SK Innovation to build plants in Poland

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Korean energy and chemical firm SK Innovation, a subsidiary of SK Group, has announced its intention to build a plant in Wojewodztwo Slaskie, Poland that will manufacture Lithium-Ion Battery Separators (LiBS) and Ceramic Coated Separators (CCS), said Manufacturingglobal.

Separators are the core material of electric vehicle (EV) batteries, with SK Innovation seeking to further bolster its offering to battery manufacturers.

SK Innovation recently announced plans to build another LiBS plant in China. The firm currently produces 360mn square metres of LiBS each year in Jeungpyeong, Chungcheongbuk-do, Korea, and its new plants will bring its production capacity up to 1.2bn square metres annually.

According to its press release, the company aims to invest EUR335mn in four LiBS production units and three CCS production units in Poland, with the aim of breaking ground on the project in Q3 2019 and beginning mass production in Q3 2021.

The first production line in Poland will be completed in the third quarter of 2021, and the second one in the first quarter of 2023. SKI said the new investment is aimed at increasing market share through preemptive investment, citing a significant increase in purchase demands and a possible shortage of supplies from 2023.

As MRC wrote before, SK Advanced is planning to start up the new polypropylene (PP) plant in Ulsan, South Korea this March 2021 as construction works are nearly completed. The PP unit is a joint venture between PolyMirae and SK Advanced, using the “Spheripol” process of LyondellBasell, and have an annual output of 400,000 tons/year. The unit will be utilizing the propylene output from SK’s 600,000 tons/year propane dehydrogenation (PDH) unit at the same complex. It is expected that SK Advanced would have a smaller propylene allocation for export once the new PP line comes online.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 241,030 tonnes in January 2021 versus 217,890 tonnes a year earlier. Only shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 141,870 tonnes in January 2021 versus 123,520 tonnes a year earlier. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- SABIC, a global leader in diversified chemicals, has announced that it will begin marketing Aramco’s allocation of Sadara Chemical Company (Sadara) products, more consistent with Aramco’s equity ownership of the joint venture, beginning July 1, 2021, said the company.

The change is the result of an agreement between SABIC, Aramco, Sadara and The Dow Chemical Company (Dow), and aligns with the strategic positioning of SABIC as the chemicals arm of Aramco, which acquired a 70% stake in SABIC last year.

Sadara represents a unique alliance between Aramco and Dow. The realignment of marketing responsibilities relates to a number of products in several phases, which include a range of chemicals, polyethylene and functional chemicals.

By marketing Aramco’s allocation of Sadara products, SABIC expects to drive further supply chain efficiencies, strengthen its brand and combined product and services offering, and help to maintain competitive preference in the global chemicals industry. Customers can expect to benefit from improved product range and availability, ordering and points of sale, supply chain, shipping reliability, and after-market services and solutions.

As per MRC, BASF, SABIC and Linde have signed an agreement to jointly develop eco-friendly, electrically heated steam cracker furnaces. The partners have already jointly worked on concepts to use renewable electricity instead of the fossil fuel gas typically used for the heating process. With this innovative approach focusing on one of the petrochemical industries' core processes, the parties strive to offer a promising solution to significantly contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions within the chemical industry.

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

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sinopec's Zhenhai refinery in Ningbo, eastern Zhejiang province, has issued four tenders for preconstruction works of its 1.2 million mt/year ethylene expansion project, reported S&P Global.

The project also include 15 million mt/year of refining capacity.

Separately, Sinopec's Qilu Petrochemical will shut a 4 million mt/year CDU for maintenance from mid-August till late September and Sinopec's Cangzhou Petrochemical will shut the entire refinery for maintenance over May 10-June 30..

As MRC wrote before, in January 2021, Wood secured a contract valued at over USD120 million with Sinopec Hainan Refining and Chemical Limited Company (Sinopec) to provide engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services to expand its refinery development in the Hainan Free Trade Zone (FTZ) in South China.

Once completed, the ethylene renovation and expansion project will produce up to one million tonnes of ethylene derivatives and refined oil on an annual basis and is expected to boost economic growth in China’s downstream sector by more than 100 billion yuan (USD14.1 billion). Output from the Hainan FTZ will serve ethylene demand across China and globally.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 241,030 tonnes in January 2021 versus 217,890 tonnes a year earlier. Only shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) increased.

Sinopec Corp. is one of the largest scale integrated energy and chemical company with upstream, midstream and downstream operations. Its principal business includes: exploring, developing, producing and trading crude oil and natural gas; producing, storing, transporting and distributing and marketing petroleum products, petrochemical products, synthetic fiber, fertilizer and other chemical products. Its refining capacity and ethylene capacity rank No.2 and No.4 globally. Sinopec listed in Hong Kong, New York, London and Shanghai in August 2001.
MRC

1. Chinese refineries processed more crude oil than US refineries in 2020

MOSCOW (MRC) -- More crude oil was being refined in China's refineries in April 2020 than in US refineries for the first month on record, and this trend continued for all remaining months in 2020 except for July and August, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing. Thus, China processed more crude oil than the United States not only because of the unique effects of COVID-19 pandemic-related restrictions in 2020, but also because of differences in the longer-term structural refining trends between the two countries. China’s National Bureau of Statistics only reports the country’s processing volume of crude oil. The most direct comparison to the United States is refiner net inputs of crude oil. US refiners also report total gross inputs into distillation units, which include non-crude liquids such as lease condensate and unfinished oils, making gross inputs about 0.5 million barrels per day (b/d) larger than net crude oil inputs. China’s crude oil processing also exceeded US gross inputs in both May and October 2020.


MOSCOW (MRC) - The Samara Medical Device Plant (SZMI) in the Togliatti special economic zone launched the production of disposable nitrile gloves on March 26, becoming the only full-cycle manufacturer in Russia, TASS reported. The products are planned to be supplied to public and private medical institutions, as well as to enterprises in the field of household services. The volume of investments allocated for the construction of the plant amounted to more than 729 million rubles, and the plant plans to reach its design capacity of 108 million pairs per year in the second quarter of 2021. The enterprise has 2 lines.


MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Pertamina, Indonesian state oil company, said it aims to restore operations at its Balongan oil refinery in West Java in 4-5 days, as firefighters worked to extinguish a massive blaze that broke out overnight, injuring six people, reported Reuters.

Pertamina shut the plant with the capacity of 125,000 barrels per day after the massive fire erupted.

Pertamina chief executive Nicke Widyawati told reporters the fire was concentrated in the refinery's storage tanks and there had been no impact on the processing plant.

"The main equipment at the refinery is not affected," she said. "We hope the plant can be operational again soon after we put out the fire so there are no disruptions to supply."

Separately, Nicke told local media that only four storage tanks were affected, out of the total 72 tanks in Balongan with total capacity of 1.35 million kilo litres.

As MRC wrote earlier, the fire broke out at the Balongan refinery, run by state oil firm Pertamina, at 00:45 local time on Monday (17:45 GMT Sunday). Around 950 residents have been evacuated to safety. A handful of people have been reported missing.

We remind that PT Pertamina shut its cracker in Indonesia for maintenance works from 18 March, 2020. This cracker with a production capacity of 578,000 tons remained off-stream until 18 April 2020.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 241,030 tonnes in January 2021 versus 217,890 tonnes a year earlier. Only shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 141,870 tonnes in January 2021 versus 123,520 tonnes a year earlier. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.

Pertamina is an Indonesian state-owned oil and natural gas corporation based in Jakarta. It was created in August 1968 by the merger of Pertamin (established 1961) and Permina (established 1957). Pertamina is the world's largest producer and exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
MRC