Dow, Liby launch fully recyclable laundry packaging in China

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Dow, along with laundry brand Liby, has announced the introduction of first fully recyclable laundry packaging in China, said Nspackaging.

Liby has selected Dow’s INNATE TF Polyethylene Resins for Tenter Frame Biaxial Orientation (TF-BOPE) as its packaging for laundry pods. Dow, Liby and Fujian Kaida have worked together to manufacture fully recyclable laundry packaging for the laundry pods.

Fujian Kaida is responsible for the design and production of new recyclable packaging for Liby’s laundry pods. The INNATE TF-BOPE features all-polyethylene (PE) structure, which enables to recycle the end-product in existing recycle streams.

Dow’s sustainable product is also provided with advanced material properties to offer toughness and minimise leakage during e-commerce transportation. It also delivers advanced optics for stand-up shelf appeal and touch and feel.

Liby is already offering the first batch of fully recyclable packaging to the customers via its e-commerce flagship stores. The collaboration with Liby will enable Dow to accelerate its new sustainability target to make 100% packaging reusable or recyclable by 2035. The partnership also helps to reinforce both firms’ commitment to achieving a circular economy in China.

Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastics Asia Pacific commercial vice president Bambang Candra said: “We are delighted to partner with Liby to pioneer fully recyclable laundry packaging in China. “The country’s recent acceleration in achieving a green and sustainable environment has changed the way it tackles plastic waste, and this collaboration is a significant step in improving the recyclability and sustainability quotient in the packaging of laundry products for millions of households."

In July, Dow added TF-BOPE films to its product portfolio of INNATE precision packaging resins, which enable to create sustainable packaging for converters, brand owners and retailers.

In September this year, Dow collaborated with an integrated waste management company Luhai to increase the circularity of plastics in China.

As MRC informed earlier, Dow reported a loss of USD1 million in the third quarter as results rebounded significantly from second-quarter pandemic lows. The company reported earnings of USD347 million the same year-ago quarter and a loss of USD217 million in the second quarter.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,594,510 tonnes in the first nine months of 2020, up by 1% year on year. Only high denstiy polyethylene (HDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 880,130 tonnes in the nine months of 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports plus imports, exluding producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply increased exclusively of PP random copolymer.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings reports a net loss of Yen 49.68 billion (USD474.7 million) for the company's fiscal first half ended 30 September, swinging from net income of Yen 81.3 billion a year earlier, according to Chemweek.

Mitsubishi registered a third-quarter operating loss of Yen 28.1 billion, compared with an operating profit of ?130.5 billion a year earlier. Revenue decreased 17.6% year on year (YOY) to Yen 1.5 trillion. The company says that during the first half of the fiscal year, demand was slower YOY, particularly for automotive applications, owing to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Notwithstanding a recent pickup in demand, business conditions remain challenging, says Mitsubishi.

Sales decreased by 16% YOY to ?473.6 billion at Mitsubishi's performance products business. Operating income plunged 46% YOY to Yen 21.4 billion. Functional products' revenue declined because of reduced demand principally in automotive applications, despite the recent pickup in demand. Sales volumes fell for high-performance engineering plastics and other offerings for advanced moldings and composites. In performance chemicals, revenue decreased amid lower overall sales volumes to the automotive industry, including for performance polymers in the advanced polymers segment. Another downside for sales volumes was the impact of scheduled maintenance and repairs at phenol-polycarbonate chain facilities in the advanced polymers segment.

Sales decreased by 31.5% YOY to ?381 billion at the chemicals business, Mitsubishi’s largest segment. It swung to an operating loss of Yen14.6 billion from an operating profit of Yen 35.8 billion a year earlier. In the methyl methacrylate (MMA) business, revenue declined despite improving conditions in the MMA monomer and other markets. In petrochemicals, sales decreased because of a greater impact from scheduled maintenance and repairs at an ethylene plant, with selling prices down following declines in raw material costs and other factors. In carbon products, revenue was down because of lower prices in line with reduced raw material costs and a drop in sales volumes from declining demand for coke and other offerings.

