Indorama Ventures to build new PET recycling plant in Indonesia

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Thailand-based Indorama Ventures Public Co. Ltd. (IVL), a large producer of recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) for beverage bottles, has announced plans to build a facility in Karawang, Indonesia, to recycle almost 2 billion plastic bottles a year in support of the Indonesian government’s plan to reduce ocean debris, according to Recycling Today.

The facility, which is planned to open in 2023, will recycle 1.92 billion PET bottles annually and will employ 217 people.
The plant will provide the washed and shredded postconsumer bottles as PET flake feedstock to produce recycled resin that is suitable for food-contact use.

According to a news release from IVL, the new facility supports the company’s global commitment to divert postconsumer PET bottles away from landfills and into the circular economy, which supports the government’s National Plan of Action on Marine Plastic Debris. The nation has a goal to reduce 70% of its plastic debris from 2017 by the end of 2025.

Indorama Ventures has six Indonesian sites across Purwakarta, Cilegon, Tangerang and Karawang.

The company reports that the new recycling facility brings a circular business model to its Indonesian operations. In 2019, Indorama Ventures announced plans to recycle a minimum of 750,000 metric tons of PET globally by 2025, investing up to USD1.5 billion to achieve that goal. IVL’s new plant in Karawang, along with its other recycling facilities in Southeast Asia, will work with existing PET flake production facilities in Indonesia.

As MRC reported earlier, in June 2021, IVL completed its acquisition of CarbonLite Holdings’ facility in Texas as part of the company’s commitment to increasing polyethylene terephthalate (PET) recycling capacity. Now known as Indorama Ventures Sustainable Recycling (IVSR), the Dallas site is one of the largest producers of food-grade recycled pellets (recycled PET or rPET) in the US, with a combined capacity of 92,000 tons annually. The facility will recycle more than 3 billion PET plastic beverage bottles per year and support more than 130 jobs directly. IVL is the world’s largest producer of recycled PET for beverage bottles. With this acquisition, IVL expands its US recycling capacity to 10 billion beverage bottles a year, towards its global target of recycling 50 billion bottles (750,000 metric tons) annually by 2025.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PET consumption grew to 263,660 tonnes in the first four months of 2021, up by 13% year on year. Bottle grade PET chips accounted fro 78.3% of the increase in consumption due to the virtual absence of exports and higher imports.

Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited, listed in Thailand (Bloomberg ticker IVL.TB), is one of the world’s leading petrochemicals producers, with a global manufacturing footprint across Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe and Americas. The company’s portfolio comprises Integrated PET, Olefins, Fibers, Packaging and Specialty Chemicals. Indorama Ventures products serve major FMCG and automotive sectors, i.e. beverages, hygiene, personal care, tire and safety segments. Indorama Ventures has approx. 24,000 employees worldwide and consolidated revenue of US$ 11.4 billion in 2019. The Company is listed in the Dow Jones Emerging Markets and World Sustainability Indices (DJSI).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- US petroleum inventories have fallen below the pre-pandemic five-year average with consumption accelerating but crude producers slow to respond to rising prices, signalling more supply is needed, reported Reuters.

Total stocks of crude and refined products outside the strategic petroleum reserve fell by 10 million barrels last week and are now down by 188 million barrels compared with the same point a year ago.

Total stocks have fallen in 38 out of the last 52 weeks as OPEC+ and US shale firms limit crude production even as product consumption recovers.

Inventories are 12 million barrels or 1% below the pre-pandemic five-year average for 2015-2019, according to data from the US Energy Information Administration.

The deficit is concentrated in crude, where inventories are 15 million barrels or 3% below the average, while there are still small surpluses in gasoline (3 million barrels or 1%) and distillates (2 million barrels or 1%).

The crude shortage has become especially acute around the delivery point for the NYMEX WTI contract at Cushing, Oklahoma, where crude stocks are 21% below the five-year average for 2016-2020.

The shortfall has pushed the WTI contract into a steep backwardation, with front-month futures trading at a premium of almost USD2.90 to the fourth delivery month, which is in the 7th percentile for all weeks since 2012.

On the refined products side, the volume of gasoline supplied to the domestic market hit a record 10.0 million barrels per day (bpd) last week, surging from 9.2 million bpd the previous week.

But gasoline supplied measures transfers from the primary petroleum system (refineries, import terminals, pipelines and tank farms) into the secondary system (wholesalers and retailers) rather than actual consumption by motorists.

As MRC wrote before, in early July, US crude stocks fell for the sixth straight week as refiners ramped up output in response to rising demand, according to the Energy Information Administration. Crude inventories fell by 6.7 million barrels in the week to June 25 to 452.3 million barrels, a steeper drop than the 4.7 million barrels expected by analysts in a Reuters poll.

