Canadian plastic pipe maker Soleno buys Plastiques VPC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- In a move that further positions it in the reycling sector, Canadian plastic pipe maker and cleantech company Soleno, said to be one of the largest recyclers of HDPE in Eastern Canada, has acquired Plastiques VPC, a start-up specializing in the recovery of oil-contaminated plastics, said Canplastics.

The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed. Plastiques VPC is headquartered in Saint-Henri, Que., and in a news release, officials with New Brunswick-based Soleno said the deal “will position the province of Quebec advantageously in the recycling industry."

"Annually, in Quebec and the Atlantic Provinces, more than 3.5 million kg of oil and antifreeze containers can be recycled,” the news release said. “By acquiring Plastiques VPC, [we] will be the only company in Eastern Canada able to recover materials from these territories in a fully integrated manner, while ensuring exemplary traceability from the beginning to the end of their life cycles."

Soleno represents a group of four business units, including Soleno, Soleno Recycling, Soleno Service and Soleno Textile, which employs 500 workers in nine industrial sites in Quebec, Ontario, and New Brunswick. The company manufactures and distributes a wide range of products for the collecting, conveying, treating, and storage of stormwater for the infrastructure, residential, natural resources, and agricultural sectors. The majority of Soleno’s products are made of HDPE.

As per MRC, Canada-based thermoplastic piping systems manufacturer Ipex has completed its stock purchase of Silver-Line Plastics. Silver-Line Plastics is a U.S. manufacturer of plastic pipe products with production facilities in North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Florida. The goal of the acquisition, which was first announced in August, is to allow Ipex to increase its market position in the U.S. with an expanded product portfolio serving a broader client base.

As per MRC ScanPlast, March total HDPE production reached 175,900 tonnes versus 152,500 tonnes a month earlier, all producers raised their capacity utilisation. Russian plants" overall HDPE output reached 505,800 tonnes in the first three months of 2021, up by 15% year on year.
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Lyondell Basell Industries does not plan to perform major maintenance at its global assets

MOSCOW (MRC) --- Petrochemical producer Lyondell Basell Industries does not plan to perform major maintenance at its global assets, including a Houston refinery, in the second quarter of 2021, said Chief Executive Bob Patel during a Friday morning conference call with Wall Street analysts, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

"Deferred turnarounds from 2020 are resulting in high levels of planned maintenance downtime for many of our competitors during the second quarter," Patel said. "Lyondell Basell has no major planned maintenance for the second quarter at any of the global assets that we operate."

The company's 263,776 barrel-per-day (bpd) Houston refinery is running at nearly full production, said Michael McMurray, chief financial officer. In the first quarter, the Houston refinery operated at an average 57% of capacity because of the severe cold weather that shut it for about a month beginning in mid-February, McMurray said.

Patel said he hopes that the company's refining segment, which recorded a USD110-million loss in the first quarter of 2021, will return to break even in the third quarter of this year.

As per MRC, LyondellBasell Industries N.V. (Rotterdam the Netherlands) announced another step towards its ambition to advance the circular economy by making virgin quality polymers from raw materials derived from plastic waste at its Wesseling, Germany, site. Produced by the thermal conversion of plastic waste, this raw material is converted into ethylene and propylene in the LyondellBasell production facilities, and then processed into polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE) in the downstream units for plastics production. The first use of raw material derived from plastic waste follows the company’s successful production of plastic materials made from renewable-based raw materials such as used cooking oil, which helps to reduce CO2 over the product life cycle and reduce the use of fossil-based raw materials.

As per MRC, LyondellBasell, the world's largest polyolefins producer, has declared a force majeure (FM) on shipments of some polypropylene (PP) grades from its Ferrara plant in Italy as of May 3, according to NCT with reference to a source familiar with the issue. This plant is able to produce 285.000 tons/year of PP. At the time of press, no details were shared regarding the reason or duration of the FM.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, 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.

LyondellBasell is one of the largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies in the world. Driven by its 13,000 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, and improving the safety, comfort and fuel efficiency of many of the cars and trucks on the road. LyondellBasell sells products into approximately 100 countries and is the world's largest licensor of polyolefin technologies.
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Ontario ramping up COVID-19 inspections in manufacturing workplaces

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ontario is expanding its COVID-19 safety inspections of manufacturing and food processing workplaces, warehouses, and distribution centres, said Canplastics.

About 100 provincial offences officers will visit 1,500 workplaces in Toronto, Hamilton, and regions of Durham, Halton, Peel, and York between May 10 and May 28.

In a May 18 news release, provincial officials said that officers made 718 visits to workplaces during the first week of the campaign, inspecting for COVID-19 workplace safety requirements under the Reopening Ontario Act. “Officers are checking that employers screen employees and visitors, ensure workers maintain physical distance and be masked, where needed, and that businesses have safety plans, among other measures,” the statement said.

They are also offering information on workplace rapid antigen screening, supports available for businesses, as well as job-protected Infectious Disease Emergency Leave and paid sick days through the Ontario COVID-19 Worker Income Protection Benefit.

Only 15 per cent of businesses inspected last week were flagged for follow-up visits and nine tickets were issued, the province said, which demonstrates that most businesses are following the rules and that workers are being kept safe. Since the beginning of the pandemic, provincial offences officers and occupational health and safety inspectors have done more than 75,000 COVID-19-related inspections and investigations. They have issued over 630 tickets and stopped unsafe work related to COVID-19 93 times during that period.

