Vinmar links with Lanxess for North American distribution

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Vinmar Polymers America will distribute Lanxess Corp.'s high-performance plastics to customers in North America, said Plasticsnews.

VPA, a unit of Houston-based Vinmar International, and Lanxess of Pittsburgh will work together to complement Lanxess' market strategy with regionally placed inventory, along with sales and technical support, officials said in a Jan. 17 news release.

They added that the new arrangement broadens the existing relationship between Lanxess and Vinmar in Turkey and Australia.

Key North American product offerings will include the Durethan-brand line of nylon 6 and 6/6 resins and Pocan-brand PBT resins and blends, according to VPA President Kirt Dmytruk.

Lanxess Corp. is a unit of Lanxess AG of Cologne, Germany. The firm is a leading specialty plastics and chemicals maker with annual sales of almost USD8 billion. Vinmar is a global plastics and chemicals distributor that posted sales of USD3.6 billion in 2019.

Vinmar has been working to grow its VPA unit in the last year. In mid-2019, the firm acquired resin and sheet distributor Alpheus Enterprises of Mexico City.

In late 2019, Vinmar Senior Vice President Vishal Goradia told Plastics News that the firm plans to remain active in the M&A market while also growing its businesses organically. He added that Vinmar is looking at possible U.S. distribution and chemical acquisitions.

Earlier, Covestro closed the sale of its European polycarbonates (PC) sheets business to the Munich-based Serafin Group effective January 2, 2020. This includes key management and sales functions throughout Europe as well as production sites in Belgium and Italy.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated consumption of PC granules (excluding imports and exports to\\from Belarus) fell in January-November 2019 by 14% year on year to 70,700 tonnes (62,000 tonnes a year earlier).

LANXESS is a leading specialty chemicals company with sales of EUR 7.2 billion in 2018. The company currently has about 15,500 employees in 33 countries and is represented at 60 production sites worldwide. The core business of LANXESS is the development, manufacturing and marketing of chemical intermediates, additives, specialty chemicals and plastics.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A vessel carrying Guyana’s first-ever shipment of crude set sail bound for the U.S. Gulf Coast, oil major Exxon Mobil Corp said, marking the tiny South American nation’s long-awaited debut as an oil exporter, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The Suezmax vessel Yannis P, loaded with about 1 million barrels of Liza light sweet crude was bound for Galveston, Texas, according to tracking service TankerTrackers.com, and departed from the floating platform Liza Destiny off Guyana.

Exxon and partners Hess Corp and China’s CNOOC started production at Guyana’s promising Stabroek block in December, ahead of schedule, after finding more than 6 billion barrels of recoverable oil and gas.

Exxon had said on Friday that the project’s first crude shipment would load during the weekend and head for its refining network. The U.S. company operates refineries in Louisiana and Texas in addition to plants inland in Montana and Illinois.

All commercial oil resources in Guyana, an impoverished nation whose economy is expected to be transformed by its emerging oil industry, have been found at the Stabroek offshore block, where Exxon and its partners have disclosed 15 large discoveries so far.

The Exxon-led venture alone expects to produce at least 750,000 barrels per day of crude by 2025, enough for Guyana to become an oil power alongside neighboring Venezuela and Brazil.

Guyana’s transition to an oil-producing country has sparked a political controversy in the nation’s ongoing presidential campaign over the way the government gave exploration and production rights and designed its royalty framework.

Guyana’s People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has criticized President David Granger’s 2016 deal with Exxon as too generous and pledged to “immediately engage the oil and gas companies in better contract administration/re-negotiation.” Exxon said the negotiated terms of the contracts “are competitive with other agreements signed in countries at a similar resource development phase."

Exxon is expected to export both its first two cargoes of Guyanese oil. Another of the first shipments from the Liza field is scheduled to be taken by U.S.-based Hess in February, with others earmarked for sale by the Guyanese government through an open-market tender won by Royal Dutch Shell.

In December 2019, ExxonMobil halted PE production at its site in Notre Dame de Gravenchon, France due to commercial reasons, without providing further details.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,904,410 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments increased from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers. The PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,161,830 tonnes in January-November 2019, up by 7% year on year. Deliveries of all grades of propylene polymers increased, with the homopolymer PP segment accounting for the largest increase.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Arabia’s SHARQ, or Eastern Petrochemical Company, is planning to shut its high density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) lines during the first quarter of 2020, reported NCT with reference to a source familiar with matter.

Located in Al Jubail, Saudi Arabia, each of the two PE lines has a production capacity of 400,000 tons/year.

The precise duration of the shutdown was not available at the time of press.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,904,410 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments increased from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Dongguan Grand Resource Science and Tech, has restarted its propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plant following a maintenance turnaround, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that, the company has resumed operations at the plant on January 17, 2020. The plant was shut for maintenance on January 6, 2020.

Located in Guangdong, China, the plant has a propylene production capacity of 600,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed earlier, the company also took off-stream its polypropylene (PP) plant in China for turnaround at the same period. Located in Guangdong, China, the PP plant comprising two units have a production capacity of 300,000 mt/year each.

Propylene is the main feedstock for the production of PP.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, the PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,161,830 tonnes in January-November 2019, up by 7% year on year. Deliveries of all grades of propylene polymers increased, with the homopolymer PP segment accounting for the largest increase.

Dongguan Grand Resource Science and Technology Co Ltd is owned by Juzhengyuan Energy (Shenzhen, Guangdong, China). On 26 October 2019, Dongguan Grand Resource’s (Dongguan, Guangdong, China) integrated complex for polypropylene production in Dongguan officially started up.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Zhejiang Petroleum & Chemical Co Ltd, one of two new major refineries built in China in 2019, has recently started up the remaining units in the first phase of its refinery and petrochemical complex, reported Reuters.

The complex, in east China’s Zhoushan city, is now producing oil products and chemicals to commercial specifications, Zhejiang Petrochemical said on its website.

The company, 51% owned by private chemical group Zhejiang Rongsheng Holdings, said it has started test production at ethylene, aromatics and other downstream facilities, without giving further details.

Zhejiang Petrochemical started a first 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) crude processing unit in late May, following on from the start of a 400,000-bpd refinery owned by another private chemical major Hengli Petrochemical.

The newly started units at Zhejiang Petrochemical should include a second 200,000-bpd crude unit, a 1.2 million tonnes per year (tpy) ethylene unit and a 2 million tpy paraxylene unit, according to several industry sources with knowledge of the plant’s operations.

As MRC wrote previously, in early December 2012, Zhejiang Petroleum & Chemical Co Ltd launched a 3.8-million-ton-per-year reformer unit, a key processing facility at its new mega refinery and petrochemical complex in east China. The reformer unit, which processes naphtha into aromatics, is the world’s single-largest facility of its kind.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,904,410 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments increased from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers. The PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,161,830 tonnes in January-November 2019, up by 7% year on year. Deliveries of all grades of propylene polymers increased, with the homopolymer PP segment accounting for the largest increase.
MRC