Ineos reduced capacity utilisation at No. 2 cracker in Texas because of flooding

MOSCOW (MRC) -- No. 2 cracker of Ineos, one of the world's largest petrochemical companies, in Chocolate Bayou (Texas, USA) near Alvin, south of Houston tripped amid rain and flooding on 19, September, 2019, reported S&P Global with reference to the company's file sent to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).

This plant can produce 925,000 tonnes of ethylene and 280,000 tonnes of propylene per year. It later on Thursday resumed normal operations.

Imelda, which came ashore as a tropical storm on Tuesday near Freeport, Texas, and then parked above southeast Texas dumped more than 40 inches of rain in areas just southwest of Beaumont and more than 30 inches in the city from Monday through Friday, according to the National Weather Service. Beaumont and nearby Port Arthur, Texas, took 47 inches of rain two years ago when Hurricane Harvey pounded Houston and southeast Texas with unprecedented rainfall.

Houston had largely been spared Imelda's rains until Thursday, when storm bands slowly moved through the city, filling up bayous that drain into the Houston Ship Channel, pushing some out of their banks. Both airports shut down for the day, having taken 10 or more inches of water.

The company also operates another cracker at this site, the combined capacity of two crackers in Chocolate Bayou is 2,000,000 of ethylene and 515,000 tonnes of propylene per year.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polyprolypele (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,255,800 tonnes in the first seven months of 2019, up by 9% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, the estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 796,120 tonnes in January-July 2019, up by 11% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.

Ineos AG provides chemical products and services. The Company manufactures of petrochemicals, specialty chemicals and oil products. Ineos primarily operates in Switzerland and servers customers globally.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Solvay will increase its soda ash production capacity by 600 kilotonnes at its trona-based Green River site in Wyoming, the United States, to meet long-term global demand growth in various applications, said the company.

Solvay will also expand its sodium bicarbonate capacity by 200 kilotonnes in its Devnya plant in Bulgaria, addressing worldwide demand growth for flue gas treatments which improve air quality. The combined investments total €185 million, spread over the next three years.

"Soda ash and bicarbonate are highly cash generative and resilient businesses for Solvay. Against a backdrop of growing global demand, these investments will deliver resilient cash and strong returns,” said Christophe Clemente, President of Solvay’s Global Business Unit Soda Ash & Derivatives. “The Green River capacity increase reinforces our position as a long-term, sustainable supplier for our customers. Our plant is among the best-in-class competitive soda ash assets in the world and is ideally positioned to address global market demand."

Global soda ash demand is forecast to grow by 10 million tons, excluding China, between 2018 and 2030 – with 4 million tons between now and 2023. Demand is driven by export markets such as South East Asia, Brazil, the Middle East and Africa for the manufacturing of detergents, flat and container glass, and such as Latin America for the extraction of lithium.

Solvay’s Green River facility produces soda ash from trona, a naturally occurring mineral. The 600 kilotonnes investment will leverage on the existing infrastructure and is spread over the next three years, with production starting to ramp up by the end of 2021.

Solvay’s sodium bicarbonate capacity expansion by 200 kilotonnes in Devnya, Bulgaria is part of the existing 75/25 joint operation with Sisecam. The new production line is expected to be operational by the end of 2020. It will produce SOLVAIR sorbents, sodium-based solutions that treat exhaust gases from factories, incineration plants and ships and Bicar, sodium bicarbonate buffer for animal nutrition.

As MRC informed earlier, Solvay announces that its subsidiary Solvay Finance SA will exercise its first call option on its EUR700 million hybrid bond after having notified the Luxembourg Stock Exchange where the bond is listed. This perpetual deeply subordinated bond, bearing an annual interest rate of 4.199%, is treated as equity under IFRS rules. Its repayment is due on May 12, 2019 at the end of the first 5.5 years.

Solvay is an advanced materials and specialty chemicals company, committed to developing chemistry that addresses key societal challenges. Solvay innovates and partners with customers worldwide in many diverse end-markets. Its products are used in planes, cars, batteries, smart and medical devices, as well as in mineral and oil and gas extraction, enhancing efficiency and sustainability. Its lightweighting materials promote cleaner mobility, its formulations optimize the use of resources, and its performance chemicals improve air and water quality. Solvay is headquartered in Brussels with around 24,500 employees in 61 countries. Net sales were EUR10.3 billion in 2018, with 90% from activities where Solvay ranks among the world’s top 3 leaders, resulting in an EBITDA margin of 22%.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Arabia's thirst for refined product imports has surged as it looks to meet its requirements in the wake of attacks on its key oil infrastructure, as per Spglobal.

