McDonalds and Starbucks Are Developing Reusables

MOSCOW (MRC) -- McDonald’s and Starbucks are developing reusables; pilot programs in California that start this week will test systems to collect, clean and redistribute plastic coffee cups, said Bloomberg.

In the future, when you order a coffee at McDonald’s or Starbucks, it could be served in the same cup you used a few months earlier.

That’s the vision behind pilot programs this week that will introduce two types of “smart” reusable cups in independent coffee shops in San Francisco and Palo Alto, California. The models, made mostly from plastic and outfitted with RFID chips or QR codes for tracking, are the fruit of a two-year “moon shot” project known as the NextGen Cup Challenge, which was led by Starbucks Corp. and McDonald’s Corp.

Those two chains alone blow through billions of paper cups a year, and most are coated with a plastic lining that makes them almost impossible to recycle. Eliminating that waste would go a long way toward meeting environmental goals set by each company. The NextGen group also intends to try some new compostable and recyclable single-use cups in Oakland.

The key to leaving a lighter footprint on the planet may not be choosing the perfect material, because there are downsides to any disposable cup, whether paper, aluminum or plastic. Instead, NextGen’s big idea is to make cups durable and create a system in which they would be reused. That means collecting, cleaning, redistributing and digitally tracking them — a process that could keep tabs on rates of reuse and attrition. It could theoretically identify areas where people are buying drinks but not returning cups, perhaps indicating a need for more collection sites nearby.

“This technology for tech-enabled reusable cups didn’t exist five years ago,” said Bridget Croke, managing director at Closed Loop Partners, a recycling-focused private equity firm that coordinated the challenge.

The pilot programs starting at independent coffee shops in California this week are a test for the public as well as for the new cups: Will consumers choose to drop cups at certain collection sites instead of in trash cans?

Two small startups will use this trial to scale up their logistics and get a sense of what it would be like to run a reusable cup system globally.

The model on trial in San Francisco, from the startup Muuse, is printed with a distinct QR code on each cup, which consumers can scan when they pick up and drop off cups. Muuse has been used on college campuses.

The model from a startup called CupClub, which will debut in Palo Alto, was designed by London-based architect Safia Qureshi in 2015. The cups are meant to be easily stacked at bright-yellow drop-off points, scattered throughout the city. Then they will be piled into vans and sent for cleaning. Embedded with RFID tags, the cups can be scanned as they pass near certain points, like the coffee shop counter or a collection site. The startup has been selling the system to corporate offices and says reusing its cups can reduce landfill waste by as much as 40%.

Qureshi said people didn’t like the experience of drinking out of reusable metal cups, so the company settled on recyclable white plastic. “Consumers need a product that isn’t going to be so much of a step change,” she said.

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) -- Research and rating agency Moody’s has recently downgraded Nayara Energy Limited’s corporate family rating to negative from stable, driven largely by weak refining margin environment in Asia, according to Energyworld.

"The downgrade to Ba3 reflects the significant deterioration in Nayara's credit metrics, driven largely by the weak refining margin environment in Asia," Sweta Patodia, Moody's lead analyst for Nayara, said in a statement.

Nayara's operating performance was further affected by a planned maintenance shutdown in December 2018, which resulted in lower throughput and capacity utilization during the period. In addition, the implementation of new accounting standards with respect to operating leases resulted in higher leverage and further weakened the company's credit metrics.

“Nayara's leverage - as measured by debt/EBITDA - increased to approximately 6.3x for last twelve months ended 30 June 2019 from 3.9x for fiscal year ended March 2018, and interest cover - as measured by EBIT/interest - declined to 1.5x from 2.1x over the same period,” Moody’s said in a statement.

Tightening regulations on the use of heavy fuel oil in the shipping industry from January 2020 will result in an increase in demand for middle distillates and lead to some recovery in refining margins for the refinery, the agency projected.

The rating agency expects Nayara to benefit from the new regulations given its high proportion of light and middle distillate output. However, the impact of recent outbreak of coronavirus on regional demand growth of petroleum product remains uncertain.

"While we expect Nayara's credit metrics to improve over the next 12-18 months, they will continue to remain weakly positioned," Patodia said. The negative outlook reflects that the regional refining margin environment continues to remain uncertain and could delay improvement in Nayara's credit metrics from current levels, Moody’s said.

“Given the negative outlook, an upgrade is unlikely over the next 12-18 months. The outlook could return to stable if there is an improvement in the operating environment which leads to an improvement in the company's profitability,” the agency said.

Nayara Energy Ltd is a refiner and supplier of petroleum products in India and overseas. It operates the country's second largest single-site refinery in Gujarat, with a nameplate capacity of 405 thousand barrels per day and a high complexity index of 11.8.

As MRC reported previously, Thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions (India) has recently signed a contract with Nayara Energy, under which it will provide project management consultancy (PMC) services for Nayara's new petrochemical project to be built at the site of Nayara's 20-million-t/y Vadinar refinery in India. The USD850-million project, which will mark Nayara's entry into the petrochemical sector, includes a 450,000-t/y propylene recovery unit, a 450,000-t/y Unipol polypropylene (PP) plant, a 200,000-t/y methyl tertiary butyl ether unit and associated off-sites and utility facilities. PCN earlier said the project was expected to be completed in 2022.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's 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) -- Saudi Arabia’s Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical (Petro Rabigh)has shut its phenol-acetone plant, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Saudi Arabia informed that, the company has started turnaround at the plant on February 24, 2020. The plant is expected to remain under maintenance for about one month.

