RPM pays USD2 million to settle SEC investigation into disclosure violations

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) says that RPM International agreed to pay USD2 million to settle SEC's charges of accounting and disclosure violations related to a government investigation, according to Chemweek.

The SEC's complaint alleged that RPM failed to timely disclose a material loss contingency for a US Justice Department investigation. The US District Court for the District of Columbia entered a final judgment against RPM and Edward Moore, RPM's general counsel and chief compliance officer.

The judgment is related to disclosure and accrual of loss reserves in fiscal 2013 relating to RPM's Tremco Roofing Division’s General Services Administration (GSA) contracts. The restatement shifted accrual amounts among three quarters in RPM's fiscal 2013, which had the effect of reducing net income by USD7.2 million and USD10.8 million for the quarterly periods ended 31 August 2012 and 30 November 2012, respectively, and increasing net income for the quarterly period ended 28 February 2013 by USD18.0 million. RPM has previously said these restatements had no impact on audited financial statements for the full 2013 fiscal year. An RPM audit committee’s investigation concluded that there was no intentional misconduct on the part of any of its officers.

RPM agreed to pay a penalty of USD2 million. Moore agreed, without admitting or denying the complaint's allegations, to pay a penalty of USD22,500.

As MRC reported earlier, in January, 2017, RPM International Inc. announced that it ha acquired Prime Resins to be part of its USL Group. Prime Resins is a manufacturer of specialty chemicals and equipment for infrastructure construction and repair.

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.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF has set itself “clear and measurable” targets to boost sustainable agriculture by 2030. The company’s Agricultural Solutions division will annually increase its sales share of solutions with a “substantial” sustainability contribution by 7%, said Chemweek.

The company will also bring digital technologies to more than 400 million ha of farmland and continue stewardship programmes to ensure the safe use of its products. BASF aims to help farmers achieve a 30% reduction in CO2 emissions per tonne of crop produced.

The president of BASF’s Agricultural Solutions division, Vincent Gros, points out that over the coming decades, the agricultural food system will undergo an accelerated transformation to provide access to enough food for a growing world population. “At the same time, we will need to mitigate its impact on our planet,” he says.

The company says that it will support farmers to become more carbon efficient and resilient to volatile weather conditions with technologies that increase yield, make farm management more effective, and decrease environmental impact. Those include: crop protection products, such as the herbicide, saflufenacil (trade-marked as Kixor), that enable farmers to grow crops without ploughing; new crop varieties such as InVigor canola seeds with glufosinate-ammonium-tolerant LibertyLink technology, providing higher yield stability, especially under more severe weather conditions; biological inoculants and innovative digital solutions; and nitrogen management products such as Vibelsol and Vizura, that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

BASF aims to increase the number of sustainable solutions it brings to farmers. The company claims to be continuously investing in its R&D pipeline, steered systematically by sustainability criteria. It says that it assesses its entire product portfolio against clearly defined and third-party validated sustainability criteria. BASF’s Agricultural Solutions division will contribute “significantly” to the BASF Group target of EUR22 billion (USD25.6 billion) in sales by 2025. In 2019, it said that it was targeting increased market share and growth of one percentage point above the agricultural inputs market, aiming for a 50% increase in sales by 2030.

Among its stewardship initiatives, the company cites protective equipment, customised training, digital solutions, and “new and future-oriented” application technologies, such as drones. Initiatives using drones have already been launched in China and Colombia, it says. BASF also points out the Easyconnect closed transfer system, which was supported by key players in the agricultural industry, with first market launches expected from 2021/22.

As MRC reported before, German chemicals maker BASF said in early November it had put a project to build a petrochemicals complex in India worth up to USD4 billion on hold due to the economic uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. BASF signed a memorandum of understanding with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), Adani Group and Borealis AG in October 2019 to evaluate a collaboration to build the chemical site in Mundra, in India’s Gujarat state.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,760,950 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.

BASF is the leading chemical company. It produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Rohm (Darmstadt, Germany) has announced an increase in its prices for methyl methacrylate (MMA) and other methacrylate monomer products in Europe, effective as of 1 January 2021, said Chemweek.

The price will be hiked by EUR120 per metric ton (USD146) across all products, and includes an additional EUR50/metric ton acetone surcharge, it says. Rohm also announced price rises for MMA in October and November.

In a recent update the company highlighted a tightening of the MMA market, with “prices surging in Asia and continuously firming in Europe” on strong demand in critical end user applications such as coatings, construction, and healthcare. The market is also suffering from production and supply issues that are limiting availability, with prices for raw materials such as acetone also on the rise, it said.

As MRC informed earlier, Roehm intends to increase prices for methyl methacrylate (MMA) and related products in the US by 4-8% from January 1. Roehm also raised prices for methyl methacrylate (MMA) and related products in the US by 2-4% from November 1, and also 2-4% in December.

