Celanese completes acquisition of Nouryon redispersible polymer powders business

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Celanese Corporation, a global chemical and specialty materials company, has announced it has completed the acquisition of Nouryon’s redispersible polymer powders business offered under the Elotex brand, according to the company's press release.

With the completion of the acquisition - having cleared all necessary closing conditions, regulatory and works council requirements - Celanese takes ownership of Nouryon’s global production facilities for redispersible polymer powders across Europe and Asia, all products under the Elotex portfolio, and all customer agreements, technology and commercial facilities globally.

Celanese will integrate the Elotex product portfolio and production facilities into its global vinyl acetate ethylene (VAE) emulsions business to further meet global product demand. Elotex has production facilities in these locations: Frankfurt, Germany; Geleen, Netherlands; Moosleerau, Switzerland; Shanghai, China.

Elotex manufacturing facilities in Frankfurt and Geleen are co-located and operationally integrated with Celanese emulsions assets at these locations. Elotex R&D and Technical Services functions are located in Sempach, Switzerland.

Elotex is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of redispersible polymer powders for growing applications including: self-leveling flooring and wall texturing smoothing/painting. exterior thermal insulation composite systems (ETICS) which provide exterior walls with an insulated and waterproof surface, applied as a topcoat by trowel or spraying, cement tile adhesives and grouts for floor and wall tiles, mosaic and flat natural stone on dimensionally stable sub floors, gypsum plaster and joint fillers, polymer binding systems, and cement and time-based renders.

Celanese announced its intent to acquire Elotex on January 30. Financial details of the acquisition will be reported as part of the company’s regular quarterly financial disclosure.

As MRC reported earlier, Celanese Corporation has restarted its vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) unit in Singapore. The company has resumed operations at the unit on March 16, 2020. The unit was shut since February 4, 2020 following a fire at the site. Located in Jurong Island, Singapore, the unit has a production capacity of 210,000 mt/year.

VAM is the main feedstock for the production of ethylene-vinyl-acetate (EVA).

According to MRC's DataScope report, February EVA imports to Russia rose by 9,83% year on year to 3,107 tonnes from 2,829 tonnes a year earlier, and overall imports of this grade of ethylene copolymer into the Russian Federation increased in January-February 2020 by 8,36% year on year to 6,194 tonnes (5,716 tonnes a year earlier).

Celanese Corporation is a global technology leader in the production of differentiated chemistry solutions and specialty materials used in most major industries and consumer applications. Based in Dallas, Celanese employs approximately 7,700 employees worldwide and had 2019 net sales of USD6.3 billion.
MRC

Covid-19 compounds European refiners’ challenges

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The demand impact from widespread lockdowns causes an immediate demand headache. But longer-term structural obstacles remain, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

“The prospects for European gasoline look particularly grim at the moment.” So says Chris Judge, vice-president, crude and oil products at price reporting agency Argus Media and an analyst of European refined products markets for well over 20 years.

Or, rather said. As, to put into context the scale of both the short and longer-term challenges facing the European refining sector, Judge uttered these words in late February, before the extent of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on European and global products demand was clear.

These short-term challenges are daunting enough in themselves. The grounding of the majority of the world’s plane and strict lockdowns on people’s mobility bite hard into transport fuel demand.

Requirements for jet fuel have fallen dramatically. Consultancy Energy Aspects warns that refineries in Spain and the Netherlands are at particular risk of being forced to cut jet fuel output. “The financial pressures from [the pandemic] event will perhaps accelerate the rationalisation of capacity in Europe,” says Robert Campbell, the firm’s head of oil products research.

Not every refinery throughput is hit as hard as jet and middle distillates. There will be a more muted impact for refiners that produce a lot of marine fuel, according to Eugene Lindell, a senior consultant at research firm JBC Energy.

"From the [marine fuel] refiners’ side, we do not see any production issues as the low sulphur fuel oil crack is expected to be higher than the gasoline crack meaning that refiners will have an incentive to supply this fuel first,” says Lindell. “One complicating issue is that the low outright crude price automatically creates a narrower price spread between clean and dirty fuel. This is bad news for ship owners that invested in scrubbers, as it lengthens the payback period."

We also remind that 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, USA.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 383,760 tonnes in the first two month of 2020, up by 14% year on year. High density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments increased due to the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 192,760 tonnes in January-February 2020, down by 6% year on year. Homopolymer PP accounted for the main decrease in imports.
MRC

Vietnamese Dung Quat oil refinery cuts output on virus-hit demand

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Vietnam’s Dung Quat oil refinery plans to cut output because of weaker domestic fuel demand caused by the coronavirus oubreak, the facility’s operator said Reuters.

Domestic demand for refined fuels has fallen 30% to 40% since February, Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical said in a news release on its website, without saying how much refining production it has cut, adding that it may have to cease production if demand continues to decline.

As MRC informed earlier, Vietnam is seeking to import more goods from the United States to help narrow a favorable trade surplus following threats by US President Donald Trump to impose tariffs on products from the Southeast Asian nation amid a Sino-US trade war.

