Two Eastman employees test positive for COVID-19

MOSCOW (MRC) -- According to Eastman Chemical Company officials, two employees at their Kingsport location have tested positive for COVID-19. reported WCYB.

Officials say both employees have been away from work since March 17.

The local public health department is in contact with other employees who worked closely with those who tested positive.

Eastman officials say they will conduct proper disinfection of the potentially affected spaces in accordance with CDC guidelines.

"With an employee population of our size, it was just a matter of time that some of our own team members would test positive as COVID-19 continues to spread rapidly across the US. That’s why we acted early, asking some of our team members to work from home and those on site to do so in the smallest groups possible or with limited access and contact to other areas," says Betty Payne from Eastman Chemical Company.

As MRC reported earlier, in 2016, Eastman Chemical's chief executive Mark Costa announced that the company wanted to reduce its surplus ethylene and commodity intermediates, but did not intend to sell its cracker in Longview, Texas.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 215,390 tonnes in the first month of 2020, up by 23% year on year. Shipments of all grades of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) increased due to higher capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 127,240 tonnes in January 2020, up by 33% year on year. ZapSibNeftekhim's homopolymer PP accounted for the main increase in shipments.

Eastman is a global specialty chemical company that produces a broad range of products found in items people use every day. With a portfolio of specialty businesses, Eastman works with customers to deliver innovative products and solutions while maintaining a commitment to safety and sustainability. Its market-driven approaches take advantage of world-class technology platforms and leading positions in attractive end-markets such as transportation, building and construction and consumables. Eastman focuses on creating consistent, superior value for all stakeholders. As a globally diverse company, Eastman serves customers in more than 100 countries. The company is headquartered in Kingsport, Tennessee, USA and employs approximately 14,500 people around the world.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Subsidiary AGIC and SK Gas have formed a joint venture named Advanced Polyolefins Company to work on the project, according to ConstructionWeek.

Saudi Arabian Stock Market-listed Advanced Petrochemical Company has signed a deal with South Korea’s SK Gas to construct and operate a propane dehydrogenation (PDH) and polypropylene (PP) plants in the kingdom’s Jubail Industrial City, with the project value being USD1.8bn (SAR6.8bn).

In a stock market missive the company said that its subsidiary Advanced Global Investment Company (AGIC) and SK Gas have formed a joint venture (JV), Advanced Polyolefins Company, which will work on the plants.

Together the plants will have a nameplate capacity to manufacture 843,000 tons per year (764,756.7 tonnes) of propylene and 800,000 tons per year (725,747.8 tonnes) of polypropylene.

According to the company, 25% of the finance for the project has been secured by equity from shareholders and remaining 75% will be financed by the newly formed JV, with borrowing from lenders.

AGIC will own 85% stake in JV, which will be financed by the parent firm Advanced Petrochemical Company, while the remaining 15% will be owned by SK Gas.

Additionally, AGIC has also signed a conditional land allocation letter with Royal Commission in Jubail 2 for the project.

Meanwhile, for the project, AGIC has also inked a license agreement with US-based Lummus Technology for the supply of CATOFIN Technology for 843 KTA PDH plant.

Two other license agreements have also been signed with Italy’s Basell Poliolefine Italia, for the supply of SPHERIPOL Technology and SPHERIZONE Technology for two PP plants with capacity of 400 KTA each.

Saudi Aramco will supply propane on a long-term basis for the project, project management consultants for which has also been selected.

Construction work on the plants is expected to being in 2021.

The company said: “The financial impact of the above investment is expected after the commencement of commercial operations of the project by H2 of 2024.”

As MRC informed before, in September 2019, SK Advanced signed a joint venture agreement with South Korea’s Polymerae Ltd. to establish a polypropylene plant in South Korea with an annual design capacity of 400,000 metric tons. The facility is expected to launch commercial operations in 2021.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 215,390 tonnes in the first month of 2020, up by 23% year on year. Shipments of all grades of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) increased due to higher capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 127,240 tonnes in January 2020, up by 33% year on year. ZapSibNeftekhim's homopolymer PP accounted for the main increase in shipments.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Shell said Monday it will not move ahead with its planned equity interested in the Lake Charles LNG project in Louisiana, citing difficult market conditions, and that its partner, Energy Transfer, would instead take over as the project's developer, reported S&P Global.

"This decision is consistent with the initiatives we announced last week to preserve cash and reinforce the resilience of our business," Shell's director of integrated gas and new energies, Maarten Wetselaar, said in a statement.
Last week Shell announced plans to cut 2020 capital expenditures to USD20 billion from the roughly USD25 billion previously envisaged and operating costs by USD3 billion to USD4 billion over the next 12 months.

"Whilst we continue to believe in the long-term viability and advantages of the project, the time is not right for Shell to invest," Wetselaar said.

Shell said that, during the transition, it would continue to help Energy Transfer with the bidding process for the energy, procurement, and construction contract, and then planned a phased handover of the remaining activities. The two companies signed a project framework agreement last March.

Energy Transfer, in a separate announcement, confirmed it will take over as lead developer and continue advancing project, although it is evaluating alternatives including bringing in one or more equity partners and scaling back the project from three trains to two and reducing the planned capacity to 11 million mt/year from 16.45 million mt/year.

Energy Transfer's Executive Vice President and President-LNG, Tom Mason, said the company is in "discussions with several significant LNG buyers from Europe and Asia regarding LNG offtake arrangements as well as, in some cases, a potential equity investment in the project."