Register Now Several trading sources said state-owned Saudi Aramco's trading arm has already bought diesel cargoes from refiners in India and the UAE. The company was also actively looking to purchase jet fuel and naphtha.
"They have already bought quite a lot from India and some cargoes from UAE," a diesel trader said. "These cargoes are mainly diesel."

An Aramco representative was unavailable for comment.

"The Saudis are trying to buy oil products discreetly, without causing distress signals," a Middle East-based trading source said. "They are starting with fuel oil, naphtha, gasoline, diesel. They have shortages across the board and are going to UAE first."

Shipping sources said that ATC had placed the tanker Lian Bai Hu on subjects to carry a 60,000 diesel cargo from Vadinar to the Persian Gulf for a lump sum of USD320,000.

Sources said a fall in domestic refining runs had caused ATC to buy spot barrels of diesel and jet fuel to satiate both its domestic demand as well as supply its international customers.

To meet its October and November crude nominations, Aramco also diverted some of the crude earmarked for its domestic refining system to export. This has resulted in refinery run reductions and caused loading delays for some of the jet fuel and gasoil export cargoes out of Saudi Arabia, sources said.

As MRC informed earlier, Saudi Aramco will bring full oil production capacity at Abqaiq by the end of September, Khalid Buraik, the company’s vice-president for southern area oil operations said.

As MRC reported before, a number of Saudi Arabia's companies, such as Tasnee, Sadara, Advanced Petrochemical and Saudi Kayan, announced a curtailment of feedstock to their petrochemical plants, including polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) facilities, by an average of 30-50% due to the attacks on key Saudi Aramco facilities on Saturday.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,255,800 tonnes in the first seven months of 2019, up by 9% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, the estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 796,120 tonnes in January-July 2019, up by 11% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Shaoxing Reignwood Petrochemical has taken off-stream a purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant for maintenance, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the company has halted production at the plant on September 20, 2019. The plant is slated to remain under maintenance for about a week.

Located at Shaoxing in China, the PTA plant has a production capacity of 1.4 mmt/year.

PTA is used to produce polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is used in the manufacturing of plastic bottles, films, packaging containers, in the textile and food industries.

According to MRC's DataScope report, Chinese bottle grade PET deliveries to Russia increased 34% in the first eight months of 2019 to 95,600 tonnes. China accounted for 90% of the total imports, compared to 85% a year earlier.
August imports of material from China decreased by 41% to 7,600 tonnes from 12,800 tonnes in July. Jiangsu Sanfangxiang, Yisheng, Wankai and Sinopec were the leading Chinese suppliersof material to the Russian market.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- More than 100 public and private partners covering the whole plastics value chain will sign the declaration of the Circular Plastics Alliance, which promotes voluntary actions for a well-functioning EU market in recycled plastics, said Refiningandpetrochemicalsme.

The declaration lays out how the alliance will reach the target of 10 million tonnes of recycled plastic used to make new products every year in Europe, by 2025. This target was set by the European Commission in its 2018 Plastics Strategy, as part of its efforts to boost plastics recycling in Europe.

By efficiently recycling plastics, we will clean up the planet and fight climate change, by substituting fossil fuels with plastic waste in the production cycle.First vice president Frans Timmermans, responsible for sustainable development, said: “I welcome the industry's commitments to rethink the way we produce and use plastics. By efficiently recycling plastics, we will clean up the planet and fight climate change, by substituting fossil fuels with plastic waste in the production cycle."

We have the opportunity to make our industry a world leader in recycled plastics. We should fully seize it to protect the environment, to create new jobs in this sector and remain competitive.Commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska, responsible for internal market, industry, entrepreneurship and SMEs, said: “We have the opportunity to make our industry a world leader in recycled plastics. We should fully seize it to protect the environment, to create new jobs in this sector and remain competitive."

The declaration, signed by small and medium businesses, large corporations, business associations, standardisers, research organisations, and local and national authorities endorses the 10 million tonnes target and calls for a shift to zero plastic waste in nature and zero landfilling. It lays out concrete actions to reach the target, including: (i) improving the design of plastic products to make them more recyclable and integrate more recycled plastics; (i) identifying untapped potential for more plastic waste collection, sorting and recycling across the EU, as well as the investment gaps; (iii) building a research and development agenda for circular plastics; and (iv) establishing a transparent and reliable monitoring system to track all flows of plastic waste in the EU.
MRC