BASF South East Asia joins ZDHC Foundation as Contributor

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF South East Asia has joined ZDHC Foundation as a ‘Contributor’ in its chemical industry category. The partnership with the Foundation and its extensive pool of experts from organisations in textile, apparel, leather & footwear industry underlines BASF’s commitment to being an industry leader in driving sustainable chemistry, innovation and best practices, said Fibre2Fashion.

Additionally, Haptex is the first BASF material solution that has received the Eco Passport by Oeko-Tex certification for production of synthetic leather. Haptex, BASF’s first PU solution made without the use of organic solvents, has been certified Eco Passport by Oeko-Tex, an independent certification system for chemicals in the apparel, textile and leather industries. During a multi-stage process, Eco Passport analyses whether each ingredient in a chemical product meets international statutory requirements and is not harmful to human health. On-site inspections will also validate claims that suppliers are using safer and better chemistry according to industry best practices.

"The partnership with ZDHC represents BASF’s leadership in driving sustainability in chemicals and leather manufacturing. Through collaboration with partners, standard-setting and implementation, we are helping to protect the environment by reducing the industry’s chemical footprint across the textile, leather and footwear value chain,” said Andy Postlethwaite, senior vice president, BASF Performance Materials Asia Pacific. “We are pleased to know that Haptex meets the green standard of ZDHC Manufacturing Restricted Substances List (ZDHC MRSL) Level 3 conformance, which is the highest level in the Roadmap to Zero programme."

ZDHC MRSL Conformance indicates that Eco Passport certified chemical substances conform to ZDHC standards. The ZDHC MRSL covers chemical substances that are limited or banned from intentional use in the production of apparel and footwear materials to protect workers, consumers, and the environment.

BASF creates chemistry for a sustainable future. It combines economic success with environmental protection and social responsibility. More than 117,000 employees in the BASF Group work on contributing to the success of our customers in nearly all sectors and almost every country in the world. Its portfolio is organised into six segments: Chemicals, Materials, Industrial Solutions, Surface Technologies, Nutrition & Care and Agricultural Solutions.

The ZDHC Foundation oversees implementation of the Roadmap to Zero Programme and is a global multi-stakeholder initiative of more than 160 contributors within the fashion and footwear industry. The vision is widespread implementation of sustainable chemistry, driving innovations and best practices to protect consumers, workers and the environment. ZDHC uses collaborative engagement to drive a holistic, industry focused and practical approach to sustainable chemical management. ZDHC guidelines, platforms and solutions drive large-scale industry wide implementation that advances the industry as a whole towards the zero discharge of hazardous chemicals.

As MRC reported earlier, BASF Total's cracker in Port Arthur, Texas, is undergoing maintenance and expected to restart on 23 July, 2020, according to the company's statement in a filing with Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). An unexpected outage occurred at BASF Total Petrochemical’s joint-venture (JV) olefins unit at Port Arthur, Texas, on Thursday afternoon, 11 June, 2020. The cause of the outage is being investigated, with a compressor shutdown cited as a possible factor, according to TCEQ filing. The JV’s steam cracker at Port Arthur has a production capacity of more than 1 million metric tons/year of ethylene and 544,000 metric tons/year of propylene, according to IHS Markit data.

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

According to MRC's DataScope report, PE imports to Russia dropped in January-June 2020 by 7% year on year to 328,000 tonnes. High density polyethylene (HDPE) accounted for the main decrease in imports. At the same time, PP imports into Russia rose in the first six months of 2020 by 21% year on year to 105,300 tonnes. Propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) accounted for the main increase 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) -- Hexion (Columbus, Ohio) and Wayfinder (Alberta, Canada) have formed a partnership serving resin-coated proppant users in western Canada, said Chemweek.

Wayfinder’s new manufacturing facility in Obed, Alberta, will produce Hexion’s full product portfolio, including its range of resin-coated proppants, the companies say. The partnership with Hexion will enable Wayfinder to provide a broader spectrum of products and further penetrate the resin-coated sand market in Canada, while also increasing the utilization of its Obed facility, says Chad Bremner, Wayfinder’s president and CEO. The facility has 20,000 metric tons of storage capacity, according to the company.

Proppants are used by the oilfield services industry in the hydraulic fracturing process to increase subsurface well production flows.

As MRC informed earlier, Hexion, a major American manufacturer of phenol and bisphenol A (BPA), plans to close its BPA plant in Pernis (Pernis, The Netherlands) in early October for scheduled maintenance. This 120 ktpa BPA production facility will be closed in the second week of October and is expected to resume production in three weeks.

Phenol is the main raw material for bisphenol A (BPA) production, which in turn is used to produce polycarbonate (PC).

According to MRC's ScanPlast, in Russia, following the results of the first two quarters, the total estimated consumption of PC granulate in the Russian Federation (excluding imports and exports to Belarus) amounted to 47.3 thousand tonnes against 40.7 thousand tonnes in 2019. Total demand increased by 16%.

