Flint Hills Resource: restarting its PDH unit in Houston

MOSCOW (MRC) -- American petrochemical major - Flint Hills Resources - has been resuming operations at its propane dehydrogenation (PDH) unit in Houston, USA, reported S&P Global.

Thus, the company began restarting its 658,000 mt/year PDH plant on 25 February, 2021.

It was shut down on 16 February because of severe winter weather in the region.

As MRC informed previously, in November 2019, Motiva Enterprises, the US refining arm of Saudi Aramco, acquired 100% of Flint Hills Resources chemical plant, adjacent to its Port Arthur, Texas, oil refinery. The Flint Hills plant operates a 1.57 billion-pound-per-year ethylene cracker, a unit producing nylon component cyclohexane, and a network of pipelines and storage caverns.

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

Record U.S. crude stockbuild as refining plummets

MOSCOW (MRC) -- U.S. crude oil stockpiles surged by a record of more than 21 million barrels last week as refining plunged to an all-time low as plants remained shut due to the Texas freeze that knocked out power for millions, the Energy Information Administration said, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

With refiners unable to process crude, gasoline and distillate inventories also dropped dramatically, especially in the Gulf Coast region where their declines set records. Oil prices jumped after the data, with U.S. crude futures climbing to USD61.41 a barrel, a 2.7% increase as of 10:49 a.m. ET (1549 GMT). Brent rose 2.3% to USD64.14 a barrel.

"The market is realizing this is probably a one-off. I think they're shaking it off already," said Phil Flynn, senior analyst at Price Futures Group. "I think everyone is looking at this as a snapshot in time. They expect these inventories to fall dramatically when the exports start moving again and the refiners start running."

Crude inventories rose by 21.6 million barrels, the largest one-week increase ever, in the week to Feb. 26 to 484.6 million barrels. Analysts had anticipated a 932,000-barrel drop. Refinery crude runs fell by 2.3 million barrels per day in the last week, and the overall refinery utilization rate plunged 12.6 percentage points to an all-time low at 56%, EIA said.

That was largely driven by the slump in U.S. Gulf Coast refining, which dropped to just over 40% of its overall capacity. The increase in stocks was also driven by a big jump in U.S. crude imports, which rose by a net 1.66 million barrels per day, EIA said.

U.S. gasoline stocks fell by 13.6 million barrels in the week, the most ever, to 243.5 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 2.3 million-barrel drop. Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 9.7 million barrels in the week to 143 million barrels, versus expectations for a 3 million-barrel drop, the EIA data showed. Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub rose by 485,000 barrels in the last week, EIA said.

We remind that the COVID-19 outbreak has led to an unprecedented decline in demand affecting all sections of the Russian economy, which has impacted the demand for petrochemicals in the short-term. However, the pandemic triggered an increase in the demand for polymers in food packaging, and cleaning and hygiene products, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company. With Russian petrochemical companies having the advantage of access to low-cost feedstock, and proximity to demand-rich Asian (primarily China) and European markets for the supply of petrochemical products, these companies appear to be well-positioned to derive full benefits from an improving market environment and global economy post-COVID-19.

We also remind that in December 2020, Sibur, Gazprom Neft, and Uzbekneftegaz agreed to cooperate on potential investments in Uzbekistan including a major expansion of Uzbekneftegaz’s existing Shurtan Gas Chemical Complex (SGCC) and the proposed construction of a new gas chemicals facility. The signed cooperation agreement for the projects includes “the creation of a gas chemical complex using methanol-to-olefins (MTO) technology, and the expansion of the production capacity of the Shurtan Gas Chemical Complex”.

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

Trinseo raises March PC prices in Europe

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Trinseo, a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex binders and synthetic rubber, and its affiliate companies in Europe have announced a price increase for all polycarbonate (PC) grades in Europe, as per the company's press release.

Effective March 1, 2020, or as existing contract terms allow, the contract and spot PC prices for the products listed below increased as follows:

- CALIBRE PC resins - by EUR600 per metric ton.

As MRC informed earlier, Trinseo last raised its prices for all PC grades in Europe on 1 February 2021 by EUR200 per metric ton.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated consumption of PC granules (excluding imports and exports to/from Belarus) totalled 89,300 tonnes in 2020, up by 14% year on year (78,500 tonnes a year earlier).

