HDPE production in Russia decreased by 9% in January - November

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russia's production of high density polyethylene (HDPE) totalled about 795,800 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2019, down by 9% year on year. All producers increased their output, according to MRC's ScanPlast report.

November HDPE production in Russia grew to 65,500 tonnes, whereas this figure was 45,900 tonnes a month earlier. Low output in October was a result of shutdowns for maintenance at Stavrolen and Kazanorgsintez. Thus, overall HDPE production reached 795,800 tonnes in January-November 2019, compared to 877,600 tonnes a year earlier. All Russian producers reduced the production of HDPE, while Kazanogrsintez showed a minimal decrease in production volumes.

The structure of polyethylene (PE) production by plants looked the following way over the stated period.

Russia's November HDPE production at Kazanorgsintez increased to 36,600 tonnes from 16,700 tonnes a month earlier. The Kazan producer shut down its production for a turnaround from 26 September to 20 October. The Kazan plant's overall HDPE output reached 454,900 tonnes in January-November 2019, up by 1% year on year.

Stavrolen produced 20,100 tonnes last month, compared to 7,100 tonnes in October, the Budyonovsk producer shut its production capacities for maintenance from 6 September to 18 October. It is also worth noting that, ethylene production facilities in Stavrolen had worked with reduced load until mid-November. The plant's overall output reached 241,400 tonnes over the stated period, down by 9% year on year.

Gazprom neftekhim Salavat decreased capacity utilisation in November, the plant's total production decreased to 8,100 tonnes from 10,500 tonnes a month earlier. The Bashkir plant's overall HDPE output reached 95,600 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2019, down by 12% year on year. Such a great reduction in HDPE production was caused by a long turnaround in July, whereas the Salavat producer did not shut its production capacities for maintenance last year.

Nizhnekamskneftekhim produced exclusively linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) over the stated period.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- SABIC was placed in the top 1% of best performers in the industrial category 'Basic Chemicals, Fertilisers, Plastics and Synthetic Rubber Companies' last month by EcoVadis, which evaluated the sustainability and CSR performance of over 30,000 companies worldwide, according to RefiningandPetrochemicals.

EcoVadis, reputed to be the world's most trusted provider of business sustainability ratings, made the evaluation based on the companies' scorecards and ratings across three calendar years - 2016, 2017 and 2018 - in its third edition of the Global CSR Risk and Performance Index.

It has been assessing SABIC’s sustainability and CSR performance for the last five years. The rating has progressively increased from 62 points in 2016, 68 in 2018, to 75 out of 100 points in 2019.

Commenting on the distinguished rating, Sami Al-Osaimi, VP, corporate affairs, SABIC, said: "The EcoVadis rating, which is based on the evaluation by suppliers through an online audit and a questionnaire, recognises our CSR initiatives and sustainability commitment."

"As we continue to implement our 2025 strategy, enable Saudi Vision 2030 and support the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, we focus on diverse CSR programmes as part of our ongoing efforts to support communities," Al-Osaimi added.

Guided by our RAISE strategy, we have been consistently engaging with social issues, from education to health to the environment and agriculture.Abdulrahman Al-Mulhem, global CSR senior manager, SABIC, said: "We are proud of this recognition by a reputed provider of business sustainability ratings, which rates firms based on their sustainability and CSR performance. Our global CSR strategic priority areas are aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Guided by our RAISE strategy, we have been consistently engaging with social issues, from education to health to the environment and agriculture."

The EcoVadis CSR recognition levels are based upon the percentile ranking of a company's EcoVadis score: Gold - top 5% (overall score between 62 and 100); silver - top 30% (overall score between 46 and 61); and bronze - top 65% (overall score between 37 and 45).

The rating methodology is built on international CSR standards, including the Global Reporting Initiative, the United Nations Global Compact, and the ISO 26000 (social responsibility). These ratings cover four areas: environment, labour and human rights, ethics, and sustainable procurement.

As part of the process to qualify their suppliers, many of SABIC’s customers use the EcoVadis assessment reports. For instance, the business impact of customers requesting SABIC’s full evaluation report amounted to approximately USD1.3bn in 2018, globally. A higher score means a higher chance of becoming a preferred supplier. Some examples of requestors are Renault, Faurecia, Plastic Omnium, Schneider, BASF, DSM, Solvay, Akzo and Eastman.

As MRC informed previously, SABIC Europe, an affiliate of Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC), conducted maintenance works at its cracker No.3 at Geleen site in the Netherlands this autumn. The planned maintenance started in September and lasted around 2 months. The company operates two steam crackers in Geleen which are capable of producing 1,250,000 tons/year of ethylene and 675,000 tons/year of propylene in total.

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.

