Belarus state oil firm says Novopolotsk refinery short on clean oil

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Belarus state oil firm Belneftekhim said in a statement on Saturday that not enough clean oil is available for the Novopolotsk refinery to work at its optimal capacity, after contaminated oil was received via the Russian Druzhba pipeline, reported Reuters.

Belneftekhim also said the Belarussian operator Gomeltransneft Druzhba had informed Russia’s Transneft of its readiness to increase volumes of pumped oil in response.

As MRC wrote previously, The Russian energy ministry said that clean Russian crude oil meeting all quality requirements had arrived at the Mozyr refinery in Belarus, after contaminated crude led it to halt flows in the pipeline in early May.
MRC

MOSOCW (MRC) - Negotiations on European polyvinyl chloride (PVC) prices for May delivery into the CIS markets were actively conducted last week. Higher feedstock prices made European producers raise their export prices for third time, according to ICIS-MRC Price Report.

The May contract price of ethylene was agreed up by EUR30/tonne from April, which presupposes the increase in PVC production costs in the region by EUR15/tonne. The rising cost of raw materials was the main reason for the rise in export prices of PVC from European producers in the last three months.

European producers announced price increases of EUR10-25/tonne for the May shipments to the markets of the CIS countries. Demand for PVC has remained weak from the main consumers in the CIS countries for several months due to seasonal factors and sufficient supply of PVC was supplied by national producers. Also in favour of domestic PVC was the fact that local raw materials are cheaper than European ones.

Some European producers still have had restrictions on export shipments since March because of the upcoming shutdowns for maintenance, but given the current low demand for imported PVC, such restrictions are not critical.
Deals for May shipments of suspension polyvinyl chloride (SPVC) to the CIS markets were negotiated in the range of EUR720-805/tonne FCA, whereas last month's deals were done in the range of EUR710-785/tonne FCA.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- After being shut down since early May, Japan's Mitsui Chemicals had restart its Ichihara naphtha cracker by May 12, reported Reuters.

The unexpected shutdown of the firm's 612,000 tonnes per year (tpy) cracker came as several other crackers in Japan and South Korea were either undergoing or about to start scheduled maintenance.

These include Hanwha Total Petrochemical's 1 million tpy cracker, which has been shut since April and is not expected to resume operations until June.

Asia's naphtha market has been persistently weak due to ample supplies.

The Asian naphtha crack for instance at USD37.60 a tonne on Wednesday was the lowest since Feb. 14 this year.

As MRC informed previously, Mitsui Chemicals took its naphtha-fed steam cracker in Sakai off-stream for a maintenance turnaround in mid-June 2018. It remained under maintenance until end-July 2018. Located in Sakai, Japan, the cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 500,000 mt/year and propylene production capacity of 280,000 mt/year.

Mitsui Chemicals is a leading manufacturer and supplier of value added specialty chemicals, plastics and materials for the automotive, healthcare, packaging, agricultural, building, and semiconductor and electronics markets. Mitsui Chemicals is a Japanese Chemicals company, a part of the Mitsui conglomerate. The company has a turnover of around 15 billion USD and has business interests in Japan, Europe, China, Southeast Asia and the USA. The company mainly deals in performance materials, petro and basic chemicals and functional polymeric materials.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Evonik is reorganizing its business for high-performance polymers within the polyamide group, according to the company's press release.

The specialty chemicals company has already begun construction of a new polyamide 12 (PA 12) facility complex and is expanding its production of transparent polyamides at the Marl Chemical Park, and, in so doing, is concentrating its activities on high-performance materials for attractive growth markets such as the automotive, oil and gas, 3D printing, and optics industries. As part of the reorganization process, Evonik will withdraw entirely from the polyphthalamide (PPA) business at the Witten site.

"Reorganizing our polyamide business will concentrate our production and innovative strengths on specialty materials for promising applications in attractive markets such as lightweight construction, additive manufacturing, and composites. This, in turn, will give us a solid foundation for continuous growth," says Dr. Ralf Dussel, the head of the High Performance Polymers Business Line at Evonik. "For our customers, the move will mean a more intense focus on developing sophisticated specialty solutions."

Evonik’s roughly EUR400 million investment in Germany will increase the company’s overall capacity for PA 12 by over 50 percent. The project will complement existing PA 12 production at the Marl Chemical Park in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with additional plants for the polymer and its precursors. The facility complex is scheduled to go on stream in the first half of 2021.

At the same time, Evonik will also be expanding production of transparent polyamides in Marl. Production expansion is slated for completion in the first quarter of 2020. The change will double the specialty chemicals company’s overall capacity for the high-performance material.

In another step in the process of reorganizing its polyamide business, Evonik will be discontinuing the production and sale of polyphthalamide at its Witten site by the end of the first quarter of 2020. Evonik will transfer employees from the PPA plant to its Marl site, where they will work at the new PA 12 production plant.

"As we focus our marketing activities on high-performance polymers, we will be utilizing internal synergies to accommodate our long-serving Witten employees with secure jobs at the new polyamide 12 production facility in Marl, where we will be able to draw upon their decades of proven experience in polymer production and compounding," says Dr. Iordanis Savvopoulos, Head of the Product Line Granules & Compounds at Evonik.

Evonik currently employs almost 300 people in Witten. The specialty chemicals company operates several production facilities for the production of organic substances on the approximately 16-hectare site which is one of the major production sites of raw materials for the paints, coatings and adhesives industry. In 2018, the group’s new production plant for specialty copolyesters at the Witten site went on stream.

Biobased polymers from the Terra series remain in the business portfolio and will continue to complement Evonik’s now reorganized range of high-performance polymers.

Evonik has over 50 years of experience in developing and manufacturing high-performance plastics. The company’s comprehensive product portfolio encompasses solutions for virtually any industrial application.

We remind that, as MRC informed earlier, in June 2018, the technology company The Linde Group and the specialty chemicals company Evonik Industries concluded an exclusive cooperation agreement on the use of membranes for natural gas processing. The two companies will jointly promote membrane technology - Evonik on the membrane and polymer side and Linde’s Engineering Division as the system integrator for the complete membrane package units. Evonik’s established membrane technology will serve as the basis.

Evonik, the creative industrial group from Germany, is one of the world leaders in specialty chemicals. Its activities focus on the key megatrends health, nutrition, resource efficiency and globalization. Evonik benefits specifically from its innovative prowess and integrated technology platforms. Evonik is active in over 100 countries around the world.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- India's Chennai Petroleum Corp said it would shut a diesel hydrotreater at its 210,000 barrel-per-day Manali refinery in Tamil Nadu for about 60 days from August, for a revamp to produce Euro-VI compliant diesel, said Reuters.

The company is also installing a gasoline desulfurizer to reduce sulfur content in the gasoline produced from fluidized catalytic cracker, the company said in an email.

"These facilities are targeted for completion by Sept. 19 and commissioning by end-Dec," the company said.

India will fully migrate to Euro-VI compliant fuels from April 2020.

The gasoline desulfurizer will have an annual capacity of 0.6 million tonnes, while the capacity of diesel hydrotreater will be raised to 2.4 million tons a year from 1.8 million tons a year.
MRC