SIBUR Q4 profits jump on ZapSibNeftekhim complex ramp-up

MOSCOW (MRC) - SIBUR’s fourth-quarter adjusted profit rose 9% year on year on the back of the ramp-up of capacity at its ZapSibNeftekhim petrochemicals complex, which reached its full design capacity, said the company.

The company’s EBITDA margin increased to 37.2% in the fourth quarter from 32.3% a year earlier. The ramp-up to full design capacity ahead of schedule at ZapSibNefthekhim, the company’s world-scale petrochemical complex at Tobolsk, Russia, drove earnings and sales higher, the company says.

Fourth-quarter EBITDA at SIBUR's olefins and polyolefins segment more than doubled to R28.3 billion YOY and was up 13.1% quarter on quarter (QOQ). Growth was mainly due to increasing spreads for polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE) amid a gradual recovery of demand in China, the company says.

Revenue in the olefins and polyolefins segment rose sharply in the fourth quarter by 80.2% YOY to R67.5 billion and was up 12.6% QOQ due to positive dynamics in prices of PE and PP, the company says. Segment sales volumes more than doubled YOY to 773,800 metric tons with PE sales volumes jumping more than six fold to 391,000 metric tons and PP volumes growing 30.5% to 291,000 metric tons.

Full-year production at the olefins and polyolefins segment increased 89.7% as ZapSibNeftekhim reached its design capacity utilization rate, with PE output more than tripling and PP production increasing 36.2%. Total sales volumes by the olefins and polyolefins business more than doubled in 2020 to 2.8 million metric tons (MMt) and export sales more than tripled, accounting for more than a half of total sales volumes. SIBUR's PE sales volumes increased five fold in 2020 to 1.3 MMt and PP sales volumes increased 51.7% to 1.1 MMt. The average utilization rate of ZapSib in 2020 was 82%, SIBUR says.

As MRC informed earlier, SUBUR also began construction on a large-scale gas chemical complex in Amur, near the Chinese boarder, to be carried out as a 60-40 joint venture with Sinopec.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,220,640 tonnes in 2020, up by 2% year on year. Only shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) increased. At the same time, polypropylene (PP) shipments to the Russian market reached 1 240,000 tonnes in 2020 (calculated using the formula: production, minus exports, plus imports, excluding producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020).

SIBUR is a uniquely positioned vertically integrated gas processing and petrochemicals company. We own and operate Russia’s largest gas processing business in terms of associated petroleum gas processing volumes and are a leader in the Russian petrochemicals industry. As of 31 March 2014, SIBUR operated 27 production sites located all over Russia, had over 1,400 large customers engaged in the energy, chemical, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), automotive, construction and other industries in approximately 70 countries worldwide and employed over 27,000 personnel.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Radici Chimica (Bergamo, Italy) has declared force majeure on the production of adipic acid at its 80,000-metric tons/year plant in Zeitz, Germany, due to extreme cold weather conditions in central Germany, according to Chemweek.

With road and rail transport of hazardous materials suspended due to the extraordinary conditions, adipic acid production “has been seriously affected, and this has forced us to declare force majeure,” said Radici CEO Maurizio Radici in a letter to customers issued on 10 February. The company is currently assessing the amounts of adipic acid it will be able to supply to customers, he said.

Radici started production of adipic acid and nitric acid at its nylon intermediates complex at Zeitz in 2001.

As MRC informed earlier, RadiciGroup is investing EUR15m to purchase a production line for meltblown nonwoven, a material used in protective face masks. The move follows a shortage of the material in Italy. The synthetic fibre producer will manufacture meltblown nonwoven polymer filaments, the key component in personal protective equipment (PPE), saying that current supply in Europe is insufficient to keep up with the heightened demand brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

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. November 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) -- Evonik Industries says it is expanding its partnership with BioNTech (Mainz, Germany) to increase supply security for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine and is investing in a short-term production expansion for specialty lipids, essential for messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) COVID-19 vaccines, reported Chemweek.

The company says that "commercial lipid quantities" are to be produced at Evonik’s Hanau and Dossenheim, Germany, sites as early as the second half of 2021. Further details have not been disclosed.

"The pandemic requires decisive action," says Christian Kullmann, chairman of Evonik. "We are therefore doing everything possible to supply our partners with the critical lipids they need. At the same time, we are expanding our production capacity and competencies along the entire value chain."

Lipids are fundamental to produce mRNA-based vaccines and only with an increase in lipid supply can the volume of vaccine be increased, Evonik notes. In mRNA-based vaccines, the mRNA is enclosed in a lipid nanoparticle (LNP) that is comprised of specific lipids, it says. The LNP protects the mRNA and delivers it safely into the cell, where it is released so that the vaccine can exert its effect, the company says.

It follows a similar announcement by Merck KGaA, which is expanding its partnership with BioNTech to accelerate the supply of lipids and increase the amount of lipid delivery toward the end of 2021.

