Alpek deal marks turnaround on debt

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Alpek has finalized the sale of two co-generation plants in Mexico to ContourGlobal for USD801mn in what is the latest move by the Mexican plastics and polyester maker to shed assets and shore up its balance sheet, as per Bnamericas.

Alpek is the petrochemical business of Mexican industrial conglomerate Alfa. "This transaction represents the largest divestment in our history," Alpek CEO Jose de Jesus Valdez said in a conference call.

The company estimates it made USD40mn from the co-generation plants in 2019. One is in Cosoleacaque, Veracruz, and the other in Altamira, Tamaulipas state.

The companies reached an initial agreement on the sale early this year.

ContourGlobal, a UK-based power company with nearly 4,100MW of capacity across Europe, Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, took over operations at both Cosoleacaque and Altamira on November 25. Despite the sale, Alpek and its parent Alfa will remain large customers of the plants.

"We consume all of the steam at the co-generation plant, and about 35% of power generation of the plant, so we’re an important buyer," Valdez said. The purchase power contract extends for 11.5 years.

Also, Alpek is starting talks with ContourGlobal to move the two plants toward zero emissions output.

The sale comes as the global petrochemicals sector absorbs the impact of successive tariff escalations between the US and China. The spat has seen demand for production move to Mexico as a third-party producer.

As MRC informed earlier, Alpek has signed a deal to fully acquire a British plant from Lotte Chemical UK Limited. The plant, a unit of South Korea’s Lotte Chemical, has the capacity to produce 350,000 tonnes of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) per year and is located at Wilton, Teesside.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PET consumption dropped in September 2019 by 10% year on year, totalling 58,210 tonnes. Overall, 551,320 tonnes of PET was processed in Russia in the first nine months of 2019, up 9% year on year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- PTT Global Chemical (PTTGC) is likely to take its No. 2 cracker off-stream for a maintenance turnaround, as per CommoPlast.

This cracker is expected to be taken off-line in the middle of January 2020. The planned maintenance is likely to remain in force for around 35 days.

Located at Map Ta Phut in Thailand, the cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 400,000 mt/year and a propylene production capacity of 50,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed earlier, PTTGC also plans to conducted a 40-day turnaround at its No. 1 cracker in Map Ta Phut from late January 2020.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,724,670 tonnes in the first ten months of 2019, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market in January-October 2019 totalled 1,066,520 tonnes, up by 7% year on year. Supply of block copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymer) and homopolymer of propylene (homopolymer PP) increased, demand for statistical copolymers (PP random copolymer) decreased.

PTT Global Chemical is a leading player in the petrochemical industry and owns several petrochemical facilities with a combined capacity of 8.45 million tonnes a year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- PTT Global Chemical (PTTGC) is likely to take its No.1 cracker off-stream for a maintenance turnaround, as per CommoPlast.

This cracker is expected to be taken off-line in late January 2020. The planned maintenance is likely to remain in force for around 40 days.

Located at Map Ta Phut in Thailand, the cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 515,000 mt/year and a propylene production capacity of 310,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote earlier, in 2018, PTTGC conducted a 40-day turnaround at its No. 1 cracker in Map Ta Phut from early September.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,724,670 tonnes in the first ten months of 2019, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market in January-October 2019 totalled 1,066,520 tonnes, up by 7% year on year. Supply of block copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymer) and homopolymer of propylene (homopolymer PP) increased, demand for statistical copolymers (PP random copolymer) decreased.

PTT Global Chemical is a leading player in the petrochemical industry and owns several petrochemical facilities with a combined capacity of 8.45 million tonnes a year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Gazprom neftekhim Salavat, one of Russia's largest production complexes for oil refining and petrochemicals, reduces its December selling general purpose polystyrene (GPPS) prices for Russian buyers, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

Thus, the decrease in this month's prices of Gazprom neftekhim Salavat's material was Rb3,000/tonne.

There were no available quantities of Gazprom neftekhim Salavat's polystyrene (PS) last week.

As reported earlier, Penoplex, Russia's largest producer of foaming PS, reduced its December selling GPPS Stairovit prices for the Russian market by Rb1,500/tonne from last month.

And Nizhnekamskneftekhim adopted a non-traditional approach to next month's pricing amid lower prices of material in foreign markets. Thus, its December PS prices decreased by Rb3,000/tonne and they will roll over for January for those buyers that will contract PS quantities for two months in advance. For those buyers that will contract only December quantities, this month's prices will be reduced by only Rb1,000/tonne.

OAO "Gazprom neftekhim Salavat" (formerly OAO "Salavatnefteorgsintez") is one of the leading petrochemical companies in Russia, carrying out a full cycle of processing hydrocarbon material. The list of products manufactured by the plant includes more than 140 items, including 76 grades of the main products: gasoline, diesel fuel, kerosene, fuel oil, toluene, solvent, liquefied gases, benzene, styrene, ethylbenzene, butyl alcohols, phthalic anhydride and plasticizers, polyethylene, polystyrenes, silica gels and zeolite catalysts, corrosion inhibitors, elemental sulfur, ammonia and urea, glycols and amines, a wide range of household products made of plastics, surfactants and much more.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- US propane and propylene stocks decreased by 1.7 million barrels (bbl) during the week ended November 29, yielding a total combined inventory of 91.8 million bbl, reported Chemweek with reference to the US Department of Energy.

An OPIS survey of analysts and traders had forecast an average propane and propylene stock draw of 1.73 million bbl.

Combined propane and propylene stocks in Gulf Coast (PADD 3) region decreased by 500,000 bbl to 58.1 million bbl week over week. The Midwest (PADD 2) dropped by 800,000 million bbl to 22.1 million bbl. PADD 1 inventories slid by 700,000 bbl to 7.7 million bbl while PADDs 4 and 5 increased by 200,000 bbl to 3.9 million bbl.

Products supplied for propane and propylene increased this week by 534,000 b/d on the week to 1,773,000 b/d.

Propane and propylene imports week over week saw a decrease of 89,000 b/d to 104,000 b/d, and exports decreased by 471,000 b/d to 839,000 b/d.

US inventories are up 15% from the year-ago period.

Propylene is the main feedstock for the production of polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, the estimated PP consumption in the Russian market in January-October 2019 totalled 1,066,520 tonnes, up by 7% year on year. Supply of block copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymer) and homopolymer of propylene (homopolymer PP) increased, demand for statistical copolymers (PP random copolymer) decreased.
MRC