Liquid bulk chemical volumes rise at Port of Antwerp despite COVID-19

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Liquid bulk chemicals freight volumes at Port of Antwerp, Belgium, have risen slightly year on year (YOY) for the first four months of 2020, despite the growing impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, reported Chemweek.

Freight volumes of liquid chemical products grew by 0.6% YOY over the four-month period, although overall liquid bulk freight volumes fell by 2.5% YOY due mainly to lower demand for oil derivatives, says the Antwerp Port Authority (APA). Freight volumes of liquid bulk chemicals at the port had grown by 4% YOY for the first three months of 2020.

Imposed international restrictions and lockdowns in response to the pandemic were reflected by falling total freight volumes handled at the port in April, although the total for the first four months of the year was still up 0.4% compared with the prior-year period, it says. Container volumes in April fell compared with the same month last year but TEUs (twenty-foot-equivalent units) grew 6.1% YOY over the first four months of 2020, it notes. "The consequences of canceled sailings will make themselves felt in the remainder of the second quarter. On the other hand, there was a strong increase in empty boxes bound for China, which is a sign of recovery in production there," the APA says.

The breakbulk sector, with steel as the most important product, was hit particularly hard by the worldwide disruptions in trade and the shutdown of industries around the world, it says. The sector fell by 15.7% YOY in April, and by almost 30% for the first four months of the year. Roll-on/roll-off volumes fell by over 16% YOY for the first four months due to the lack of production in the automotive industry, with imports and exports of cars "at a standstill," it adds. "The impact of lackluster demand due to the corona crisis will make itself felt more strongly in the coming months,” says the APA.

As MRC wrote before, in mid-April 2020, dozens of tankers holding jet fuel and gasoline were at anchor in sea lanes around Europe’s main storage hubs, unable to discharge their cargoes as onshore tanks were full to capacity following the collapse in demand linked to the coronavirus crisis. Nearly 1 million tonnes of refined products were parked on around 30 tankers off Europe’s coast, Reuters calculations found.

Earlier this year, BP said the deadly coronavirus outbreak could cut global oil demand growth by 40 per cent in 2020, putting pressure on Opec producers and Russia to curb supplies to keep prices in check.

We remind that, in September 2019, six world's major petrochemical companies in Flanders, Belgium, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, and the Netherlands (Trilateral Region) announced the creation of a consortium to jointly investigate how naphtha or gas steam crackers could be operated using renewable electricity instead of fossil fuels. The Cracker of the Future consortium, which includes BASF, Borealis, BP, LyondellBasell, SABIC and Total, aims to produce base chemicals while also significantly reducing carbon emissions. The companies agreed to invest in R&D and knowledge sharing as they assess the possibility of transitioning their base chemical production to renewable electricity.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 557,060 tonnes in the first three month of 2020, up by 7% year on year. High density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments rose because of the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. Demand for LDPE subsided. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market was 267,630 tonnes in January-March 2020, down 20% year on year. Homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers accounted for the main decrease in imports.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF announced the commercial launch of Fourtune which is a new Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) catalyst product for gasoil feedstock, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Fourtune is the latest product based on BASF’s Multiple Framework Topology (MFT) technology. It has been optimized to deliver superior butylene over propylene selectivity while maintaining catalyst activity and performance.

Fourtune commercial trials have confirmed its ability to deliver better economic performance through butylene selectivity, high conversion, and maintains coke selective bottoms upgrading and high distillate yields that increases refiners’ profitability.

BASF’s innovative MFT technology enhances performance through the use of more than one framework topology that work together to tailor the catalyst selectivity profile. Successful evaluations of the new MFT technology have demonstrated Fourtune’s ability to help maximize margins and provide operating flexibility to make more butylene to feed the alkylation unit. The technology provides an answer to the increased demand for octane since today’s tighter sulfur regulations often require post treatment on the gasoline stream, which can negatively impact the octane pool.

Detlef Ruff, Senior Vice President Process Catalysts at BASF, said: "We hear very positive feedback from our customers who are using Fourtune. We are confident that the benefits of this new product will bring our customers improvements in butylene selectivity and the overall potential to make the refineries more profitable."

"The first thing we did on our path to develop Fourtune was to listen to our customers," said Jim Chirumbole, Vice President Refining Catalysts at BASF. "They told us they needed an innovative, flexible solution to help them make more octane for the marketplace, and we’re happy to deliver this new product to the market."