As MRC informed earlier, in February, 2020, Dow and Evonik entered into an exclusive technology partnership. Together, they plan to bring a unique method for directly synthesizing propylene glycol (PG) from propylene and hydrogen peroxide to market maturity.

Propylene is the main feedstock for the production of polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 1 240,000 tonnes in 2020 (calculated using the formula: production, minus exports, plus imports, exluding producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020).

Evonik is one of the world leaders in specialty chemicals. The focus on more specialty businesses, customer-oriented innovative prowess and a trustful and performance-oriented corporate culture form the heart of Evonik’s corporate strategy. They are the lever for profitable growth and a sustained increase in the value of the company. Evonik benefits specifically from its customer proximity and leading market positions. Evonik is active in over 100 countries around the world with more than 36,000 employees.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The US International Trade Commission (USITC) voted unanimously on 10 February that imports of difluoromethane (R-32) from China are being sold in the US at less than fair value, allowing the Department of Commerce to issue an antidumping order, according to Chemweek.

The USITC will issue its final report by 23 March.

Commerce began the investigation following a petition by Arkema, the sole US producer of R-32, in January 2020. R-32, also called HFC-32, is primarily used as a component of refrigerant blends owing to its relatively low global warming potential.

Commerce issued its preliminary determination on 19 January, finding dumping margins of 161-221%, with producer Taizhou Qingsong Refrigerant New Material at the low end and Zibo Feiyuan Chemical at the high end.

As MRC reported earlier, in December 2020, Arkema announced the proposed divestment of its PMMA business to Trinseo for an enterprise value of EUR1,137 million. This project is a new step in the group’s transformation, and is fully in line with Arkema’s ambition to become a pure Specialty Materials player by 2024.

We remind that Arkema said in June, 2020, that it had finalized the divestment of its functional polyolefins business to SK Global Chemical. The divestment was announced last year. Arkema says the sale forms part of its strategy to refocus the group’s activities on specialty materials.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,220,640 tonnes in 2020, up by 2% year on year. Only shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) increased. At the same time, polypropylene (PP) shipments to the Russian market reached 1 240,000 tonnes in 2020 (calculated using the formula: production, minus exports, plus imports, excluding producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- National governments still tend to think about oil refineries as strategic assets that must preserved to provide fuel security in the event of armed conflict, but that reflects an outdated view of risks arising from modern warfare, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Exxon’s decision to convert a small refinery near Melbourne into an import terminal has sparked more anguish in Australia about the progressive closure of the country’s refineries and growing reliance on imported fuels. Like many other countries, Australia’s government views the maintenance of domestic refining capacity as a way to safeguard the supply of critical transport fuels in the event of an armed conflict or blockade.

In most oil-importing countries, the desire to protect domestic refining capacity stems from fears that a naval blockade or attacks on shipping could disrupt the supply of imported fuels such as gasoline and diesel. Even before the Second World War, governments had become increasingly concerned about the potential impact of blockades or attacks on shipping.

Pre-war British planning focused on how to maintain fuel supplies for the armed forces, industry and domestic transport in the event conflict with Germany or Japan led to attacks on tanker shipping. In the event, between 1940 and 1942, German submarine attacks on British and allied tankers succeeded in reducing oil imports and helped create severe fuel shortages at home as well as in other parts of the British Empire.

And in 1941, the U.S. decision to impose an embargo on crude and fuel sales to Japan was one of the factors that accelerated the outbreak of armed conflict between the two countries later in the year. Fears about fuel supplies are therefore understandable, but future conflicts are likely to be fought differently, which makes lessons from the Second World War less relevant.

The Second World War was fought in relatively slow motion with limited explosive power, mostly by slow-flying, limited-range bombers carrying small payloads, slow-moving ships and large slow-moving ground armies. In a slow-moving conflict, there is more time for an embargo or blockade to exhaust pre-conflict fuel inventories and undermine the willingness and ability of the belligerents to keep fighting.

Since 1945, however, the speed of armed conflicts has accelerated and the available explosive power has risen by several orders of magnitude. The development of long-range heavy bombers, short-range and inter-continental missiles, and nuclear weapons has fundamentally altered the speed and destructive power of conflicts. In a much faster-moving conflict, with much more explosive power, a slow-acting embargo or blockade is unlikely to be an effective strategy.

As MRC informed before, Total posted better than expected earnings in the fourth quarter as oil prices stabilized, and said it would change its name as part of a push to diversify and grow renewable power and electricity production. The French oil and gas major, which like rivals suffered in 2020 as fuel consumption tumbled during the pandemic, said it would rebrand as TotalEnergies as it tries over the next decade to reduce oil products to a third of its sales from over half now.

We remind that in November 2019, Total disclosed that itis evaluating construction of a new gas cracker at its Deasan, South Korea, joint venture (JV) with Hanwha Chemical.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,220,640 tonnes in 2020, up by 2% year on year. Only shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) increased. At the same time, polypropylene (PP) shipments to the Russian market reached 1 240,000 tonnes in 2020 (calculated using the formula: production, minus exports, plus imports, excluding producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020).
MRC