Air Liquide plans USD160-million expansion to supply Eastman Longview

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Air Liquide plans to invest over USD160 million in new capacity and upgrades to support a long-term agreement under which the company will supply additional gaseous oxygen, nitrogen, and syngas to Eastman Chemical’s Longview, Texas, facility, as per Chemweek.

The project includes construction of a new air separation unit (ASU) and a partial oxidation unit (POX), both slated for start-up in late 2021.

The new POX, which will employ Air Liquide’s patented Lurgi syngas technology, will capture and recycle carbon dioxide. Eastman uses syngas at Longview as a feedstock for the production of propionaldehyde, isobutanol, n-butanol, and 2-ethylhexanol.

“This project and supply agreement reflect Eastman’s focus to invest in growth opportunities through strategic partnerships to create positive economic and environmental benefits,” says Mark Costa, Eastman’s chairman and CEO.

As MRC reported earlier, Eastman Chemical has reported second-quarter net earnings down 89.5% year-on-year (YOY), to USD27 million, on sales down 18.6%, to USD1.92 billion. Adjusted earnings fell 57.2% YOY, to 85 cents/share, short of analysts’ consensus estimate of USD1.05/share, as reported by Refinitiv (New York, New York). Lower volumes, lower selling prices, and reduced capacity utilization hit both sales and profits, as the COVID-19 pandemic cut into demand in key end markets, including transportation, construction, and consumer durable goods.

We remind that in 2016, Eastman Chemical's chief executive Mark Costa announced that the company wanted to reduce its surplus ethylene and commodity intermediates, but did not intend to sell its cracker in Longview, Texas.

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.

Eastman is a global specialty chemical company that produces a broad range of products found in items people use every day. With a portfolio of specialty businesses, Eastman works with customers to deliver innovative products and solutions while maintaining a commitment to safety and sustainability. Its market-driven approaches take advantage of world-class technology platforms and leading positions in attractive end-markets such as transportation, building and construction and consumables. Eastman focuses on creating consistent, superior value for all stakeholders. As a globally diverse company, Eastman serves customers in more than 100 countries. The company is headquartered in Kingsport, Tennessee, USA and employs approximately 14,500 people around the world.
MRC

LG Chem targets zero major environmental, safety accidents from 2021

MOSCOW (MRC) -- LG Chem says it will establish a "global standard" for environmental safety and expand it to the company's business sites worldwide. LG Chem has also announced that it will reestablish its environmental safety standards for all its business sites globally and considerably strengthen its management system, said Chemweek.

LG Chem says that it is currently activating its M-Project, a large-scale safety initiative involving in-company environmental safety and process technology experts, as well as external agencies specialized in related fields, with the goal of achieving zero major environmental and safety accidents from 2021. The decision to execute the project followed the company's announcement in May that it would carry out safety inspections at all its sites worldwide following recent accidents in India and South Korea.

The company says that the new safety standards that will be applied to all its business sites around the world will be of “highest levels, while going beyond simply complying with local laws and regulations but managing it at global standards."

The company says that it has completed emergency diagnoses on high-risk processes and equipment at its 37 business sites—15 in South Korea and 22 overseas—and come up with a total of 590 cases for improvement. It is also investing a total of 81 billion South Korean won (USD5 billion) in environmental safety measures in 2020 to take immediate action for the necessary improvements detected during the inspections. In addition, about W235 billion will be invested every year by the company in environmental safety.

LG Chem aims to focus on developing technologies to identify signs of accidents in advance, using big data. Pilot facilities have been constructed at the company's Yeosu and Daesan, South Korea, petrochemical complexes to test digital transformation technologies. LG Chem plans to expand these applications to its other business sites and plants by next year.

LG Chem will also centralize the management of its budget and investments for environmental safety from each of its subsidiaries to a corporate environmental safety organization by the end of this year. There are also plans to restructure the handling of environmental safety across the company to strengthen the prevention of accidents, it adds.

"We have been focused on creating a fundamental countermeasure with the belief that there will be no future for us if we fail to ensure environmental safety,” says LG Chem CEO Hak-Cheol Shin. “We will focus all our energies on systemizing highly intense environmental-safety policies that we prepared with the mindset that we will not operate unless safe."

