Marathon Petroleum tops estimates on refining beat, retail strength

MOSCOW (MRC) -- US refiner Marathon Petroleum Corp beat estimates for quarterly profit, benefiting from better-than-expected earnings from its refining segment as well as higher sales in its gas stations business, reported Reuters.

Refiners in the United States have suffered from a lack of low-cost heavy crude in a market that has been hit by sanctions on Venezuela and Iran, and production cuts from Canada’s Alberta province and OPEC members.

However, industry analysts at Simmons Energy and Credit Suisse said Marathon had managed to keep its operating costs per barrel lower than expected.

The company’s earnings from its refining and marketing segment fell 11.6% to USD906 million, but beat analysts’ estimates of USD623.5 million, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Shares of the company, which posted a surprise loss in the preceding quarter owing to lower-than-expected refining margins, were up 3% in early trading on Thursday.

“One-times that drove the 1Q19 miss are now firmly in the rear view mirror and MPC looks all set to capture its synergy benefits,” Credit Suisse analyst Manav Gupta said.

Marathon’s refineries ran at an average utilization rate of 97% in the quarter, compared with 100% in the year-ago quarter.

Marathon refined 3.1 million barrels per day, 1.1 million bpd higher than a year earlier. The company said the increase was primarily due to the addition of Andeavor, which it bought in October.

The company, which said it continued to focus on optimizing its portfolio that could include asset divestitures, expects to refine 3.05 million bpd at an operating cost of $5.90 per barrel in the third quarter.

Net income attributable to the Findlay, Ohio-based company rose 4.8% to USD1.11 billion in the quarter ended June 30, as it was also benefited from a more than three-fold rise in its retail segment earnings.

Excluding items, it earned USD1.73 per share, beating analysts’ average estimate of USD1.32.

Total revenue and other income rose to USD33.69 billion from USD22.45 billion.

As MRC wrote previously, on April 29, 2018, Andeavor, Marathon, Mahi Inc. and Andeavor LLC entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger providing for the acquisition of Andeavor by Marathon through a merger of Mahi Inc. with and into Andeavor, with Andeavor surviving the merger as a wholly owned subsidiary of Marathon and the subsequent merger of Andeavor with and into Andeavor LLC, with Andeavor LLC surviving the merger as a wholly owned subsidiary of Marathon.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- The European Commission imposed countervailing duties of 8% to 18% on imports of subsidized biodiesel from Indonesia, saying the move aimed to restore a level playing field for European Union producers, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

"The new import duties are imposed on a provisional basis and the investigation will continue with a possibility to impose definitive measures by mid-December 2019," the EU executive said in a statement.

Last week Indonesia's trade minister said he would recommend to an inter-ministerial team a 20% to 25% tariff on EU dairy products in response to the EU targeting the country's biodiesel, adding that he had asked dairy product importers to find sources of supply outside the 28-nation bloc.

The EU duties are another blow to Indonesian biodiesel producers after the bloc said in March that palm oil should be phased out of renewable transportation fuels due to palm plantations' contribution to deforestation.

The European Commission, which coordinates trade policy for the EU, launched an anti-subsidy investigation in December 2018 following a complaint by the European Biodiesel Board. It said its investigation showed that Indonesian biodiesel producers benefit from grants, tax benefits and access to raw materials below market prices.

The EU biodiesel market is worth an estimated 9 billion euros (USD10 billion) a year, with imports from Indonesia worth about 400 million euros, the commission said.

Indonesia Biofuels Producers Association (APROBI) Chairman M.P. Tumanggor told Reuters that companies affected by the anti-subsidy duties will likely be forced to renegotiate their contracts with buyers in the EU and it may reduce the country's 2019 biodiesel exports.

"We initially targeted 1.4 million tonnes in export this year to Europe. That will not be reached," Tumanggor said. The exports would likely reach around 1 million tonnes, he said. He said the association is in consultation with the government on a response to the EU duties.

Indonesian Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita told reporters the government will file an official objection within five days. He also reiterated that the government is encouraging dairy product importers to start looking for new sources of supply outside the EU.

The ministry will start a program for Indonesian dairy importers to help them find replacements for dairy products they usually import from the EU with products from the United States or other countries, he said.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- An Israeli reusable plastic packaging injection moulder is spending millions of dollars to expand into the United States, working with an established company to create a new entity, as per Plasticsnewseurope.

