Chinese petrochemical expansion to overwhelm Japan and South Korea producers

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A massive surge in China’s manufacturing capacity for paraxylene, a petrochemical used to make textile fibers and bottles, could force leading exporters in Japan and South Korea to cut production as early as the second quarter of 2020, reported Reuters.

China will add about 10 million tones of paraxylene manufacturing capacity from March 2019 to March 2020, according to company reports and officials, that is enough for making 22 trillion 500-milliliter plastic bottles.

The world’s top consumer of paraxylene (PX), China imports 60% of its need for the chemical to feed polyester demand that has more than doubled since 2010. Over half of China’s PX imports come from South Korea and Japan and the new capacity is expected to cut Chinese imports by about 50%.

Without Chinese demand, the profit margins for regional manufacturers such as Japan’s JXTG Holdings Inc (5020.T), South Korea’s Lotte Chemical (011170.KS) and Hyundai Cosmo Petrochemical and domestic producer Dalian Fujia are expected to drop further, likely causing a rollback in output and decline in earnings.

“We will see drastic cutbacks in PX operating rates among many Asian exporters, and potential capacity rationalization in sites where integrated refining-aromatics margins are poor,” said Darryl Xu, principal analyst for Asia chemicals at consultancy Wood Mackenzie.

Private companies are leading China’s latest PX boom through a string of projects often integrated with big oil refineries which make them more cost competitive and flexible.

China’s Hengli Group launched in March a PX plant capable of producing 4.5 million tonne per year (tpy) in the city of Dalian and Zhejiang Petrochemical is slated to start a 4 million tpy plant in Zhoushan late in 2019.

In July, Shandong-based Hongrun Petrochemical began trial runs at its 700,000 tpy plant and China Petroleum and Chemical Corp, or Sinopec, will start a plant in Hainan producing 1 million tpy in the third quarter.

Helen Yang, a researcher at JLC Consultancy, estimated China’s PX imports could fall to 7 million tonnes next year and further to 4 million tonnes in 2021. Imports this year will be 12.6 million tonnes, the first annual decline in over a decade, down from a record 16 million tonnes in 2018.

Expectations of surging Chinese supplies squashed the chemical’s processing margin, or PX’s price over naphtha, a refinery product used to make PX, to below USD320 a tonne in mid-August, versus USD600-USD700 a year ago.

"The USD600-USD700 margin was crazy and unlikely to be repeated,” said Ma Xiumei, a purchasing executive at Hengli Group, which has cut its PX imports by nearly half this year.

Ma Cheng, the head of feedstock purchase at Zhejiang Yisheng Petrochemical, part of a joint venture with the builder of the PX plant in Zhoushan, predicted that the PX margin could slide below USD250 a tonne later this year and even lower in early 2020 after the Zhoushan plant ramps up.

JXTG Holdings said that a deteriorating PX market contributed to its shrinking first-quarter earnings, but the company is still upbeat with demand growth in Asia and also plans to divert some exports to the Americas.

“One of our headaches for the latest earnings was falling margins of PX,” said Yoshiaki Ouchi, JXTG’s senior vice president earlier this month after firm reported a 88% slide in quarterly profit.

Japanese bank Nomura Holdings Inc cut its forecasts for JXTG’s earnings through the 2021 fiscal year following the slump in PX margins.

China could add another 14 million tonnes of PX capacity between 2020 and 2023 said JLC’s Yang, which will contribute to rising gasoline supply in Asia.

South Korean and Japanese PX makers are likely to respond to the rising Chinese supply by diverting output to the gasoline blending pool, as aromatic chemicals like PX are used to raise the octane rating of gasoline. This could add another 150,000 barrels per day of gasoline in Asia by 2021, said Wood Mackenzie.

“(PX) exporters in Japan and South Korea will soon face a dilemma - should they continue to fight for a shrinking export market, or divert aromatics feedstocks into a much bigger gasoline market?” said Wood Mackenzie’s Xu.

Paraxylene is a feedstock for the production of purified terephthalic acid (PTA), which is, in its turn, is a feedstock for producing polyethylene terephthalate (PET).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated consumption of PET decreased in July 2019 by 4% year on year. 428,790 tonnes of PET were processed in Russia in January-July 2019. Russia's PET production was 44,430 tonnes in July.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Berlin Packaging has acquired Netherlands-based packaging supplier Vincap & Adolfse Packaging (Vincap & Adolfse), as per Packaging-gateway.

The deal marks the tenth acquisition for Berlin Packaging globally since 2010 and the fourth in Europe since 2016. Vincap & Adolfse offers a range of products, including plastic, cork, and metal closures, as well as plastic packaging for food, beverage and pharmaceutical markets across Northern Europe.

As part of the transaction, Berlin Packaging will merge the Dutch packaging supplier with its Bruni Glass division. The deal allows both companies’ customers and suppliers to benefit from various services offered by the merged entity.

Berlin Packaging chairman and CEO Andrew Berlin said: “As Berlin Packaging continues to acquire companies that share our commitment to quality, service, and bottom-line growth for our customers, we further separate ourselves from the competition with a tremendous global footprint, an unparalleled product and service offering, and a long history of double-digit organic growth."