Hexion Inc., formerly Momentive Specialty Chemicals Inc., is a chemical company based in Columbus, Ohio. It manufactures thermosetting resins and related technologies and specialty products. Hexion has two divisions: the epoxy, phenolic and coating resins division and the forest products division.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Johnson Matthey (JM), the global leader in sustainable technologies with expertise in design and licensing of large-scale methanol plants, is pleased to announce another successful license award, said the company.

JM has been selected by China’s Ningxia Baofeng Energy Group as licensor for the third methanol synthesis plant at their coal to olefins complex near Yinchuan in Ningxia Province PRC. With a planned capacity of 7200 mtpd, the methanol plant will be the largest single train methanol plant in the world once completed.

Under the agreement Johnson Matthey will be the licensor and supplier of associated engineering, technical review, commissioning assistance, catalyst and equipment supply. The JM methanol plant will take synthesis gas as a feed and utilise JM radial steam raising converters in a patented Series Loop. Together with JM catalysts, to produce stabilized methanol as a product that is used to produce olefins downstream. The plant will provide enhanced energy efficiency along with low OPEX, CAPEX and emissions.

Upon startup, this will represent JM’s 8th operating license in China with a plant capacity greater than 5500 mtpd. It is the third JM methanol design licensed by Ningxia Baofeng Energy. This award follows the recent successful commissioning of the 6600 mtpd Baofeng methanol synthesis unit in May 2020 and the original 4450 mtpd methanol synthesis unit, which was commissioned in 2014. It demonstrates Baofeng’s recognition of JM’s technical leadership in this key growth market and is a testament to Johnson Matthey’s commitment and dedication to the delivery of large-scale methanol production.

“We are very proud of our ongoing collaboration with Ningxia Baofeng Energy. It is testament to their confidence in JM’s engineering expertise and ability to successfully design and help deliver their large-scale methanol plants”, said John Gordon, Managing Director for Johnson Matthey, “In just over six years it has been exciting to see our strong partnership result in the commissioning of two large scale plants with increasing volumes and a third world-scale plant on the way. We are very much looking forward to this next ambitious phase of our journey and continuing to raise the bar of world-class project delivery."

As MRC wrote previously, in June 2019, Johnson Matthey (JM) announced that Ningxia Baofeng Energy Group had "successfully" commissioned a new methanol plant at Ningxia Baofeng's 600,000-t/y coal-to-olefins complex in Ningxia Province, China. The 6,600-t/d methanol unit, based on technology from JM, utilizes syngas feedstock and combines advanced JM catalysts to produce stabilized methanol, which is used to produce olefins in a downstream facility.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 595,170 tonnes in the first five month of 2020, up by 10% year on year. Deliveries of all ethylene polymers, except for linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE), rose partially because of an increase in capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market was 457,930 tonnes in January-May 2020 (calculated by the formula production minus export plus import). Deliveris of exclusively PP random copolymer increased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The American Chemistry Council (ACC) reported that with continued recovery in the U.S. economy, specialty chemicals market volumes increased by 3.6 percent in June, an improvement from the revised 1.2 percent gain in May and the record 12.6 percent decline in April, said Americanchemistry.

Of the 28 specialty chemical segments that ACC monitors, 25 expanded in June, an improvement from the expansion in 22 segments in May and the decline across all segments in April. On a sequential basis, diffusion was 89 percent, an improvement from 79 percent in May and 0 percent in April. In June, 23 segments featured gains of more than 1.0 percent.

During June, overall specialty chemicals volumes were off 11.7 percent on a year-over-year (Y/Y) basis. Volumes stood at 99.0 percent of their average 2012 levels in June. This is equivalent to 6.74 billion pounds (3.06 million metric tons). On a Y/Y basis, gains occurred in only cosmetic additives, electronic chemicals, and flavors and fragrances. On a Y/Y basis, diffusion was 12 percent, an improvement from May and April but sharply lower than at the start of the year.

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. Specialties may only have one or two uses, whereas commodities may have multiple or different applications for each chemical. Commodity chemicals comprise most of the production volume in the global marketplace, while 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 28 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.

As MRC informed earlier, Russia's output of chemical products rose in June 2020 by 2.6% year on year. However, production of basic chemicals increased year on year by 4.9% in the first six months of 2020. According to the Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation, polymers in primary form accounted for the greatest increase in the output in January-June. Production of benzene was 106,000 tonnes in June 2020, compared to 110,000 tonnes a month earlier. Overall output of this product reached 721,000 tonnes over the stated period, up by 3.9% year on year.
MRC

1. Losses widen at Versalis on lower sales, production caused by COVID-19

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Versalis, the chemicals subsidiary of Eni (Rome, Italy), reports an adjusted operating loss of €66 million (USD77 million) in the second quarter, compared with a EUR28-million adjusted operating loss in the corresponding period of last year, said Chemweek. Eni cites lower sales and production volumes caused by lower demand “in connection with the ripple effects on the economy” of the COVID-19 pandemic. A revenue figure for Versalis has not been disclosed.

MRC