PP imports to Belarus up by 2.1% in January-October

MOSCOW (MRC) - Imports of polypropylene (PP) into Belarus increased to about 97,400 tonnes in first ten months of this year, up 2.1% year on year. The greatest increase in imports accounted for homopolymer PP, according to MRC DataScope.

October PP imports into Belarus dropped to 9,100 tonnes from 9,200 tonnes a month earlier. Local companies decreased their purchases of propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) in Russia, whereas their purchased of propylene copolymers increased. Overall imports of propylene polymers reached 97,400 tonnes in January-October 2021, compared to 95,500 tonnes a year earlier.

The volume of homopolymer PP imports increased, while the demand for propylene copolymers decreased. The structure of PP imports by grades looked the following way over the stated period.

October imports of homopolymer PP dropped to 6,800 tonnes from 7,100 tonnes a month earlier, purchases of injection moulding homopolymer PP in Russia decreased. Overall imports of homopolymer PP reached 72,000 tonnes in the first ten months of the year, up by 4.4% year on year.

October imports of propylene copolymers to Belarus were about 2,300 tonnes versus 2,100 tonnes a month earlier, local companies increased significantly their procurement of injection moulding block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymer) from Russian producers.
Thus, overall imports of propylene copolymers reached 25,400 tonnes in January-October 2021, down by 4% year on year.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Honeywell has announced an agreement with The University of Texas at Austin that will enable the lower-cost capture of CO2 emissions from power plants and heavy industry, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Honeywell will leverage UT Austin's proprietary advanced solvent technology to create a new offering targeted at power, steel, cement and other industrial plants to lower emissions generated from combustion flue gases in new or existing units. The solution provides these sectors with an additional tool to help meet regulatory requirements and sustainability goals.

Honeywell has committed to achieve carbon neutrality in its operations and facilities by 2035. This new CCS technology builds on the company's track record of sharply reducing the GHG intensity of its operations and facilities as well as its decades-long history of innovation to help its customers meet their environmental and social goals. About half of Honeywell's new product introduction research and development investment is directed toward products that improve environmental and social outcomes for customers.

The licensing arrangement with UT Austin expands Honeywell's leading carbon capture technology portfolio. Today, 15 MMtpy of CO2 is being captured and used in storage/utilization applications through Honeywell's CO2 Solutions process expertise. Honeywell currently has the capacity to capture 40 MMtpy through its installed projects worldwide.

UT Austin's patented solution utilizes an advanced solvent, which enables CO2 to be captured at a lower cost through greater efficiency using smaller equipment, creating viable project economics today under current CO2 policy frameworks in North America and Europe. For a typical power plant (650 MW capacity), applying advanced solvent carbon-capture technology would enable the capture of about 3.4 MM tons of CO2 annually, equivalent to removing nearly 735,000 cars from the road each year.

In 2020, CCUS projects worldwide were capturing and storing/using 40 MM metric tpy of CO2, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). In order to align with the IEA Sustainable Development Scenario, which demonstrates a pathway to limit global temperature rise by less than 1.65? C, CCUS project capacity must increase more than 20 times to enable capture of 840 MM metric tpy of CO2 by 2030.

As MRC reported previously, earlier this year, Honeywell announced the commercialization of a revolutionary process that expands the types of plastics that can be recycled and can produce feedstock used to make recycled plastics with a lower carbon footprint. The new technology can reduce the need for fossil fuels in the creation of virgin plastics while enabling hundreds of cycles of recycling, with the goal of enabling a circular economy for plastics.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,047,100 tonnes in the first ten months of 2021, up by 17% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,226,530 tonnes in January-October 2021, up by 26% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymers (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding stat-copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) decreased significantly.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- India’s national objective of achieving self-sufficiency in energy and reducing its fossil fuel footprint is being supported by Sulzer’s expertise in pump manufacturing and refinery processes, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The country’s first bio-refinery, Assam Bio Refinery Pvt Ltd., built by Chempolis' technology, is a ground-breaking JV that will be the only refinery in the world to create bioethanol from bamboo - available in abundance in north-eastern India. To help realize this pioneering endeavor, Sulzer is delivering a range of engineered application pumps as well as core technology such as column internals for the refining process.

India, like most countries, is keen to improve the sustainability of its industrial sectors and is taking positive steps by using renewable feedstocks such as bamboo to create biofuels and other chemicals. To ensure a successful and reliable process, a joint venture has been formed between the state-run oil refining company, Numaligarh Refinery Ltd. and two Finnish companies, Fortum and Chempolis.

The facility will use Sulzer’s experience in pump design and manufacturing as well as separation technology to ensure long-term reliability and efficiency in the refining processes. The company’s expertise in the chemical industry is well-established and it has been supplying process pumps to similar applications all over the world for decades.

Once complete, the bio-refinery will use 300,000 tons of bamboo each year. In addition to the environmental benefits of the fuels and chemicals being produced, the refinery will procure bamboo and other raw materials from local suppliers, strengthening the community’s local economy.

Using Chempolis proprietary technology, the JV is demonstrating how India can utilize its own natural, sustainable resources to reduce the reliance on fossil fuels and work towards self-sufficiency in energy production. The bio-refinery is dimensioned to produce 60 MM liters of bioethanol, which can be used to help power vehicles, as well as 19,000 tons of furfural and 11,000 tons of acetic acid per year.

