PP imports to Belarus down by 0.6% in H1 2020

MOSCOW (MRC) - Imports of polypropylene (PP) into Belarus decreased to about 55,500 tonnes in first six months of this year, down 0.6% year on year, compared to the same period of 2019. The greatest decrease in imports accounted for propylene copolymers, according to MRC DataScope.

June PP production in Belarus exceeded 11,000 tonnes, while in May it was about 8,300 tonnes. Total PP imports into the country reached 55,500 tonnes in January - June, compared with 55,800 tonnes year on year. The demand for homopolymer PP increased, but demand for propylene copolymers decreased.

The structure of PP imports by grades looked the following way over the stated period.

June imports of homopolymer PP reached 7,500 tonnes versus 6,600 tonnes a month earlier, purchasing of injection moulding homopolymer PP rose in Russia under the pressure of seasonal factors. Overall imports of homopolymer PP reached 39,600 tonnes in the first six months of 2020, up by 9% year on year.

June imports of propylene copolymers to Belarus were 3,500 tonnes versus 1,800 tonnes a month earlier, local companies increased their procurement of injection moulding block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymer) from Russian producers. Thus, overall imports of propylene copolymers reached 15,900 tonnes in January-June, down by 18.2% year on year.


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MOSCOW (MRC) -- A downed power line ignited a fire on exposed plastic film at a Dallas-area storage facility that is expected to burn through at least Aug. 20, reported S&P Global with reference to authorities' statement.

"This is going to be burning late into tomorrow," Bill Murray, Grand Prairie assistant fire chief, said at an Aug. 19 news conference.

The fire ignited at about midnight on Aug. 19 when a power line fell on plastic film in a storage area at at Poly-America’s Grand Prairie plastic processing plant near Dallas, Texas, Murray said. The company manufactures trash bags, plastic drop cloths, plastic sheeting, agricultural films used to wrap hay, barrier films and shrink film made from polyethylene (ЗУ), according to its website.

The fire spread throughout the storage area, he said. Firefighters were not able to secure enough foam to extinguish the blaze, but it was contained and is expected to burn itself out.

Murray said that once the fire burns down to "where it's manageable," crews can use front-loaders to break up the debris that is burning.

"We're going to have to clean out the entire section and wet it down with foam," he said. "We're talking maybe 300 yards worth. It's going to be at least a two-day operation out here before it's completely extinguished."

No injuries or damage to buildings were reported.

As MRC informed earlier, Chevron Corp on Tuesday reported a fire at its 112,229-barrel-per-day (bpd) Pasadena, Texas facility. "At this time, flames, smoke may be noticeable to the community. We are coordinating with local officials, and working to resolve the issue as soon as possible," the company reported.

Poly-America is a large plastic processor that produces several products from polyethylene (PE).

PE is the most widely used plastic in the world, primarily found in packaging including plastic bags, plastic films and geomembranes.

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.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Cornelius Group (Bishops Stortford, UK), a manufacturer and distributor of specialty chemicals to the life sciences and performance chemicals markets, has appointed Phillip Gibbons, the company’s current finance director, as CEO. Gibbons will take responsibility on 1 October, 2020, replacing Darren Spiby, who is retiring after 17 years tenure at the company, it says, said Chemweek.

Spiby will stay with the company until the end of the current financial year “to ensure a comprehensive transition is completed and will then join our board of directors as a non-executive director,” says Neville Prior, Chairman at Cornelius Group.

As MRC informed earlier, Russia's output of chemical products rose by 4.4% year on year in May 2020 . Thus, production of basic chemicals increased year on year by 5.4% in the first five 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-May. Production of benzene was 110,000 tonnes in May 2020, which equalled the figure a month earlier. Overall output of this product reached 615,000 tonnes over the stated period, up by 1.7% year on year.

Cornelius Group PLC distributes specialty chemicals. The Company distributes to markets such as health, personal care, food, and cosmetics as well as industrial markets such as surface coating, plastics, rubber, and composites. Cornelius distributes these products to consumer and industrial markets throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- MAN Energy Solutions has announced the successful, remote commissioning of a compressor train at Uzbekistan’s largest chemical company, JSC Navoiyazot, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

This world-first was brought about when installation work for a new nitric-acid plant for fertilizer production was interrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, with the MAN Energy Solutions’ commissioning team forced to leave the site due to the impending lockdown and associated travel restrictions within the country. In order to avoid any delays and additional costs for the entire project, MAN and the EPC contractor Casale S.A. – the global provider of integrated solutions for the production of fertilizers and chemicals ­– rapidly put in place an alternative plan to commission the machinery with remote supervision by MAN engineers using the company’s digital technology.

Luca Frediani, Senior Machinery Engineer at Casale S.A., said: “There was no blueprint for such an unprecedented situation like this – every party involved in this project was challenged to try new ways of working. Together with the customer, JSC Navoiyazot, we decided to carry out the commissioning of the nitric-acid plant via remote service by engineers working from home. It was a bold decision since a fully-remote commissioning had never previously been performed for a machine of such sophistication and size. In order to perform this critical task, we worked in close collaboration – and with huge commitment from – MAN Energy Solutions and benefitted from their digital expertise and capabilities."

