Indian chemicals maker Epigral expects revenue from newer CPVC products to surge this year

Indian chemicals maker Epigral will keep diversifying its business and expects the share of revenue from new products to expand significantly this year, its chairman and managing director told Reuters on Thursday.

The company, previously known as Meghmani Finechem, manufactures and sells chlor-alkali and its derivatives and set up a chlorinated polyvinyl chloride compound (CPVC) manufacturing facility last month in the state of Gujarat.

"Four years ago, we were (present) only in chlor-alkali. At that time, we were catering to seven industries," Maulik Patel told the Reuters Trading India forum. The company now caters to more than 15 industries after entering segments like chloromethanes (CMS), hydrogen peroxide, chlorinated polyvinyl chloride (CPVC) and epichlorohydrin, Patel said.

Epigral is the largest producer of CPVC and the first to produce epichlorohydrinin in India, with its products being used as raw materials in industries ranging from pharmaceuticals to pipes. The specialty chemicals market represents 22% of India's overall chemicals and petrochemicals market and is valued at $32 billion, according to KPMG.

Patel sees the Ahmedabad-headquartered company increasing its share of derivative products over the current and next financial year. "As of fiscal year 2023, derivative and specialty segment contributed 30% of 21.84 billion rupee ($263 million) revenue, and by the end of this financial year it should reach 45% or 50%."

Epigral plans to triple its exports, which currently contribute to 4% of sales, over the next two years, Patel said. It exports its products to more than 20 countries including South Africa and the United States.

"Few of our products have good demand in global markets, like Epichlorohydrin. We will also have an export opportunity once we commission our Chlorotoluene plant. Exports could rise between 10% to 15% over the next couple of years," he added.

We remind, India's state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp wants to eventually receive a share of crude from a Russian project it partly owns but is willing to wait because Russian oil is hard to ship right now, the head of ONGC's overseas investment arm.

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ExxonMobil said it is advancing development of a new class of C5-based polymers expected to generate earnings of USD1 billion per year by 2040, said the company.

The thermoset resin is based on technology pioneered by Materia, Inc. (Pasadena, California), which ExxonMobil acquired in 2021.

"It's a new specialty business that transforms low-value fuels from a refinery into higher-value and high-growth materials," said Loic Vivier, senior vice president, specialty products, for ExxonMobil's Product Solutions business. "These are thermoset resins that cure faster, are stronger, more durable and lighter than existing products in the marketplace."

Company executives made the comments at a media and investor presentation on its Product Solutions business, which includes fuels, chemicals and performance products in Spring, Texas, on Wednesday.

Applications include replacement of steel in rebar, automotive materials, advanced coatings, and wind turbine blades, ExxonMobil said.

We remind, ExxonMobil Catalysts and Licensing LLC and Axens have signed an exclusive licensing alliance agreement allowing Axens to include ExxonMobil’s MTBE Decomposition Technology for high purity isobutylene in its portfolio. Used in the production of high-reactivity polyisobutylene and butyl rubber, this technology enables Axens’ customers to better address the growing demand for petrochemical intermediates over the next decade.

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Russia cut its seaborne diesel and gasoil exports by nearly 30% to about 1.7 million metric tons in the first 20 days of September from the same time in August, as local refineries went into seasonal maintenance and the domestic market faces a fuel shortage and rising prices, traders said and LSEG data showed, as per Reuters.

Idle primary oil refining capacity for September is estimated at 4.657 million tons, up 45% from August, according to Reuters calculations. Due to the domestic fuel shortage, Russia's government is considering an export duty for oil products of USD250 per ton - much higher than current fees - from Oct. 1 until June 2024, sources told Reuters on Tuesday.

"The export duty could negatively affect the refineries economy and may lead to a fuel production decrease", one trader said. In September so far, Turkey remains the top destination for diesel exports from Russian ports, though they almost halved to about 600,000 tons, LSEG data showed.

Diesel loadings from Russia to Brazil have decreased by a third month-on-month to about 260,000 tons since the start of this month, according to the shipping data.

Meanwhile, about 150,000 tons of diesel from Russian ports are destined in September for ship-to-ship (STS) loadings near the Greek port of Kalamata and final destinations for those volumes are not known yet. Russian diesel supplies to African countries totaled about 460,000 tons in the first 20 days of September, with Tunisia, Libya and Ghana among leading importers.

Another 190,000 tons of diesel loaded in Russian ports since the start of this month do not yet have a confirmed destination. All the shipping data above are based on the date of cargo departure.

