Westlake Chemical Corporation changes its name to Westlake Corporation

Westlake Chemical Corporation, the world's petrochemical major, has officially changed its name to Westlake Corporation, according to SpecialChem.

Westlake is now organized under one unified brand name with two financial reporting segments: Housing & Infrastructure Products and Performance & Essential Materials.

“We have reached an important milestone in the history of our company,” said Westlake president and chief executive officer Albert Chao. “Our business portfolio has evolved over the last decade, particularly in the last year when we celebrated our 35th Anniversary.”

“Through a combination of strategic acquisitions and organic growth that has been fueled by market trends, particularly in the rapidly expanding housing and infrastructure sector, we have made significant progress in diversifying our businesses and broadening our product offering.

By changing our name, we will better represent the breadth of industries we serve, including housing and construction, automotive and consumer lifestyle, packaging and healthcare,” added Chao. The company’s two newly established reporting segments replace the former segments, olefins and vinyls. Performance & essential materials includes Westlake North American vinyls, Westlake North American chlor-alkali & derivatives, Westlake European & Asian chlorovinyls, Westlake olefins, Westlake polyethylene and Westlake epoxy.

Westlake completed a series of acquisitions during 2021, including LASCO Fittings, LLC, a manufacturer of injection-molded polyviyl chloride (PVC) fittings; Dimex LLC, a producer of post-industrial recycled plastic consumer and building products; and Boral Limited’s North American building products businesses, which include roofing, siding, trim, shutters, outdoor living products, decorative stone and windows.

These acquisitions have significantly enhanced the company’s position in the housing and infrastructure markets and have greatly expanded its overall product offering. In addition, Westlake recently closed the acquisition of the global epoxy business of Hexion Inc., a leading supplier of coatings and composites used in such high-growth applications as wind turbine blades and light-weight automotive structural components.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated consumption of unmixed PVC was about 999,300 tonnes in 2021, up by 7% year on year. The emulsion and suspension PVC market showed stronger demand, despite over a twofold price increase. December estimated SPVC consumption was 81,200 tonnes (excluding deliveries to the Republic of Belarus and the Republic of Kazakhstan) versus 74,690 tonnes a month earlier.

Westlake Chemical Corporation is an international manufacturer and supplier of petrochemicals, polymers and building products with headquarters in Houston, Texas. The company's range of products includes: ethylene, polyethylene, styrene, propylene, chlor-alkali and derivative products, PVC suspension and specialty resins, PVC Compounds, and PVC building products including siding, pipe, fittings and specialty components, windows, fence, deck and film.
MRC

Trinseo, a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex binders, and synthetic rubber, and its affiliate companies in Europe, have announced a price increase for methyl methacrylate (MMA), as per the company's press release as of March 3,2022.

Effective March 1, 2022, or as existing contract terms allow, the price for MMA monomer rose by EUR550 per metric ton.

As MRC reported earlier, in May, 2021, Trinseo announced the closing of the previously announced transaction to acquire Arkema’s polymethyl methacrylates (PMMA) business. PMMA is a transparent and rigid resin with a wide range of end uses that augments Trinseo’s existing offerings across several end markets including automotive, building and construction, medical and consumer electronics.

The main application, consuming approximately 75% MMA, is in the production of PMMA. Methyl methacrylate is also used to produce methyl methacrylate-butadiene-styrene copolymer (MBS), used as a modifier for polyvinyl chloride (PVC).

According to ICIS-MRC Price report, Russian producers did not adjust their PVC prices for the domestic market in March, and virtually rolled them over from February. But there were active market rumours about a possible significant increase in domestic PVC prices in April partially due to the rouble devaluation.

Trinseo is a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex and rubber. Trinseo's technology is used by customers in industries such as home appliances, automotive, building & construction, carpet, consumer electronics, consumer goods, electrical & lighting, medical, packaging, paper & paperboard, rubber goods and tires. Formerly known as Styron, Trinseo completed its renaming process in 1Q 2015.
MRC

Tosoh Corporation managed the parties in joint proposal of “development of technology for producing raw materials for plastics using CO2 and/or other sources” selected by Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) funded by the Green Innovation Fund, according to SpecialChem.

Tosoh’s proposal collaborators include Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company, Inc., the Interdisciplinary Research Center for Catalytic Chemistry at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST); Professors Keiichi Tomishige and Yasuhiro Fukushima, of Tohoku University Graduate School of Engineering’s Departments of Applied Chemistry and of Chemical Engineering, respectively; Professor Masazumi Tamura, of Osaka City University’s Research Center for Artificial Photosynthesis; and Colcoat Co., Ltd.

These parties will now collaborate in aiming to reduce CO2 emissions during the manufacture of polycarbonate and polyurethane by eliminating from the process the need for the conventional raw material phosgene.

They will, moreover, strive to achieve technology to convert CO2 into a raw material for plastic production by 2030. Their hope is to achieve the same plastic manufacturing cost as currently while improving the functionality of the plastic produced. To those ends, they will pilot the production of several hundred to several thousand tons of plastic per year.