Operating income at the industrial gases business was down 19.6% YOY, to Yen 35.5 billion. Sales at this division were Yen 381 billion, lower by 9% YOY. Profitability was weak amid lower domestic and overseas demand, although demand for electronics-related gases remained strong.

The company’s other units include healthcare.

Mitsubishi has downgraded its forecast for the fiscal year ending 31 March 2021. It now projects a net loss of ?34 billion, compared with a previously estimated net profit of Yen 49 billion. Sales projections have been lowered to ?3.1 trillion, versus an earlier estimate of Yen 3.3 trillion. In the first half, the company included an Yen 84.5-billion impairment loss on technology-related intangible assets in the healthcare segment.

No changes have been made to guidance for full-year operating income, which is expected to reach Yen 137 billion. This is because while market conditions for MMA and other products in the chemicals segment are likely to be less favorable than initially expected, selling, general, and administrative expenses and R&D expenditure in the healthcare and other segments are projected to decline, Mitsubishi says.

As MRC reported before, Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corp said in late October 2020 it had appointed Belgium-born Jean-Marc Gilson as its next chief executive officer and president, effective April 2021. Gilson, currently CEO of French plant-based ingredient maker Roquette Group, will join a short list of foreign CEOs at listed Japanese companies.

The main application, consuming approximately 75% MMA, is in the production of polymethyl methacrylate acrylic plastics (PMMA). Methyl methacrylate is also used to produce methyl methacrylate-butadiene-styrene copolymer (MBS) used as a modifier for polyvinyl chloride (PVC).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, September total production of unmixed PVC grew to 86,000 tonnes from 75,500 tonnes a month earlier, SayanskKhimPlast and RusVinyl increased their capacity utilisation. Overall output of polymer were 718,500 tonnes in the first nine months of 2020 versus 720,500 tonnes a year earlier, only two producers raised their production volumes, and RusVinyl cut its output.

Mitsubishi Chemical, a Japanese integrated chemical company, was established on October 1, 1990 through the merger of Mitsubishi Kasei and Mitsubishi Petrochemical Co. Due to its wide range of activities, it is one of the ten leading chemical companies in the world.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mitsubishi Chemical says that its affiliate Lucite International will end the production of methyl methacrylate (MMA) and methacrylic acid (MAA) at Beaumont, Texas, and will close the facility, reported Chemweek.

It plans to terminate production on 28 February 2021. The site has a production capacity for 135,000 metric tons/year of MMA.

Mitsubishi says that to boost competitiveness and optimize its supply chain in keeping with demand and supply trends for raw materials, it decided to shut down the site.

The company for the fiscal year ending 31 March 2021 has factored an impairment loss of about USD230 million to cover the shutdown of the Beaumont MMA and MAA facility, and related costs.

As MRC wrote before, Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corp said in late October, it had appointed Belgium-born Jean-Marc Gilson as its next chief executive officer and president, effective April 2021. Gilson, currently CEO of French plant-based ingredient maker Roquette Group, will join a short list of foreign CEOs at listed Japanese companies.

The principal application, consuming approximately 75% of the MMA, is the manufacture of polymethyl methacrylate acrylic plastics (PMMA). Methyl methacrylate is also used for the production of the co-polymer methyl methacrylate-butadiene-styrene (MBS), used as a modifier for polyvinyl chloride (PVC).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's overall PVC production totalled 718,500 tonnes in January-September 2020, down by 0.3% year on year. At the same time, only two producers managed to increase their PVC output.

