SABIC joins forces with KraussMaffei in strategic partnership for innovative thin-wall packaging applications

MOSCOW (MRC) -- SABIC, a global leader in the chemical industry, has announced a strategic partnership with KraussMaffei HighPerformance AG, KraussMaffei's Swiss subsidiary and manufacturer of high-performance injection molding systems known under the NETSTAL brand, as per the company's press release.

Besides the exchange of mutual know-how in the fields of polymer technology and processing, the aim of the partnership is the joint use and further advancement of the existing application center for thin-wall packaging at the NETSTAL plant in Nafels, Switzerland.

The official launch of the cooperation, which will focus on application, material and processing innovations in the thin-wall packaging industry through collaboration across the segment's entire value chain, is scheduled for the first quarter of 2021.

“This is a major investment in synergy for us,” states Sergi Monros, SABIC Vice President of Performance Polymers & Industry Solutions, Petrochemicals. “Together with NETSTAL, we will bundle our expertise in polymer science and processing to enable new material and injection molding solutions for the competitive edge of customers throughout the thin-wall packaging industry and beyond.”

SABIC will be using the Innovation Center to develop material solutions with potential for improving important properties of thin-wall packaging applications, such as balance of stiffness, impact strength, cycle time reduction and sustainability. The NETSTAL Product Packaging portfolio can be further optimized as a result of improved material and process insights.

The Innovation Center will be fully equipped and expanded with advanced new development, processing, material and application testing facilities tailored to the needs of the packaging industry, including a dedicated laboratory for state-of-the-art injection molding and part performance evaluation.

“We are pleased to welcome SABIC at our NETSTAL business headquarters here in Switzerland, which has a long history in innovative technologies for thin-wall injection molding,” says Renzo Davatz, CEO of KraussMaffei HighPerformance AG. “The collaboration with SABIC will add significant momentum to the further development and commercialization of our product portfolio for innovative new thin-wall packaging applications.”

“The joint application center will help us accelerate the pace of innovation and respond to our customers’ needs for changing market trends,” adds Waleed Al Shalfan, SABIC Vice President Technology & Innovation for Polymers. “It will be instrumental in looking at our business practices from a more collaborative angle to turn global challenges into opportunities that add lasting value to us, our customers and society. That’s how we create CHEMISTRY THAT MATTERS™.”

As MRC reported before, earlier this month, SABIC says that Beiersdorf (Hamburg, Germany), a skin-care specialist, will be using certified renewable polypropylene (PP) from SABIC’s portfolio of second-generation bio-based materials to package its cosmetic products. The new packaging products will be introduced in the market in 2021 and replace fossil-based virgin PP, the company says. Sabic’s certified renewable PP and polyethylene (PE) materials are derived from animal-free and palm-oil-free second-generation renewable feedstock, it says.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,760,950 tonnes in the first ten months of 2020, up by 3% year on year. Only high density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 978,870 tonnes in January-October 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports plus imports minus producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply of exclusively of PP random copolymer increased.

Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) ranks among the world's top petrochemical companies. The company is among the world's market leaders in the production of polyethylene, polypropylene and other advanced thermoplastics, glycols, methanol and fertilizers.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Zhejiang Petrochemical Co Ltd has delayed the turnaround at its new acrylonitrile (ACN) plant at Zhoushan in eastern Zhejiang province to 20 December, reported S&P Global.

The plant with the production capacity of 260,000 mt/year is expected to be shut for 18-20 days. Initially, the company intended to shut this facility on 10 December.

The company started up new ACN plant on 23 June, 2020, and produced on specification material in the week ended 4 July.

As MRC informed earlier, Zhejiang Petrochemical Co Ltd started up its ethylene cracker in late December 2019 and its polyolefin plants in late December 2019-January 2020.

Market sources reported then that one of its polypropylene (PP) plant with capacity of 450,000 tons/year started up by 30 December 2019, followed by another line with same capacity by 15 January 2020.

Meanwhile its 450,000 tons/year of linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) and 300,000 tons/year of high density polyethylene (HDPE) were launched around similar time with PP plants.

ACN is the main feedstock for the production of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, October ABS shipments to the Russian market virtually remained at the previous month's level, totalling 5,060 tonnes. Overall consumption of material in the country was 37,120 tonnes in the first ten months of 2020, down by 6% year on year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Asian refining margins for 10 ppm gasoil rose on Friday, posting their seventh consecutive weekly gain, but the pace of demand recovery is expected to take a hit as several regional economies continue to battle COVID-19 infections, reported Reuters.

Refining margins, or cracks, for 10 ppm gasoil rose 25 cents to USD6.04 a barrel over Dubai crude during Asian trade, lingering close to a multi-month high of USD6.40 touched earlier in the week. "I don't see much movement in the (gasoil) cracks in the last month of 2020. This is because the hope for next year will prevent downside," said Sukrit Vijayakar, director of energy consultancy Trifecta. "There will be no change in physical demand immediately. And traders are not likely to lay on fresh positions this late in the year."

Cracks for the benchmark gasoil grade in Singapore have increased 2.7% this week, which is a weaker growth compared to a 16% rise last week, Refinitiv Eikon data showed. The slowdown in demand from renewed lockdown measures in some markets would increase the regional gasoil surplus, market watchers said, while India's gasoil exports are expected to be elevated in coming weeks with strong refinery runs in the country. Diesel exports from India this month are well on track to exceed November's 2.2 million tonnes, Refinitiv oil research assessments showed. Cash discounts for gasoil with 10 ppm sulphur content were at 11 cents a barrel to Singapore quotes on Friday, compared with a 8-cent discount a day earlier.