Mathias Scherer Andre, Head of Sales & Execution Turbomachinery at MAN Energy Solutions, said: “The corona-virus crisis required us to think and act outside the familiar bounds of the business. Thanks to the giant digitisation steps our company has made in recent years, we had the right digital solutions to overcome all difficulties and execute commissioning at Navoiyazot. The first fully-remote commissioning of a turbomachinery train ever executed in the industry marks an important milestone and highlights the innovation and flexibility of our company."

The turbomachinery train at Navoiyazot was connected to MAN headquarters via the internet so that it could be operated and controlled remotely throughout the entire cold- and hot-commissioning procedure. A team of around 30 engineers formed the backbone of support for the project with MAN Energy Solutions making a comprehensive package of digital innovations available to make it possible. One of the main features was the company’s remote-support tool, called PrimeServ EyeTech, which was launched in 2019. The augmented-reality-assisted application allows mobile collaboration to be set up via data glasses, or other video-capable terminals like smartphones or laptops. In this way, the technical experts at MAN’s Remote Operation centres – with some working from their home offices – were able to view the customer's perspective without having to be physically on-site.

Furthermore, the turbomachinery installed is equipped with digital hardware-components that allow remote access to the machine-control system, and which collect and evaluate operating and sensor data in near-real time. Simultaneously, the hardware also monitors the machine’s operation around the clock through the PrimeServ Assist application, powered by MAN CEON, MAN’s digital service platform.

Jorg Massopust, Head of Digital Sales & Alliances at MAN Energy Solutions, said: “Not only does the newly-developed technology help our customers to remain operative during the quarantine, but it is also environmentally friendly due to the reduced travel emissions. Our next step is to look into how MAN Energy Solutions can transfer the experience garnered here to the day-to-day business in the future. This sits well with our strategic developments in regard to digitally-enabled, unmanned operation, which is already feasible for midstream and upstream applications."

Navoiyazot’s nitric-acid plant, with a capacity of 500,000 tons per year, successfully entered production in June 2020. The MAN compressor train at the plant’s heart comprises four proven machines: a steam turbine, an axial-type air compressor, a nitrous-gas centrifugal compressor, a tail-gas expander, plus auxiliary equipment including the control system. That the entire machine-train comes from a single supplier allows the train to be flexibly matched to the customer’s needs, allowing the demanding process of nitric-acid production to be optimised for maximum efficiency.

And 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 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.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Poland’s PKN Orlen said late on Tuesday it has signed a non-binding agreement with the state treasury and Grupa Lotos to shape a deal to take direct or indirect capital control of fellow state company Lotos.

“The State Treasury and the Company [Orlen] confirmed the intention to conduct the Transaction and indicate that, on the day of signing the Agreement, the scope and structure of the Transaction has not been defined yet,” Orlen said in a statement. “Thus the State Treasury and the Company declared their will to cooperate and continue talks to work them out."

In mid-July, the European Commission approved Plock-based Orlen’s planned acquisition of Gdansk-based Grupa Lotos, subject to conditions and extensive commitments to ensure Poland’s fuels markets remains open and competitive. The EU approval came after the Commission conducted an in-depth investigation during which it raised a number of concerns about impacts of the proposed Orlen-Lotos combination on the wholesale and retail supply of fuels in Poland.

To address those concerns, Orlen offered remedies and commitments, including: - To divest a 30% stake in Lotos' refinery accompanied by strong governance rights, with the purchaser having the right to about half of the refinery's diesel and gasoline production, while also giving the purchaser access to important storage and logistics infrastructure.

- To divest nine fuel storage depots to an independent logistics operator, and to build a new jet fuel import terminal in the Polish city of Szczecin, which would be transferred to the independent logistics operator on completion.

- To release most of the capacity booked by Lotos at independent storage depots, including the capacity booked at Poland's biggest terminal for the import of fuels by sea.

- To divest 389 retail stations in Poland, amounting to about 80% of the Lotos network, and to supply these with motor fuels.

- To divest two bitumen production plants in Poland, and to supply the purchaser with up to 500,000 tonnes/year of bitumen/heavy residues. In late April, Orlen closed the acquisition of power utility Energa.

Also, in line with the Polish government policy of creating large “national champion” industrial groups capable of competing in global markets, Orlen in July launched a process to acquire oil and gas exploration and production company PGNiG, another group contolled by the Polish state.

As MRC informed earlier, in H1 September 2019, Honeywell announced that PKN ORLEN had licensed the UOP MaxEne process, which can increase production of ethylene and aromatics and improve the flexibility of gasoline production. The project, for the PKN Orlen facility in Plock, Poland, currently is in the basic engineering stage. Honeywell UOP, a leading provider of technologies for the oil and gas industry, first commercialized the UOP MaxEne process in 2013. The process enables refiners and petrochemical producers to direct molecules within the naphtha feed to the processes that deliver the greatest value and improve yields of fuels and petrochemicals.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 721,290 tonnes in the first four month of 2020, up by 4% year on year. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments grew partially because of the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 347,440 tonnes in January-April 2020 (calculated by the formula production minus export plus import). Supply exclusively of PP random copolymer increased.

PKN Orlen would be the first refining and petrochemicals company in Europe to use the Honeywell UOP MaxEne technology for molecule management of a naphtha stream to produce high-quality products including olefins, aromatics and gasoline.
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