Toyota resumed production in Canada after COVID outbreak at supplier

MOSCOW (MRC) --Toyota Manufacturing Canada Inc has resumed production at all three of its lines in Ontario, said the company.

The Canadian automaker halted production after eight employees at a major supplier tested positive for COVID-19. The supplier, Toyotetsu, halted production the week of 26 April.

The automotive industry is a major global consumer of petrochemicals which contribute more than a third of the raw material costs of an average vehicle, and production disruptions could severely weigh on demand. The auto industry has been dealing with supply issues amid the reopening of the economy following lockdown measures related to the pandemic.

The main issue has been a shortage of semiconductors, but winter storm knocked out many plants in the US Gulf region which also led to shortages of some chemicals and created other supply chain issues.

As it was written earlier, Toyota Motor Corp. plans to overhaul its Canadian plant to begin manufacturing an additional Lexus SUV model. The automaker will produce the Lexus NX crossover, in gasoline and hybrid versions, beginning in 2022 at the plant in Cambridge, Ontario, Fred Volf, president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada Inc.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, overall estimated consumption of PC granules in the Russian market totalled 25,000 tonnes in the first quarter of 2021 (excluding imports and exports to/from Belarus), compared to 22,700 tonnes a year earlier. Demand increased by 10%.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Limetree Bay said air quality testing near its US Virgin Islands refinery found zero concentrations of sulfur dioxide, hours after the National Guard said it found elevated levels of the chemical during its own testing, reported Reuters.

Schools in St. Croix shut for the second time in a month last week after residents smelled an odor, and many reported physical symptoms such as headaches, nausea and burning eyes. Three residents sought medical attention at the local hospital, according to a government health official.

"This air monitoring detected zero concentration of hydrogen sulfide, zero concentration of sulfur dioxide and zero concentration of hydrocarbons," Limetree said Sunday, adding that the results were shared with the Department of Planning and Natural Resources.

Industrial hygiene specialists conducted air monitoring beginning Friday through Saturday evening at five locations to the west and northwest of the refinery, Limetree said on Sunday in a statement to Reuters.

The civil support team said Saturday that its preliminary readings from Friday afternoon into Saturday morning found elevated quantities of sulfur dioxide in the air near the refinery, but "readings conducted outside the other facilities Saturday did not provide any elevated readings of harmful chemical constituents."

Maintenance on one of the refinery's units, a coker unit that upgrades residue from refining, was causing "light hydrocarbon odors", a Limetree spokesperson said last week.

As MRC wrote earlier, in late March 2021, EPA said it had revoked an expansion permit for the Limetree Bay oil refinery in the US Virgin Islands, citing concerns that the area around the facility is overburdened with pollution. The decision allowed the plant to keep operating but blocked ongoing expansion work pending an EPA review to assess measures the facility needs to take to protect nearby residents.

Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 576,270 tonnes in the first three month of 2021, up by 4% year on year. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 410,890 tonnes in January-March 2021, up by 56% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Restrictions on long-distance flights and the surge in COVID-19 in India will keep jet fuel demand below pre-pandemic levels over the coming months, even as an easing of lockdown in some parts of the world boosts jet fuel demand, said Reuters.

Vaccination success and reduced infection rates in Western countries are allowing travel to resume. It will, however, be dominated by short-haul flights, which account for almost two thirds of the total fuel used by the sector, but on average use around 35 times less fuel than long-haul flights, the International Energy Agency estimates.

The result will be jet fuel demand of around 5.8 million barrels per day (bpd) this year, almost 30% higher than 2020, but below the 8 million bpd of 2019 before the pandemic struck, energy consultancy FGE says.

Goldman Sachs expected jet fuel demand would rise to 3.9 million bpd in May, compared to the low of 2.2 million bpd in May 2020. It predicted demand of almost 5.5 million bpd by the end of the year, compared with 7 million bpd at the same time in 2019.

"You see the passenger numbers are recovering, but they are flying shorter distances, so the relationship between the passenger number and the jet fuel demand is distorted," Cuneyt Kazokoglu, head of oil demand analysis at FGE, said.

"For the full recovery, we need international travel to recover as well, and for that we have to reach a certain level of vaccination, not just in a couple of countries."

As per MRC, jet fuel demand is picking up, which could give refiners some hope after the global pandemic boosted distillate inventories and sank margins. Refiners have been mixing jet fuel into diesel inventories for the last several months, since they have been unable to sell the product due to the sharp decline in air travel.

Indian state refiners' local fuel sales in April declined due to state-level restrictions aimed at stemming a rampant second wave of coronavirus infections, preliminary data shows. The deadly second wave topped 400,000 new daily cases for the first time on Saturday. Authorities reported 401,993 new cases in the previous 24 hours, the highest daily count globally, after 10 consecutive days over 300,000. Deaths from COVID-19 jumped by 3,523, taking the total toll in India to 211,853.

Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 576,270 tonnes in the first three month of 2021, up by 4% year on year. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 410,890 tonnes in January-March 2021, up by 56% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Technip Energies has been awarded a large(1) Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Commissioning (EPCC) contract by Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) for its Para Xylene (PX) and Purified Terephthalic Acid (PTA) complex project at Paradip, Orissa, on the East Coast of India, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

This EPCC contract covers the delivery of a new 1.2 MMTPA(2) PTA plant and associated facilities. PTA is a major raw material used to manufacture polyester fibers, PET bottles and polyester film used in packaging applications.

Marco Villa, Chief Operating Officer of Technip Energies commented: “We are pleased to be awarded another prestigious contract by Indian Oil Corporation Limited. We look forward to starting this significant project which illustrates our commitment to India – a core market for us. It also significantly consolidates our leading position for executing complex petrochemical projects."

Paradip Refinery is the most-modern refinery in India. Its products meet the energy demands of the domestic market and are partly exported. With the aim to create a value chain, Paradip Refinery has ventured into petrochemicals with the production of Polypropylene (PP), Mono Ethylene Glycol (MEG), and is now going into Para Xylene (PX) and Purified Terephthalic Acid (PTA) production. The availability of PTA at Paradip will provide a boost to polyester manufacturing facilities in the vicinity.

As per MRC, Technip Energies has been recently awarded a significant Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Commissioning (EPCC) contract by Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) for its BR9 Expansion Project in Barauni, Bihar, in the Eastern part of India. This EPCC contract covers the installation of a new Once-through Hydrocracker Unit (OHCU) of 1 million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA) capacity, a Fuel Gas Treatment Unit (FGTU) and the associated facilities. The OHCU, in combination with downstream refinery units, will enable production of BS VI Grade fuels - similar to Euro VI Grade fuels - and petrochemicals.

Paraxylene is a raw material for the synthesis of terephthalic acid - an intermediate product for the production of polyethylene terephthalate (PET).

According to MRC's ScanPlast, in March of this year, the total estimated consumption of PET in Russia amounted to 64,750 tonness, which corresponds to the previous year (64,520 tonnes in 2020). Estimated PET consumption in the country increased in January - March 2021 compared to the same period last year by 5% and amounted to 182,300 tonnes.

Technip Energies has a strong footprint in India and local presence in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Dahej.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Asian refining margins for 10 ppm gasoil posted their sixth consecutive weekly rise on Friday as spring refinery turnarounds tightened regional supplies, reported Reuters.

Refining margins, also known as cracks, for 10 ppm gasoil remained unchanged at USD7.57 per barrel over Dubai crude during Asian trading hours.

The cracks have gained 4.4% this week, and have risen about 15% in the last month, Refinitiv Eikon data showed. The gasoil market, however, is expected to come under pressure in the coming weeks as refineries returning from maintenance ramp up production, while coronavirus lockdowns in India and Japan dampen demand for the industrial fuel. India reported another record daily rise in coronavirus cases on Friday, and traders expect wider impending lockdowns would result in soaring fuel exports from the country.

Cash differentials for gasoil with 10 ppm sulphur content were at a discount of 10 cents per barrel to Singapore quotes on Friday, while the May/June time spread for the benchmark gasoil grade traded at a narrow contango of minus 1 cent a barrel.

China's crude oil imports in April fell 0.2% from a year earlier as refiners curbed production to relieve a squeeze in profit margins brought about by rising crude oil prices and bulging inventories. The world's biggest crude oil buyer brought in 40.36 million tonnes of crude oil in April, or 9.82 million barrels per day (bpd), data from the General Administration of Customs showed. That was the lowest since December and was down from 11.69 million bpd of imports in March.

Gasoil stocks held independently in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub slipped 0.8% to 2.2 million tonnes in the week ended May 6, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed.

ARA jet fuel inventories dropped 3.5% on-week to 946,000 tonnes.

Oil prices steadied on Friday and were set for a weekly gain against the backdrop of optimism over a global economic recovery, though the COVID-19 crisis in India capped prices.

As MRC informed before, slumping fuel consumption during the pandemic is accelerating the long-term shift of refining capacity from North America and Europe to Asia, and from older, smaller refineries to modern, higher-capacity mega-refineries. The result is a wave of closures, often centering on refineries that only narrowly survived the previous closure wave in the years after the recession in 2008/09.

We remind that PetroChina has nearly doubled the amount of Russian crude being processed at its refinery in Dalian, the company's biggest, since January 2018, as a new supply agreement had come into effect. The Dalian Petrochemical Corp, located in the northeast port city of Dalian, was expected to process 13 million tonnes, or 260,000 bpd of Russian pipeline crude in 2018, up by about 85 to 90 percent from the previous year's level. Dalian has the capacity to process about 410,000 bpd of crude. The increase follows an agreement worked out between the Russian and Chinese governments under which Russia's top oil producer Rosneft was to supply 30 million tonnes of ESPO Blend crude to PetroChina in 2018, or about 600,000 bpd. That would have represented an increase of 50 percent over 2017 volumes.

Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 576,270 tonnes in the first three month of 2021, up by 4% year on year. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 410,890 tonnes in January-March 2021, up by 56% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
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