We remind that Indian refiners, anticipating a lifting of US sanctions, plan to make space for the resumption of Iranian imports by reducing spot crude oil purchases in the second half of the year. The world's third-largest oil consumer and importer halted imports from Tehran in 2019 after former US President Donald Trump withdrew from a 2015 accord and re-imposed sanctions on the OPEC producer over its disputed nuclear programme.

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 744,130 tonnes in the first four month of 2021, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, PP deliveries to the Russian market were 523,900 tonnes in January-April 2021, up by 55% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whereas shipments of PP random copolymers decreased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Buyout group Advent has agreed to sell German coating resins maker Allnex to Thailand’s PTT Global Chemical (PTTGC) for around EUR4 billion (USD4.75 billion), reported Reuters with reference to the companies' statements on Monday.

Allnex, whose products are used in the industrial metal, automotive and packaging industries, has annual revenue of EUR2 billion and employs 4,000 employees worldwide. The deal values Allnex at 12.2 times its annual core earnings.

Advent acquired Cytec Industries’ coating resins business in 2013, rebranded it Allnex and merged it with peer Nuplex in 2016.

PTTGC is a unit of Thailand’s energy group PTT, which is seeking to strengthen its chemicals business. The deal will improve Allnex’ access to raw materials and to the Asian market, which has strong growth potential for coating resins, the companies said.

The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2021.

As MRC wrote previously, PTTGC abruptly shut down three crackers at its petrochemical complex in Map Ta Phut on 14 April 2021 after a thunderstorm caused a power outage. No. 1 and 4 crackers and the recently launched No. 5 cracker on the site were off-line for around one week. The production capacities of No. 1 and 4 crackers are 461,000 and 515,000 mt/year of ethylene, whereas the new cracker can produce 500,000 mt/year of ethylene and 260,000 mt/year of propylene.

PTT Global Chemical is a leading player in the petrochemical industry and owns several petrochemical facilities with a combined capacity of 8.45 million tonnes a year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russia's overall production of unmixed polyvinyl chloride (PVC) totalled 515,900 tonnes in the first half of 2021, up by 1% year on year. At the same time, two producers reduced their output, according to MRC's ScanPlast report.

June production of unmixed PVC in Russia was 83,800 tonnes versus 86,100 tonnes a month earlier, SayanskKhimPlast decreased its capacity utilisation. Overall output of polymer totalled 515,900 tonnes in January-June 2021, compared to 509,100 tonnes a year earlier. Two producers reduced their output, whereas Bashkir Soda Company and Kaustik, Volgograd managed to increase their production of resin.

The structure of PVC production by plants looked the following way over the stated period.

RusVinyl produced 29,900 tonnes of PVC in June, with emulsion polyvinyl chloride (EPVC) accounting for 2,300 tonnes, compared to 28,100 tonnes a month earlier. RusVinyl's overall output of resin reached 175,300 tonnes in the first half of 2021, compared to 177,600 tonnes a year earlier.

SayanskKhimPlast reduced its capacity utilisation last month and produced 23,400 tonnes of suspension PVC (SPVC), compared to 26,500 tonnes in May. The Sayansk plant managed to produce 156,900 tonnes of PVC in the fist six months of 2021, compared to 164,3000 tonnes a year earlier.

Baskhir Soda Company produced 23,300 tonnes of SPVC in June versus 23,800 tonnes a month earlier. The Baskhir plant's overall production of resin reached 140,500 tonnes in January-June 2021, up by 8% year on year.

Kaustik (Volgograd) produced 7,200 tonnes of SPVC last month, whereas this figure was 7,700 tonnes in May. The plant's overall production of resin reached 43,200 tonnes over the stated period versus 36,500 tonnes a year earlier.

MRC

1. U.S. crude and gasoline stocks fell

MOSCOW (MRC) -- U.S. crude and gasoline stocks fell and gasoline demand reached its highest since 2019, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said, signaling increasing strength in the U.S. economy, said Hydrocarbonprocessing. Crude inventories fell by 6.9 million barrels in the week to July 2 to 445.5 million barrels, the lowest since February 2020, and more than the expected 4 million-barrel drop estimated in a Reuters poll. Crude stocks have declined steadily for several weeks as refiners process more oil into gasoline, diesel and other products. Overall product supplied - a proxy for demand from end-users of fuels - rose to 20.9 million barrels per day (bpd), in line with the same trend two years ago prior to the coronavirus pandemic.

MRC