Mitsui Chemicals to construct new plant for cyclic olefin copolymers

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. has announced that it will establish a new plant within Osaka Works, Takaishi, Osaka Prefecture, to produce the APEL series of cyclic olefin copolymers, according to Chemical Engineering.

With its major application in smartphone camera lenses, APEL has seen demand driven by a recent trend toward multi-lens cameras in these devices. Mitsui Chemicals is therefore looking to set up a supply system able to deal with this increased demand.

By establishing the new plant, Mitsui Chemicals’ production capacity for APEL will rise by approximately 50%. Construction on the new plant is starting this month and is slated to wrap up in March 2022.

Plans going forward are to further grow Mitsui Chemicals’ APEL business by capturing new demand in applications, such as automotive cameras, head-mounted displays and the medical sector.

Mitsui Chemicals is positioning its Performance Polymers Division - which includes APEL and is focused on ICT - as a growth sector. Through this latest production capacity increase, Mitsui Chemicals expects that it will be able to continue meeting increased demand here for the time being. But to properly respond to further demand growth going forward, Mitsui Chemicals will now begin to also consider its next production increase for the series.

As MRC informed before, Mitsui Chemicals restarted its naphtha cracker in Japan on 11-12 May, 2019, following an unplanned outage. The cracker was shut in end-April, 2019 owing to power failure. Located at Chiba in Japan, the cracker has an ethylene capacity of 600,000 mt/year and propylene capacity of 331,000 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 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.

Mitsui Chemicals is a leading manufacturer and supplier of value added specialty chemicals, plastics and materials for the automotive, healthcare, packaging, agricultural, building, and semiconductor and electronics markets. Mitsui Chemicals is a Japanese Chemicals company, a part of the Mitsui conglomerate. The company has a turnover of around 15 billion USD and has business interests in Japan, Europe, China, Southeast Asia and the USA. The company mainly deals in performance materials, petro and basic chemicals and functional polymeric materials.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- More than 20 vessels loaded with fuel have waited a week or more to discharge gasoline, jet fuel, diesel and liquefied petroleum gas at Mexico’s ports, according to Refinitiv Eikon data, as demand craters due to coronavirus-related lockdowns, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Mexico imports most of its fuel and has very limited storage capacity. State oil company Pemex and about a dozen independent importers typically discharge at least two gasoline cargoes per day, mostly coming from the United States.

In January, the United States exported 1.17 million barrels per day (bpd) of refined products to Mexico, in line with the 2019 average, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Pemex, which mostly imports on the spot market, has not declared force majeure over fuel purchases even though gasoline retail demand declined 60% and diesel demand fell 35% in the two first weeks of March, according to the country’s fuel retail association Onexpo.

In total, 56 tankers loaded with fuel are waiting to enter Mexican ports, of which 21 have been in line for more than a week. The total volume contained in the 21 vessels would be at least 4.2 million barrels, enough for about three days of pre-lockdown demand in Mexico.

Pemex did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Most of the vessels waiting to discharge are anchored near Pajaritos, the main port of entry of imported fuel into Mexico. There are also bottlenecks off Manzanillo and Tuxpan ports, according to the data.

Long waiting times for tankers to discharge typically imply the payment of demurrage fees, which are about USD20,000 per day depending on the vessel size, contract terms and freight tariff agreed.

As MRC wrote previously, in 2016, Pemex shut its steam cracker at its Cangrejera complex for maintenance on February 15. The cracker was idle for about 14 days. The conducted repairs at the cracker were a part of planned maintenance.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,724,670 tonnes in the first ten months of 2019, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market in January-October 2019 totalled 1,066,520 tonnes, up by 7% year on year. Supply of block copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymer) and homopolymer of propylene (homopolymer PP) increased, demand for statistical copolymers (PP random copolymer) decreased.

Pemex, Mexican Petroleum, is a Mexican state-owned petroleum company. Pemex has a total asset worth of USD415.75 billion, and is the world's second largest non-publicly listed company by total market value, and Latin America's second largest enterprise by annual revenue as of 2009. Company produces such polymers, as polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF Corp., the North American affiliate of German chemical maker BASF SE, has begun producing hand sanitizer from two of its plants in the U.S. to help meet the increased demands needed to safely combat the COVID-19 pandemic, said Canplastics.

The company is providing the states of New Jersey and New York with hand sanitizer manufactured at its facility in Washington, N.J. free of charge. BASF said that it does not regularly produce hand sanitizer at its New Jersey location, but a team of BASF scientists and engineers worked on a compressed timeline to develop a safe and high-quality product.

The New Jersey plant is the first BASF location in the U.S. to supply hand sanitizer. The facility will produce approximately 3,500 gallons of hand sanitizer to be distributed to health care systems and government agencies in New Jersey and New York, and other BASF locations in the U.S.