As MRC reported earlier, BASF 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 557,060 tonnes in the first three month of 2020, up by 7% year on year. High density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments rose because of the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. Demand for LDPE subsided. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market was 267,630 tonnes in January-March 2020, down 20% year on year. Homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers 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 EUR59 billion in 2019.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Trinseo, a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex binders and synthetic rubber, and its affiliate companies in Europe have announced a price increase for all polystyrene (PS) in Europe, as per the company's press release.

Effective May 1, 2020, or as existing contract terms allow, the contract and spot prices for the products listed below rose as follows:

- STYRON general purpose polystyrene grades (GPPS) -- by EUR10 per metric ton;
- STYRON and STYRON A-Tech and STYRON X- Tech high impact polystyrene grades (HIPS) - by EUR10 per metric ton.

As MRC informed before, Trinseo reduced its prices for all PS grades on 1 April 2020, as stated below:

- STYRON GPPS grades - by EUR180 per metric ton;
- STYRON and STYRON A-Tech HIPS grades - by EUR180 per metric ton.

According to ICIS-MRC Price report, in Russia, after another price reduction in May, several major market participants are determined to maintain the achieved price levels next month. Prices of European material, including delivery to the domestic market, were steadily higher than prices of Russian PS. Nizhnekamskneftekhim's GPPS was offered at Rb71,000-74,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT, in May, whereas HIPS - at UAH75,000-78,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT.

Trinseo is a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex and rubber. Trinseo's technology is used by customers in industries such as home appliances, automotive, building & construction, carpet, consumer electronics, consumer goods, electrical & lighting, medical, packaging, paper & paperboard, rubber goods and tires. Formerly known as Styron, Trinseo completed its renaming process in 1Q 2015. Trinseo had approximately USD4.6 billion in net sales in 2018, with 16 manufacturing sites around the world, and approximately 2,500 employees.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala Investment Company said on Tuesday its subsidiary Strata Manufacturing has started to produce the N95 face masks used to protect medical workers fighting the deadly coronavirus, said Reuters.

The venture, in partnership with Honeywell International , will have an annual output capacity of over 30 million masks, Mubadala said in a statement.

“This manufacturing line will not only be able to meet the national requirements of the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) health industry...but also transform the UAE into an exporter of this critical product,” Mubadala said.

The UAE currently imports all the N95 masks it requires, the statement added.

Strata, established in 2009, has an aero parts manufacturing facility in Al Ain, an oasis town within the Abu Dhabi emirate, producing components for Airbus, Boeing and others.

The UAE has confirmed 24,190 cases of the coronavirus with 224 deaths.

We also remind that China's greenfield Zhejiang Petrochemical will use a range of process technology from Honeywell UOP for the second phase of its integrated refining and petrochemical complex in Zhoushan, Zhejiang province, according to a document, quoting a senior Honeywell official. "This second phase of the complex by itself will process 20 million tons per year of crude oil and produce another six million tons per year of aromatics when completed," Bryan Glover, vice president and general manager, Process Technology and Equipment, at Honeywell UOP, stated in the document as of January 2019.

ACN is the main feedstock for the production of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's ABS output was 920 tonnes in March. Russian producers manufactured 2,600 tonnes of ABS plastics in January-March 2020, down by 59% a year earlier.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Arabia and its allies in the expanded OPEC+ group of oil-exporting nations have successfully engineered a prospective deficit in the oil market, boosting spot prices and calendar spreads over the last four weeks, said Reuters.

Front-month Brent futures prices have risen by more than USD15 per barrel (80%) since the second trimester of April, while the six-month calendar spread has tightened from more than USD12 contango to less than USD3.

The unprecedented scale of the production cuts announced by Saudi Arabia and its allies last month, and signs of strong compliance from many countries, including Russia, have attracted a lot of comment.

But experience suggests Saudi Arabia and its allies in OPEC and OPEC+ have always been able to force the market into deficit, boosting prices and spreads, when they wanted to do so, so it should not have come as a surprise.

The producer group, with a rotating cast of members, but always led by Saudi Arabia, successfully engineered deficits in 1998/99, 2001/02, 2006/07, 2008/09, 2016/17 and 2019/2020.

The recent production-cutting agreement, announced on April 9, and the subsequent response of spot prices and spreads, have fitted the pattern perfectly (tmsnrt.rs/36hngRN).

Most commentary focuses on the top-level diplomacy and personalities involved in production-cutting agreements.

But a more structural approach that focuses on the financial costs and incentives that lie behind each deal shows a recurring pattern.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing PE and 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