U.S. President Donald Trump says ethanol deal will be around 16B gallons

MOSCOW (MRC) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said his administration’s proposal to boost the biofuels market next year would bring the amount of corn-based ethanol mixed into the nation’s fuel to about 16 billion gallons (60.6 billion liters), said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

“We’ve come to an agreement and its going to be, I guess, about, getting close to 16 billion ... that’s a lot of gallons. So they should like me out in Iowa,” he told a news conference.

The U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program currently requires refiners to blend 15 billion gallons of ethanol per year, but the corn lobby has said the Environmental Protection Agency’s use of waivers means the actual volumes blended are lower than that.

Trump's EPA unveiled the plan here last week to boost U.S. biofuels consumption to help struggling farmers, but did not provide an exact figure. The plan cheered the agriculture industry but triggered a backlash from Big Oil, which views biofuels as competition.

The deal is widely seen as an attempt by Trump, who faces a re-election fight next year, to mend fences with the powerful corn lobby, which was outraged by the EPA’s decision in August to exempt 31 oil refineries from their obligations under the RFS. That freed the refineries from the requirement to blend biofuels or buy credits from those who do.

Biofuel companies, farmers and Midwest lawmakers complain such waivers undercut demand for corn, which is already slumping because of the U.S. trade war with China. Oil refiners say the waivers protect blue-collar jobs and have no real impact on ethanol use.

As MRC informed earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump has tentatively approved a plan to increase the amount of biofuels that oil refiners are required to blend each year to compensate for exemptions handed out to small refiners by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The plan is intended to address a major source of anger in U.S. farm country as Trump seeks to hold favor in the Midwest ahead of next year’s election, but it is likely to upset the oil industry, another important political constituency, underscoring the pitfalls of U.S. biofuel policy.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC), one of the world’s largest petrochemical producers, has announced that it has successfully merged two of its wholly owned affiliates, Saudi Petrochemical Company (Sadaf) and Arabian Petrochemical Company (Petrokemya), reported Al Arabiya.

"The merger is driven by SABIC’s strategy to increase efficiency and competitiveness of its operations," the company said in a statement to the Saudi Stock Exchange.

The petrochemical giant added that the latest transaction will not have immediate impact on its financial status, but is expected to improve overall cost competiveness in the long-term.

SABIC had announced its plans to merge Sadaf and Petrokemya in March to create a more efficient entity. The company said at the time that Sadaf’s assets, rights, liabilities, and obligations will transfer to Petrokemya.

As of the merger, Sadaf no longer exists as an independent entity.

Petrokemya, based in Jubail in eastern Saudi Arabia, produces feedstock chemicals including ethylene, propylene, butene, benzene and butadiene.

Sadaf was also located in Jubail, and included six petrochemical plants with a total production capacity of more than 4 million tons per year. SABIC acquired Sadaf from Shell for USD820 million in August, 2017.

Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund currently owns a 70 percent stake in SABIC. In March, Saudi Aramco announced it is buying this stake for USD69.1 billion.

The move is set to create a "stronger platform to enhance competiveness and meet the growing demand for energy and chemical products," Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said at the time.

As MRC wrote before, SABIC took off-stream its SABIC Olefins 4 cracker owing to technical issues on May 10, 2019. Further details on duration of the shutdown could not be ascertained. Located in beek, the Netherlands, the cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 690,000 mt/year and a propylene production capacity of 360,000 mt/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.

Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) ranks among the world's top petrochemical companies. The company is among the worldпїЅs market leaders in the production of polyethylene, polypropylene and other advanced thermoplastics, glycols, methanol and fertilizers.
MRC

MOSCOW (Market Report) -- Penoplex, Russia's largest producer of foaming polystyrene (PS), has raised its October selling prices of general purpose polystyrene (GPPS) by Rb2,000/tonne for the Russian market, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

Thus, the company's prices for October shipments rose to Rb96,000-98,000/tonne, CPT Moscow, including VAT.

Demand for material is currently strong in the Russian market, and all available October quantities were quickly allocated among buyers within one-two days.

As reported earlier, Penoplex resumed GPPS production at its Kirishi plant on 13-14 September. This plant with a capacity of 50,000 tonnes of GPPS per year was shut for maintenance on 5 August 2019.

Penoplex is a large Russian producer of polymer-based building and decorative materials. The company began its activity in 1998 with the launch of Russia's first line for the production of heat-insulating materials from extruded polystyrene foam under the PENOPLEX trademark. The company has eight production sites, seven of which are located in Russia and one - in the Republic of Kazakhstan (Almaty region), with a total production capacity of 4 million cubic metres.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- SIBUR-Khimprom has generally reduced its expandable polystyrene (EPS) for October shipments to Russian customers by Rb1,500/tonne, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

Thus, October prices of material were at Rb105,000-110,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT, for the Russian market this month.

Meantime, the Russian producer maintained its September EPS prices at the level of August - Rb106,500-111,500/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT.

At the same time, demand for EPS increased in the domestic market, but overall, it was weaker year on year.

SIBUR-Khimprom (part of SIBUR Holding) specializes in the processing of liquid hydrocarbons and is one of the leading Russian producers of a number of the most important petrochemical products. The company has three main production capacities: production of butyl alcohols and 2-ethylhexanol with a capacity of 160,000 tonnes per year, production of ethylbenzene (220,000 tonnes per year), styrene monomer (SM) production (135,000 tonnes per year) and polystyrene (PS) production (100,000 tonnes per year), ethylene and propylene unit, production of eco-friendly plasticizer DOTF (100,000 tonnes per year).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russia's overall production of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) exceeded 720,500 tonnes in the first nine months of 2019, up by 3% year on year. At the same time, not all Russian producers raised their output, according to MRC's ScanPlast report.

September total production of unmixed PVC was about 89,400 tonnes versus 77,400 tonnes a month earlier, SayanskKhimPlast and Bashkir Soda Company increased their capacity utilisation last month. Thus, overall PVC production exceeded 720,000 tonnes in January-September 2019, compared to 669,900 tonnes a year earlier. The increase in RusVinyl and SayanskKhimPlast's output did not allow to offset Kaustik's (Volgograd) lower production.

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

RusVinyl produced 30,700 tonnes of PVC in September, with emulsion polyvinyl chloride (EPVC) accounting for 2,700 tonnes, compared to 30,100 tonnes a month earlier. RusVinyl's overall PVC production reached 257,100 tonnes in January-September 2019, up by 6% year on year. Such a major increase in production was primarily caused by the absence of a long shutdown for maintenance this year.

SayanskKhimPlast produced 28,200 tonnes of suspension PVC (SPVC) last month, whereas this figure was 18,700 tonnes in August. The Sayansk plant managed to produce 213,200 tonnes of resin in January-September 2019, compared to 197,200 tonnes a year earlier.

Baskhir Soda Company produced 23,200 tonnes of SPVC in September versus 21,100 tonnes a month earlier. Baskhir Soda Company's overall SPVC production reached 192,400 tonnes in January-September 2019, compared to 190,000 tonnes a year earlier.

Kaustik (Volgograd) produced 7,300 tonnes of SPVC last month, whereas this figure was 7,500 tonnes in August. The plant's overall output of resin reached 57,900 tonnes in the first nine months of 2019 versus 69,500 tonnes a year earlier. The Volgograd's lower production was caused by a shutdown for maintenance in May-June.

MRC