Ineos says most at UK Grangemouth plant agree to terms

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Almost the entire workforce at Ineos's Grangemouth refinery and petrochemical plant in Scotland have signed up to the company's new pension plan and accepted new terms and conditions, reported Ineos in its statement.

The acceptance of the deal comes after a drawn out and bitter dispute between operator Ineos and the Unite union over the dismissal of a union representative.

Ineos Grangemouth (UK) said that "almost the entire workforce" of 1,350 employees had agreed to the new arrangements. The deal puts the company in a good position to bring in significant new investment, Calum MacLean, chairman of Ineos Grangemouth (UK), said.

"With our costs coming under control, the shareholders are committed to making good on their promise of a GBP300 million investment, which will allow us to build a new terminal and use US shale gas as a new raw material for the petrochemicals site," he said.

Ineos is the full owner of the Grangemouth petrochemical plant and a joint owner of the 210,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) refinery along with PetroChina (601857.SS), which holds 49.9%.

It is now planning to double the number of apprentices and new graduate recruits it is hiring over the next three years.

As MRC wrote previously, the company halted operations at Grangemouth in October and demanded changes in terms and conditions before it would permit a restart. It had previously said that losses would force it to shut the petrochemical plant.

INEOS Group Limited is a privately owned multinational chemicals company consisting of 15 standalone business units, headquartered in Rolle, Switzerland and with its registered office in Lyndhurst, United Kingdom. It is the fourth largest chemicals company in the world measured by revenues (after BASF, Dow Chemical and LyondellBasell) and the largest privately owned company in the United Kingdom.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- French engineering giant Technip has been awarded by CNOOC Oil & Petrochemicals Company a contract to supply its proprietary ethylene technology and process design package for a grassroots 100,000 tpy ethylene plant in Huizhou, Guangdong Province, China, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing.

This contract also covers technical support during detailed engineering, pre-commissioning and start-up.

Key components of Technip’s ethylene technology for this project include: its Ultra Selective Conversion (USC) furnace technology preferred for high-capacity, low-cost liquid and gas cracking capabilities; its Advanced Recovery System (ARS) technology utilizing the Heat Integrated Rectifier System (HRS), which reduces energy consumption in liquids cracker designs.

The products of this ethylene plant will feed other downstream units at the complex. Technip’s operating center in Houston, with the support from the Group’s operating center in Mumbai, is currently executing the project. Mechanical completion is scheduled by mid-2015.

"This award strengthens Technip’s presence in the Chinese market, where its ethylene technology is recognized for its reliability, feedstock flexibility and lowest energy consumption," said Stan Knez, Technip’s senior vice president of process technology.

As MRC informed earlier, last year, Technip won FEED work on Sibur Russia PE project. The first contract concerns a linear low/high density gas phase polyethylene plant. Meanwhile, the second deal is for a high density slurry phase polyethylene plant. Each plant will consist of two parallel production trains with a total capacity of 1.5 million tpy of polyethylene.

Technip is a world leader in project management, engineering and construction for the energy industry. Present in 48 countries, Technip has state-of-the-art industrial assets on all continents and operates a fleet of specialized vessels for pipeline installation and subsea construction.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp. (FCFC), a Taiwanese producer of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) resins and other intermediate plastic products, plans to sell about 2% of its stake in Formosa Petrochemical - a maximum of 51.6 million shares of affiliate Formosa Petrochemical Corp. by the end of Q2, 2014, as per Plastemart.

Formosa Plastics, Formosa Chemicals and Nan Ya Plastics are the three largest shareholders in Formosa Petrochemical.

If completed, the share disposals would contribute earnings per share for Formosa Chemicals, Formosa Plastics and Nan Ya Plastics of about NTD0.5, NTD0.47 and NTD0.38 respectively, Yuanta forecast.

As MRC reported previously, back in 2011, Formosa Plastic Corp. (FPC) unveiled its plans to invest in petrochemicals and shale gas exploration through its overseas subsidiary FPC USA, to raise deployment in the US. Mature and commercialization of low-cost shale gas exploration technologies will enable FPC USA to boost production capacity of ethylene and propylene. Investment outlay is estimated at USD400 mln to build a 400,000 tpa ethylene plant.

Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corporation (FCFC) is a subsidiary of Formosa Plastics Group, the largest private owned enterprise in Taiwan, with annual revenue of USD13.5 billion.

Formosa Plastics Corporation is a Taiwanese company based in Taiwan that primarily produces polyvinyl chloride (PVC) resins and other intermediate plastic products.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Production of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in Russia increased by 1% to 561,400 tonnes in the first eleven months of the year, despite the shutdown of SIBUR-Neftekhim, according MRC ScanPlast.

SIBUR-Neftekhim completely shut down its chlorine production in April 2013, including its 42,000 tonnes/year PVC capacities. The growth of capacities at other Russian plants offset the shutdown of SIBUR-Neftekhim's PVC production.

Russia's total production of suspension and emulsion unmixed PVC increased to 561,400 tonnes in the first eleven months of the year, compared with 557,000 tonnes year on year. The structure of PVC production in Russia over the reported period was as as follows.

SayanskKhimPlast produced about 26,000 tonnes of PVC in November. The producer's PVC output totalled 260,300 tonnes in the first eleven months of the year, up 5% year on year.

November PVC production at Bashkir Soda Company (formerly Kaustik, Sterlitamak) remained at the October's level of about 18,600 tonnes.
The total PVC production at Bashkir Soda Company was 193,000 tonnes in the first eleven months of the year, from 180,800 year on year.

The third largest producer of PVC in Russia - Kaustik, Volgograd produced about 7,700 tonnes in November. Total PVC production at the company was 81,800 tonnes in the first eleven months of the year, up 3% compared to the same period in 2012.

Russia's only producer of emulsion PVC - Khimprom, Volgograd because of emergency shutdown in July and August ( breakage of the rooftop at vinyl chloride monomer production) reduced production to 15,400 tonnes in the first eleven months of the year, from 18,800 tonnes year on year.

As noted previously, SIBUR-Neftekhim shut down production of chlorine in early April 2013, and by mid-July all outdated chlorine workshops had been closed out. The shutdown of chlorine workshops resulted from the oncoming launch of a new PVC production at RusVinil, a joint venture of SIBUR and Solvin, with annual capacity of 300,000 tonnes of PVC, which is scheduled on the second half of 2014.


MRC