Located at Rabigh in Saudi Arabia, the plant has a phenol capacity of 270,000 mt/year and acetone capacity of 165,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote previously, Petro Rabigh is planning to shut its low density polyethylene (LDPE) plant in Rabigh, Saudi Arabia for maintenance in late February, 2020. At present the restart dates of this LDPE plant with the capacity of 160,000 tons/year could not be ascertained.

Petro Rabigh also operates No. 1 and 2 linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) units at the same location with a combined capacty of 600,000 tons/year. Besides, the company has here a 300,000 tons/year high density polyethylene (HDPE) unit.

Phenol is one of the main feedstocks for the production of bisphenol A (BPA), which, in its turn, is used for the production of polycarbonate (PC).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated consumption of PC granules (excluding imports and exports to/from Belarus) totalled 78,500 tonnes in 2019, up by 15% year on year (68,100 tonnes a year earlier).

PetroRabigh, a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Japan's Sumitomo Chemical, has an annual output capacity of 18 million tonnes of refined products and 2.4 million tonnes of petrochemicals. Thus, the complex currently has a cracker to produce 1.6-million t/y of ethylene, as well as downstream production of polyethylene, polypropylene, propylene oxide, ethylene glycol and butene-1.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russia's output of chemical products rose in January 2020 by 3% year on year. Last year's production of basic chemicals increased by 3.4% year on year, according to Rosstat's data.
According to the Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation, polymers in primary form accounted for the largest increase in the January output.

281,000 tonnes of ethylene were produced last month, compared to 275,000 tonnes in January 2019 and 264,000 tonnes in December 2019. 2,984,000 tonnes of this olefin were produced in 2019.

Output of benzene were 133,000 tonnes in January 2020, compared to 122,000 tonnes in January 2019 and 132,000 tonnes last December. Overall production of this material reached 1,470,000 tonnes last year.

January production of sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) was 113,000 tonnes (100% of the basic substance) versus 110,000 tonnes in January and December 2019. Overall output of caustic soda totalled about 1,289,000 tonnes in 2019.

January production of mineral fertilizers was 1,923,000 tonnes (in terms of 100% nutrients) versus 2,078,000 tonnes and 1,913,000 tonnes in January and December 2019, respectively. Overall, Russian plants produced 23,588,000 tonnes of fertilizers last year.

Last month's production of polymers in primary form fell to 818,000 tonnes from 681,000 tonnes and 928,000 tonnes in January and December 2019, respectively. Overall output of polymers in primary form totalled 8,759,000 tonnes.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Chemours Company, a global performance chemicals manufacturer reported a fall in revenue for the fourth quarter 2019. Chemours fourth quarter 2019 net sales were USD1.35 billion, a 7.6% fall from prior-year quarter, according to Kemicalinfo.

The company reported a loss of USD317 million in the fourth quarter of 2019 against a profit of USD142 million a year ago.

Results were driven primarily by lower volume in Titanium Technologies and lower volume and price in Fluoroproducts.

Revenues in the Titanium Technologies division were USD610 million, down 8.4% from the prior-year quarter. The decline is attributable to a lower volume of Ti-Pure titanium dioxide.

Revenues in the Fluoroproducts segment fell 5.4% year over year to USD614 million in the reported quarter. The decline is attributable to weakness in the electronics and automotive markets as well as the ongoing impact of illegal imports of HFC refrigerants into the European Union.

Revenues in the Chemical Solutions unit were USD129 million, down roughly 13% year over year. The company saw lower prices in the quarter mainly due to lower raw material prices.

For 2019, Chemours witnessed a loss of USD52 million against a profit of USD995 million recorded in 2018.Revenues for the year declined 16.8% year over year to USD5.53 billion.

As MRC informed before, in December 2019, Chemours announced plans to sell its methylamines and methylamides unit to Belle Chemical, an affiliate of Cornerstone Chemical. The sales price was not disclosed. Thus, Chemours had signed a letter of commitment with Belle Chemical Co. to sell Chemours' methylamines and methylamides business and production facilities at the Belle location. Earlier in 2019, Chemours announced it would stop making methylamines and methylamides at the plant. In 2020, it planned to start dismantling the methylamines operations. Once Belle takes possession of the plant, most of the employees at Belle and others assigned in supporting roles at other locations will become part of Belle, Chemours said. Cornerstone makes acrylonitrile (ACN) and melamine at Fortier, Louisiana.

ACN is a feedstock for the production of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS).

According to MRC's DataScorpe report, overall ABS imports to the Russian market decreased in 2019 by 4% year on year to 33,700 tonnes. This figure was 35,200 tonnes in January-December 2018. ABS imports to Russia continued to decline for the third month in a row. December ABS imports to Russia fell by 26% month on month to 2,400 tonnes from 3,300 tonnes, imports of material into the country were 2,500 tonnes in December 2018.

Chemours is a global leader in titanium technologies, fluoroproducts and chemical solutions, providing its customers in a wide range of industries with market-defining products, application expertise and chemistry-based innovations. Chemours ingredients are found in plastics and coatings, refrigeration and air conditioning, mining and oil refining operations and general industrial manufacturing. Chemours has approximately 9,000 employees across 37 manufacturing sites serving more than 5,000 customers in North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific and Europe. Chemours is headquartered in Wilmington, Del.
MRC