Braskem to cut Capex in 2020 by at least 10% due to coronavirus

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Brazilian petrochemical company Braskem SA expects to cut its Capex prediction for this year, of 3 billion reais (USD578 million)is by at least 10%, reported Reuters with reference to chief financial officer Pedro Freitas' statement in a webcast on Wednesday.

Braskem has drawn USD1 billion in revolving credit lines as an insurance against the coronavirus crisis, the CFO said.

The company’s cash position was USD3.3 billion in late 2019 and that the company issued additional USD2.25 billion in bonds maturing in 2030 and 2050.

As MRC informed earlier, 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 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.

Braskem S.A. produces petrochemicals and generates electricity. The Company produces ethylene, propylene, benzene, toluene, xylenes, butadiene, butene, isoprene, dicyclopentediene, MTBE, caprolactam, ammonium sulfate, cyclohexene, polyethylene theraphtalat, polyethylene, and polyvinyl chloride (PVC).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Russian producers of unmixed polyvinyl chloride (PVC) have kept a high level of capacity utilisation since the beginning of the year. Overall PVC output totalled 267,100 tonnes in January-March 2020, up by 3% year on year, according to MRC's ScanPlast report.

March production of unmixed PVC in Russia was 89,900 tonnes from 85,400 tonnes a month earlier, producers Bashkir Soda Company and RusVinyl increased capacity utilisation. The total volume of PVC production increased to 267,100 tonnes in January-March against 260,200 tonnes a year earlier.

The structure of PVC production by plants looked the following way over the stated period.

RusVinyl (JV of SIBUR and SolVin) produced about 29,900 tonnes of PVC in March, with emulsion polyvinyl chloride (EPVC) accounting for 2,400 tonnes, which actually corresponds to the figure a month earlier. Total SPVC production at RusVinyl increased to 92,200 tonnes in the first three months of this year, compared to 89,200 tonnes in the same period in 2019.

SayanskKhimPlast produced 28,500 tonnes of suspension PVC (SPVC) in March, whereas this figure was 26,500 tonnes in February. The Sayansk plant managed to produce about 83,200 tonnes of PVC in January-March, compared to 80,800 tonnes a year earlier.

Baskhir Soda Company produced about 24,200 tonnes of SPVC in March, against 21,900 tonnes a month earlier. Total SPVC production at Baskhir Soda Company increased to 69,700 tonnes in the first three months of this year, compared to 68,900 tonnes in the same period in 2019.

Kaustik (Volgograd) produced 7,400 tonnes of SPVC in March, compared with 7,100 tonnes in February. The plant's overall production of PVC reached 22,000 tonnes over the stated period versus 21,300 tonnes a year earlier.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- CNOOC and Shell Petrochemicals Company Limited (CSPC), has taken off-stream its No. 2 naphtha cracker, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that, the company has commenced turnaround at the cracker on April 7, 2020. The cracker is slated to remain off-line for about 20 days.

Located at Guangdong province, China, the No. 2 cracker has an ethylene capacity of 1.2 million mt/year and a propylene capacity of 620,000 mt/year.

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.

CNOOC and Shell Petrochemicals Company Limited (CSPC) was established in late 2000. It has built and now operates a world-scale petrochemical complex in the Daya Bay Economic and Technological Development Zone, Huizhou, Guangdong Province. The joint venture partners are Shell Nanhai BV, a member of the Royal Dutch Shell Group, with a 50 per cent stake, and CNOOC Petrochemicals Investment Limited (CPIL), also with 50 per cent. CPIL is owned by China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) (90%) and Guangdong Guangye Investment Group Company Limited(10%).

As an integrated petrochemical complex, the major facilities of the complex include 11 process units, steam and power generation and other utility provisions, storage and handling and shipping facilities, as well as environmental protection facilities. The heart of the complex is a world-scale cracker producing 950,000 tons per annum ethylene and 500,000 tons per annum propylene. In total, the complex produces some 2.7 million tons per annum of ethylene and propylene's derivative products to supply the domestic market.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Shandong Lihuayi Group, has planned to take off-stream its No. 1 Bisphenol A (BPA) unit for a maintenance turnaround, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that, the company is likely to undertake a planned shutdown at the unit on April 15, 2020. The unit is likely to remain off-line for about one month.

Located in Shandong, China, the No. 1 BPA unit has a production capacity of 120,000 mt/year.

BPA is the main feedstock for the production of polycarbonate (PC).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's overall consumption of PC granules (excluding exports from Belarus) totalled 6,700 tonnes in January 2020, up by 43% year on year (4,300 tonnes a year earlier).

BPA is a type of engineering plastic for use in automobiles, mobile phones, and electronics appliances.

Lihuayi Group Co. Ltd. manufactures petrochemical products. The Company manufactures and provides diesels, gasolines, liquid petroleum gas, phthalic anhydride, and other petrochemical products. The Company also operates pharmaceutical, textiles, imports and exports businesses.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc began restarting the heavy-oil hydrocracker at its 211,270 barrel-per-day (bpd) Convent, Louisiana, refinery, reported Reuters with reference to sources familiar with plant operations.

The 45,000-bpd hydrocracker, called the H-Oil Unit, shut down on Saturday because of a malfunction, the sources said.

As MRC wrote previously, a contractor working at Shell's Pulau Bukom manufacturing site in Singapore has contracted the new coronavirus. The Bukom manufacturing site in Singapore houses Shell's biggest wholly-owned refinery. The company said earlier it had sent some staff home from its main office at Metropolis in western Singapore after discovering another employee had been in contact with a carrier.

We also remind that 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 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.

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