The Japanese government’s goal of carbon neutrality by 2050 looms large in this project’s efforts to develop technology to capture CO2 for use as a raw material for plastic. Using CO2 in place of phosgene as a raw material to produce dialkyl carbonate and isocyanate, the raw materials for polycarbonate and polyurethane, will reduce CO2 emissions well below those generated with phosgene.

This project will also accelerate the development of manufacturing technology for functional chemicals using CO2 as a raw material. To ensure the widespread future use of that technology, the project collaborators will conduct a life cycle assessment of the chemicals it yields.

Project partner Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company will use CO2 as a raw material to develop an intermediate for the polycarbonate manufacturing process that emits fewer GHGs than conventional processes.

By applying this technology to the development of high-performance polycarbonate, Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company aims to develop and demonstrate functional chemical manufacturing technology for polycarbonates (PC) on a commercial scale toward achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.

As MRC informed earlier, Tosoh Corporation, a major Japanese petrochemical producer, has announced it will permanently stop producing and selling toluene diisocyanate (TDI) and TDI-related products from its Nanyo complex in Japan, effective April 2023. Despite the continuous implementation of measures to improve profitability, the environment surrounding this business has become increasingly severe in recent years, and there are no prospects for improvement, the company stated. Tosoh currently produce 25,000 t/y of TDI at the site.

Founded in 1935, Japan's Tosoh Corporation, headquartered in Tokyo, is an international chemicals and specialty materials company. The main activity of the company is the production of chlor-alkali and petrochemical products, which include ethylene, propylene, polypropylene, polyethylene and synthetic rubbers. The Tosoh Group globally includes over 130 companies with manufacturing facilities and offices in Japan, China, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Italy, UK, Greece, Switzerland and the USA.
MRC

Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said the “tragic situation unfolding in Ukraine is making the global energy crisis worse,” according to ArabNews.

Nasser, speaking at CERAWeek in Houston, echoed other energy executives in saying that the crisis exposes the mixed signals delivered by policymakers to the oil-and-gas industry amid the energy transition.

“As oil and gas investments are discouraged, demands are being placed on our industry to increase production,” he said.

The Aramco chief said: “All energy resources will be needed to support a successful transition, and the demonization of our industry is not helping.”

“We need consensus on the essential role of oil and gas with lower emissions, working side-by-side with alternatives to meet the rising global call on energy and deliver on net-zero ambitions.”

Nasser also said the Ukraine crisis has exposed limitations of current energy policies and is a bleak reminder of the impact of geopolitics on the fragile energy transition.

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.

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 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.

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

Covestro focuses its corporate vision on becoming fully circular. The materials manufacturer wants to completely align its entire production and product range as well as all areas in the long-term to the circular concept, according to SpecialChem.

One concrete measure on this path is climate neutrality. Already in 2021, Covestro cut greenhouse gas emissions by 54% compared to 2005 and thus overachieved its previous sustainability target set for 2025.

Covestro has now defined a further bold target, the group aims to become climate neutral and achieve net zero emissions by 2035 for scope 1 and scope 2.

On the path to achieving this goal, the company plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions from its own production (scope 1) and from external energy sources (scope 2) by 60% to 2.2 million metric tons by 2030.

In addition, indirect greenhouse gas emissions from upstream and downstream processes in the value chain (scope 3) will be further reduced. Covestro intents to announce a reduction target for this by 2023.

To achieve net zero emissions, Covestro anticipates dedicated investments of an accumulated EUR250 million to EUR600 million by 2030, resulting in lower operating expenses of expected EUR50 million to 100 million annually due to growing energy efficiency.

On its path to achieve net zero emissions, Covestro also expects an increase in operating expenses in the magnitude of a low three-digit million EUR amount annually. These cost assumptions are based on the historic experience that prices for fossil-based energies are lower than prices for renewable energies.

A key aspect of the new 2035 reduction target is meeting the goal of the Paris Climate Agreement, under which the world community aims to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

As MRC informed before, in April 2021, DSM completed the sale of the resins & functional materials businesses to Covestro for EUR1.6 billion (USD1.9 billion), including EUR1.4 billion in cash.

We remind that Covestro closed the sale of its European polycarbonates (PC) sheets business to the Munich-based Serafin Group effective January 2, 2020. This includes key management and sales functions throughout Europe as well as production sites in Belgium and Italy.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated consumption of PC granules (excluding imports and exports to/from Belarus) totalled about 82,300 tonnes in 2021, down by 8% year on year (89,200 tonnes a year earlier).

Covestro (formerly Bayer MaterialScience) is an independent subgroup within Bayer. It was created as part of the restructuring of Bayer AG from the former business group Bayer Polymers, with certain of its activities being spun off to Lanxess AG. Covestro manufactures and develops materials such as coatings, adhesives and sealants, polycarbonates (CDs, DVDs), polyurethanes (automotive seating, insulation for refrigerating appliances) etc. With 2020 sales of EUR 10.7 billion, Covestro has 33 production sites worldwide and employs approximately 16,500 people (calculated as full-time equivalents).
MRC