Polynt hikes composite prices in Europe on rising materials, logistics costs

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Polynt Composites (Scanzorosciate, Italy) has announced a price rise in Europe for all its unsaturated polyester resins (UPRs), gelcoats, and vinyl esters, effective 1 March 2021 or as contracts allow, reported Chemweek.

Raw and auxiliary materials costs “are relentlessly increasing during the first months of 2021,” it says. Freight and logistic costs, as well as packaging costs, are also rising, it says.

Polynt’s full vinyl ester range will be increased by EUR300/metric ton (USD364/metric ton), while its UPRs, gelcoats, and ancillary products will rise by EUR200/metric ton.

The thermoset composites manufacturer imposed similar price increases in January for the same given reasons, and says it will “make every effort” to limit the impact of rising costs on its product pricing.

As MRC informed previously, in early March, 2020, Polynt announced that all its sites and activities in Italy were running smoothly and according to plan, despite the news about the Italian situation related to the spreading of the coronavirus in the country.

Polynt runs two maleic anhydride (MA) plants in northern Italy, including Bergamo’s 36,000 tonne unit in Lombardy and Ravenna’s 60,000 tonne plant on the east coast. The bigger production line at Ravenna had been operating at a reduced rate since March 2019 due to technical issues, the firm previously said. A new reactor ordered is expected to be operational in 2021. Polynt also produces phthalic anhydride at Bergamo and its San Giovanni Valdarno site, as well as plasticizers at San Giovanni Valdarno.

Maleic anhydride is a feedstock for the production of tetrahydrofuran, tetrahydrophthalic anhydride, films and synthetic fibers, pharmaceuticals, detergents, plasticizers, maleic, succinic, fumaric and malic acids and a number of chemicals for agriculture.

Plasticizers are substances introduced into a polymeric material to give it elasticity and plasticity during processing and operation. In particular, plasticizers are used to produce polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The share of plasticizers used for the production of PVC products is about 80%.

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, excluding producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply of exclusively PP random copolymer increased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Shares in Technip Energies skyrocketed on Tuesday, the first trading day after Franco-American oilfield company TechnipFMC split its engineering and construction activities from its upstream oil services business, reported Chemweek.

Shares were up 31.5% at EUR11.83 at 0901 GMT (USD14.38), above the IPO reference price of EUR9.00.

TechnipFMC on Monday completed its spin-off deal to create two publicly traded companies, TechnipFMC and Technip Energies.

Technip Energies, which specializes in engineering and technologies for liquefied natural gas, hydrogen and ethylene, said last month it aimed for 2021 revenue of between EUR6.5 B and EUR7 B.

The company also said it targeted an operating margin of between 5.5% and 6% this year.

As MRC reported earlier, in November 2020, TechnipFMC successfully completed the remaining conditions required to enable work to commence on the EPC contract with Assiut National Oil Processing Company (ANOPC) for the construction of a new hydrocracking complex for the Assiut refinery in Egypt.

We remind that Saad Helal, the Chairman of Egyptian Petrochemicals Holding Company (ECHEM), stated in September 2020 that his company is rapidly working on implementing a number of seven new projects to the national plan for the period of 2020-2035. He said that these projects include one by Wood Technology Company for producing medium-density fibreboard (MDF) wood which is being installed and implemented by Petrojet, a methanol derivative production project which produce a capacity of 140 tons per year and is worth USD117 million, and a project by the Egyptian Ethylene and Derivatives Company (Ethydco) for producing rubber polybutadiene at a capacity of 36,000 tons per year with costs USD183 million.

Ethylene is the main feedstock for the production of polyethylene (PE).

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.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A winter storm has brought unusually cold temperatures, snow, and freezing rain to Texas and western Louisiana, forcing a large share of US light olefins production offline, according to Chemweek.

As of the evening of Tuesday, 16 February, IHS Markit had confirmed the shutdown of at least 61% of US ethylene capacity, 59% of US chemical- and polymer-grade propylene (CGP, PGP) capacity, and 22% of US fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) capacity. Many plants that remained online were running at reduced capacity.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has been inundated with air emission reports from producers whose operations have been affected by the weather. “Extreme cold and instability of electrical supply, nitrogen, and fuel gas systems caused operating unit monitoring and control systems failures,” says a submission by Chevron Phillips Chemical (CPChem) relating to its Sweeny site in Old Ocean, Texas. CPChem shut down its Pasadena plastics complex because the cold has prevented delivery of nitrogen from a supplier. Many producers are also citing loss of steam because of the cold.

The National Weather Service expects temperatures in the Houston area to begin warming up Friday, with a high of 66 F forecast for Sunday.

IHS Markit believes the great majority of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) lines in the area have been offline since Sunday, and they are not expected to restart until the end of the week. IHS Markit has also estimated that at least half of the region’s chlor-alkali and vinyls capacity could be out of service.

