respectively. It will also provide capacity for potential future pharma products currently in clinical development such as evobrutinib in the area of neurology-immunology or tepotinib in the area of oncology.

With its eight fully automated packaging lines and robotized logistics, the new packaging center will have the capacity to process more than 210 million boxes of medicines every year. It is designed to incorporate a broad range of new technologies such as the tracking and tracing of medicines to prevent counterfeit, or smart packaging to ensure more flexibility to adapt the production of medicines to patient demand. The new packaging center is also designed to comply with the highest international standards in terms of quality, environment, health and safety.

The new pharma packaging center represents an investment of USD73 million over the 2015-2018 period and is part of a wider USD1 billion investment up to 2020 transforming the Darmstadt site into contemporary global headquarters.
MRC

HDPE plant taken off-stream by Shanghai Golden Phillips

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Shanghai Golden Phillips Petrochemical Co has shut a high density polyethylene (HDPE) plant for a maintenance turnaround, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the company has halted operations at its plant over the weekend. The plant is likely to be brought on-stream in mid-November 2018.

Located in Shanghai, China, the HDPE plant has a production capacity of 135,000 mt/year.

As MRC reported earlier, the company shut down its HDPE plant in Shanghai from end-May to 13 June, 2017, owing to a lack of feedstock availability.

Besides, it was taken off-stream for a turnaround from 14 August to 12 September, 2018.

China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group) is a super-large petroleum and petrochemical enterprise group established in July 1998 on the basis of the former China Petrochemical Corporation. Sinopec Group's key business activities include the exploration and production of oil and natural gas, petrochemicals and other chemical products, oil refining.
MRC