Trinseo is a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex and rubber. Trinseo's technology is used by customers in industries such as home appliances, automotive, building & construction, carpet, consumer electronics, consumer goods, electrical & lighting, medical, packaging, paper & paperboard, rubber goods and tires. Formerly known as Styron, Trinseo completed its renaming process in 1Q 2015. Trinseo had approximately USD3.8 billion in net sales in 2019, with 17 manufacturing sites around the world, and approximately 2,700 employees.
mrcplast.com

AOC hikes EMEA resin, vinyl ester prices on rising raw material costs, logistics

MOSCOW (MRC) -- AOC (Collierville, Tennessee) has announced price rises with immediate effect, or as contracts allow, for its entire epoxy vinyl ester (EVE) and unsaturated polyester resins (UPR) portfolio sold in the EAME region, citing continued increases in raw materials, logistics, and packaging costs, reported Chemweek.

Prices for its EVE products have been hiked by EUR450/metric ton (USD544/metric ton), with its UPR product portfolio prices rising by EUR350/metric ton. “The pricing of styrene, maleic anhydride, liquid epoxy resin, and other key raw materials has seen continued increases over the past months following outages across the globe and force majeure declarations in Europe,” says Fons Harbers, EAME vice president/marketing and sales at AOC. “Also, logistics and packaging costs have been increasing steadily. This leaves us no choice but to raise the prices of our products as a result,” he says.

AOC raised its prices mid-February this year for the same products, for similar reasons, following previous increases announced in January 2021 and December 2020.

As MRC informed earlier, in October 2020, AOC, Kaprain and Spolchemie announced they had reached agreement on AOC acquiring the Unsaturated Polyester Resin (UPR) manufacturing operations located at the Spolchemie site in Usti nad Labem (Czech Republic). This footprint extension will allow AOC to further improve service and logistics to its customers in Central/ Eastern Europe as well as in Germany, and will make new products (e.g. based on recycled PET) available for customers around Europe.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, overall estimated PET consumption in Russia was 71,830 tonnes in December 2020, up by 8% year on year. Russia's PET consumption in all sectors (injection moulding, fibers/filaments, films) exceeded the level of 2019 by 17%, totalling 717,310 tonnes.
MRC

Four Petrobras board members to leave after CEO change

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Brazil’s state-run oil firm Petrobras said late on Tuesday that four of its board members would leave at the end of their terms, requesting not to be reappointed after President Jair Bolsonaro decided to replace the company’s chief executive, reported Reuters.

Petroleo Brasileiro SA, as the company is formally known, disclosed messages from the board members in a securities filing stating their reasons for effectively resigning.

After complaining about high fuel prices, Bolsonaro has appointed Joaquim Silva e Luna, a retired military officer who had been running the Itaipu hydroelectric dam on the border with Paraguay, to replace Chief Executive Roberto Castello Branco.

The move revived old concerns over government interference in Petrobras and its fuel pricing policy, as has happened under previous administrations.

Branco will officially step down at a shareholders meeting, whose date has yet to be set. The four board members would also step down at that time.

Two of the board members said they could not accept reappointment because of personal reasons, while another said his term was being “interrupted unexpectedly” without explanation.

A fourth board member said that he would not continue because of “upper management changes,” which he said weren’t in-line with best management practices.

As MRC informed before, Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras is seeking 800 million reais (USD152 million) in compensation from engineering group Odebrecht in arbitration proceedings over its alleged violation of the shareholders agreement in petrochemical company Braskem.

We remind that Petrobras may need more than a year to divest its stake in Braskem, said Andrea Almeida, Petrobras CFO, in early July, 2020. She said during the company"s recent webinar that Petrobras plans to give more time for potential investors to make offers for the company"s assets, including for its refineries and stakes at its petrochemical and fuel distribution affiliates. The divestment of Petrobras"s stake in Braskem in 2020 would be desirable but "might not be possible" as the COVID-19 pandemic has changed market conditions, she said. The company plans to close part of its refinery sales in 2021. In December, Roberto Castello Branco, CEO of Petrobras, said that he wants to sell the company"s stake in Braskem within a year. Petrobras owns 32.15% of Braskem.

We also remind that Braskem is no longer pursuing a petrochemical project, which would have included an ethane cracker, in West Virginia. And the company is seeking to sell the land that would have housed the cracker. The project, announced in 2013, had been on Braskem"s back burner for several years.

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.

Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Petrobras is an integrated energy firm. Petrobras' activities include exploration, exploitation and production of oil from reservoir wells, shale and other rocks as well as refining, processing, trade and transport of oil and oil products, natural gas and other fluid hydrocarbons, in addition to other energy-related activities.
MRC