We remind, Russia's Sakhalin Energy, which produces liquefied natural gas and oil, has fully resumed production following maintenance. The company has said it planned maintenance in July without providing a timeframe. Sakhalin Energy's Sakhalin-2 operating company was transformed into a Russian entity via a presidential decree amid Western sanctions against Moscow over its actions in Ukraine.

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ExxonMobil said earnings in its chemical business will increase to USD3.5 billion by 2027 compared with 2019 levels, doubling over the period, said the company.

Major projects are the key driver — including its cracker joint venture at Corpus Christi, Texas with Sabic, new plant startups at Baytown, Texas, a new cracker under construction in China and scale-up of advanced recycling.

Chemicals will continue to outpace global GDP growth, accounting for an increasing share of downstream output over the next few decades as energy transition plays out. Company executives made the comments on its global products business, which includes fuels, chemicals and performance products, during presentations at a media and investor event in Spring, Texas, on Wednesday.

"Long-term chemical demand is expected to grow at 20% above GDP, with chemicals resilient in a wide range of energy transition scenarios," said Mike Zamora, senior vice president, chemical products.

Chemical margins are at the bottom of the cycle but long-term growth prospects for chemicals have not been diminished, officials said. "It's hard to believe that it's only two years since we had record earnings in our chemical business," said Karen McKee, ExxonMobil Product Solutions president.

We remind, ExxonMobil announced the startup of two new chemical production units at its Baytown, Texas, manufacturing facility. The USD2-B expansion is part of ExxonMobil’s long-term growth plans to deliver higher-value products from its U.S. Gulf Coast refining and chemical facilities.

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TotalEnergies has announced the building of a new mechanical recycling unit for plastic waste at its Grandpuits site southeast of Paris, said the company.

This new investment follows those announced in June 2023 — the doubling of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production and construction of a biomethane production unit — in line with the Company’s ambition to develop low-carbon energy and the circular economy.

The new unit should enter service in 2026 and produce 30,000 tons a year of high value-added compounds containing up to 50% recycled plastic material.

In addition to the mechanical recycling unit, a specific center will be established that provides technical assistance to customers and develops new products, in order to provide sufficient support for the commercialization of the new range of hybrid compounds.

One year after investing in a new production line that makes high-performance recycled polypropylene for the automotive sector in its plant at Carling, the Company is now expanding its recycled polymer offering with this new unit at Grandpuits. It will target the high-performance packaging market, in particular for pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.

"This investment is great news for the local area and represents another milestone for the zero-crude platform at Grandpuits. The investment in this plastic recycling unit is entirely consistent with the Company’s ambition to grow the circular economy and will contribute to the objective of reaching 1 million tons of circular polymers by 2030. By developing all these projects at the Grandpuits zero-crude platform, the Company can confirm it will maintain 250 jobs at the site, honoring the commitments that it made in September 2020," said Bernard Pinatel, President, Refining & Chemicals at TotalEnergies.

Grandpuits is an ambitious project for low-carbon energy and the circular economy: In September 2020, in line with its aim to get to net zero by 2050, TotalEnergies launched a project to convert this industrial site. The "zero-crude" project, which will cost an estimated total of over €500 million, is based on the development of several future-oriented activities in biomass, renewables and the circular economy: SAF production: the biorefinery’s output capacity of 210,000 tons a year by 2025 and 285,000 tons a year by 2027 will allow the Company to keep pace with the gradual rise in EU blending mandates, set at 6% in 2030.

Biomethane production: the biomethane unit, which will receive feedstock in the form of organic waste from the biorefinery, will prevent the emission of almost 20,000 tons of CO? per year. Its annual capacity of 80 gigawatt-hours (GWh) represents the average annual demand of 16,000 people.

Advanced and mechanical recycling: with two recycling units, one for advanced recycling with capacity to treat 15,000 tons of waste a year, and another a mechanical recycling unit announced today, Grandpuits is establishing itself as a major French recycling site.

Green electricity generation: Grandpuits is home to the largest solar farm in the Ile-de-France region, equipped with a battery energy storage system. Since coming onstream in July 2023, it has been generating 31 GWh of green electricity a year, enough to supply 19,000 people. This power generation required the installation of 46,000 solar panels and adds to the 28 GWh facility built at Gargenville, west of Paris, which was launched in 2022.

We remind, TotalEnergies, Aramco and SABIC have for the first time in the Middle East and North Africa successfully converted oil derived from plastic waste into ISCC+ certified circular polymers. The plastic pyrolysis oil, also called plastic waste derived oil (PDO), was processed at the SATORP refinery jointly owned by Aramco and TotalEnergies, in Jubail, Saudi Arabia. It was then used as a feedstock by Petrokemya, a SABIC affiliate, to produce certified circular polymers.

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