Synthomer sells compounds business to Belgian firm Matco

Synthomer PLC has sold its latex compounding operations to Belgian company Matco NV for EUR27.5 mln, said the company.

Shares in the Essex, England-based chemicals manufacturer were down 2.6% to 259.00 pence each in London on Monday around midday.

The Compounds business, which is part of Synthomer's Health & Protection and Performance Materials division, was designated as non-core as part of its strategy update. The update was announced back in October 2022.

"It produces certain latex-based compounds and curing additives used in the manufacture of products for a range of end markets including flooring and artificial grass. The business comprises two manufacturing sites in the Netherlands and one in Egypt," Synthomer explained.

In 2023, the Compounds business generated adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of EUR4.8 million. It had gross assets of EUR56 million at the end of the year.

Synthomer expects to complete the sale over the next month, with the proceeds to be used to reduce the company's net debt.

Chief Executive Michael Willome said: "This divestment is consistent with our strategy to increase the specialty weighting of the group, reduce the complexity of our site portfolio and enhance our focus on higher value, higher growth markets where we have strong and sustainable leadership positions."

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BASF is expanding its biomass-balanced EcoBalanced product range, doubling up on its commitment as a trailblazer in championing environmentally conscious solutions for detergent and cleaning products manufacturers and industrial formulators, said the company.

In collaboration with customers, BASF is continuing on a mission to expedite the transition from fossil raw materials to renewables. "With sustainability demand developing strongly among consumers and European customers setting the bar high, BASF is rising to the occasion by continuously improving our portfolio. Our expanded EcoBalanced portfolio benefits our customers in particular through its reduced carbon footprint. What’s more, our sustainable drop-in solutions provide a product quality and performance identical to that of their conventional counterparts,” says Soeren Hildebrandt, Senior Vice President, Home Care, I&I and Industrial Formulators Europe at BASF.

BASF’s product range for the detergent and cleaning industry as well as industrial formulators will boast around 20 biomass-balanced EcoBalanced products, whose manufacturing process involves replacing the fossil raw materials used at the beginning of the production chain by renewable materials obtained from organic waste and other sources. Mirroring the principle of green electricity, the renewables proportion is attributed to the respective sales products using a certified mass balance method. Depending on the product, the product carbon footprint (PCF)a of items in the EcoBalanced series may shrink by up to one hundred percentb. What’s more, these products perform just as brilliantly as their conventional counterparts, seamlessly replacing them in existing formulations without a need for reformulation. Both the attribution process and the actual EcoBalanced products are TUV Nord-certified, meeting the standards of the global REDcert? scheme.

The EcoBalanced portfolio is just one example of BASF’s Care Chemicals division’s commitment to tackling tomorrow’s challenges head-on.

We remind, BASF is presenting new concepts and recycling methods for polyurethanes at UTECH in Maastricht. The leading international trade fair and conference for the global polyurethane industry will take place from April 23-25 in Maastricht, NL. Circular economy is one of the major topics in all PU sectors.

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Demand for oil will grow beyond 2030, but ensuring an increase in production is not an easy task, CEO of Gazprom Neft, Alexander Dyukov said in a lecture at the Russia Forum, as per Interfax.

Humanity will not be able to do without oil, at least in the next few decades, he said. The demand for energy consumption in the world will continue to grow and will be driven by the growth of the world's population and the global economy.

"The oil industry has protected and guaranteed segments in this energy balance. If we talk about oil fuel, then this is the segment of air transportation, sea transportation and heavy freight transport. There are essentially no alternatives to oil fuel. The market for non-fuel products, where there are also no alternatives to petrochemical products, will continue to grow as well," Dyukov said.

Gazprom Neft estimates current global oil consumption at 5 billion tonnes per year, and it will increase to 5.7 billion tonnes per year by 2040.

Dyukov said that the share of electric vehicles will grow, but the complete replacement of internal combustion engines by electric motors is a complex, inertial process and will take a long time. He cited data that production and sales of electric vehicles were 16% of sales of all cars in 2023, but at the end of that year, the share of electric vehicles was only 3% of the global vehicle fleet.

Additionally, limitations for electric vehicles and green energy include the limited supply and high cost of lithium and other rare earth metals used in batteries, as well as scarce charging infrastructure.

The company's presentation also said that green energy is limited by the instability of power generation from renewable energy sources (RES), its high cost and the need for large amounts of land.

"This makes many experts believe that oil consumption will grow beyond the horizon of 2030," Dyukov said, recalling that some analysts predicted a peak in consumption in 2019, but it is clear that in 2023, 2024 and 2025 consumption will grow and is already significantly higher than in 2019.

"So, oil consumption will go down, but will we be able to ensure production growth? This is not a trivial task," he said.

Conditions for oil extraction have become significantly more complicated, and there are almost no simple reserves left, Dyakov said. Now we need new technologies, and digitalization for working in both remote and Arctic regions, etc.

We remind, Gazprom Neft intends to reduce oil production to the level required by Russia to meet the OPEC+ quota by the end of April. Russia within the framework of OPEC+ in the second quarter is moving from the reduction of exports to a real reduction in production. The country will reduce production and exports by a total of 471,000 bpd with a different structure in each month.

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OQ Chemicals GmbH (Monheim am Rhein, Germany) said a project to expand the capacity of its Bay City, Texas, facility to produce high-purity propionaldehyde is mechanically complete, said the company.

Announced in July 2022, the new capacity will supply feedstock to a 250,000 metric tons per year methyl methacrylate (MMA) plant that Rohm GmbH (Darmstadt, Germany) is building at the OQ site. The new MMA plant will be the first to implement Rohm’s LiMA process, which consumes propionaldehyde, an ethylene derivative, and methanol as feedstocks.

We remind, OQ Chemicals declares force majeure for certain products manufactured at the Oberhausen, Germany site due to a significant disruption at a raw material supplier.

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Gazprom Capital LLC said it is voluntarily liquidating two of Gazprom group's Dutch companies, Gazprom Sakhalin Holdings B.V. and Gazprom Finance B.V., as per Interfax.

As reported, the agreement between Russia and the Netherlands on the avoidance of double taxation expired in 2022, since the Netherlands did not agree to increase the tax rate on dividends and interest to 15%. The agreement in force at that time provided for attractive tax conditions, making it possible to withdraw profits from Russia, paying tax at an effective rate of 2%-3%, the Russian Finance Ministry said.

In anticipation of the expiration of the agreement, Gazprom transferred the assets previously held by its Dutch SPVs to Russian jurisdiction. Gazprom Sakhalin Holdings was the owner of Gazprom's share in Sakhalin Energy Investment Company Ltd., operator of the Sakhalin-2 project. However, this share was transferred to the Russian Gazprom Sakhalin Holding LLC at the end of 2021. In addition, the project now has a Russian operator, Sakhalin Energy LLC.

We remind, Gazprom Neft intends to reduce oil production to the level required by Russia to meet the OPEC+ quota by the end of April. Russia within the framework of OPEC+ in the second quarter is moving from the reduction of exports to a real reduction in production. The country will reduce production and exports by a total of 471,000 bpd with a different structure in each month.

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