Customers of Berlin Packaging and Bruni Glass will benefit from Vincap & Adolfse’s knowledge in the closure market, its product portfolio, as well as geographic coverage across the Benelux region (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg).

In return, Berlin Packaging’s coverage in glass, plastic, and metal containers market across Europe will offer Vincap & Adolfse’s customers more product options.

In exchange for the new packaging business, Berlin Packaging will also provide a suite of various services, including design and innovation centres in two continents, quality consulting and capital lending.

The company has acquired Vincap & Adolfse for an undisclosed value and is currently in the process of merging the two businesses.

In April, Berlin Packaging agreed to buy France-based packaging supplier Verrerie Calvet as part of its European expansion efforts.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A global alliance of plastic makers and consumer goods companies said it would prioritize much of its USD1 billion funds to curb plastic waste in Southeast Asia, reported Reuters.

The Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW), consisting of 40 companies based around the world, committed USD1 billion to an anti-plastic waste fund when it was launched earlier this year, pledging to invest half a billion more in within the next five years.

The group, now headquartered in Singapore, said the money would finance city partnerships and infrastructure to support waste management in Southeast Asian countries, which are among the world's worst ocean polluters.

"We recognize that Southeast Asia is an area where we want to put significant attention," Jim Seward, a vice president of chemicals maker LyondellBasell, one of the group's members, said a media event.

"We want to demonstrate working with our partners and stakeholders across the region through investment, that the problem is solvable."

The AEPW's members include chemicals and plastic firms Dow, Chevron Phillips Chemical Co, ExxonMobil , Shell, and consumer goods heavyweight Procter & Gamble, among others.

Four Southeast Asian countries, namely Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand, along with China, account for 60% of plastic waste in the oceans, according to a 2015 report co-authored by environmental campaigner Ocean Conservancy.

In June, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations acknowledged plastic waste as a major problem for the region and adopted a joint declaration to combat marine debris.

A number of whales and sea turtles have washed up dead on Southeast Asian coasts in recent years with plastic waste in their stomachs.

Most recently, an orphaned baby dugong in Thailand named Marium died because of plastic this month after being rescued in April.

A picture of the dugong, shared by actor Leonardo DiCaprio on his Instagram account on Saturday, has drawn more than 1.7 million likes.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- India is set to impose a nationwide ban on plastic bags, cups and straws on October 2, officials said, in its most sweeping measure yet to stamp out single-use plastics from cities and villages that rank among the world's most polluted, as per Ndtv.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is leading efforts to scrap such plastics by 2022, is set to launch the campaign with a ban on as many as six items on October 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, two officials said.

These include plastic bags, cups, plates, small bottles, straws and certain types of sachets, said the officials, who asked not to be identified, in line with government policy.

"The ban will be comprehensive and will cover manufacturing, usage and import of such items," one official said.

The environment and housing ministries, the two main ministries leading the drive, did not respond to emails from Reuters to seek comment.

In an Independence Day speech on August 15, PM Modi had urged people and government agencies to "take the first big step" on October 2 towards freeing the country of single-use plastic.

Concerns are growing worldwide about plastic pollution, with a particular focus on the oceans, where nearly 50% of single-use plastic products end up, killing marine life and entering the human food chain, studies show.

The European Union plans to ban single-use plastic items such as straws, forks, knives and cotton buds by 2021.

China's commercial hub of Shanghai is gradually reining in use of single-use plastics in catering, and its island province of Hainan has already vowed to completely eliminate single-use plastic by 2025.

The ban on the first six items of single-use plastics will clip 5% to 10% from India's annual consumption of about 14 million tonnes of plastic, the first official said.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Poland's biggest oil refiner PKN Orlen signaled that it could offer to swap assets with competitors in order to ease EU regulators' concerns about its planned merger with rival Lotos, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

PKN's Chief Executive Daniel Obajtek said the state-run company plans to submit a paper to the European Commission this month offering steps it may take in order to convince Brussels to approve the merger with Lotos.

Obajtek was asked during a news conference whether his company will be forced to sell some assets in order to secure the Commission's approval. He suggested that an asset swap could be possible with its competitors.

"By the end of this month we will submit remedy conditions to the EC, that are to allow the transaction to be beneficial (for PKN)," he said.

After the news conference a source close to PKN Orlen said PKN was conducting talks with its competitors that may in the end conclude with asset swaps, for example, with regards to petrol stations or its wholesale business.

The source did not say which assets may be subject to the potential swaps.

Earlier on Tuesday, BP's head for Europe said BP might be interested in taking over PKN's assets if they are put up for sale as a condition of the merger approval process.

PKN, which has a market capitalization of 39 billion zlotys ($9.9 billion) said last year that it planned to buy at least a 53% stake in Lotos, which is valued at 16.14 billion zlotys, from the government.

It has formally requested approval from EU regulators for the deal to go ahead. Sources have said that due to competition concerns PKN will likely face long and difficult talks with the European Commission.
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