Air Liquide Q4 net profit rises

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Air Liquide's full-year net profit rose amid stronger sales and at its gas and services unit, said French producer.

"Assuming no major change in the environment and the international health situation is under control, Air Liquide is confident in its ability to further increase its operating margin and to deliver net profit growth in 2020, at constant exchange rates," the company said in a statement.

Net profit at the industrial-gas supplier AI, -0.19% rose to 2.24 billion euros (USD2.45 billion) from EUR2.11 billion a year earlier, the company said.

Revenue for the year increased to EUR21.92 billion from EUR21.01 billion, Air Liquide said. Analysts had forecast net profit of EUR2.23 billion on revenue of EUR22.08, according to a consensus compiled by FactSet.

“Overall, and despite the expected global economic slowdown observed in the fourth quarter, the group delivered robust results,” the company said.

The increase was partly driven by the gas and services and global markets and technologies segments. The acquisition of Tech Air in the first quarter and the disposal of Fujian Shenyuan in September contributed positively as well, the company said.

Air Liquide said it will propose a dividend of EUR2.70 a share at the next annual general meeting.

As MRC informed earlier, Air Liquide has signed three new long-term contracts, which include the construction and operation of a new nitrogen removal unit (NRU), in the Antwerp Basin with German chemical company BASF.

As MRC wrote earlier, BASF, the world's petrochemical major, has restarted its No. 1 steam cracker following a maintenance turnaorund. Thus, the company resumed operations at the plant on September 30, 2019. The plant was shut for maintenance in mid-August, 2019. Located at Ludwigshafen in Germany, the No. 1 cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 235,000 mt/year and a propylene production capacity of 125,000 mt/year.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing 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) -- Energy traders Unipec and Vitol have won a tender to supply Bangladesh Petroleum Corp (BPC) with up to 1.06 million tons of oil products in the first half of 2020 after placing the lowest offers, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

State-owned BPC is seeking 760,000-880,000 tons of gasoil with a sulfur content of 500 parts per million, 110,000 tons of jet fuel, 40,000 tons of 180-centistoke high-sulfur fuel oil and 30,000 tons of 95-octane gasoline.

“Unipec and Vitol have won the tender as they came up with the lowest bids,” a senior BPC official said.

The oil products are due for delivery from Jan. 1 to June 30, the tender document showed. Six traders competed for the tender, another BPC official said.

Unipec - a trading arm of Chinese state major Sinopec - placed the lowest offer for up to 450,000 tons of gasoil and 60,000 tons of jet fuel at premiums to Middle East quotes of USD2.33 and USD3.32 a barrel on a cost-and-freight basis respectively, the official said.

The Asian unit of trading house Vitol submitted the lowest offers for the remaining oil products, which included up to 430,000 tons of gasoil, 50,000 tons of jet fuel, 40,000 tons of fuel oil and 30,000 tons of gasoline.

Vitol offered a premium of USD2.20 a barrel for gasoil, USD3.30 a barrel for jet fuel, USD24.98 a tonne for fuel oil and USD5.43 a barrel for gasoline. BPC had also awarded Unipec and Vitol a similar import tender to supply nearly 1.35 million tons of oil products in the second half of 2019.

A shortfall in supplies of natural gas has forced the South Asian country to burn oil, a costlier option, to generate electricity. BPC resumed issuing tenders for long-term contracts in 2016 as part of efforts to buy at cheaper rates after a 15-year hiatus, during which it negotiated directly with suppliers of fuel products.

Currently, BPC has term contracts with eight companies for refined oil product imports. Suppliers for Bangladesh’s middle distillates contracts include Kuwait Petroleum Corp, Malaysia’s Petronas, Emirates National Oil Company, Thailand’s PTT, Indonesia’s Bumi Siak Pusako, PetroChina and Unipec.

Bangladesh has also signed a 15-year deal with India’s Numaligarh refinery to supply diesel, its first long-term contract with any Indian supplier, in which 60,000 tons will be imported in 2020. Bangladesh typically imports about 3.5 million tons of diesel and 2.5 million tons of fuel oil annually, making it one of the top 10 importers for those fuels in Asia.

BPC also buys 700,000 tons of Murban crude from Abu Dhabi National Oil Co annually and another 700,000 tons of Arab Light from Saudi Aramco for its only refinery.

As MRC informed earlier, Thailand’s PTT Global Chemical Public Co Ltd still has plans to shut two crackers at its petrochemical complex in Map Ta Phut in January 2020. The company might take two of its naphtha/mixed feed crackers offline for 35-40 days while there are no planned maintenances at other cracker units. The number 1 and number 2 cracker have a combined capacity of 915,000 tons of ethylene per annum. Thus, cracker No. 1 with a capacity of 515,000 tonnes of ethylene and 310,000 tonnes of propylene per year is scheduled to be shut for 40-day maintenance in late January, 2020, whereas cracker No. 2 with a capacity of 400,000 tonnes of ethylene and 50,000 tonnes of propylene per year is to be taken off-steam for 35-day turnaround in mid-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 2,093,260 tonnes in 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments rose from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,260,400 tonnes in January-December 2019, up by 4% year on year. Supply of almost all grades of propylene polymers increased, except for statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- PetroChina, China’s second state refiner, is reducing refinery crude throughput by about 320,000 barrels per day this month versus its original plan as a spreading coronavirus hits fuel demand, a senior company official told Reuters.

