Arkema cuts full-year earnings guidance

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chemical company Arkema SA cut its full-year earnings guidance, after one of its businesses faced difficulties amid delayed return on investments and supplier issues, said Marketwatch.

Arkema said that it now forecasts an Ebitda--earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization--of around EUR900 million (USD1.22 billion) for the full year 2013, lowering anticipations from the EUR920 million previously expected.

The company said that profit warning resulted from issues in its Thiochemicals division including "a longer than expected commissioning period for new investments" made in France and "the failure of its power supplier at its Beaumont site" in the U.S.

"These exceptional events, together with lower than anticipated Fluorogas volumes, will impact the fourth quarter 2013 EBITDA of the Industrial Specialties segment," said the company in a statement.

Arkema said that its other two business segments are set to report performances in line with expectations. The company added that its targets for 2016 and 2020 remain unchanged.

Arkema will publish its annual results for 2013 on March 4th.

As MRC informed before, Arkema officially started its new 60,000 MTY emulsion polymers facility on its Changshu platform. The plant, part of Arkema’s Coating Resins business unit, will serve customers in the Asia Pacific region with a full line of waterborne emulsion polymers for coatings and adhesives applications.

Arkema is a leading Specialty Chemicals and Advanced materials Company headquartered in Colombes, near Paris, France. Created in 2004 when French oil major Total restructured its Chemicals business, Arkema was introduced at the Paris stock exchange in May 2006. Arkema has 85 production plants in Europe, North America and Asia.
Arkema is organized into three business segments: Coating solutions, Industrial Chemicals and Performance Products.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- AkzoNobel has completed the sale of its Primary Amides chemicals business to PMC Group effective December 31, 2013, said the producers in its press release.

Financial details were not disclosed. Under the terms of the agreement, a manufacturing facility in Kyungju, South Korea, and all 37 employees will transfer to PMC Group with immediate effect, along with the erucamide, oleamide and other primary and secondary amides sold under the Armoslip trade names.

The sale follows a review of the business' fit within AkzoNobel's Functional Chemicals portfolio, where it operated as a standalone activity. "Our focus is on extending our leading market position in organic peroxides and metal alkyls, as evidenced by our recent expansion investments in China, the US and Mexico," explained Werner Fuhrmann, AkzoNobel’s Executive Committee member responsible for the Specialty Chemicals business.

Added Debtosh Chakrabarti, President of PMC: "We are excited about this acquisition, which adds to our portfolio of specialty chemicals derived from renewable oleochemicals. The business complements PMC’s leading global position in polymer additives and provides us with a strong manufacturing location in Asia for these specialty products."

Primary Amides products are used primarily in the polymer industry to create plastics bags and plastic films for packaging.

As MRC informed before, in October 2013 AkzoNobel finalized the EUR260 million divestment of its Building Adhesives business to Sika AG.

Akzo Nobel N.V., trading as AkzoNobel, is a Dutch multinational, active in the fields of decorative paints, performance coatings and specialty chemicals. Headquartered in Amsterdam, the company has activities in more than 80 countries, and employs approximately 55,000 people.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Clariant, a world leader in specialty chemicals, announced the closing of the sale of its Detergents and Intermediates business to International Chemical Investors Group (ICIG), said said the producer in its press release.

The total consideration of the sale amounts to CHF 58 million, out of which CHF 20 million in cash became due at closing. Worldwide, 660 employees were transferred from Clariant to the new ICIG business, which from now on will operate under the WeylChem brand umbrella.

"The successful sale promotes the repositioning of the company's portfolio", says Hariolf Kottmann, CEO of Clariant. "As part of Clariant's profitable growth strategy we will focus on markets with strong growth rates and good perspectives for the future and on businesses with a competitive position, resulting in solid pricing power."

In this context, the company has already divested the business units Textile Chemicals, Paper Specialties and the Business Line Emulsions on September 30, 2013. The divestment of the Business Unit Leather Services to Stahl Holdings B.V. is expected to close in the next few months.

Clariant AG is a Swiss chemical company and a world leader in the production of specialty chemicals for the textile, printing, mining and metallurgical industries. It is engaged in processing crude oil products in pigments, plastics and paints.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sinopec Engineering and its subsidiaries have received a USD3.1-billion engineering, procurement and construction contract from Zhong Tian He Chuang Energy Corp. for what will be "by far the world's largest coal-to-olefin project," reported Sinopec.

Sinopec said the project, to be built in Uxin Banner, Ordos, Inner Mongolia, involves a coal gasification unit, a purification unit, a 3.6-million-t/y synthetic methanol unit, two 1.8-million-t/y methanol-to-olefins units and a 200,000-t/y olefin catalytic cracking unit.

The project also includes a 350,000-t/y polypropylene (PP) unit (loop reactor), a 350,000-t/y PP unit (gas reactor), a 120,000-t/y low-density polyethylene (LDPE) unit (tank reactor), a 250,000-t/y LDPE unit (tubular reactor), a 300,000-t/y linear LDPE unit (gas reactor) and a combined 10,000-t/y methyl tertiary butyl ether and 30,000-t/y 1-butylene unit.

In addition, Sinopec will be responsible for utilities and tankage facilities. The project, which will use methanol-to-olefins technology developed jointly by Sinopec and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., is scheduled for completion by 30 October 2015.

As MRC informed earlier, in October 2013, top Asian refiner Sinopec Corp won initial approval from China's top economic planner for a plan to build a USD10-billion refinery and petrochemical complex in Shanghai. Sinopec has already started formal planning for the 400,000 barrels-per-day refinery and a 1 million tonnes-per-year ethylene project in a plan to curb pollution by shifting an old plant to Shanghai's southern edge.

China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (SINOPEC) is a large scale integrated energy and chemical company with upstream, midstream and downstream operations. Sinopec is the worlds seventh biggest company by revenue.
Sinopec is China's largest manufacturer and supplier of major petrochemical products. It is the second largest producer of crude oil in China. Its refining capacity and ethylene capacity rank No.2 and No.4 globally.
MRC