Solvay and Shinkong create joint venture in Taiwan

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Solvay and Shinkong Synthetic Fibers Corp have agreed to form a joint venture in Taiwan to develop, produce and market electronic-grade hydrogen peroxide, to serve the booming semiconductor industry, said the producer.

The joint venture is scheduled to begin operations in the first quarter of 2023 and will be located close to the Southern Taiwan Science Park near Tainan. The company aims to serve the booming Taiwan semiconductor industry with this indispensable chemical agent for the production of integrated electronic circuits and will have an initial production capacity of 30,000 tons per annum - which can easily be increased at a later stage, in line with market demand.

"We are delighted to embark on this new joint operation between Shinkong and Solvay,” said Eric Wu, chairman of Shinkong Synthetic Fibers Corporation. “This joint venture will supply electronic grade hydrogen peroxide with the highest international quality standards while strictly following the principles of sustainability and minimizing environmental impact."

"The rapid growth in demand in the Taiwan semiconductor industry is an opportunity to bring our world-leading technology for the best quality of electronic grade hydrogen peroxide, building on the experience of multiple Solvay plants already operating in Asia, Europe and the U.S.," said Rodrigo Elizondo, president of Solvay Technology Solutions.

Solvay and Shinkong aim to close the transaction in the second half of 2021, pending regulatory approvals in Taiwan and other countries.

As MRC informed earlier, in February 2020, Solvay completed the deal to split and sell its polyamide business to BASF and Domo Chemicals for EUR1.6 billion. Initially, the German petrochemical giant announced its acquisition of the Solvay division in September 2017. The parties planned to complete the deal in the third quarter of 2018.

We remind that Russia's output of chemical products rose in June 2021 by 10.2% year on year. However, production of basic chemicals increased year on year by 8.2% in the first six months of 2021, according to Rosstat's data. June production of polymers in primary form was 937,000 tonnes versus 956,000 tonnes in May. Russia's overall output of polymers in primary form totalled 4,460,000 tonnes over the stated period, up by 12.8% year on year.

Solvay S.A. is a Belgian chemical company, one of the largest in Europe and the world with a market share of 27%, is the second largest PVC producer and the fourth largest caustic soda producer in Europe. The company's activities are concentrated in two main areas - the chemical sector (plastics production) and the pharmaceutical sector.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Crude oil futures pushed higher for a second session Aug. 24, climbing 3% on the back of improved demand sentiment and a weaker US dollar, reported S&P Global.

NYMEX October WTI settled USD1.90 higher at USD67.54/b and ICE October Brent climbed USD5.41 to USD71.05/b.

"The oil market is still very tight and with Chinese demand picking up, crude prices only have one way to go after an overdone selloff," OANDA senior market analyst Ed Moya said in a note. "Crude prices should benefit from declining inventories and as the world's two largest economies start to see a return of normal crude demand."

NYMEX September RBOB was up 5.76 cents on the day to settle at USD2.1808/gal and September ULSD rallied 6.17 cents to USD2.0668/gal.

China's National Health Commission reported a single new locally transmitted case of COVID-19 Aug. 24, after having reported zero the day prior. The nation's progress against the outbreak has fueled cautious optimism that the country will dial back its strict mobility curbs.

The slowdown in cases in China has offered hope that the world's largest crude importer will see a demand recovery similar to that of India, the world's third-largest importer. Indian energy demand has steadily increased since mid-May as the country eased curbs on vehicular movements enforced during an April COVID-19 surge.

In July, India's demand for oil products rose 3% from June and was up 7.9% year on year at 16.8 million mt, or 4.3 million b/d, the oil ministry said Aug. 24. The average run for all categories of refineries in India rose to 91% in July compared with 90% in the previous month, reflecting the highest run in three months.

Meanwhile, the US Food and Drug Administration on Aug. 23 issued full approval for the Pfizer-BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine for individuals 16 and older, paving the way for more expansive vaccine mandates.

Oil found further support from a weaker US dollar. The ICE US dollar Index fell to 92.897 in afternoon trading, down from 92.958 Aug. 23 and on track for a six-session low.

Meanwhile, as MRC informed earlier, 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 1,176,860 tonnes in the first half of 2021, up by 5% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 727,160 tonnes in the first six months of 2021, up by 31% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased. Supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Yokogawa has agreed to invest in Fluence Analytics, Inc., a US-based startup that provides combined hardware and software analytics solutions to polymer manufacturers, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Additionally, the companies agreed to a global strategic business partnership for sales and deployment of new high-end models of the automatic continuous online monitoring of polymerization (ACOMP) system from Fluence Analytics. Under the terms of the collaboration agreement, Yokogawa Electric will commence customer trials with existing ACOMP models by the end of 2021, and will have exclusive or co-exclusive sales rights for the new models that will be launched in the future. The company will also handle engineering and all other system integration tasks and provide after-sales field services for its customers in the chemical industry.