Specific South Texas operations shut down by the winter storm include Formosa Plastics’ three steam crackers at Point Comfort, and LyondellBasell’s cracker at Corpus Christi.

Houston, Texas, area, steam crackers shut down include CPChem’s three at Sweeny and two at Cedar Bayou; ExxonMobil’s three at Channelview and Baytown; Ineos’s two at Alvin; and Shell’s one at Deer Park. Dow has shut down one of its Freeport crackers and is running two at reduced rates. LyondellBasell has shut down two of the three crackers it has at La Porte and Channelview, while one has been stabilized.

The Houston area is also home to five on-purpose propylene units. The Enterprise propane dehydrogenation (PDH) unit at Mont Belvieu is offline, as is the Flint Hills Resources PDH unit in Houston. Dow’s Freeport PDH unit is running at reduced rates, as are LyondellBasell’s metathesis units at Channelview.

The six steam crackers in the “golden triangle” northeast of Houston have all been shut down. These include BASF/Total, CPChem, and Motiva’s respective units at Port Arthur as well as Dow’s unit at Orange, ExxonMobil’s at Beaumont, and Indorama’s at Port Neches. BASF/Total’s metathesis unit is also offline.

Eastman’s three steam crackers in Longview, Texas, have also been shut down.

IHS Markit has confirmed the shutdown of three steam crackers in Louisiana: Westlake Chemical’s units at Sulphur and Indorama’s unit at Westlake. The status of Louisiana’s other steam crackers, which account for about 24% of US ethylene capacity, is uncertain. Located further east, they have been spared the worst of the cold, but with the winter storm moving in their direction over the next few days, that could change.

As MRC informed earlier, in late August 2020, Chevron Phillips Chemical shut down its Port Arthur, Texas cracker in preparation for Hurricane Laura. The unit's capacity of 855,000 mt/year. Chevron Phillips also shut its Cedar Bayou, Texas, crackers ahead of the storm. The company's Cedar Bayou crackers 1 and 2 have capacities of 837,000 mt/year and 1.7 million mt/year, respectively.

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). Supply of exclusively PP random copolymer increased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Loop Industries’ chemically recycled monoethylene glycol (MEG) and dimethyl terephthalate (DMT) has been given Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (Reach) approval by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), said Plasticstoday.

ECHA issued confirmation of Reach registration for MEG on 17 November, and DMT on 7 December. The two feedstocks are produced via the company’s depolymerisation technology, which uses recycled plastic to produce monomer material with virgin-like quality.

By achieving Reach certification, the company said its monomers are of a purity equal to what is currently recognised within Europe and entitles Loop to manufacture/import the monomers into Europe.

As part of the 14 December announcement, Loop said: “It should be noted that MEG and DMT are on the positive list for plastic materials, which means that the two monomers can be used as food-contact materials." EU regulation states that all polyethylene terephthalate (PET) beverage bottles must contain 25% recycled content by 2025, and all plastic bottles must contain 30% recycled content by 2030.

However, under the current legislation, these targets can only be met by using mechanically recycled material. Earlier this month, a European Commission spokesperson said EU approval of chemical recycling practices will be contingent on cradle-to-grave life cycle analysis (LCA).

As per MRC, Loop Industries is getting USD35 million in funding from a Toronto investment firm to help fund a recycling plant to produce tens of millions of pounds of RPET each year.

According to ICIS-MRC Price report, there was an acute shortage of PET in the Russian market. As a result, there was speculative excitement in the market. Sellers were raising prices of Russian PET chips, while the buyers who needed material had no other alternative at the moment.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- PTT Global Chemical (PTTGC; Bangkok, Thailand) has awarded Samsung Engineering a USD127-MM EPC contract to modify the Map Ta Phut olefins complex in Thailand, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Samsung's scope is to increase the throughput of propane for the production of propylene by building propane-propylene split and distillation towers and modify the current facilities.

The project is scheduled to be completed by 2023. According to Business Korea, Samsung Engineering is currently carrying out two plant projects of PTT GC - the Olefin Project and the Propylene Oxide Project.

As MRC informed earlier, in November 2020, PTT Global Chemical said that its planned 1.5-million metric tons/year steam cracker project at Belmont County, Ohio, remained the top priority for its affiliate PTTGC America (PTTGCA). The company said that the project had not at any point been put on hold. In September 2020, PTTGC signed an ethane supply agreement with Range Resources Corp. (Forth Worth, Texas). Range will supply 15,000 b/d of ethane to a facility that includes a cracker with ethane feed capacity of 100,000 b/d and multiple facilities for creating ethylene derivative products.

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). Supply of exclusively PP random copolymer increased.

PTT Global Chemical is a leading player in the petrochemical industry and owns several petrochemical facilities with a combined capacity of 8.45 million tonnes a year.
MRC