State treasurers pressure Marathon to end lockout at Minnesota refinery

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A group of state treasurers are pressuring Marathon Petroleum to end a lockout at a Minnesota refinery that has left 200 union members out of work for two months, reported Reuters with reference to a letter the officials sent to the company.

Marathon has brought in out of state workers to operate its St. Paul Park refinery as it negotiates with members of the Teamsters Local 120 over new proposals by management that employees say threaten their jobs.

The union says the replacement workers have not been properly trained. The company denied this claim.

In the letter reviewed by Reuters, the Democratic state treasurers of Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Oregon told Marathon’s sustainability chair they are concerned that the lockout will have a long-term impact on safety and reliability.

“With the potential for losses of lives [at the refinery] there is great exposure for these companies in terms of lawsuits and reputational harm,” said Illinois state treasurer Michael Frerichs.

Minnesota politicians, including Governor Tim Walz, have previously urged the US refiner to end the prolonged lockout, saying it could create safety problems at the refinery.

Frerichs told Reuters the group of treasurers are working together on sustainability issues, and some have investments in the refiner, he added without elaborating. The group has requested a meeting with Marathon’s sustainability chair, Abdulaziz F. Alkhayyal.

The union opposes Marathon’s proposals that could cut some 50 jobs at the plant and subcontract out maintenance work. The company is the second-largest independent US refiner, with plants in Illinois, Minnesota, and other states.

“By locking us out they’re showing us this is what they’re going toward, that we’re not coming back,” said Matthew Foss, a St. Paul Park firefighter employed at the refinery for more than 22 years. He said workers risked coronavirus infection to keep the refinery operating through the pandemic.

The 102,000 barrel-per-day plant is currently being staffed by “trained and qualified Marathon Petroleum personnel,” Marathon said. The company said it does not foresee supply disruptions in its operating regions.

“We have continued negotiating in good faith with representatives of the Teamsters Local 120 throughout their strike, and we look forward to additional opportunities to work toward reaching agreement on the company’s and the union’s proposals,” a spokesman for Marathon said last week.

As MRC informed earlier, most units were shut on Sunday night and Monday morning (15-16 February) at Marathon Petroleum Corp's 585,000 barrel-per-day Galveston Bay Refinery in Texas City, Texas, as temperatures plunged due to a Arctic cold front reaching the Gulf Coast.

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) -- Milliken (Spartanburg, South Carolina) says it has acquired Zebra-chem (Bad Bentheim, Germany), a producer of peroxide masterbatches and blowing-agent masterbatches, reported Chemweek.

Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

Zebra-chem produces masterbatches for polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyolefins, and engineering plastics. Typical products are organic peroxide masterbatches, molybdenum disulfide masterbatches, and blowing-agent masterbatches, according to Milliken.

Peroxide masterbatches, such as those made by Zebra-chem and Milliken, make it possible to incorporate up to 100% recycled content in plastics, Milliken says. “Milliken’s long-term focus on innovation and sustainability encourages us to consider how we contribute to some of today’s leading challenges, like how to effectively incorporate recycled plastics in manufacturing,” says Halsey Cook, Milliken president and CEO.

As MRC informed earlier, in September 2020, Milliken (Spartanburg, North Carolina) said it had joined the Polypropylene Recycling Coalition (PRC), an industry collaboration launched in July by The Recycling Partnership (TRP) aimed at improving recovery and recycling of PP in the US.

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.

Milliken is an innovation company that has been exploring, discovering, and creating ways to enhance people’s lives since 1865. The company creates coatings, specialty chemicals, and advanced additive and colorant technologies that transform the way we experience products from automotive plastics to children's art supplies.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Songwon Industrial Co., Ltd. the 2nd largest manufacturer of polymer stabilizers in the world, and key global player in the specialty chemicals business announced today that it has made further changes to its leadership structure to streamline the company moving forward, said Chemweek.

The changes have been implemented to support faster decisions, simplified processes and enable SONGWON to increase its agility by returning to its traditionally lean organizational structure. With these changes, Philippe Schlaepfer, Leader Division Performance Chemicals / Chief Sustainability Officer, is leaving the company. SONGWON thanks him for his many years of dedication to the business. The responsibilities related to this business function have been split within the Group.

As MRC reported earlier, in August 2017, South Korean specialty chemicals company Songwon Industrial Co Ltd launched its new pilot plant in Panoli (Gujarat), thereby strengthening the organisation’s overall specialty chemicals development capability.

