India to ban single-use plastic items from 1 July 2022

MOSCOW (MRC) --The Government of India will be banning harmful single-use plastic items from 1st July 2022, according to Sanatan Prabhat.

The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) of India has notified all the organisations involved in the manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of these items. In this notice, they have been instructed to make the required preparations for the ban of these single-use plastic items before 30th June.

In this notice, it has also been warned that those breaking the rules will be strictly punished. This includes punishments like forfeit of the products, fines for harming the environment or banning the business related to that product.

Thus, the following items will be banned: Earbuds with plastic sticks, plastic sticks for balloons, plastic flags, candy sticks, ice-cream sticks, polystyrene (thermocol) for decoration; plates, cups, glasses, cutlery such as forks, spoons, knives, straw, trays; wrapping or packaging films around sweet boxes, invitation cards, and cigarette packets, plastic or PVC banners less than 100 micron, stirrers, etc.

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, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,487,450 tonnes in 2021, up by 13% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 1,494.280 tonnes, up by 21% year on year. Deliveries of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whreas.shipments of PP random copolymers decreased significantly.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Westlake has set a target to reduce its Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) by 20% by 2030, based on 2016 levels, the said the company.

Westlake will measure the emissions on a per-tonne basis. As part of its goal to reduce Scope 1 and 2 emissions, Westlake plans to pursue energy-efficiency projects, use more power from less carbon-intensive electricity providers, add more hydrogen as a fuel gas and adopt other ways to improve operations, the company said.

In regards to hydrogen, other chemicals companies are exploring its use as a fuel. Enterprise Products already has plans to use that hydrogen as a fuel for the heaters of a second PDH unit that it is building in Mont Belvieu, Texas. The move should reduce the carbon emissions at the plant by almost 90% or 450,000 tonnes/year.

Dow plans to use hydrogen as a fuel for a cracker it is building in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta province in Canada. Scope 1 emissions occur from sources that are controlled or owned by a company. The gases could be emitted from burning fuel in boilers, furnaces or vehicles. Scope 2 emissions are indirect ones associated with electricity, steam, heat or cooling that are bought by a company.

Westlake's target does not include Scope 3 emissions. These are produced by activities or assets not owned or controlled by the company but that are still in the company's value chain. Scope 3 emissions arise from a company's upstream and downstream transportation and distribution, business travel, employee commuting and how the company's products are treated after they are sold.

As MRC informed earlier, Westlake Chemical also declared FM on Aug. 31, 2020, for all its North American PVC and VCM, which left it in force in mid-October, 2020. Westlake's shutdown of its Lake Charles complex has idled 38% of its US VCM production, resulting in two VCM plants with a combined capacity of 952,318 mt/year going offline. The complex also has three upstream chlor-alkali plants with a combined capacity of 1.27 million mt/year of chlorine and 1.36 million mt/year of caustic soda - 46% of the company's overall North American chlor-alkali capacity.

Westlake Chemical announced a 3 cent/lb (USD66/tonne) increase in February PVC prices in the US. The announcement of the price increase followed the explosion at the ethylene dichloride (EDC) plant in Lake Charles (Lake Charles, Louisiana, USA) of the Westlake Chemical company. The Lake Charles plant has a production capacity of 2.22 million tons of EDC per year. The company from this facility supplies EDC and vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) to polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plants near Baton Rouge and New Orleans, as well as to production in Mississippi.

Westlake Chemical Corporation is an American manufacturer and supplier of petroleum products and polymers headquartered in Houston, Texas. The company's products include ethylene, polyethylene, styrene, propylene, caustic, polyvinyl chloride and plastic products.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Arkema’s adhesive subsidiary Bostik is planning to acquire specialist producer Shanghai Zhiguan Polymer Materials (PMP) to cater to the fast-growing electronics market in Asia, said the company.

The deal to acquire hot-melt adhesives producer PMP is expected to close in the first quarter 2022. The price of the acquisition was not disclosed.

PMP specialises in reactive hot-melt polyurethane (PU) adhesives, used in consumer electronics in bonding applications of devices such as mobile phones, tablets and laptops, and generates more than EUR1m in annual sales.

The deal will enable Bostik to strengthen its portfolio of engineering adhesives, building on existing operations in cyanoacrylate, methyl methacrylate (MMA) and UV technologies developed through acquisitions of Afinitica, Nitta and AEC Polymers.

As per MRC, Bostik, the Specialty Adhesives business line of Arkema, continues to expand its manufacturing capacities with the opening of a new facility in Gujarat. Together with its existing plant in Bangalore, the new plant will serve the fast growing demand in India for adhesives in industrial markets.

Bostik develops high-performance and high-value-added bonding and sealing products for the nonwoven, industrial, construction, and consumer markets. Bostik employs about 4,900 people across 48 production facilities - 18 in Europe, 10 - in North America, 8 - in Asia, 6 - in Australia and New Zealand, 2 - in Africa, and 4 - in South America.

