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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Nearly 200 refinery
workers represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in St. Paul
Park, Minnesota, walked out on strike after failing to agree on a new contract
with Marathon Petroleum by the end of 2020, said Reuters.
The
union voted to authorize a strike at Marathon’s 102,000-barrel-per-day refinery
in St. Paul Park in December of 2020.
“At this time, we have safely
assumed operation of the refinery with trained and qualified personnel,” a
company spokesman said.
As per MRC, Marathon Petroleum plans to
permanently close two small US oil refineries in Martinez, California, and
Gallup, New Mexico, the company said, eliminating 800 jobs in response to lower
fuels demand. The largest US refiner by volume had earlier idled the two
facilities following weak demand due to COVID-19 outbreaks in the United States.
US refiners on average idled about 20% of total processing capacity on falling
vehicle and air travel.
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. |
