Daelim is completing expansion at LLDPE plant in South Korea

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Daelim Corporation has completed the expansion work at its existing linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) line in Yosu, South Korea at the beginning of December, according to CommoPlast with reference to market sources.

The unit is now capable of producing 200,000 tons/year of LLDPE, up from the previous output of 150,000 tons/year.

In the meantime, Daelim is constructing a new polyethylene (PE) line with an annual production output of 210,000 tons/year at the same site. The company said that it has completed major processes and the line would be able to come online by mid of January 2021.

The expansion project would boost the overall LLDPE production at Daelim to 410,000 tons/year. However, the company plans to focus primarily on making metallocene grade (mPE).

As MRC reported earlier, in October 2018, Daelim Industrial shut its high density polyethylene (HDPE) plant for a 30-day maintenance turnaround. The exact date of the shutdown could not be confirmed. Located in Yeosu, South Korea, the plant has a production capacity of 270,000 mt/year.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, October LLDPE shipments to Russia increased to 58,910 tonnes from 19,110 tonnes a month earlier. A producer cut its exports. Russia's overall LLDPE shipments totalled 335,220 tonnes in the first ten months of 2020, up by 2% year on year.

Daelim Industrial was established in 1939, and its E&C (Engineering & Construction) and Petrochemical Groups are the main lead of the Daelim Business Conglomerate (Chaebol). The fields covered by Daelim Industrial as one of the top EPC Company in Asia to the Middle East include gas, petroleum refining, chemical and petrochemical, power and energy plants, building and housing, civil works, and industrial facilities. Daelim Group has 17 subsidiary companies under its umbrella which includes Daelim Industrial (Construction Division), Daelim Industrial (Petrochemical Division), etc.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- AkzoNobel says it has agreed to acquire New Nautical Coatings (Clearwater, Florida), producer of the Sea Hawk brand of yacht coatings, reported Chemweek.

Terms of the transaction, including purchase price, were not disclosed. New Nautical Coatings chiefly produces antifouling coatings, along with primers, varnishes and other products.

The deal complements AkzoNobel’s existing yacht coatings business, and provides opportunities for growth in North America, the world’s largest market for yacht coatings, according to AkzoNobel CEO Thierry Vanlancker. New Nautical Coatings also does business in the Caribbean and Australasia.

As MRC informed before, in September 2020, AkzoNobel’s aerospace coatings facility in Dongguan, China, was qualified by aircraft manufacturer Boeing to color blend the company’s Aerodur 3001 basecoat. The certification means the site has been certified by Boeing to blend AkzoNobel’s industry-leading basecoat/clearcoat system, Aerodur 3001/3002, locally in China with OEM (original equipment manufacturer) approval. The Dongguan facility is also now listed on Boeing’s official QPL for BMS10-72 specification.

We remind that Russia's output of chemical products rose in November 2020 by 9.5% year on year. At the same time, production of basic chemicals increased in the first eleven months of 2020 by 6.6% 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-November 2020 output. Last month's production of polymers in primary form rose to 896,000 tonnes from 852,000 tonnes in October. Overall output of polymers in primary form totalled 9,240,000 tonnes over the stated period, up by 17.1% year on year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - China's Jiasheng Gas Co Ltd, an independent gas distributor, has agreed an engineering and construction deal to build a 2.5 billion yuan (USD380 MM) LNG storage and receiving facility in east China, the Shanghai Oil and Gas Exchange and a company executive said, as per Reuters.

The little-known firm is among a group of companies outside the dominant state oil and gas giants that are expected to lead new investment in LNG import terminals over the next decade as China opens up the sector to more private participation.

The first phase of the project, to be built at Jiangyin port in Jiangsu province, will include two 100,000 cubic metre storage tanks and will have an annual total handling capacity of 1.5 million tonnes, the state-run exchange said in a statement posted on its official we chat account.

A Jiasheng Gas senior executive confirmed the project to Reuters. The company has awarded the contract to build the terminal to China Wuhuan Engineering Co Ltd, and plans to add another 160,000 cubic meter tank under a second phase of the project, taking total capacity to 3 million tonnes a year.

The facility - which will take about two years to build - will supply fuel to the cities of Wuxi and Jiangyin in Jiangsu, a top natural gas consuming region, as well as to inland areas via smaller tankers along the Yangtze river, the exchange said.

Jiasheng operates two berths at Jiangyin port each capable to anchor 50,000 tonnage vessels, the exchange added.

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) -- The EU and UK have reached a post-Brexit deal on trade and future cooperation, ending months of disagreements and intensive negotiations about issues ranging from fishing rights to future business rules, said Chemweek.