And the BASF Corp. site in Wyandotte, Mich. has created and produced a hand sanitizer, HandClasp, with the first 1,000 gallons in the U.S. donated to the Henry Ford Health System.

The Wyandotte facility is home to one of BASF’s largest research and development centres and manufacturing sites in North America with more than 1,200 employees. As at the Washington, N.J. site, BASF does not regularly produce hand sanitizer at the Wyandotte location, however the facility received authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to temporarily produce a safe and high-quality sanitizing product. The facility has produced over 8,000 gallons of hand sanitizer being distributed to the Henry Ford Health System, and other health care systems in Michigan, Texas, Louisiana, Mexico and Canada, as well as other BASF locations in the U.S.

As MRC wrote earlier, BASF, the world's petrochemical major, has restarted its No. 1 steam cracker following a maintenance turnaorund. Thus, the company resumed operations at the plant on September 30, 2019. The plant was shut for maintenance in mid-August, 2019. Located at Ludwigshafen in Germany, the No. 1 cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 235,000 mt/year and a propylene production capacity of 125,000 mt/year.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing 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.

BASF is the leading chemical company. It produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries. BASF generated sales of around EUR63 billion in 2018.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The American Chemistry Council (ACC) reported that with the effects of COVID-19 fully affecting in the U.S. economy, U.S. specialty chemicals market volumes fell 5.0 percent in March, accelerating from a 0.5 percent decline in February, said ACCA.

Of the 28 specialty chemicals segments ACC monitors, only three expanded in March, down from 13 in February. Twenty-five markets declined in March, with large market volume gains (1.0 percent and over) occurring in cosmetic additives and flavors and fragrances. On a sequential basis, diffusion was 11 percent, down from 48 percent in February and 63 percent in January.

During March, the overall specialty chemicals volume index was down 4.4 percent on a year-over-year (Y/Y) basis. The index stood at 111.4 percent of its average 2012 levels in March. This is equivalent to 7.29 billion pounds (3.31 million metric tons). On a Y/Y basis, there were gains in only four market and functional specialty chemical segments. Compared with last year, volumes were down in 23 segments, while one was flat. On a year-earlier basis, diffusion was 16 percent, much worse than February.

Specialty chemicals are materials manufactured on the basis of the unique performance or function and provide a wide variety of effects on which many other sectors and end-use products rely. They can be individual molecules or mixtures of molecules, known as formulations. The physical and chemical characteristics of the single molecule or mixtures along with the composition of the mixtures influence the performance end product. Individual market sectors that rely on such products include automobile, aerospace, agriculture, cosmetics and food, among others.

Specialty chemicals differ from commodity chemicals. They may only have one or two uses, whereas commodities may have multiple or different applications for each chemical. Commodity chemicals make up most of the production volume in the global marketplace, whereas specialty chemicals make up most of the diversity in commerce at any given time, and are relatively high value with greater market growth rates.

This data set is the only timely source of market trends for twenty-eight market and functional specialty chemical segments. Chemistry directly touches over 96 percent of all manufactured goods, and trends in these specialty chemical segments provide a detailed view of trends in manufacturing. The data also shed light on how various consumer end-use markets are performing compared to others in the marketplace.

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

MOSCOW (MRC) -- SIBUR will supply epidemiological kits for medical personnel to various regions of Russia to satisfy the needs of healthcare institutions, said the company.

This decision was taken by SIBUR's Committee for Ecology, Sustainable Development and Social Investments.

Over 40,000 protective suits will be provided as the main part of this delivery. The overall suits are made of polymeric material and have the necessary level of barrier protection to prevent medical personnel from contracting the coronavirus from infected patients.

"We need to stand together to beat the coronavirus and protect the people who are now on the frontline in this war and are therefore most vulnerable," said Alexey Kozlov, SIBUR’s Management Board member, Managing Director, and Chairman of the Committee for Ecology, Sustainable Development and Social Investments.

On top of anti-crisis aid, SIBUR continues the Formula for Good Deeds charitable programme, keeping its scope intact. The Company works together with its partners and grantees to transform 2020 projects and ensure their successful implementation in line with the current requirements on organisers' and attendees' safety.

As MRC informed earlier, SIBUR will develop a feasibility study for the construction of a gas processing plant near Kazan by July 2020. Based on the feasibility study, the company"s shareholders will decide on the construction of the enterprise.

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.

SIBUR Holding PJSC is the largest petrochemical company in Russia and Eastern Europe with full coverage of the industry cycle from gas processing, production of monomers, plastics and synthetic rubbers to plastics processing. The main shareholder of SIBUR Leonid Mikhelson controls 48.48% of the company, Gennady Timchenko - 17%, Kirill Shamalov - 3.88%, the current and former management of the company (including SIBUR chairman of the board Dmitry Konov and head of Gazprom Neft Alexander Dyukov) - 10.6%, Chinese Sinopec and the Silk Road Fund - 10% each.
MRC