LyondellBasell and Bora sign definitive agreements to form Chinese JV

MOSCOW (MRC) -- LyondellBasell (LBI), one of the largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies in the world, has announced it has signed definitive agreements to expand in China through a 50:50 joint venture with the Liaoning Bora Enterprise Group (Bora), as per LBI's press release.

On September 5, 2019, LyondellBasell and Bora first signed a Memorandum of Understanding and announced their intention to form this joint venture during a ceremony in Panjin, China.

"China is a large market with growing demand for high quality polyolefin products," said Bob Patel, CEO of LyondellBasell. "The combination of LyondellBasell's leading technology and Bora's operational excellence will allow us to reliably produce and provide these needed products to local customers."

Under the agreements, the partners will form a Sino-foreign joint venture, the Bora LyondellBasell Petrochemical Co. Ltd, that will operate a 1.1 million metric tons per annum ethylene cracker and associated polyolefin derivatives complex in Panjin, China, with a total expected cost of approximately USD2.6 billion. The complex will produce products that serve the growing demands of various industries in China, including packaging, transportation, building and construction, and healthcare and hygiene.

LyondellBasell will market the polypropylene (PP) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) which will be produced utilizing LyondellBasell licensed Spheripol, Spherizone PP technologies and Hostalen ACP polyethylene technology. Start-up is expected in the second half of 2020.

According to IHS Markit, Asia is the largest and fastest growing polyolefin market in the world. China accounts for more than 60 percent of the Asian polyolefins market and represents 40 percent of global growth. Olefins and polyolefins are core products of LyondellBasell.

LyondellBasell expects to make its equity contribution in the coming months. The formation of the JV is subject to approvals by relevant government authorities, including antitrust review by the State Administration for Market Regulation.

As MRC informed earlier, in January 2020, LyondellBasell announced that Shandong Jinhai Chemical Co., Ltd. would use the LyondellBasell Hostalen "Advanced Cascade Process" (Hostalen ACP) technology for a new facility. The process technology will be used for a 400 KTA HDPE facility to be built in Heze City, Shandong Province, P.R. China.

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).

LyondellBasell is one of the largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies in the world. Driven by its 13,000 employees around the globe, LyondellBasell produces materials and products that are key to advancing solutions to modern challenges like enhancing food safety through lightweight and flexible packaging, protecting the purity of water supplies through stronger and more versatile pipes, and improving the safety, comfort and fuel efficiency of many of the cars and trucks on the road. LyondellBasell sells products into approximately 100 countries and is the world's largest licensor of polyolefin technologies.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Overall imports of PC granules to Russia (excluding shipments from Belarus) grew in the first month of 2020 more than by 3 times year on year to 2,590 tonnes, according to MRC's DataScope report.

Imports of material into the country were 740 tonnes in January 2019.

December 2019 imports of material to Belarus reached 2,850 tonnes.

Extrusion grade PC accounted for the greatest increase in January imports. Their share rose significantly in the total imports of material into the Russian Federation to 82% (2,100 tonnes) from 44% (32,000 tonnes) in January 2019.

Sabic Innovative Plastics and Covestro were the main import suppliers of PC granules. Both producers significantly increased their shipments in the first month of the year. Thus, imports of Sabic's material grew from 400 tonnes (5% of the total imports) in January 2019 to 1,590 tonnes (62% of the total imports). Covestro's shipments also rose significantly - to 770 tonnes from 580 tonnes (excluding Belarusian imports) a year earlier.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- EPPC, one of the two local polypropylene (PP) producers of Egypt, expects to restart its PP plant in Port Said, Egypt by the end of March and resume offers to the market afterwards, reported NCT with reference to sources familiar with the matter.

This plant was shut for maintenance works in early February, 2020, according to the plan.

The PP plant has a nameplate capacity of around 350,000-400,000 tons/year.

We remind that, as MRC wrote before, in early 2013, Egypt lifted anti-dumping fees on PP imports from Saudi Arabia after a prior investigation of the matter.

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) -- State-owned Thai energy group PTT Pcl plans a multi-billion dollar capital spending spree over the next five years that will include expanding in liquefied natural gas and investing in oil and gas pipelines, reported Reuters.

Last year Thailand announced a power development plan with a target to have 53% of its energy capacity provided by natural gas by 2037.

PTT said it would provisionally allocate 203.5 billion baht ($6.7 billion) of spending over the next five years to enhance the group’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) value chain, gas-to-power projects and other investments aligned with the national development plan.

PTT also plans to spend another 180.8 billion baht on investments between 2020 and 2024. Of that, 68% will go on joint ventures and subsidiaries, PTT Chief Executive Chansin Treenuchagron said in a statement, with 17% devoted to pipeline infrastructure and 7% for technology and engineering.

