Lenzing exits facemask joint venture

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Austrian company Lenzing is transferring its shareholding in the Hygiene Austria facemask joint venture to partner Palmers Textil, said the company.

The JV was set up quickly in April 2020 amid the sudden shortages of facemasks and other personal protective equipment as the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic struck. Regarding financial terms, for the time being Lenzing will waive its right to a "suitable purchase price" for its stake in order to ensure the continued existence of Hygiene Austria, it said.

As it was said earlier, Lenzing has taken over management control of Hygiene Austria LP GmbH on March 03, 2021. Stephan Sielaff, Chief Technology Officer at Lenzing, has been appointed to serve as an additional managing director at Hygiene Austria.

As per MRC, Russia's output of chemical products rose in February 2021 by 5.3% year on year. Thus, production of basic chemicals increased year on year by 7.5% in the first two months of 2021. According to the Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation, mineral fertilizers accounted for the greatest increase in the January-February output. Production of benzene dropped to 113,000 tonnes in February 2021, compared to 120,000 tonnes a month earlier. Overall output of this product reached 241,000 tonnes over the stated period, down by 7.5% year on year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The new facility is intended to meet growing demand for flu vaccines, boost Canada's preparedness for future pandemics, and will create 300 jobs, said Canplastics.

A new influenza vaccine facility will be built in Toronto to help bolster Canada’s biomanufacturing capacity, the federal government has announced. Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said the federal government will spend USD415 million in partnership with Sanofi Pasteur Ltd. and the Ontario government to build the new facility by 2027.

“Ontario is investing $55 million through a performance-based loan, toward construction of Sanofi’s $925 million state-of-art vaccine facility to meet growing demand for flu vaccines, specifically for populations at greater risk of influenza,” Ontario Premier Ford’s office said in a March 31 news release. “The company is also committing to an average of $79 million a year in research and development in Ontario or more than a half a billion dollars over the life of the agreement."

The federal government said the new facility will have the ability to produce enough vaccine doses to support the entire Canadian population within about six months of the World Health Organization identifying a pandemic flu strain. The new facility’s work will include drug product formulation, fill-and-finish, and inspection of flu vaccines.

“This is a critical investment as it will create 300 high quality jobs and push Ontario toward becoming less reliant on others for the production of flu and potentially other vaccines,” said Premier Ford.

This new facility is a second large manufacturing mandate for Sanofi at this site. In 2018, Ontario and Sanofi announced another large bulk vaccine manufacturing facility focused on doubling the site’s capacity to produce childhood vaccines.

As per MRC, Kuwait's Oil Minister Oil Mohammad Abdulatif al-Fares expressed "cautious optimism" that the global oil demand will improve as COVID-19 vaccination programs gather pace and industrial output recovers. Speaking ahead of a joint meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and other major oil producers, he said the market supply/demand balance has largely improved as result of output cuts implemented by the group known as OPEC+, according to state news agency KUNA. He called on the group to the fully comply with these cuts.

As per MRC, Chemical Activity Barometer (CAB), a leading economic indicator created by the American Chemistry Council (ACC), rose 1.2% in March on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis, following a 1.0% increase in February. On a year-over-year (Y/Y) basis, the barometer rose 5.5% in March. The unadjusted data show a 1.2% gain in March following a 0.9% gain in February, ACC said. The diffusion index rebounded to 82% in March, well above the long-term average of 58%.

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) -- LyondellBasell (LBI), one of the largest plastics and chemicals companies in the world, HAS announced Anthony Chase, chairman and chief executive officer of ChaseSource L.P., and Robert Dudley, former group chief executive and director of BP, have been nominated to stand for election to its board of directors at the company's annual general meeting of shareholders on May 28, 2021, as per the company's press release.

In addition, the company announced that director Bella Goren has decided not to stand for re-election at the 2021 annual general meeting.

"We are very grateful for Bella's service to our company. She has been an important part of our success over the last seven years and we wish her all the best in her future endeavors," said Mr. Aigrain.

As MRC wrote previously, LyondellBasell and Covestro's jointly-owned propylene oxide(PO)/styrene monomer (SM) unit at Maasvlakte, Netherlands, was reportedly producing at a lower rate in the first half of March following an incident at the site on 10 February, 2021. The site produces 313,000 metric tons/year of PO and 680,000 metric tons/year of styrene. A four-week turnaround was planned at the site, beginning in the second half of March.

Styrene is the main feedstock for the production of polystyrene (PS).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated consumption of PS and styrene plastics totalled 520,630 tonnes in 2020, which corresponded to the same figure a year earlier. December estimated consumption of PS and styrene plastics grew by 5% year on year to 47,490 tonnes.

LyondellBasell is one of the largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies in the world. Driven by its employees around the globe, LyondellBasell produces materials and products that are key to advancing solutions to modern challenges, like enhancing food safety through lightweight and flexible packaging, protecting the purity of water supplies through stronger and more versatile pipes, improving the safety, comfort and fuel efficiency of many of the cars and trucks on the road, and ensuring the safe and effective functionality in electronics and appliances. LyondellBasell sells products into more than 100 countries and is the world"s largest producer of polymer compounds and the largest licensor of polyolefin technologies. In 2020, LyondellBasell was named to Fortune Magazine"s list of the "World"s Most Admired Companies" for the third consecutive year.
MRC

1. Mammoet successfully lifts three columns for petchem expansion project in India

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mammoet completed the lifting of three columns for the Guru Gobind Singh Polymer Expansion Project in Bathinda, Punjab, India, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing. Thus, the team lifted a 1,305t ethylene fractionator, and 2 propylene fractionators weighing 1,200t and 2,490t - the second of which was lifted in two sections. The MSG80 crane, which was locally available in India, was used for lifting of these three columns via a total of four lift operations. In addition, the team worked in double shifts to move the crane to a new location for the customer. The MSG80 ring crane’s 3,000t lifting capacity and impressively small footprint for such a high load moment crane (34m diameter with 80,000 tonne-meters) made it ideal for the job. It made the project more convenient for the customer as heavy items could be fully dressed -eliminating the need for vertical assembly work on two of the units.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sadara Chemical Company (Sadara) is planning to resume operations at its naphtha cracker in Jubail, Saudi Arabia in mid-March after unscheduled repairs, according to CommoPlast with reference to market sources.

The company announced an emergency shutdown of its cracker with a capacity of 1.5 million tons/year of ethylene and 400,000 tons/year of propylene im mid-March due to an issue at the compressor.

Besides, the company has also taken the downstream polyethylene (PE) plants offline until the cracker comes back online. The PE plant consists of a 340,000 tons/year of low density polyethylene (LDPE) line and a 600,000 tons/year high density polyethylene (HDPE)/linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) swing line.

As MRC informed before, in late March 2021, Saudi Aramco said it restructured its debt financing for Sadara Chemical Company, its joint venture (JV) with Dow Chemical, an American petrochemical major. The Saudi national oil company also said an agreement had been reached to allocate more natural gas feedstock to the joint venture, which has been building the world’s biggest chemical complex ever delivered in a single phase, in Jubail.

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.
MRC