Mitsubishi Chemical, a Japanese integrated chemical company, was established on October 1, 1990 through the merger of Mitsubishi Kasei and Mitsubishi Petrochemical Co. Due to its wide range of activities, it is one of the ten leading chemical companies in the world.
MRC

1. Indiian October gasoline, gasoil sales exceed pre-coronavirus levels

MOSCOW (MRC) -- India’s gasoil consumption in October rose 6.6% from a year earlier, the first such increase since COVID-19 restrictions were imposed in late March, preliminary data showed on Sunday, signaling a pick-up in industrial activity, reported Reuters. Diesel sales by the country's three state fuel retailers totaled 6.17 million tons in October, according to provisional data compiled by Indian Oil Corp (IOC), the country's biggest refiner and fuel retailer. Sales of gasoil, which account for about two-fifths of India’s fuel demand, rose 27.5% from September.



MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Aramco is sticking with plans to pay a bumper third-quarter dividend of USD18.8bn despite the pandemic cutting the group’s earnings by 45%, said FT.

The kingdom’s state energy company on Tuesday reported third quarter net income of USD11.8bn, down from USD21.2bn in the same period in 2019. The figure, however, beat the USD10.6bn that analysts forecast, according to a consensus compiled by the company.

“We saw early signs of a recovery in the third quarter due to improved economic activity,” chief executive Amin Nasser said in a statement.

Government-imposed lockdowns and travel bans this year triggered a drop in oil demand, crude prices and refining margins hurting profits in the three months to September 30. Market turmoil has rocked the entire sector with big oil companies forced to cut thousands of jobs, increase debt and slash dividend payouts.

Although the state-controlled oil company has reported results that are better than its international peers, Saudi Aramco, which made its stock market debut in December 2019, is facing its toughest year in decades.

Mr Nasser warned of “headwinds” still facing global energy markets. The quarterly payout of USD18.8bn, the vast majority of which goes to the government, Saudi Aramco’s largest shareholder, is in line with a commitment to hand back USD75bn to investors this year.

However, the dividend exceeds the free cash flow of USD12.4bn that Saudi Aramco generated in the period, meaning the group’s borrowings are likely to have to rise to pay for it. Gearing, which it defines as a measure of the degree to which operations are financed by debt, has already risen from minus 4.9 per cent in the first quarter to 21.8 per cent.

This is far greater than the company’s target of 5-15 per cent, which Neil Beveridge at Bernstein said “raises questions of sustainability”. Saudi Aramco attributed the huge increase largely to its acquisition of a majority stake in Saudi chemicals player Sabic, from the kingdom’s public investment fund, this year for USD69bn.

The country’s biggest revenue earner is under increasing pressure to cut outgoings to help buffer the kingdom, which faces a ballooning budget deficit. The company is scaling back foreign expansion plans, dramatically cutting costs, extending project timelines and suspending drilling activity. It has also cut hundreds of foreign staff.

Capital spending in the three-month period fell to USD6.4bn from USD8.1bn a year ago. Although Saudi Arabia believes the worst of the crisis is behind it with oil prices rebounding from April’s lows below USD20 a barrel, Brent crude has failed to hold consistently above USD40 a barrel.

The kingdom, the world’s largest oil exporter, is part of an alliance of producer countries, including Opec nations and Russia, that seek to bolster a fragile market through record production cuts. The curbs of 9.7m b/d, which came into effect in May, have since eased to 7.7m b/d and producers are due to decide whether they can afford to unwind the curbs further in January. Saudi Aramco shares rose 0.4 per cent in early trading on the domestic Tadawul stock exchange.

As MRC wrote befire, in June, Aramco said it had completed the share acquisition of a 70% stake in SABIC from the Public Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, for a total purchase price of Riyals 259.125 billion (USD69.1 billion). Combined, in 2019 Aramco and SABIC recorded petrochemicals production volume of nearly 90 million mt, including agri-nutrient and specialty products.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,496,500 tonnes in the first eight months of 2020, up by 5% year on year. Shipments of all ethylene polymers increased, except for linear low desnity polyethylene (LLDPE). At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 767,2900 tonnes in the eight months of 2020 (calculated using the formula - production minus exports plus imports - and not counting producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply increased exclusively of PP random copolymer.

MRC