The agreement has been reached a week before the end of the Brexit transition period on 31 December. The UK voted in a referendum in June 2016 to leave the EU, and it exited the EU in January 2020. The deal is based on a free-trade agreement in goods and services, which provides for zero tariffs and zero quotas on all goods that comply with the appropriate rules of origin. But it also covers a range of other areas such as investment, competition, state aid, transport, energy, security, and sustainability.

The EU and UK have committed to maintain high levels of environmental protection, including carbon pricing and the fight against climate change. The agreement also enables the UK's continued participation in a number of flagship EU programs for the period 2021-27, such as the Horizon Europe research and innovation project.

Meanwhile, binding enforcement and dispute-settlement mechanisms will ensure that the rights of businesses, consumers, and individuals are respected, the European Commission says. "This means that businesses in the EU and the UK compete on a level playing field and will avoid either party using its regulatory autonomy to grant unfair subsidies or distort competition," the Commission says.

But, because the UK will leave the EU single market and customs union, as well as all EU policies and international agreements, the free movement of people, goods, services, and capital between the UK and EU will end from 1 January.

"It was worth fighting for this deal because we now have a fair and balanced agreement with the UK, which will protect our European interests, ensure fair competition, and provide much needed predictability for our fishing communities," says European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.

UK prime minister Boris Johnson calls the deal “the first free trade agreement based on zero tariffs and zero quotas that has ever been achieved with the EU.” He says it is also the biggest bilateral trade deal signed by either side, covering total trade worth GDP668 billion (USD902 billion) in 2019.

The agreement is subject to approval by the European Council and European Parliament, as well as the UK parliament.

Cefic and the Chemical Industries Association (CIA) are not available for comment on the agreement at press time. However, CIA said earlier that “a deal with the EU is in the best interests of the chemical sector, our suppliers, and our customers. Our sector needs tariff-free trade, minimal border delays, regulatory consistency, and continued access to skilled people," it said.

CIA estimates that 60% of UK chemical exports go to the EU and that the UK sources 75% of its raw materials from the EU. Cefic and the CIA estimate that total chemical trade between the EU and UK is worth about EUR44 billion/year (USD54 billion). As a result, the two associations have consistently highlighted the need to minimize supply-chain disruption.

However, the UK’s exit from the single market and customs union means there will be non-tariff barriers to trade such as increased bureaucracy, including customs declarations and other documents, and higher regulatory-compliance costs to business. Cefic and the CIA estimate immediate costs from post-Brexit regulation for UK chemical companies totaling about GDP1 billion.

"The EU and the UK will form two separate markets; two distinct regulatory and legal spaces,” the Commission says. “This will create barriers to trade in goods and services and to cross-border mobility and exchanges that do not exist today—in both directions."

As MRC informed earlier, European Union is offering assurances on funding for poorer members and countries' ability to choose their own energy mix, as it strives for a deal next week on a tougher target to cut greenhouse gas emissions, according to EU documents and sources.

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) -- Wartsila (Helsinki, Finland) and shipping group Grieg Star (Bergen, Norway) have received cash support of 46.3 million Norwegian krone (USD5.3 million) from a Norwegian government-backed innovation fund for a project aimed at building a tanker powered by green ammonia, according to Chemweek.

The two companies are jointly managing the project to launch an ammonia-fueled tanker producing no greenhouse gas emissions by 2024. The tanker is planned to ship green ammonia from a proposed factory in Berlevag, Norway, to various locations and end-users along the coast in Norway. The eventual design, size, and volume of the vessel will be dependent on the market and end-user interest, they say.

“We see a strong interest from owners of ferries, offshore supply ships, fishing vessels, and from energy-producing companies. In total, they require an amount of energy surpassing what we can achieve in this project. The market is there without a doubt,” says Vidar Lundberg, chief business development officer at Grieg Star. Norway is “probably the perfect arena for the world’s first market for green ammonia,” he says.

Ammonia is promising as a carbon-free fuel for marine applications, in view of the maritime industry’s need to fulfill the International Maritime Organization’s vision of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from shipping by at least 50% by 2050, according to Wartsila.

As MRC reported earlier, Borealis announced force majeure on its feedstocks and cracker supplies from its Porvoo, Finland cracker on 11 November, 2020. The company's 400,000 mt/year of ethylene and 223,000 mt/year of propylene cracker was shut because of technical issue. The failure was outside of Borealis' scope of responsibility. The cracker resumed production in early December, the force majeure was lifted after the restart.

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