Gasoil stocks held independently in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub rose 5.4% to 2.6 million tonnes in the week to Dec. 10, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed. - The data showed ARA jet fuel inventories climbed 11.8% to 995,000 tonnes. - Compared with a year earlier, ARA gasoil inventories gained 6.6%, while jet fuel stocks rose 47.2%.

As MRC informed before, slumping fuel consumption during the pandemic is accelerating the long-term shift of refining capacity from North America and Europe to Asia, and from older, smaller refineries to modern, higher-capacity mega-refineries. The result is a wave of closures, often centering on refineries that only narrowly survived the previous closure wave in the years after the recession in 2008/09.

We remind that PetroChina has nearly doubled the amount of Russian crude being processed at its refinery in Dalian, the company's biggest, since January 2018, as a new supply agreement had come into effect. The Dalian Petrochemical Corp, located in the northeast port city of Dalian, was expected to process 13 million tonnes, or 260,000 bpd of Russian pipeline crude in 2018, up by about 85 to 90 percent from the previous year's level. Dalian has the capacity to process about 410,000 bpd of crude. The increase follows an agreement worked out between the Russian and Chinese governments under which Russia's top oil producer Rosneft was to supply 30 million tonnes of ESPO Blend crude to PetroChina in 2018, or about 600,000 bpd. That would have represented an increase of 50 percent over 2017 volumes.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,760,950 tonnes in the first ten months of 2020, up by 3% year on year. Only high density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 978,870 tonnes in January-October 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports plus imports minus producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply of exclusively of PP random copolymer increased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Avient, formerly PolyOne, said today that it is increasing its forecast for fourth-quarter adjusted earnings to 48 cents/share, from 40 cents/share previously. This compares with fourth-quarter 2019 adjusted earnings of 34 cents/share, said Chemweek.

Sales were up 5.4% YOY in October and November on a pro-forma basis, including the addition of Clariant’s masterbatches business, which Avient acquired in July. “We expect to achieve…fourth quarter adjusted EPS of approximately USD0.48 as recovering demand conditions around the world exceed the traditional seasonality we normally see this time of year,” says Avient chairman and CEO Robert Patterson. “Overall demand is better than we initially estimated in every region of the world, and we are capturing synergies related to our acquisition of Clariant Masterbatch."

Avient says it will end the year with about USD600 million in cash, which it expects to use for bolt-on acquisitions and share buybacks. The company’s board has authorized a 5-million-share increase of the company’s share repurchase program, bringing the program’s total authorization to 6 million shares. Avient expects 2020 pro-forma revenues, including the Clariant masterbatches business, to total about USD3.7 billion.

The announcement could be a sign of a restocking cycle, according to Laurence Alexander, an analyst with Jefferies (New York, New York). “Demand trends are running above normal seasonality in every region,” Alexander says. “We expect broad-based strength to be a theme across the chemical sector this winter."

As MRC informed earlier, Avient Corporation launched ColorForward 2022. This 16th edition of the annual color forecasting guide for the plastics industry marks its debut within Avient, which was formed this year from legacy businesses PolyOne and Clariant Masterbatch.

We remind that Russia's output of chemical products rose in October 2020 by 7.2% year on year. At the same time, production of basic chemicals grew in the first ten months of 2020 by 6.3% year on year, according to Rosstat's data. According to the Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation, polymers in primary form accounted for the greatest increase in the January-October output. October production of polymers in primary form grew to 857,000 tonnes from 852,000 tonnes in September. Overall output of polymers in primary form totalled 8,340,000 tonnes over the stated period, up by 17% year on year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Polyethylene (PE) imports to Russia decreased in January-November 2020 by 17% year on year and reached 569,900 tonnes. High density polyethylene (HDPE) accounted for the greatest reduction in imports, according to MRC's DataScope report.

November PE imports dropped to 44,400 tonnes from 50,500 tonnes a month earlier, shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) an linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) increased. Overall imports of ethylene polymers totalled 569,900 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2020, compared to 688,700 tonnes a year earlier. All ethylene polymers accounted for lower imports, with LDPE and other ethylene polymers being the exception.

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

November HDPE imports fell to 15,100 tonnes from 19,300 tonnes a month earlier, shipments of injection moulding and film grade PE from Central Asia decreased. Overall imports of this PE grade totalled 237,000 tonnes in January-November 2020, down by 31% year on year. Film grade and pipe grade HDPE accounted for the main reduction in shipments.

Last month's LDPE imports did not exceed 10,000 tonnes, which virtually corresponded to the figure of October. Overall LDPE imports to Russia reached 103,200 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2020, up by 5% year on year.

November LLDPE imports reached 10,200 tonnes, compared to 11,200 tonnes a month earlier, local producers of compounds and large items by rotational moulding increased their purchases in foreign markets. Overall LLDPE imports totalled 139,600 tonnes in January-November 2020, down by 15% year on year.

Last month's imports of other ethylene polymers, including ethylene-vinyl-acetate (EVA), were 9,100 tonnes, compared to 10,100 tonnes in October. Overall imports of other ethylene polymers reached 90,200 tonnes over the stated period versus 85,200 tonnes a year earlier.

MRC