3M to make N95 masks at Brockville, Ont. plant

MOSCOW (MRC) -- 3M Canada in Brockville, Ont. will produce as many as 100 million N95 masks a year following a roughly USD70-million agreement with the federal and Ontario governments, said Canplastics.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced the deal on Aug. 21 at the Brockville facility.
Ottawa and the province will each contribute USD23.3 million to expand manufacturing capabilities at the Brockville plant – where 3M makes tape and other materials – allowing it to produce the increased amount of masks, which are made from synthetic plastic fibres.

The masks are considered a critical piece of protection in the ongoing battle against COVID-19.

The masks made at the expanded facility will be used to meet “private sector, provincial, and North American market demand throughout the pandemic and beyond,” said Robert Gibson, a spokesman for Ontario’s minister of economic development.

"With mask production in Brockville, it increases public confidence in our PPE supply chain. We can count on Canadians making masks for Canadians,” Leeds-Grenville-Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes MP Michael Barrett said in a statement. “It’s important that Canadians have a secure and reliable source for these important products and our skilled workers here are certainly up to the task."

As MRC informed earlier, SIBUR and 3M have signed an agreement to cooperate in product development and polymer recycling at SIBUR’s PolyLab. Thanks to their durability, strength, eco-friendliness and other advantages, such polymers as polyethylene and polypropylene are some of the most widely used synthetic materials, popular with the construction, utilities, automotive, healthcare, food and other industries.

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.
MRC

Indian Oil to build USD1.8-billion petchem complex at Paradip, India

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Indian Oil says it will build an integrated paraxylene (PX) and purified terephthalic acid (PTA) facility at Paradip in Odisha State, India, at an estimated investment of 138 billion Indian rupees (USD1.84 billion), reported Chemweek.

The project will be completed by early 2024, with the complex planned to produce 800,000 metric tons/year of p-xylene and 1.2 million metric tons/year of PTA, it says.

The complex will be integrated with the company's refinery at Paradip. The PX and PTA facilities, along with a previously announced 357,000-metric tons/year monoethylene glycol (MEG) plant at Paradip, would provide feedstock for a 300,000-metric tons/year textile yarn manufacturing project at Bhadrak, Odisha, and will facilitate other textile and polyester projects in the region, Indian Oil says. The MEG plant is being developed with an investment of Rs47.87 billion and is due to be completed in early 2021. The company also plans to produce up to 50,000 metric tons/year of toluene, it says.

Indian Oil says that with the commissioning of both the PTA and MEG projects, “the petrochemical intensity index of Paradip refinery will increase to 14.7 from the present level of 4.5.” The company commissioned a 680,000-metric tons/year polypropylene (PP) plant in February 2019 at Paradip.

The complete ecosystem of bulk petrochemicals would be available in the petroleum, chemicals, and petrochemicals investment region (PCPIR), which would catapult Odisha's petchems industry to global standards, according to Indian Oil. Paradip has been identified as one of India's PCPIR zones.

Indian Oil is the anchor tenant at Paradip and the major source of feedstocks for downstream industries in the region. Odisha, located on India's east coast, has the potential to cater to increasing demand for chemicals and petchems in Southeast Asian countries, the company says.

As MRC informed before, the state-owned Indian Oil Corp Ltd shut its (PTA plant in India for maintenance in early-February, 2019. The plant remained under maintenance until end-February, 2019. Located in Panipat, India, the PTA plant has a production capacity of 550,000 mt/year.

PTA is used to produce polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is used in the manufacturing of plastic bottles, films, packaging containers, in the textile and food industries.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report,Russia's estimated PET consumption totalled 367,720 tonnes in the first six months of 2020, up by 19% year on year. Russian companies processed 62,910 tonnes of material in June.

Indian Oil Corporation Limited, or IndianOil, is an Indian state-owned oil and gas corporation with its headquarters in New Delhi, India.
MRC

Petkim posts USD20M profit in Q2 2020

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Turkey's first and only integrated petrochemical plant, Petkim, a subsidiary of the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR), reported a TL 145 million (approximately USD20 million) profit in the second quarter of 2020, reported Chemweek.

According to the statement made by the company on Monday, Petkim’s sales revenue reached TL 2.2 billion with domestic sales recording a 10% increase in the March-May period compared with the previous quarter.

During the period, the plant, located in the Izmir province in the Aegean region, prioritized the production of medical supplies and raw material for packaging to help the country’s fight against the pandemic.

Anar Mammadov, head of SOCAR Turkey's refining and petrochemicals department, said the STAR refinery located near Petkim continued to supply the plant with the raw material naphtha without any interruptions.

“This situation demonstrated the importance of the STAR Refinery as an investment and how the STAR-Petkim integration was based on a correct strategy,” Mammadov noted.

He added that the company was able to reach its 2020 budget targets despite the pandemic.

The STAR Refinery stands as the largest investment made by a foreign direct investor in Turkey. It became fully operational in 2019 after it was launched in October 2018 and was carried out with an investment of USD6.3 billion by SOCAR Turkey.

The STAR refinery and Petkim are located in the same area in the Aliaga peninsula of Izmir.

As MRC informed earlier, SOCAR has plans for another petrochemical facility investment in Izmir in partnership with British Petroleum (BP) with an estimated cost of USD1.8 billion. Earlier it was reported that SOCAR and BP applied to the relevant institutions in Turkey to establish a joint petrochemical company, which will be called Mercury complex, in April 2020.