PetroChina started the production cuts at the beginning of the month, but deepened the cuts from Monday, said the official with direct knowledge of the matter.

The February cut is equivalent to about 10% of the refiner’s average production rate at around 3.32 million bpd.

As MRC informed earlier, polypropylene (PP) futures in China fell 5.99% on Monday due to concerns about a high level of material stocks in the market amid weak demand and limited supplies. So, PP futures for May 2020, most actively traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE), on February 3 were at the level of CNY6 903 (USD983) per ton. Since the price reached the bottom, the auction closed that day. The Chinese market was closed from January 24 to February 2 due to the extension of the celebration of the Lunar New Year by the Chinese government.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, the estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,260,400 tonnes in January-December 2019, up by 4% year on year. Supply of almost all grades of propylene polymers increased, except for statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers).

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- French Phenix received an investment from New York-based food products multinational Danone Manifesto Ventures, Danone said.

The exact amount was not disclosed.

B Corp-certified Phenix is a firm that promotes a circular economy and reduces food waste by connecting food distributors with different organisations, food banks and animal feed industry. Its digital platform was created by co-founders Jean Moreau and Baptiste Corval.

Phenix has previously received investments from UK private equity firm ETF partners, BPIFrance, Arkea , Sofiouest and INCO, raising EUR15m in 2018.

Phenix has saved more than 100m meals since its creation in 2014, according to the Phenix website. It saved up to 40m meals in France in 2019. Phenix recently launched a consumer facing mobile application to reduce food waste.

As MRC informed earlier, Danone, a French dairy company, has consolidated 100% of Unimilk’s shares, having bought all minority stakes from minority shareholders. According to him, Danone, which in 2010 agreed to merge assets in Russia and the CIS with Unimilk and owned almost 58% of the company’s shares, bought the remaining 42% of the joint venture.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, the estimated consumption of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in Russia decreased by 16% year on year in December 2019. Russia's overall estimated PET consumption totalled 696,810 tonnes in 2019, up by 1% year on year (690,130 tonnes in 2018).

Danone has been working in Russia since 1992. In the summer of 2010, the merger of Danone's dairy business in Russia and Unimilk, a Russian dairy company, was announced. The investment volume of Danone since the start of operations in Russia has reached $ 1.8 billion. The group includes 20 factories that produce products under the brands Danone, Activia, Actimel, Rastishka, Danissimo, Prostokvashino and others.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Brazilian state-led oil company Petrobras was cleared by a local labor court judge to hire emergency workers to maintain operations while unionized oil workers remained on the picket line for a 10th consecutive day, reported S&P Global with reference to the company and unions' statement Monday.

"Petrobras is in the process of immediately hiring people and services under an emergency to guarantee the operational continuity of its units during the strike," the company said in a statement. The emergency contracts started Friday, Petrobras said.

The latest turn in the ongoing labor dispute came despite a court order last week that forced unions to maintain at least 90% of unionized workers on the job or risk facing a fine of more than USD100,000/day. According to the injunction, the judge dismissed claims by oil workers that Petrobras had failed to adhere to the terms of a new collective bargaining agreement signed in November. All of the unions agreed to the deal, the judge ruled, and not enough time had passed for Petrobras to not live up to terms of the agreement.

The Oil Workers Federation, or FUP, said in a separate statement that necessary work crews remained on the job, but that Petrobras officials denied the union entrance to operational units to make a head count. Union officials said that Petrobras was using the strike movement as a way to hire strike breakers.

"Management's contradictions are evidence of the political treatment given to the oil workers strike in order to criminalize the movement," FUP said in a statement Monday. "That puts at risk the safety of workers and installations in announcing the hiring of scabs."

The emergency workers, however, will be technically qualified to carry out the required work, Petrobras said.

Oil workers across Brazil started a series of work actions commonly referred to as a "warning strike" on Saturday, February 1. Workers failed to show up for shift changes or carried out work-to-rule actions, but the walkout was not aimed at affecting production at offshore platforms and refineries, according to the union.

union wants Petrobras to halt the planned layoff of more than 1,000 workers at a fertilizer plant in Parana state. Petrobras is exiting the fertilizer business and has tried for years to sell or lease the existing facilities without success. The layoffs will go into effect Friday, union officials said.

A total of 40 production platforms, 11 refineries and 18 oil and refined-product terminals were adhering to the strike as of Monday morning, FUP said.

The strike has not affected output or domestic refined-product supplies, Petrobras said. Many of the biggest floating production, storage and offloading vessels, or FPSOs, handling output from the subsalt region are leased or operated by third-party companies such as SBM Offshore and Japan's Modec, so similar recent walkouts have had little impact on production.

"Units are operating under adequate conditions, with reinforcement from contingency teams when necessary," Petrobras said. "There are no impacts on production at this time."

As MRC wrote earlier, the chief executive of Brazilian state-run oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro said in December 2019 he wants to sell the company's stake in petrochemical company Braskem within 12 months.

We also remind that Braskem is no longer pursuing a petrochemical project, which would have included an ethane cracker, in West Virginia. And the company is seeking to sell the land that would have housed the cracker. The project, announced in 2013, had been on Braskem's back burner for several years.

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.

Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Petrobras is an integrated energy firm. Petrobras' activities include exploration, exploitation and production of oil from reservoir wells, shale and other rocks as well as refining, processing, trade and transport of oil and oil products, natural gas and other fluid hydrocarbons, in addition to other energy-related activities.
MRC