BASF Automotive OEM Coatings secures 100% renewable energy across all China sites

МОСКВА (MRC) -- BASF Shanghai Coatings Minhang and Caojing sites in Shanghai, and BASF Coatings’ resin plant in Caojing, Shanghai, announced the use of 100% renewable energy usage across its operations in 2023, said the company.

This moves BASF’s Coatings division one step closer to its global sustainability targets – on carbon reduction, material efficiency, and safe and sustainable solutions.

Through combination of Renewable Direct Power Purchase (R-DPP), purchase of I-REC international renewable energy certificate and other measures, it’s estimated that BASF Automotive OEM Coatings will reduce the equivalent of approximately 19,000 tons of carbon emissions through the end of 2023 in China.

“Sustainability is firmly anchored in our company strategy. We are proud to be one of the industry leaders to fully use renewable energy across our operations. It helps us to minimize the carbon footprint and further demonstrates BASF’s commitment to its net zero target. As a leading OEM coatings supplier in the automotive industry, we aim to meet the rapidly increasing sustainability expectations of our customers from OEMs and automotive component suppliers”, said Jack Zou, Vice President, Automotive OEM Coatings Asia Pacific, BASF.

BASF’s climate goal is to reduce its CO2 emissions by 25 percent by 2030 compared with 2018 and achieve net zero CO2 emissions by 2050. Increasing the use of renewable energy at its sites – including the headquarters in Munster, Germany – is a good example of how BASF Coatings explores innovative technologies and solutions to reduce climate impact and helps its customers to reduce the carbon footprint across the entire value chain.

We remind, BASF and Yara Clean Ammonia are collaborating on a joint study to develop and construct a world-scale low-carbon blue ammonia production facility with carbon capture in the U.S. Gulf Coast region. The companies are looking into the feasibility of a plant with a total capacity of 1.2 to 1.4 million tons p.a. to serve the growing global demand for low-carbon ammonia.

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LyondellBasell announced that PetroChina Guangxi Petrochemical Company will license the LyondellBasell polyethylene technology at their facility located in Qinzhou City, Guangxi, P.R. of China, said the company.

The newly licensed technology will comprise of the LyondellBasell leading high-pressure Lupotech process technology which will be used for both a 100 kiloton per year (KTA) Autoclave and a 300 KTA Tubular line. Both production trains will produce mainly low-density polyethylene (LDPE) with ethylene vinyl acetate copolymers (EVA). Furthermore, an additional 300 KTA Hostalen “Advanced Cascade Process” (ACP) line for the production of high density polyethylene (HDPE) will be built at the same site.

“This latest award from PetroChina Guangxi Petrochemical Company continues the long tradition of collaboration with LyondellBasell, as with this award almost 6,000 KTA of capacity has been licensed to the PetroChina group. With the selected polyolefin technologies, PetroChina Guangxi will be able to compete in the market and be able to produce benchmark resins to support people’s everyday lives ”, said Neil Nadalin, Director Global Licensing and Services at LyondellBasell. Nadalin added: “The newly added lines will include our latest generation high-pressure Lupotech technology as well as our multi-modal advanced cascade (ACP) HDPE technology enabling PetroChina to produce state-of -the art polyethylene products.”

Decades of experience in high-pressure application design makes the LyondellBasell Lupotech process the preferred technology for EVA/LDPE plant operators. High reliability, unmatched conversion rates and effective process heat integration are key attributes of the Lupotech process, designed to ensure this technology’s on-going energy efficiency. More than 15,000 KTA of LyondellBasell high pressure LDPE technology has been licensed by LyondellBasell in over 80 lines around the world.

The Hostalen ACP process technology manufactures high performance, multi-modal HDPE resins with an industry-leading stiffness/toughness balance, impact resistance, high stress cracking resistance and process advantages are used in pressure pipe, film and blow molding applications. The PetroChina HDPE plants will commence operations using Avant Z 501 and Avant Z509-1 catalysts to produce a full range of multi-modal HDPE products.

New licensees take advantage of LyondellBasell’s in-house expertise of continuous production improvement, product development according to the latest environmental regulations, and our know-how in high pressure design, by optionally joining our Technical Service program.

We remind, Lyondell Basell Industries said on Wednesday that it plans to delay its refining business exit from year-end 2023 to no later than the end of the first quarter 2025. The company said in April it would close its Houston refinery by the end of 2023 after two failed attempts to sell the plant, and the closing of Lyondell's five U.S. refineries in the past two years.

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Indonesia's coast guard said on Tuesday it seized an Iranian-flagged supertanker suspected of involvement in the illegal transshipment of crude oil and vowed to toughen maritime patrols, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The MT Arman 114 was carrying 272,569 metric tons of light crude oil, valued at 4.6 trillion rupiah ($304 million), when it was seized last week, the Indonesian authorities said. The Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) was suspected of transferring oil to another vessel without a permit on Friday, the Southeast Asian nation's maritime security agency said.

The vessel was captured after being spotted in Indonesia's North Natuna Sea, carrying out a ship-to-ship oil transfer with the Cameroon-flagged MT S Tinos, the agency's chief, Aan Kurnia, said. "MT Arman was spoofing their automatic identification system (AIS) to show its position was in the Red Sea but in reality it is here," Aan told reporters.

"So it seems like they already had a malicious intent," Aan said, adding that the vessel also dumped oil into the ocean, in violation of Indonesia's environmental law. The vessels' operators could not be immediately reached for comment.

Along with the Arman, authorities detained its Egyptian captain, 28 crew and three passengers, who were the family of a security officer on board, the agency said. After the two supertankers attempted to escape, authorities focused their pursuit on Arman, assisted by Malaysian authorities as the vessel sailed into their waters, Aan said.