Plasgad Ltd. is working with RPM Plastics LLC of Statesville, North Carolina, to create a US operating unit called Plasgad USA LLC. The new company is jointly owned by Plasgad and John Hobson, the owner of RPM, a company that makes new products and provides service to other plastic product manufacturers.

Plasgad USA now will control the product manufacturing aspect of the Statesville location while RPM will separately continue its other operations, including equipment service, installation and relocation for other firms.

The deal includes more than 20 injection molding machines for Plasgad to make its product line of reusable plastic pallets, bins, containers and crates. The manufacturing site employs 35 in 100,000 square feet. Plasgad made the investment after examining the US market for reusable packaging and seeing continued growth in that part of the business.

"Plasgad identified this huge potential few years back and started to build its Go to Market strategy to the US market. This recent acquisition is another stepping stone in implementing its strategy towards the U.S. market," company spokeswoman Naama Konin said in an e-mail interview.

"We believe that our [research and development] capabilities are well fit to the needs of the US market and now that we have our own local production base in the US we can grow our business dramatically," she said.

The creation of Plasgad USA will allow the company to considerably increase U.S. production, bringing he company closer to customers, CEO Ofer Karmon said in a statement. Plasgad, already has two production sites in Kibbutz Gadot and Kibbutz Gesher Haziv.

Work to establish a US presence began in 2016, Konin said. "We started with a study regarding the American market [industry, main players, segments, etc.], then we began to search of a suitable location for our operations in the states," she said in the e-mail interview.

The company focused on the Midwest, Northeast and Southeast and found RPM, "which perfectly fitted our needs," Konin said. RPM started as a subcontractor for Plasgad in 2017.

While this is the third production facility for Plasgad, the company actually has a sales and distribution network that includes more than 90 locations in 40 countries for its thousands of customers, according to the Plasgad website.

Markets for Plasgad include agricultural, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, electronic commerce, fashion and do-it-yourself. Exact terms of the new business were not disclosed, but Plasgad indicated the deal "involves investing millions of dollars" to buy into the production site.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Refiner Philadelphia Energy Solutions will begin dismissing some of its 640 union workers, more than a week before its stated Aug. 25 termination date, reported Reuters with reference to two sources familiar with the plan.

It was not clear how many of the workers would be dismissed early from the East Coast’s largest and oldest oil refinery, but one of the sources said it would be "a significant number."

Union employees are expected to be paid through Aug. 25, the sources said, as the fire-damaged plant continues to wind down operations after the company filed for bankruptcy protection last month. PES has said it hopes to sell the plant to a buyer that would restart it.

PES was not immediately available to comment.

The company has declined to offer workers severance pay and has said it would halt health insurance coverage at month’s end.

PES entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 21, a month after a fire at the 335,000-barrel-per-day plant destroyed an alkylation unit used in the production of gasoline. The company had emerged from a previous bankruptcy last year.

PES initially said it would dismiss union and non-union employees by mid-July following the fire, but it later extended the employment of the plant’s union workers.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Taiwanese supplier of plastic injection moulding simulation technology CoreTech System (Moldex3D) has partnered with Austrian machinery maker Wittmann Battenfeld to advance liquid silicone rubber (LSR) injection moulding and smart manufacturing, said Plasticsnewseurope.

In a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed 5 July, the two companies agreed to collaborate to further bolster the role of simulation in LSR injection moulding.

As part of the partnership, Moldex3D has invested in LSR injection moulding equipment, including a SmartPower 90/350 featuring a Unilog B8 control system from Wittmann Battenfeld and an LSR dosing system from Elmet.

The collaboration will involve applying Moldex3D simulations to acquire new insights into the LSR cold runner, mould design and process dynamics to improve part quality and reduce cycle time.

The two companies will aim to develop processes that enable manufacturers to integrate the virtual with the real world and improve performance and productivity.

"Furthermore, the integration of mould filling simulation and machine characterization is fully aligned with our vision of digitalizing the physical manufacturing world, enabling manufacturing companies to work smarter and better based on digital simulations," noted Wolfgang Roth, manager applications engineering at Wittmann Battenfeld.

Described by Moldex3D CEO Rong-Yeu Chang as “an important milestone toward smart design and manufacturing,” the MoU aims to create a total solution for the two companies’ mutual customers.

Based in Hsinchu, Taiwan, CoreTech System is a leading supplier of Moldex 3D CAE simulation solutions for the plastic injection moulding industry. Using this analysis technology supports the product development by optimising the design process, promoting design for manufacturability and shortening the time to market.
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