MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ultrapar (Sao Paulo, Brazil) says it is “evaluating strategic alternatives,” including divestment, for its specialty chemicals business, Oxiteno, reported Chemweek.
The company made the statement on 14 October in an announcement prompted by recent press reports.
“The priority in capital allocation for the next years is centered in the existing opportunities in the oil & gas value chain in Brazil, where the company operates with three businesses and has structural competitive advantages,” the company says. Ultrapar is reportedly interested in acquiring refining assets currently being divested by Petrobras.
Iparango is Ultrapar’s fuel business, Ultragaz its liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) business, and Ultracargo its liquid bulk storage business.
“Oxiteno was built and has been developed by Ultrapar for more than 40 years and has an outstanding position in Brazil and Latin America, with modern industrial facilities and world-class technology in the chemical industry, a sector that has been going through a restructuring and consolidation process worldwide,” the company notes.
As MRC informed previously, Petrobras may need more than a year to divest its stake in Braskem, said Andrea Almeida, Petrobras CFO, in early July, 2020. She said during the company's recent webinar that Petrobras plans to give more time for potential investors to make offers for the company"s assets, including for its refineries and stakes at its petrochemical and fuel distribution affiliates. The divestment of Petrobras's stake in Braskem in 2020 would be desirable but "might not be possible" as the COVID-19 pandemic has changed market conditions, she said. The company plans to close part of its refinery sales in 2021. In December, Roberto Castello Branco, CEO of Petrobras, said that he wants to sell the company's stake in Braskem within a year. Petrobras owns 32.15% of Braskem.
We remind that Braskem is no longer pursuing a petrochemical project, which would have included an ethane cracker, in West Virginia. And the company is seeking to sell the land that would have housed the cracker. The project, announced in 2013, had been on Braskem"s back burner for several years.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's DataScope report, 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. At the same time, PP imports into Russia increased by 21% year on year to about 202,000 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2020. Propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) accounted for the main increase in imports.
MRC