The Tinos was supposed to have been scrapped in 2018, he added. It was built in 1999 while the Arman was built in 1997, according to shipping database Equasis. Separate data on Equasis and data analytics company MarineTraffic showed that one of the Arman 114's previous names was Grace 1.

The Grace 1 was seized by British Royal Marine commandos in July 2019 on suspicion of trying to take oil to Syria in violation of EU sanctions. It was released the following month after a diplomatic standoff with the West. A "shadow" fleet of tankers carrying oil from sanctioned Iran, Russia and Venezuela has been transferring cargoes in the Singapore Strait to avoid detection, a Reuters analysis showed this year. The risk of oil spills and accidents is growing as hundreds of extra ships, some without insurance cover, have joined the opaque parallel trade over the past few years.

We remind, Indonesia plans to raise its mandatory palm oil-based biodiesel blending to 40% in the next few years, but for now will keep it unchanged at 35%. The world's biggest palm oil producer raised mandatory blending from 30% to 35% in February, however it has not been fully implemented in some areas.

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Oil prices jumped about 2% to a 10-week high on Tuesday, boosted by a falling U.S. dollar, hopes for higher demand in the developing world and supply cuts by the world's biggest oil exporters, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Brent futures rose USD1.51, or 1.9%, to USD79.20 a barrel by 11:30 a.m. EDT (1530 GMT) . U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose USD1.61, or 2.2%, to USD74.60. Both benchmarks were on track for their highest closes since May 1, with Brent in technically overbought territory for the second time in three days.

The U.S. dollar(.DXY) dropped to a two-month low against a basket of other currencies after U.S. Federal Reserve officials signalled the central bank was near the end of its tightening cycle. A weaker dollar makes crude cheaper for holders of other currencies.

"Oil has found a floor and the only thing ... that could break that is if U.S. inflation is scorching hot and the Fed is forced to tighten this economy into a recession," said OANDA analyst Edward Moya. Markets were awaiting U.S. inflation data on Wednesday for clues on the interest rate outlook. Higher rates can slow economic growth and reduce oil demand.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) said the oil market should remain tight in the second half of 2023, citing strong demand from China and developing countries combined with recently announced supply cuts including by top exporters Saudi Arabia and Russia. The IEA will publish new forecasts this week.

Top oil buyer China again requested less supply from the world's biggest oil exporter, Saudi Aramco, several sources told Reuters. The secretary general of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) told a Nigerian oil and gas conference that global energy demand is forecast to rise 23% by the end of 2045.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) was due to release its Short Term Energy Outlook on Tuesday. The market was also awaiting U.S. oil inventory data from the American Petroleum Institute (API), an industry group, on Tuesday and the EIA on Wednesday.

In a Reuters poll, analysts forecast U.S. energy firms added about 0.2 million barrels of crude into storage during the week ended July 7. That would be the first crude stock build in four weeks and compares with an increase of 3.3 million barrels in the same week last year and a five-year (2018-2022) average decrease of 6.9 million barrels.

We remind, Russia's seaborne diesel and gasoil exports in June rose by 13% from a month earlier to about 3.6 million tons as seasonal refineries maintenance eased, data from traders and Refinitiv Eikon showed. Idle primary oil refining capacity for June was estimated at 4.029 million tons, down from May, and may fall to 1.683 million tons in July, Refinitiv data and Reuters calculations showed. In August, Russia will also cut its oil exports by 500,000 barrels per day (bpd), potentially yielding more supply for domestic refining and fuel production.

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Russia's gasoline exports rose in January to June despite the introduction of the European Union's embargo, thanks to healthy supplies of the fuel to Africa and Asia, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Gasoline production at Russian refineries rose by about 4% year-on-year in the first half of 2023 to about 21.6 million metric tons, but fuel exports jumped by 30% to almost 3.5 million tons, according to the sources' data and Reuters calculations. That was up from 2.7 million tons exported in January - June 2022.

Russia has boosted supplies of its fuel to destinations other than Europe amid the wider political crisis and after the EU slapped an embargo on imports of Russian oil products on Feb. 5. The main destination for Russian seaborne gasoline exports last year was the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp trading hub as well as Estonian and Latvian ports. This year, Russia has diverted its fuel mostly to African countries, replacing Northwest European supplies.

Based on Refinitiv data, since the start of 2023, gasoline exports via Russian ports, including a new outlet - the Arctic port of Murmansk, to Africa totaled more than 1 million tons with half of those going to Nigeria. Before the EU sanctions, Russia had exported gasoline to Africa mostly via Latvian port of Ventspils. Russia's gasoline exports via railways to Central Asian countries rose almost twice year-on-year in January-June 2023 to about 0.8 million tons. Fuel supplies to Afghanistan totaled more than 250,000 tons after almost nothing last year.

Mongolia also remains one of the biggest importers of Russian-origin gasoline with almost the same level in the first half of this year compared with the same period of 2022 - about 330,000 tons, based on data from the market sources. Russia kept cranking up fuel exports thanks to more lucrative overseas sales as retail prices on domestic oil products market are regulated by the state.

We remind, ZapSibNeftekhim produced the first batches of colored polyethylene pipe grades in Russia — blue HD 03505 RC blue and orange HD 03505 PE orange — for water and gas supply systems, said the company.
The main feature of pipes from RC grades is their bright color, which makes it easy to identify the intended purpose of the pipeline during installation or repair work. In addition, the presence of a colored layer makes it easier to detect damage to the pipe surface during installation.


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