We remind that, as MRC wrote previously, GAIL (India) Ltd, India’s principal gas transmission and marketing company under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, is on track to start up its propane dehydrogenation (PDH) facility and polypropylene (PP) plant in Usar, Maharashtra by 2024. GAIL has recently chosen Lummus Technology’s CATOFIN process and Clariant’s tailor-made catalysts for India’s first PDH plant. Its upcoming 500 kiloton per annum PDH facility in Usar will be integrated with the downstream PP unit. The cost of PDH-PP project is estimated at USD1.2 B.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,226,530 tonnes in the first ten months of 2021, up by 26% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymers (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding stat-copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) decreased significantly.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- North American chemical railcar traffic rose by 3.3% year on year for the week ended 11 December, led by an 8.3% increase in the US that more than offset a decline in Canada, said Seanews, citing the data from the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

North American rail volume for the week ending November 27 on 12 reporting US, Canadian and Mexican railways totalled 295,807 carloads, down 4.4 per cent together with 281,953 intermodal units, a fall of 16.1 per cent year on year, according to the Association of American Railroads (R).

Total combined weekly rail traffic in North America was 577,760 carloads and intermodal units, down 10.5 per cent. North American rail volume for the first 47 weeks of 2021 was 32,411,379 carloads and intermodal units, up 5.5 percent compared with 2020.

The Association of American Railroads (R) reported US rail traffic for the week ending November 27, 2021, as well as volumes for November 2021. For the first 49 weeks of 2021, ended 11 December, North American chemical railcar traffic was up by 4.2% year on year to 2.23m.

In the US, chemical railcar loadings represent about 20% of chemical transportation by tonnage, with trucks, barges and pipelines carrying the rest. In Canada, producers rely on rail to ship more than 70% of their products, with some exclusively using rail.

As per MRC, oil prices edged higher on Wednesday, rebounding from early losses after US inventory data showed strong consumer demand and as the Federal Reserve said it would end its pandemic-era bond purchases in March to slow rising inflation. Prices had been pressured most of the day due to ongoing concerns that supply growth will outpace demand next year and worries that COVID-19 vaccines may be less effective against the spreading Omicron variant. Brent crude futures settled up 18 cents, or 0.2%, to USD73.88 a barrel. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude ended up 14 cents to USD70.87 a barrel.

We also remind that US crude oil production is expected to fall by 160,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2021 to 11.12 million bpd, EIA said in a monthly report earlier this year, a smaller decline than its previous forecast for a drop of 210,000 bpd.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Oil prices rose around 2% on Thursday, as record US implied demand, falling crude stockpiles and an upbeat economic outlook from the Federal Reserve trumped fears of the Omicron coronavirus variant hurting global consumption, reported Reuters.

Crude and other risk assets such as equities also got a boost after the Fed gave an upbeat economic outlook, lifting investor spirits even as the US central bank flagged a long-awaited end to monetary stimulus.

"The market was fearful of what the Fed was going to do, and now that it's in the rearview and we know what we're dealing with, the market is rallying," said Phil Flynn, senior analyst price futures group in Chicago.

Brent crude oil rose USD1.14, or 1.5%, to settle at USD75.02 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose USD1.51, or 2.1%, to settle at USD72.38 a barrel, a 2.13% gain.

Demand has been rising in 2021 after last year's collapse. On Wednesday, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said product supplied by refineries, a proxy for demand, surged in the latest week to 23.2 million barrels per day (bpd).

"These figures suggest a healthy economic backdrop," said Tamas Varga of oil broker PVM.

"Although the Fed's announcement triggered a jump in both oil and equity prices, the withdrawal of economic support together with the Omicron crisis are the two major headwinds the oil market is currently facing," he added.

Lending further price support, the EIA also reported that US crude stocks fell 4.6 million barrels, more than analysts had forecast.

In Saudi Arabia, crude oil exports in October rose for a sixth straight month to their highest since April 2020, the Joint Organisation Data Initiative (JODI) said on Thursday.

Limiting gains were worries about the virus and the prospect of a supply surplus next year, as flagged by the International Energy Agency in its monthly report this week.

As MRC informed before, US commercial crude stocks fell 3.48 million barrels to 413.96 million barrels in the week ended Sept. 17, to more than 8% below the five-year average, Energy Information Administration data showed. Stocks were last lower Oct. 5, 2018.

We remind that in late August, 2021, US crude stocks dropped sharply while petroleum products supplied by refiners hit an all-time record despite the rise in coronavirus cases nationwide, the Energy Information Administration said. Crude inventories fell by 7.2 million barrels in the week to Aug. 27 to 425.4 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 3.1 million-barrel drop. Product supplied by refineries, a measure of demand, rose to 22.8 million barrels per day in the most recent week. That's a one-week record, and signals strength in consumption for diesel, gasoline and other fuels by consumers and exporters.

We also remind that US crude oil production is expected to fall by 160,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2021 to 11.12 million bpd, EIA said in a monthly report earlier this year, a smaller decline than its previous forecast for a drop of 210,000 bpd.
MRC