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 (MRC) -- Imports of bottle grade polyethylene terephthalate (PET) from China dropped by 12% year on year to 85,400 tonnes in the eleven months of 2019 from 96,600 tonnes a year earlier, according to MRC's DataScope report.
Supply of Chinese bottle grade PET to the Ukrainian market in November amounted to 3,940 tonnes against 5,000 tonnes in November last year and 3,810 tonnes in October this year.

The share of imports from China in the total volume amounted to 36% in October against 35% a month earlier and 68% in November 2018.

The key suppliers of injection moulding Chinese PET chips to the Ukrainian market were producers Dragon, Wankai, Yisheng Petrochemical.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Guyana's government will sell the first three cargoes of the new Liza crude produced offshore Guyana to a trading arm of Shell on a Dated Brent basis, reported S&P Global with reference to the country's Department of Energy's statement Tuesday.

Guyana did not reveal the price and volume for the cargoes, which represent the country's share of the production. However, it said the direct sale was to Shell Western Supply and Trading and the first lift is expected to take place in February, with the loading of the three cargoes completed by mid-2020.

"The sale has been premised on a Dated Brent price basis which reflects the tradable, spot market value of crude oil," the government said in a statement.

The decision to sell the crude will provide competitive pricing that will limit the Guyanese government's exposure to market uncertainty, according to the statement.

Shell emerged the winner to buy the government's first cargoes and was selected from a group of other international oil companies.

The Guyanese government is planning a second phase for selling its crude by launching an open market search for a marketing agent that will market the country's crude entitlements from the Liza 1 field on a term basis.

It has been an eventful week regarding Guyana's offshore crude oil. An ExxonMobil-led group announced late last week that production of Liza crude had begun ahead of schedule. China's CNOOC and Hess are also partners in the Stabroek consortium.

Exxon and its partners on Monday said that they made another oil discovery called Mako, located offshore Guyana, adding to anticipated Liza production.

Liza Phase 1 is producing from the Destiny floating, production, storage and offloading facility and will peak at 120,000 b/d of oil over the next several months. Liza Phase 2, which will use the FPSO Unity, was sanctioned this year and is expected to produce up to 220,000 b/d when it comes online in mid-2022.

It's a monumental development for the small South American country, which before now has seen no oil and gas production and has no local refineries.

Liza crude is considered medium sweet with a typical gravity of 32.1 API and sulfur content of 0.51%.

As MRC informed before, Shell Singapore restarted its naphtha cracker in Bukom Island in the first week of December, following a two months maintenance shutdown since the beginning of October 2019. Thus, this cracker was taken off-stream for the turnaround on 1 October 2019. The cracker is able to produce 960,000 tons/year of ethylene and 550,000 tons/year of propylene.

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.

Royal Dutch Shell plc is an Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the biggest company in the world in terms of revenue and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors". Shell is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sumitomo Chemical has invested USD2 million in Nanoscent, a startup company in Israel that develops a high-precision scent recognition IoT platform, said the company.

Through this investment, Sumitomo Chemical will work to deepen its strategic and technological collaboration with Nanoscent and create new healthcare businesses.

Nanoscent is a spin-off company from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Israel. It is developing a scent recognition sensor with a chemiregistor and an IoT platform using the detected data. Nanoscent has already developed prototypes both of a portable device that can detect multiple scents in real time and an information infrastructure that accumulates and analyzes the detected data in the cloud and enables various devices, such as smartphones, to display the results. By applying machine learning to detected scent patterns by AI algorithms, the scent recognition platform could detect complex conditions, such as changes in a person’s physical condition, in addition to simply detecting scent.

Sumitomo Chemical aims to achieve the visualization of people’s physical condition, which is a key to a next-generation healthcare platform, in cooperation with Nanoscent. Sumitomo Chemical is planning to conduct field trials in order to develop a system useful for health management, where fecal scent data can identify changes in physical condition and signs of disease, and propose solutions (food, medicines, lifestyle changes, etc.) suitable to a person’s physical condition on a particular day. In addition, applicable fields of Nanoscent's technology, which can accurately detect scents or mixtures of various volatile chemical compounds, are not limited to healthcare, but are highly varied, including the detection and monitoring of hazardous substances in industrial plants and cities, and the determination and management of scents in cars. Therefore, concluding that it would contribute to the creation of next-generation businesses, Sumitomo Chemical decided to make this investment in Nanoscent.

Under its Corporate Business Plan for FY2019 to FY2021, Sumitomo Chemical has identified accelerated development of next-generation businesses as one of its basic policies, and is currently building its own innovation ecosystem to create new businesses in all four of its priority areas, which are healthcare, environmental impact reduction, food, and ICT. Sumitomo Chemical will continue efforts to gain access to unique outside technologies through open innovation-oriented interactions with start-ups, academia and others, and then combine such technological expertise with its proprietary technologies to develop new technologies or create new business domains that will help achieve a sustainable society.

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.
MRC