Vietnam is trying to accelerate the sale of stakes in state firms, including an initial public offering (IPO) of the firm that runs the country's sole refinery, which has been meeting about 30% of local oil product demand since it began operating in 2011.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 383,760 tonnes in the first two month of 2020, up by 14% year on year. High density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments increased due to the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 192,760 tonnes in January-February 2020, down by 6% year on year. Homopolymer PP accounted for the main decrease in imports.
MRC

Chinas top refiners to hike output 10% in April as domestic fuel demand rises

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China’s top fuel producers are set to raise April crude throughput by a combined 755,000 barrels per day (bpd), or 10% from March, as domestic fuel demand picks up after being hammered by the coronavirus outbreak, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The increase, calculated by Reuters based on interviews with six industry sources, shows China bucking the global trend of refiners deepening output cuts to cope with slumping demand amid nationwide lockdowns in the global pandemic.

Sinopec, Asia’s top refiner, is expected to raise throughput by at least one million tonnes in April from March, or 400,000 barrels per day (bpd), said three industry sources with knowledge of Sinopec operations. All of the sources interviewed for this story declined to be named as they’re not authorised to talk to media.

After the increases, Sinopec will be producing close to 4.5 million bpd, up from under 4 million bpd estimated for February when Sinopec made the deepest production cuts in decades to operate its refineries at two-thirds of capacity after the outbreak slashed fuel demand.

The April level, however, would still be about 480,000 bpd, or 10%, below the average processing rate last year at 4.98 million bpd.

Meanwhile No.2 state refiner PetroChina is expected to hike output by around 165,000 bpd to 2.92 million bpd, said two of the sources.

“Chinese fuel demand is rebounding, but only at a modest pace, as resuming (domestic) economic activity was somewhat offset by a steep fall in exports,” said Wang Zhao, analyst with commodities consultancy Sublime Information Co.

Among fuels, demand for diesel is recovering the fastest as China pumps up spending on infrastructure and as manufacturing recovers, but plunging export orders are capping growth.

Gasoline consumption is also recovering, with more cars on the roads as people avoid public transportation, albeit over shorter distances. Massive cancellations of international flights will keep aviation fuel in the doldrums. Smaller state-run refiner CNOOC will operate its 240,000 bpd Huizhou phase-1 plant at full rates in April, after ramping it up in March from a cut of 8% in February, said a source with direct knowledge of the plant’s operations.

“The idea is to quickly draw down the higher-cost crude inventories to allow for processing cheaper purchases that are arriving,” said the source. Still, these run rates are subject to changes as refiners are now adjusting production plans by the week, or even twice a week to quickly respond to unpredictable market changes, state oil executives said, rather than once a month.

Sinopec, PetroChina and CNOOC didn’t respond to requests for comment. In the private sector, Hengli Petrochemical Co Ltd and Zhejiang Petrochemical Corp are both ramping up production this month to nearly 110% of their nameplate capacity at 400,000 bpd each, up from 100% in March, senior company officials told Reuters.

Sinopec Zhenhai Refining and Chemical, part of Sinopec Group, has planned to take its No. 3 Polypropylene (PP) unit off-stream in April 2020. The company is likely to start maintenance at the unit on April 9, 2020. The unit is expected to remain under maintenance for about one week. Located at Ningbo, China, the No. 3 PP unit has a production capacity of 350,000 mt/year.

As MRC reported earlier, Sinopec Corp is set to launch a new USD5.7 billion refining and petrochemical complex in the south of the country in second-quarter 2020 using crude oil from Kuwait as a key feedstock. The project being developed by Asia’s top refiner, a 200,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) plant in Zhanjiang, a coastal city in Guangdong province, will become the third greenfield refinery-petrochemical complex to be built in China within a space of two years.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market were 192,760 tonnes in January-February 2020, down by 6% year on year. Homopolymer PP accounted for the main decrease in imports.
MRC

Russian Transneft resumes supplies to Belarusian refineries

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russia’s oil pipeline monopoly Transneft has started supplying crude oil to Belarusian refineries, reproted Reuters with reference to news agency Interfax, citing the company's statement.

Major Russian oil companies suspended supplies to Belarus from Jan. 1 after failing to agree supply terms, with Moscow wanting to end years of discounted oil supplies to Minsk.

Russia used to supply about 1.5 million tonnes of oil (360,000 bpd) to Belarus each month, but flows have dwindled to a trickle since the start of the year.

Transneft did not disclose the volumes it plans to ship to Belarus this month.

In late January 2020, as MRC wrote before, Belarusian Naftan refinery received 80,000 mt of Norwegian oil to test out new routes and compare losses with the current price of Russian oil.

Lukashenko said in mid-December 2019 that Russia had agreed in principle to supply 20-22 Bcm of gas and 24 million-25 million mt of oil in 2020 to Belarus.

According to ICIS-MRC Price report, lower capacity utilisation at Polymir (part of Naftan) in January 2020 did not affect the balance of the local low density polyethylene (LDPE) market, there was no shortage of polyethylene (PE). Local companies partially compensated for the absence of domestic PE by higher shipments from Russia.

Polymir (part of Naftan) is Belarus' largest petrochemical company, producing a wide range of chemical products, such as LDPE, acrylic fibers, products of organic synthesis, hydrocarbon fractions, etc. Polymir was founded in 1968. The producer uses technologies of the largest foreign companies from Great Britain, Japan, Germany, Italy (Courtaulds, Asahi Chemical Co. Ltd, Kanematsu Gosho, SNIA BPD, etc.), as well as the developments of scientific research institutes and design institutes of the CIS countries. The plant"s annual production capacity is 130,000 tonnes.
MRC