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.

Headquartered in Ulsan (South Korea), Songwon Industrial Co is a leader in the development, production and supply of specialty chemicals. The second largest manufacturer of polymer stabilisers worldwide, Songwon operates group companies all over the world, offering the combined benefits of a global framework and readily accessible local organisations.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The chemical recycling of plastics, also known as molecular or advanced recycling, is scaling quickly, according to Chemweek with reference to Bob Patel, CEO of LyondellBasell, and Jim Fitterling, chairman and CEO of Dow.

The two spoke last Tuesday at the CERAWeek 2021 by IHS Markit virtual conference.

Chemical recycling does not require the degree of sorting required by mechanical recycling, noted Patel, and it yields virgin resin completely identical to resins produced from traditional petrochemical feedstocks. "With molecular recycling, you can take mixed plastic waste, convert it back to feedstock, and then put it back in the front end of the cracker (to make olefins) and then polyethylene (PE) or polypropylene (PP)," he said.

Patel said chemical recycling has the additional advantage of much larger scale than mechanical recycling. "I think we're probably three to five years way from being at the scale that our industry is used to," he said. "I think it has to be some form of pyrolysis, and then it's a matter of how do you scale that up and manage any sort of environmental impacts from the pyrolysis process itself."

Fitterling noted that many pilot operations are underway. "Everybody is learning how to deal with this new raw material supply and how to manage it through existing assets, and I think we're making great progress," he said. "We're also getting good traction on the methodology for how to account for it and make sure you can prove that it's sustainable, and that it's an auditable, traceable closed loop."

Closing the loop is not a purely technological problem, however.

"I think great way to think about it is, you're trying to create an entire ecosystem," said Fitterling. "We talk a lot of times about policies around circularity at a very high level, maybe a national or global level, but in reality the waste issues are very local, and so you have to deal with the local consumer and sorting out waste plastics, making sure they don't go to a landfill in the first place, and getting them to a recycling facility."

A fundamental challenge is that the cost of recycling is greater than business as usual, Fitterling noted. "But policies and that whole system can help close that loop by creating an incentive that brings private investment in, that creates jobs for the local community, and that creates a way for that material to get back in," he continued. "Because we've changed the equation… from just being low cost to trying to reduce waste and get the carbon footprint down, and that's a different objective.

As MRC informed earlier, LyondellBasell Industries is restarting the gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracker (FCC) after completing the restart of the large crude distillation unit (CDU) at its 263,776 barrel-per-day (bpd) Houston refinery. The 147,000-bpd Unit 537 CDU is the first to restart since the refinery was shut on Feb. 15 by severe cold weather. The 90,000-bpd FCC could be back in production by early next week.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing PE and 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) -- Russia's largest petrochemicals producer, Sibur, said its core earnings rose 5% in 2021 as it expanded production with the launch of a new plant, but was also hit by lower prices of liquefied petroleum gas and naphtha, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Sibur has been looking to do an IPO for years, and said last year that it would be better placed for an initial public offering once the new plant, ZapSibNeftekhim in Western Siberia, was completed. However, it has yet to confirm IPO plans or give a timeframe.

The company said on Thursday that another plant under construction in Eastern Siberia, the Amur Gas Chemical Complex, could start operations six months ahead of schedule by mid-2024 and the cost of the project will probably be USD10 billion, down from previous estimates of between USD10 billion and USD11 billion.

The Amur Gas complex is expected to produce 2.3 million tons of polyethylene and 400,000 tons of polypropylene a year. China's Sinopec has acquired a 40% stake in the project and Sibur's Chief Financial Officer Peter O'Brien said the Chinese company paid around 18.27 billion roubles (USD248 million) for the stake.

Sibur said core earnings last year rose by 5.4% to 179 billion roubles (USD2.4 billion), with petrochemical product sale volumes rising 37% to 5.15 million tons. Revenue, however, slipped 1.6% to 523 billion roubles partly due to lower prices for liquefied petroleum gas and naphtha in the first half of the year. Adjusted net income fell 0.4% to 93 billion roubles.

As MRC reported before, earlier this weak, Sibur Holding and China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), China’s leading energy and chemical company, closed the deal to set up a joint venture (JV) at the Amur Gas Chemical Complex after obtaining all the necessary approvals from the regulators of both countries. SIBUR and Sinopec will hold interest in the JV in the amount of 60% and 40%, 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.

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