As MRC informed earlier, 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, says GlobalData.

We 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 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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ExxonMobil topped Wall Street quarterly earnings estimates

MOSCOW (MRC) -- ExxonMobil Corp on Friday topped Wall Street quarterly earnings estimates with its first profit in five quarters, boosted by higher oil prices and strong chemicals margins, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Earnings from Exxon and rivals this year have been rising with crude oil prices, up by a third this year, as a global oil surplus from the pandemic drains and fuel demand recovers. The swing to a profit comes as European rivals also posted results that exceeded pre-pandemic levels.

Quarterly results show Exxon’s deep cost cuts have allowed it to turn the corner on last year’s historic annual loss and deliver strong cash flow need to reduce debt. Exxon is fighting a hedge fund’s over board seats and its fossil fuel direction. Net income was USD2.73 billion, or 64 cents per share, in the first quarter, compared with a loss of $610 million, or 14 cents per share, a year earlier.

Adjusted earnings of 65 cents per share beat analyst expectations of 59 cents, according to Refinitiv IBES data. Improving economies are helping drive product demand, said Chief Executive Darren Woods on a call with analysts. “Thanks to our efforts over the last few years, we are a stronger company with an improving outlook,” Woods said.

Chemical earnings were the largest factor in first quarter results with a profit nearly 10 times the year-ago level and the strongest in at least five years. That business has been soaring on high prices and demand for plastics. Exxon’s deep cost cutting also boosted earnings. Exxon’s capital spending fell to USD3.1 billion, the lowest in nearly two decades. Expense cuts helped lift cash flow to USD9.3 billion, the highest since 2018.

When the company set spending plans in November, it was “difficult to call what this year was going to look like,” Woods said in an interview. “We tended to back-end load the plan recognizing that the economic recovery we anticipated would occur over the course of 2021 and gain momentum as we headed in to the second and third quarters,” Woods said.

It still expects to spend near the low end of its USD16 billion to USD19 billion estimates for new projects, he said. The Irving, Texas-based company last year cut $8 billion from operating expenses and vowed to reduce operational spending by another USD3 billion by 2023.

Shares, which have climbed 35% since January, were down 1.7% at USD57.96 on Friday alongside oil prices and other oil and gas companies. Exxon covered its spending and dividend with cash flow for the first time since the third quarter of 2018. Net debt declined for the first time in several quarters, said analyst Biraj Borkhataria of RBC Europe Limited.

But free cash flow yield, estimated at 9% this year, “remains well below peers even in a bullish macro scenario,” Borkhataria said. Exploration and production, Exxon’s largest business, earned USD2.6 billion in the first quarter on higher oil prices, compared with a profit of USD536 million a year earlier.

Its chemicals business posted the best quarter since at least 2012, earning USD1.4 billion on better margins, up from a USD144 million profit a year ago. Exxon’s chemicals business was once a profits engine but had faltered prior to the pandemic. The company appears to be “righting the ship,” said Peter McNally, analyst at Third Bridge Group.

Refining lost USD390 million, compared with loss of USD611 million last year, on winter storm shutdowns impacts and fuel demand. With product sales down 8% from last year, Exxon needs “volume uptick to get any kind of profit recovery” in refining, McNally said.

As per MRC, ExxonMobil is to shut its aromatics plant in Rotterdam-Botlek, Netherlands, for a six-week maintenance in March-April 2021. This turnaround is part of a larger repairs program at ExxonMobil"s interconnected 191,000-b/d Botlek refinery and Rotterdam aromatics plant beginning in the first quarter. The Rotterdam aromatics plant is one of the largest aromatics production facilities globally and produces pure aromatics such as benzene, orthoxylene, paraxylene (PX), and cyclohexane.

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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Occidental Petroleum plans to construct bio-ethylene plant

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Occidental Petroleum's low-carbon unit said on Tuesday it plans to construct and operate a pilot plant that would use human-made carbon dioxide, instead of hydrocarbon-sourced feedstocks, to produce bio-ethylene, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The pilot plant will be jointly developed by Occidental's venture capital arm, Oxy Low Carbon Ventures LLC, and bio-engineering startup, Cemvita Factory. It is expected to start functioning in 2022. Bio-ethylene is currently made from bio-ethanol, which is made from sugarcane.

The new technology produces bio-ethylene from carbon dioxide, water and light, which helps lower costs and carbon emissions, Cemvita's Chief Executive Officer Moji Karimi said. Ethylene, widely used in the chemical industry, is a component of products ranging from plastic films to PVC piping and coolants.

Interest in low-carbon initiatives has grown in recent years, ranging from companies seeking to offset their climate impact to public officials worried about the slow pace of international agreements to cut emissions. Oxy Low Carbon Ventures in 2019 had invested in Cemvita to look at bio-manufacturing for Occidental's chemical unit.

As per MRC, OxyChem, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Corporation (OXY), a major international petrochemicals manufacturer, plans to resume caustic soda, chlorine production in Convent, Louisiana, USA on May 3. OxyChem in the United States is reopening its 350,000 tonnes of chlorine and 392,000 tonnes of caustic soda plant in Convention, Louisiana after a year of downtime. The plant was closed for commercial reasons in the second quarter of 2020. According to market sources, due to the increased supply of chlorine, it is being restarted.

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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