We remind that LG Chem, a South Korean petrochemical major, reduced its operational rates of its cracker to around 90-95% starting January 2020 due to weaker economic fundamentals. Based in Daesan, South Korea, the cracker is able to produce 1.27 million tons/year of ethylene and 650,000 tons/year of propylene. The company increased capacity utilisation at this cracker to 100% on 10 March, 2020, in order to supply ethylene to Lotte Chemical.

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

Tomskneftekhim shut PE and PP production

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Tomskneftekhim, a subsidiary of SIBUR Holding, started a scheduled shutdown for maintenance at its low density polyethylene (LDPE) and polypropylene (PP) production capacities on 2 September, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

The plant's representatives said the outage was scheduled and would last for about two weeks. The plant plans to modernize its polyethylene (PE) production by means of repairs.

Tomskneftekhim did not reduce output of its own products during the COVID-19 pandemic, said the plant's CEO Andrey Kugaevsky in late June. There was no significant reduction in shipments of material to end consumers either, despite the temporary closure of the borders of certain countries and regions. At the same time, Tomskneftekhim postponed the shutdown for a turnaround from 15 June to 2 September due to the situation with the spread of coronavirus infection.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Tomskneftekhim produced 23,200 tonnes of LDPE in July versus 23,700 tonnes a month earlier. The Tomsk plant's overall LDPE output reached 160,660 tonnes in January-July 2020, up by 4.6% year on year (154,590 tonnes).

LLC "Tomskneftekhim" was opened after the transformation of TNHK in 2003. It is a subsidiary of PJSC SIBUR-Holding, which is one of the backbone enterprises of the Russian Federation. The size of Tomskneftekhim's authorized capital was Rb6.5 billion in 2019, sales revenue - Rb13.2 billion, net profit - Rb1.9 billion.
MRC

COVID-19 - News digest as of 07.09.2020

1. Tomskneftekhim shut PE and PP production

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Tomskneftekhim, a subsidiary of SIBUR Holding, started a scheduled shutdown for maintenance at its low density polyethylene (LDPE) and polypropylene (PP) production capacities on 2 September, according to ICIS-MRC Price report. The plant's representatives said the outage was scheduled and would last for about two weeks. The plant plans to modernize its polyethylene (PE) production by means of repairs. Tomskneftekhim did not reduce output of its own products during the COVID-19 pandemic, said the plant's CEO Andrey Kugaevsky in late June. There was no significant reduction in shipments of material to end consumers either, despite the temporary closure of the borders of certain countries and regions. At the same time, Tomskneftekhim postponed the shutdown for a turnaround from 15 June to 2 September due to the situation with the spread of coronavirus infection.

2. Citgo has no plans to idle damaged Lake Charles refinery, furlough workers

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Citgo Petroleum Corp said it is not planning to idle its 418,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Lake Charles, Louisiana, refinery damaged by Hurricane Laura, reported Reuters. Rumors have circulated since Laura’s passage over the Lake Charles area on Aug. 27 that Citgo was considering shutting the refinery for an indefinite period because of the extent of the damage and continuing low demand for motor fuels in the COVID-19 pandemic.


MRC

Trinseo raises September PS, ABS, and SAN prices in Europe

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), acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) and acrylonitrile-styrene copolymer (SAN) in Europe, according to the company's press release as of 4 September.

Effective September 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 EUR30 per metric ton;
- STYRON and STYRON A-Tech and STYRON X- Tech and STYRON C- Tech high impact polystyrene grades (HIPS) - by EUR30 per metric ton;
- MAGNUM ABS resins - by EUR35 per metric ton;
- TYRIL SAN resins - by EUR30 per metric ton.

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

- STYRON GPPS -- by EUR30 per metric ton;
- STYRON and STYRON A-Tech and STYRON X- Tech and STYRON C- Tech HIPS - by EUR30 per metric ton;
- MAGNUM ABS resins - by EUR50 per metric ton;
- TYRIL SAN resins - by EUR40 per metric ton.

According to ICIS-MRC Price report, prices of Russian PS went up in September. Demand for material still significantly exceeded supply. Buyers reported an increase of Rb5,000/tonne in prices of Nizhnekamskneftekhim's PS this month. Penoplex's selling GPPS prices also rose by Rb5,000/tonne in September to Rb88,000-90,000/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 USD3.8 billion in net sales in 2019, with 17 manufacturing sites around the world, and approximately 2,700 employees.
MRC