PTT has six flagship companies including oil and gas explorer PTT Exploration and Production Pcl, electricity producer Global Power Synergy Pcl and three refineries and petrochemical companies under PTT Global Chemical Pcl, Thai Oil Pcl and IRPC Pcl .

Its retail arm, PTT Oil and Retail, which operates gas stations and coffee shops, is in the process of filing for an initial public offer.

As MRC informed before, PTT Global Chemical (PTTGC) fully restarted its No. 2 cracker in Map Ta Phut last week after a planned turnaround. The company started resuming operations at the cracker by end-February, 2020. This cracker was shut for maintenance on January 20, 2020.

The company also operates No. 1 cracker at the same site with a capacity of 515,000 tonnes of ethylene and 310,000 tonnes of propylene per year, which was also shut on 23 January, 2020, for a 40-day turnaround.

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).

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) -- Unipetrol will build a pyrolytic unit for waste-plastic processing at its plant in Litvinov. In it, it will be looking into chemical plastic recycling and the possibility of implementing it in standard production in the next three years, said the company.

"“Our ambition is to chemically recycle waste plastic not only from our nearest surroundings, but probably from the entire Czech Republic and potentially from other parts of Central and Eastern Europe within several years,” said Tomas Herink, board member of the Unipetrol Group. The costs of the PYREKOL research project, which is run by Unipetrol, the Institute of Chemical Technology in Prague, and the Unipetrol Centre for Research and Education, amount to CZK 71.7 million. The Technology Agency of the Czech Republic contributed CZK 50.2 million within the framework of the TREND subsidy programme. The actual pyrolytic technology investment in the amount of CZK 18 million is being arranged outside the framework of Unipetrol’s PYREKOL project, with support from the Ministry of Industry and Trade within the framework of the Enterprise and Innovations for Competitiveness programme.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade , more than 400,000 tonnes of plastic waste are produced annually in the Czech Republic. Of this amount, roughly 37% of waste plastic is used for recycling and 18% is used as energy for heat and/or electricity generation. The remaining waste plastic, approximately 45%, is neither used as energy nor recycled. Unipetrol, one of the largest manufacturers of plastic primary products in the Czech Republic, is now beginning to look into how to reuse this plastic waste.

The concept of a circular economy, in which there is minimal or no waste, applies to many industrial sectors, including the chemical industry. A circular economy can contribute to protecting the environment by introducing new methods of waste-plastic processing which will lead to lowering the volume of plastic waste and lowering the emissions caused by burning it. “We are actively looking for ways to use circular economic principles in manufacturing, and chemical recycling utilising thermal decomposition is one of them. The project’s objective is to successfully develop a functional technology for reusing waste plastic and rubber from waste tyres in the petrochemical industry, which will result in more effective utilisation of existing plastic waste and in lowering the carbon footprint,” said Tomas Herink, board member of the Unipetrol Group.

Pyrolysis, or thermal decomposition of materials at elevated temperatures, represents the most interesting waste-plastic processing technology, as it provides a high utilisation ratio of liquid products that can subsequently be additionally processed using petrochemical or, alternatively, refinery technologies. At the same time, the transition of waste plastic into a usable raw material can go hand in hand with subsequent refining that will contribute to its greater value. “The research also includes other questions that need to be resolved. These include, for instance, improving the quality of liquid and gaseous pyrolytic by-products, how to store the liquid to avoid repeat polymerisation, and how to effectively transport it over longer distances. However, we will primarily be testing various types of input materials, single-type waste plastic, and mixed types of plastic. We want to find out what impact the basic parameters of these materials have on the utilisation ratio and on the quality of the final product. We will also be looking for a safe mixing ratio of the material garnered through pyrolysis, the quality of which can be variable, in the existing production process, so that the continuity of plastic production is not compromised,” explained Jiri Hajek, director of the Unipetrol Centre for Research and Education.

The project’s output will be a comprehensive proposal of a technology on an industrial scale on the basis of pyrolysis for the processing of waste plastic and rubber from tyres whose products will be usable in the petrochemical industry for the manufacturing of basic chemicals such as ethylene, propylene, butadiene and benzene. By means of subsequent processes, they will then be used to manufacture final petrochemical products – polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, etc. In the refinery industry, pyrolytic products will be added to existing processed raw materials in order to increase the production of motor fuels, i.e. petrol and diesel fuel.

The use of output products from the pyrolysis of waste plastic will help meet the expected objectives committing plastic-product manufacturers to the mandatory use of waste materials within the EU. Restricting the production of waste plastic belongs among the main ambitions of the European Union. “In terms of planned legislative changes, the surplus of waste plastic, and insufficient recycling possibilities, our research project is fully in accordance with the EU’s policy on waste management. The legislation clearly defines that it is desirable to recycle waste plastic and to process it in the petrochemical segment, if possible. The objective is to change this material into the most valuable raw material, and in business terms, petrochemical products are more valuable than refinery ones,” said Jiri Hajek in conclusion.

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