The main sector consuming approximately 75% of MMA is 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, Russia's overall PVC production reached 891,200 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2020, down by 0.3% year on year. However, two producers managed to increase their PVC output.

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1. Lotte Group implements generation change at executive level

South Korea’s fifth-largest Lotte Group has turned younger, with executive positions filled with 50s at latest reshuffle to become more agile to fast-changing environment from the pandemic, according to PulseNews. Lotte Group on Thursday conducted the year-end executive team reshuffle at 53 affiliates, spanning from retail to food, chemical and hotel. Lee Young-goo, 58 years old, chief executive officer of Lotte Chilsung Beverage, has been named the head of the group’s food and beverage business unit, replacing Lee Young-ho, 62. Park Yoon-ki, 50, senior vice president of the strategy & planning division at Lotte Chilsung Beverage, was made the new CEO of the company. Kang Sung-hyun, 50, CEO of Lotte-Nestle Korea, was named the head of Lotte Mart business unit head. Lee Jin-sung, 51, director of Lotte Institute of Economy & Business Strategy was named CEO of Lotte Food. Hwang Jin-goo, 52, CEO of Lotte Chemical USA, was named CEO of Lotte Chemical. Cha Woo-chul, 52, audit team director at Lotte Corporation, was named CEO of Lotte GRS, while Noh Joon-hyung, 52, DT business director at Lotte Data Communication Company, was promoted to CEO of the company. Koh Soo-chan, 58, executive vice president of Lotte Engineering & Construction, has been promoted as the head of communications at Lotte Corp. Park Eun-jae, an ex-prosecutor was recruited as the head of the legal & compliance division at Lotte Corp. Lotte Corp. is Lotte Group’s holding entity. It has replaced the heads of all six teams in two years. Lotte Group retained Kim Kyo-hyun, CEO of Lotte Chemical, as the head of its chemical business unit despite the company’s poor business performance this year, which was largely affected by the pandemic. Sohn Tae-woon, executive vice president of Lotte Chemical USA was promoted to CEO of the company.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Crude oil futures ticked lower during midmorning trade in Asia Dec. 28 as concerns intensified about the new coronavirus strain and countries across the world reported new infections while the market awaited further news on the US fiscal relief package, reporte S&P Global.

At 10:53 am Singapore time (0253 GMT), the ICE February Brent crude contract was down 17 cents/b (0.33%) from the Dec. 24 settle at USD51.12/b while the NYMEX February light sweet crude contract was down 12 cents/b (0.25%) at USD48.11/b. Both markers had fallen 1.86% and 2.05% in the week to Dec. 24 to settle at USD51.29/b and USD48.23/b, respectively.

News about the strain continued to weigh on the oil complex morning Dec. 28 after several countries, including Canada, France, Japan, Spain and Norway, reported cases of the strain - first detected in the UK. There are now fears that this variant may have transmitted undetected to many other countries, many of whom do not conduct genomic sequencing as actively as in the UK, according to analysts.

Following the confirmation of new COVID-19 infections, Beijing entered into an emergency mode over the weekend and tightened measures to control the spread. South Korea has extended social distancing measures in a bid to suppress infection numbers, which remain near record levels.

The market awaited clarity on the status of the US stimulus package, after the US President Donald Trump tweeted Dec. 28 that there is "good news" on the stimulus front but gave no further details. Trump in the week ended Dec. 26 refused to sign a Congress-approved USD900 billion package and said the amount allocated for direct payments be increased.

"With a shortened working week, investors would be looking forward to President Donald Trump signing the combined pandemic relief and funding bill to avoid the start of a partial government shutdown," said Avtar Sandu, senior commodities manager at Phillips Futures, in a Dec. 28 note.

"Most analysts believe that the President would eventually sign the bill," he added.

As MRC informed previously, global oil demand may have already peaked, according to BP's latest long-term energy outlook, as the COVID-19 pandemic kicks the world economy onto a weaker growth trajectory and accelerates the shift to cleaner fuels.

Earlier this year, BP said the deadly coronavirus outbreak could cut global oil demand growth by 40% in 2020, putting pressure on Opec producers and Russia to curb supplies to keep prices in check.

And in September 2019, six world's major petrochemical companies in Flanders, Belgium, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, and the Netherlands (Trilateral Region) announced the creation of a consortium to jointly investigate how naphtha or gas steam crackers could be operated using renewable electricity instead of fossil fuels. The Cracker of the Future consortium, which includes BASF, Borealis, BP, LyondellBasell, SABIC and Total, aims to produce base chemicals while also significantly reducing carbon emissions. The companies agreed to invest in R&D and knowledge sharing as they assess the possibility of transitioning their base chemical production to renewable electricity.

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.
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