"We continue to believe that Lake Charles is the most competitive and credible LNG project on the Gulf Coast," said Mason. "Having the ability to capitalize on our existing regasification infrastructure at Lake Charles provides a cost advantage over other proposed LNG projects on the Gulf Coast," he said, adding the project also benefits from connectivity to Energy Transfer's nationwide pipeline system.

The Louisiana project has approved capacity of more than 2 Bcf/d. It received authorization from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in December 2015. Completion of the terminal was previously targeted for late 2025, but the project had yet to reach a final investment decision.

As MRC informed earlier, Shell Singapore restarted its naphtha cracker in Bukom Island in early December 2019, 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 215,390 tonnes in the first month of 2020, up by 23% year on year. Shipments of all grades of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) increased due to higher capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 127,240 tonnes in January 2020, up by 33% year on year. ZapSibNeftekhim's homopolymer PP accounted for the main increase in shipments.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Shell trimmed Tuesday its estimated oil and gas production for the first quarter of 2020, warning of major uncertainty over the value and demand for its fuels due to the growing coronavirus pandemic, the company said on Tuesday.

Updating its Q1 guidance, Shell said it expects to report upstream production of between 2.65 million-2.72 million b/d of oil equivalent in the first quarter and between 920,000-970,000 boe/d of integrated gas for LNG.

It had previously guided for upstream production of between 2.63 million-2.76 million boe/d and integrated gas output of 950,000-980,000 boe/d in Q1.

Oil prices have collapsed by more than 50% since to the start of the year to near 18-year lows and Shell said its upstream margins have been impacted by the weak macro environment.

"As a result of COVID-19, we have seen and expect significant uncertainty with macro-economic conditions with regards to prices and demand for oil, gas and related products," Shell said in a statement.

The company estimates that its earnings sensitivity to the oil price collapse is USDS6 billion/year for each USD10/b Brent crude price movement.

Shell said it expects its LNG liquefaction volumes to be 8.8 million-9.2 million mt in the quarter, down from 9 million-9.5 million mt previously. Oil products sales are expected to be 6 million-7 million b/d, down from the previous guidance of 6.4 million-7 million b/d.

Shell said its marketing margins in the first quarter are expected to remain strong, however, as the impact on demand from COVID-19 is "not expected to be significant" in the first quarter. Refining margins are expected to be weaker compared with the fourth quarter of 2019 while refinery utilization is expected to be between 80% and 84%, with availability expected to be between 93% and 96%.

The consensus estimates for Shell's Q1 adjusted earnings are currently USD2.52 billion, down from $5.3 billion in the year-ago period. Shell is scheduled to release its full Q1 earnings results on April 30.

As MRC informed earlier, The COVID-19 outbreak has led Shell Chemical to temporarily suspend construction on the massive plastics and petrochemicals site it's building in Monaca, Pa. The complex will use ethane from shale gas produced in the Marcellus and Utica basins to make around 3.5 billion pounds of polyethylene resin per year. The complex will include four processing units, an ethane cracker and three PE units. Most of the resin made in Monaca is expected to be sold to Shell customers within North America.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 215,390 tonnes in the first month of 2020, up by 23% year on year. Shipments of all grades of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) increased due to higher capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 127,240 tonnes in January 2020, up by 33% year on year. ZapSibNeftekhim's homopolymer PP accounted for the main increase in shipments.

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) -- Citing the impact of trade conflicts between the major economies in 2019, injection molding machine maker Haitian Group recorded an overall sales decrease of 9.6% last year compared to 2018, but still sold more than 32,000 units for the year ending Dec. 31, 2019, said Canplastics.

"Although decreased by 6.5% as compared to 2018, the total number of machines delivered to customers in 2019 maintained an impressive level,” the China-based company said in a March 18 press release. “With regard to overseas markets, increased international trade protectionism has led to a decline in sales in some regions. However, sales in the Southeast Asian market increased, which in turn led to record high export sales of RMB 3,447.7 million [US$485 million] in 2019, representing an increase of 2.9% as compared to previous year."

Overall, Haitian Group reported 2019 revenues of RMB 9,809.7 million (USD1.3 billion).

The outbreak of the current coronavirus in early 2020 not only had a negative impact on the global economy, the company noted, but also cast a shadow over the recovering global economies. “However, as Haitian International has been working on globalization for years, our overseas operations centres have developed full business functions, such as manufacturing and distribution, to meet the needs of our local and regional customers,” the company said. “Digitalization and innovation 2020 will be the year of management innovation at Haitian International. With its main focus on smart manufacturing, the Haitian International factories will accelerate the transformation into a digitized, networked and intelligent enterprise.” Last year, Haitian International was added to the list of digitized workshops and smart factories in China’s Zhejiang Province.

On the North American front, Absolute Haitian – the exclusive distributor of Haitian and Zhafir injection molding machinery in the U.S. and Canada – had what it calls “a good year” in 2019. In May 2019, a 116,000-square-foot operations facility was opened in Moncks Corner, S.C., to provide additional capacity and capabilities to support injection molders in the U.S. and Canada, including final assembly, stock machines, customization, service, and parts. “By fall 2019, [Absolute Haitian’s] stock machine inventory reached a record-high 125 machines for quick delivery to injection molders,” the company said.

Absolute Haitian also saw growth in sales dollars and market share even with the reduced overall U.S. market conditions in 2019, due mainly to the increase in larger machine sales. “Sales results in the first two months of 2020 were strong. We remain optimistic that when the current unusual situation is resolved, we’ll see a quick return to normal demand,” said Glenn Frohring, one of the owners of Worcester, Mass.-based Absolute Haitian. “Until then, we remain open as appropriate to support our customers with sales, service, parts and on-line training to ensure they remain operational."

As per MRC's DataScope, 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. 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.
MRC