As a general practice, in the manufacturing operation, the chemical industry relies on the analysis of polymerization reactions*1 at specific intervals to control the polymerization process. Typically, samples are manually extracted from the reactor and transported to a laboratory for analysis, an offline process that can take up to 5 hours to complete for a single datapoint. The time required for the analysis limits the ability to optimally control the reaction timing and maintain stable product quality. The safety of the technicians responsible for the manual extraction and transport of samples is also a concern.

ACOMP is currently the only system on the market with the online capability to continuously extract and analyze important aspects (viscosity, molecular weight, monomer concentration, solute concentration, etc.) of polymerization processes that produce plastics, rubber, paint, and other products. As evidenced by customers, this realtime monitoring of polymerization processes enables optimizations to be performed that enhance safety, quality, and yield as well as operational efficiency. Significant cost savings have also been observed.

As MRC reported earlier, in July 2019, Yokogawa Electric Corporation was selected by ExxonMobil to be the Open Process Automation (OPA) system integrator responsible for establishing the company’s OPA Test Bed. Development work and experiments conducted on the Test Bed will support ExxonMobil’s effort to move towards a standards-based, open, secure and interoperable process control architecture.

And in March, 2020, Yokogawa Electric Corporation acquired capital in APB Corporation (APB), a pioneer in the development of a next-generation lithium-ion battery called the "All Polymer Battery," with the aim of growing Yokogawa's energy management system (EMS) business.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,176,860 tonnes in the first half of 2021, up by 5% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 727,160 tonnes in the first six months of 2021, up by 31% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased. Supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Indonesia's Pertamina is expected to cut gasoline imports in September - reducing volumes for the third straight month - as slow vaccination rates continue to dampen demand despite gradual easing of pandemic-related restrictions, sources familiar with the company's import plans told S&P Global on Aug. 24.

The state-owned company was heard planning to import around 7 million barrels of gasoline in September, down from 7 million-8 million barrels it planned to import in August.

The decline in imports from Southeast Asia's largest buyer of gasoline comes even as Indonesia gradually eases movement restrictions.

The restrictions, which started late-July, were eased first on Aug. 16 in several regions in Java and Bali. Several other islands outside of Java and Bali relaxed curbs from Aug. 23 onwards.

As of Aug. 23, Indonesia had recorded 579,402 number of COVID-19 infections, down from 1.262 million cases reported in July, data from John Hopkins University showed.

"The road ahead for Indonesia gasoline is very uncertain. Vaccination rates are still moving slowly and with the high number of cases, unlocking too soon could risk another fresh wave," a Singapore-based source said.

Reflecting the uncertain demand, driving activity in Indonesia has continued to whipsaw between the range of 20% above to 10% below baseline levels since early August, according to mobility data from Apple.

In late-May to early-June, driving activity in Indonesia had hit a peak of 60% above baseline levels, the mobility data showed.

"Indonesian domestic refineries are not running at high run rates. Even then, demand is not strong enough to prompt Pertamina to re-stock," another source said.

We remind that, as MRC informed before, 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 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 1,176,860 tonnes in the first half of 2021, up by 5% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 727,160 tonnes in the first six months of 2021, up by 31% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased. Supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.

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

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Kemira has acquired a minority share of SimAnalytics, a Finnish start-up known for its advanced process harmony prediction and analysis tool, according to Indian CHEMICAL News.

The partnership strengthens Kemira’s ability to support customers’ business with data-driven predictive analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions. The two companies have worked together on customer projects involving pulp and paper production processes, which are typically complex and where disruptions are costly.

“SimAnalytics’ Factory Harmonizer tool has proven its capacity to help process operators run their production more efficiently and with less disruptions. Chemistry plays a crucial role in the production health and performance of paper machines and Kemira has been investing in advanced analysis in this field. Joining forces makes perfect sense and will benefit our customers in the industry with transparency, predictability and higher machine efficiency. It is also an investment into both companies’ future growth. Going forward, we may expand this collaboration also to other water-intensive industries we serve,” states Antti Pirneskoski, Director of Application Development at Kemira.

As MRC reported earlier, in September 2020, Kemira signed a multi year extension of its polymer supply agreement with Ithaca Energy. Kemira said it had signed a multiyear extension to its polymer supply agreement with Ithaca Energy (Aberdeen, UK). The agreement extends the contract between the two companies, signed in 2018, covering the supply of polymers to enhance oil extraction performance at one of the assets operated by Ithaca Energy in the UK North Sea.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,176,860 tonnes in the first half of 2021, up by 5% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 727,160 tonnes in the first six months of 2021, up by 31% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased. Supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.

Kemira is a global leader in sustainable chemical solutions for water intensive industries. The company's focus is on pulp & paper, water treatment and oil & gas. In 2020, Kemira had annual revenue of around EUR2.4 billion and around 5,000 employees. Kemira shares are listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki Ltd.
MRC