The construction of the new petrochemical complex is expected to enable Turkey to cover the current account deficit by USD6 billion annually. Moreover, the project will increase the share of SOCAR in petrochemical market of Turkey to 35-40%. Construction of the complex was planned to begin during the current year in order to put the enterprise into operation in 2023-2025. However, due to low oil prices and to the COVID-19 pandemic, the project implementation has been postponed until 2021. The enterprise will produce 1.25 million tons of purified terephthalic acid (PTA), 840 thousand tons of paraxylene (PX), 340 thousand tons of benzene.

PTA is used to produce polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is used in the manufacturing of plastic bottles, films, packaging containers, in the textile and food industries.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PET consumption totalled 367,720 tonnes in the first six months of 2020, up by 19% year on year. Russian companies processed 62,910 tonnes of material in June.

Petkim is the leading petrochemical company of Turkey. Specializing in petrochemical manufacturing, the company produces ethylene, polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, polypropylene and other chemical building blocks for use in the manufacture of plastics, textiles, and other consumer and industrial products.
MRC

COVID-19 - News digest as of 21.08.2020

1. Siegfried profits plummet on higher costs, sales remain resilient

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Siegfried (Zofingen, Switzerland) says net profit for the first half of 2020 shrunk 33.2% year on year (YOY) to 20.67 million Swiss francs (USD22.62 million) on revenue that was slightly lower at SFr388 million, down 1.4% YOY, said Chemweek. The fall in profit is due mainly to higher cost of sales and negative currency effects, while the more resilient revenue performance is attributed to the company's crisis management that began in January, it says. Siegfried was able to largely maintain its production activities at all sites, it adds. Operating profit was down 24.9% for the period, to SFr30.79 million. The company has "coped well with the significant challenges posed by COVID-19," says Wolfgang Wienand, Siegfried's CEO. Multiple national governments identified the company as a manufacturer of essential pharmaceutical products, creating the basis for the continued operation of its plants during the crisis, he says.



MRC

Crude rally pauses, prices slide on profit-taking as market awaits fresh drivers

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Crude oil futures were lower in mid-morning trade in Asia on Aug. 18 as investors took some profit and paused for fresh drivers after an overnight rally on improved fundamental outlook buoyed the global crude complex, reported S&P Global.

At 10:19 am Singapore time (0219 GMT), the ICE Brent October crude futures were down 17 cents/b (0.37%) from the Aug. 17 settle at USD45.20/b, while NYMEX September light sweet crude contract was down by 19 cents/b (0.44%) at USD42.70/b.

"This morning's (Aug. 18) activity looks like some profit-taking but mostly a pause to reassess the tug-of-war between the financials and the fundamentals," Vandana Hari, Founder and CEO of oil consultancy firm, Vanda Insights told Platts on Aug. 18.

"The dollar's continuing slide is the biggest support for crude's ascent. The growing unease that global oil demand recovery is plateauing is a counter-force, but may need to be validated by data to become a full-blown bearish pull," she added.

Oil prices moved higher overnight on strong support from ramped-up China crude purchases, a faster-than-expected US economic recovery and liquidity injections from China's central bank, or the People's Bank of China.

"Still, oil's rally could remain capped by recent surges in coronavirus cases around the world, which never stray far from the primary demand narrative," Stephen Innes, chief global markets strategist at AxiCorp, said in a note Aug. 18.

Global COVID-19 case counts continued to rise steadily amid a resurgence of infections worldwide with total cases at 21,809,170, while total deaths reached 772,479, latest data from John Hopkins University showed.

Separately, OPEC+ is expected to discuss about compensation cuts through September for members who overproduced and exceeded their output quotas from May to July during its Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee meeting scheduled on Aug.19, S&P Global Platts reported earlier.

The coalition exceeded its quotas by 357,000 b/d from May to July according to Platts calculations and the overall cut compliance was pegged at 95% for July, compared to 107% in June and 87% in May.

While no further changes are expected for the OPEC+ production accord which eased into 7.7 million b/d from August, a focus on compliance and compensation cuts is ultimately supportive to the global crude complex.

"This week's JMMC could prove to be a catalyst as the meeting may address continued failure to comply with past quotas by Nigeria, Iraq, and others. Still, the incentive will be to emphasize overall compliance (around ~95%) and possibly to provide more detail on the framework for the principle of compensation over the next few months by OPEC+ members who have lagged so far," Innes added.

Meanwhile, US crude inventories likely fell by 3.8 million barrels last week, on the back of soaring exports and higher refinery demand, an S&P Global Platts analysis showed Aug. 17. This would mark the fourth consecutive week of decline, and the longest stretch of weekly draws since September 2019.

Market participants will look to fresh cues from the inventory reports by the American Petroleum Institute and the Energy Information Administration on Aug. 18 and 19 respectively.

As MRC wrote previously, China’s massive build-up of crude oil inventories this year slowed somewhat in July, but remained elevated by historical standards as imports stayed near record levels.

We remind that Chinese polyethylene (PE) producers have been running plants at around 80-90%, and inventories were heard around 640,000 mt, stable in the first week of August.

We also remind that four large new crackers are poised to start operations in China in the next 3-6 months, in a sharp expansion of the country's petrochemical cracker sector.

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.
MRC