Arkema is a leading European supplier of chlorochemicals and PVC. Kynar and Kynar Flex are registered trademarks of Arkema Inc.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- thyssenkrupp Uhde’s subsidiary Uhde Inventa-Fischer signed a contract to build three new polymer plants for SASA Polyester Sanayi A.S in Adana, Turkey, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

One plant is planned to produce 1,050 metric tpd (380,000 tpy) polyethylene terephthalate (PET) for low viscosity application combined with a Co-PET plant with a capacity of 100 metric tpd (36,000 tpy). The third plant will use Uhde Inventa-Fischer’s proprietary patented MTR (Melt-to-Resin) technology to produce 330,000 tpy of resin for the production of PET bottles.

Dr. Mustafa Kemal Oz, GM of SASA POLYESTER SANAYI A.S. said, “We are pleased to choose again Uhde Inventa-Fischer for our new investments. SASA is racing to global leadership in polyester production with its state-of-the-art world class production facilities. It is an honor to continue our cooperation with UIF who has been always a good business partner of our growth strategy.”

Werner Steinauer, CEO of Uhde Inventa-Fischer said, “We are very proud that SASA chose us to build further state-of-the-art PET plants after we were assigned to build already Line 1, Line 2, and Line 3.”

Scope of delivery for all plants includes basic and detail engineering, delivery of all necessary components, technical services regarding plant erection as well as supervision of erection and commissioning.

As MRC wrote before, in January, 2022, thyssenkrupp Uhde Chlorine Engineers signed a supply contract with Shell for the large-scale project ‘Hydrogen Holland I’ in the port of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Under the contract, thyssenkrupp Uhde Chlorine Engineers will engineer, procure and fabricate a 200 MW electrolysis plant based on their large-scale 20 MW alkaline water electrolysis module. First construction work for the electrolysers will likely begin in spring 2022. Shell’s final investment decision to build the ‘Holland Hydrogen I’ is expected in 2022, after which the intended start of production will be in 2024.

thyssenkrupp Uhde Chlorine Engineers offers world-leading technologies for high-efficiency electrolysis plants. The company, a Joint Venture with Industrie De Nora, has extensive in-depth knowledge in the engineering, procurement, and construction of electrochemical plants and a strong track record of more than 600 projects with a total rating of over 10 gigawatts already successfully installed. With its water electrolysis technology to produce green hydrogen, the company offers an innovative solution on an industrial scale for green value chains and an industry fueled by clean energy – a major step towards a climate-neutrality.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Oil giant Saudi Aramco is in talks with partners in China about further investments in the country, according to CEO, Amin Nasser, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

"China is an important part of Aramco's base," Nasser told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Saudi Arabia. "And we are currently in discussions with a number of our partners in China for more investment," he said, declining to disclose the nature or size of potential investments.

Nasser said last year that Aramco expects opportunities for further investment in downstream projects in China - the world's biggest importer of crude oil - to help the country meet its needs for heavy transport and chemicals, as well as lubricants and non-metallic materials. He told the conference on Monday that while oil demand globally is close to reaching pre-pandemic levels, investment in the sector is inadequate to sustain global supplies in the short to medium term.

Aramco is working on boosting its maximum sustained capacity to 13 MMbpd by 2027, Nasser told reporters, from 12 MMbpd currently. "It will be a gradual build from '25 to '27," he said. The company will allocate more capital for investments, including to boost maximum sustained capacity and gas supply.

"We will have, very soon, an earnings call after we announce our numbers, and we will be explaining more about what we are doing," he said, responding to a question on whether Aramco would use rising income due to higher oil prices on capital expenditure or dividends. "But definitely, more capital allocation for our investment," he said.

Nasser said total global investment in the oil and gas sector has halved since 2014 to USD350 B. "You've seen what happened in Europe right now and parts of Asia in terms of energy prices going very high, impacting customers all over the world," he said.

"This is mainly because of the strategies and policies that curtailed investment in certain sectors ... only advocated and supported renewables and alternatives without reaching the point of realization that you need to support all energy sources over the long-term in order to ensure that there is adequate supply to support healthy growth."

Aramco completed the world's largest initial public offering in late 2019, raising USD29.4 B on the Riyadh bourse. Saudi officials have previously raised the possibility of selling more shares in Aramco. Responding to a question on whether further shares of Aramco would be sold in Saudi Arabia or abroad, Nasser said: "This is a government decision when the major shareholder to decide if they would like to list more of Saudi Aramco."

As MRC informed before, in June 2020, Aramco finalized its USD69 billion acquisition of a 70% stake in Saudi Basic Industries Corp., the Middle East's biggest petrochemical maker. SABIC reported more than a fivefold year-on-year increase in its Q3 net profit to USD1.49 billion thanks to higher average sales prices.

Sabic, its parent company Saudi Aramco and Poland's PKN Orlen have signed a memorandum of understanding to build a cracker and other facilities in Central and Eastern Europe.

Saudi Aramco, officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, is a Saudi Arabian national oil and natural gas company based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Aramco's value has been estimated at up to USD10 trillion in the Financial Times, making it the world"s most valuable company. Saudi Aramco has both the largest proven crude oil reserves, at more than 260 billion barrels, and largest daily oil production.
MRC