BASF opens new automotive coatings plant in China

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF Shanghai Coatings Co., Ltd. has inaugurated its new automotive coatings plant at the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park in Shanghai, China, as per the company's press release.

The expansion of its automotive coatings production capacity with an investment of around EUR50 million further strengthens BASF’s presence in China and its position as a leading coatings supplier to the automotive industry.

"BASF is the leading chemical partner for the automotive industry. This investment further signifies our commitment to our automotive customers and to supporting the dynamic growth of China’s automotive market," said Dr. Andreas Kreimeyer, Member of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF SE and Research Executive Director.

The new automotive coatings plant is located adjacent to another new BASF resin and electrocoat plant which will start operation in the second half of 2015. The close proximity of these two plants with access to facilities of BASF Caojing site and the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park will allow greater synergies and operational efficiency.

BASF Shanghai Coatings Co., Ltd. is a joint venture between BASF Group and Shanghai Huayi Fine Chemical Co., Ltd., with more than 17 years of successful partnership.

BASF’s Coatings division develops, produces and markets innovative automotive coatings, automotive refinishes and industrial coatings as well as decorative paints. The company operate sites in Europe, North America and South America as well as Asia Pacific. In 2013, the Coatings division achieved global sales of EUR2.9 billion.

As MRC reported earlier, the designers at BASF’s Coatings division have recently published their automotive color trends for 2014/2015. With their collection entitled "Under the Radar", new color ranges are appearing on the trend radar. The development of special effects is setting new accents and opening up unusual color ranges. BASF’s designers are predicting that this will make automotive colors more complex and more individual in the future.

BASF is the world’s leading chemical company. Its portfolio ranges from chemicals, plastics, performance products and crop protection products to oil and gas. BASF had sales of about EUR74 billion in 2013 and over 112,000 employees as of the end of the year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Celanese Corporation, a global technology and specialty materials company and a global leader in EVA emulsions, will raise prices of high-polymeric PE grades in Europe, reported the company on its site.

Thus, the price increase of 20 cents per kilogram will be implemented for all GUR and GHR UHMW-PE grades sold in Europe, effective September 15, 2014, or as contracts allow.

As MRC informed earlier, in mid-Junly 2014, Celanese Corporation announced that it would increase the price of vinyl acetate-based emulsions sold in Asia. PVAc homopolymer and vinyl acetate ethylene (EVA) emulsions will increase by CNY 200/tonne for China and USD30/tonne for the rest of Asia effective July 18, 2014, or as contracts allow.

This price increase affects all applications including, but not limited to, adhesives, paints and coatings, building and construction, glass fiber, carpet and paper.

Celanese Corporation is a global technology leader in the production of differentiated chemistry solutions and specialty materials used in most major industries and consumer applications. Based in Dallas, Texas, Celanese employs approximately 7,400 employees worldwide and had 2013 net sales of USD6.5 billion.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Unipetrol AS, the largest Czech refiner, booked a second-quarter loss after lowering the value of its refinery assets, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The loss widened to 3.5 billion koruna (USD172 million) in the three months ended June 30 from a loss of 429 million koruna (USD21 million) a year earlier, the Prague-based company said on July 23 in an e-mailed statement. Without the impairment charge, Unipetrol would have earned a profit of 346 million koruna (USD17 million).

Unipetrol took an impairment charge of 4.7 billion koruna (USD230 million) on its refinery assets to reflect the worsening economic outlook. The refining segment, Unipetrol’s main source of revenue, remained "very difficult" with a margin of USD0.5 per barrel, the company said.

"We decided to book the one-time impairment of fixed assets because of the worsening mid-term outlook for the refinery segment," CEO Marek Switajewski said in the statement. "We’ve managed to improve revenue in all production segments."

The loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization was 3.5 billion koruna (USD172 million), the company said. Sales jumped 31% to 32.4 billion koruna (USD1.6 million) during the period.

As MRC informed previously, last year, Unipetrol acquired technology and production rights for a new polyethylene unit and wants to pick a contractor for the project in the first half of 2014. The company, after posting net losses in 2011 and 2012, laid out plans to invest almost USD1 billion over the next five years and make its petrochemical segment the biggest contributor to profit.

Unipetrol expects petrochemicals to become the largest source of revenue for the company in 2013-2017. Unipetrol wants to use the favourable market conditions to reinforce its position on the petrochemical market and optimise its operations.

Unipetrol , a.s. is a group of companies operating in the petrochemical industry in the Czech Republic. In 2005 Unipetrol became a part of the PKN ORLEN Group, the largest oil processor in Central Europe. The UNIPETROL Group is oriented mostly towards oil processing, fuel distribution and petrochemical production. In all of these business areas the Unipetrol Group is among the key players both in the Czech Republic and on the Central European market. The Group ranks among the leading firms in the Czech Republic in terms of its revenues, and employs almost 4,000 people.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The world's top paint maker AkzoNobel on Wednesday posted net profit up 11% in the second quarter of 2014, despite a sales drop blamed on unfavourable exchange rates, said the producer in its press release.

The Dutch-Swedish group made 205 million euros (USD276 million) in net profit, "mainly due to higher operating income," a statement said.

Turnover was nevertheless down 4% year-on-year at 3.71 billion euros, "mainly due to five percent adverse currency effects," including a strong euro.

Paint is used throughout industry, as well as being a household purchase, and so is regarded as a broad barometer of underlying economic activity.

As MRC wrote before, Akzo Nobel's first-quarter net profit was up 45% on lower financing costs, while revenue fell 2% because of currency losses and despite higher volumes in all of its businesses. Net profit for the first three months of the year was EUR129 million (EUR178 million) compared with EUR89 million a year earlier.

Formed in 1994 in a merger between Akzo and Nobel, the group employs 50,000 people worldwide and counts Dulux and Trimetal among its brands. Akzo Nobel N.V., trading as AkzoNobel, is a Dutch multinational, active in the fields of decorative paints, performance coatings and specialty chemicals. Headquartered in Amsterdam, the company has activities in more than 80 countries, and employs approximately 55,000 people.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Quarterly operating earnings at BASF, the world's largest chemicals company by sales, rose slightly less than expected, as a strong euro lowered the value of overseas sales, as per the company's press release.

Second-quarter earnings before interest and tax (EBIT), adjusted for one-off items, rose 12.1% to 2.05 billion euros (USD2.76 billion).

Sales and net income also narrowly missed consensus estimates, also hurt by an outage due to an accident at a Dutch plastics raw materials plant, run jointly with Shell.

The shares were seen 0.6% lower in pre-market trade, while Germany's blue-chip index was indicated flat from Wednesday's close.

"The devaluation of almost all major currencies against the euro negatively impacted earnings by roughly 200 million euros compared to the previous second quarter," said Chief Executive Kurt Bock in a statement.

The euro was up more than 5% against the U.S. dollar on average over the quarter.

Earnings at its core chemicals and plastics businesses as well as at its oil and gas unit rose faster than analysts had expected, helped by higher sales of petrochemicals in North America and increased offshore oil production in Libya.

The German group said that despite unfavourable currency developments, it continued to target a slight increase in adjusted EBIT in 2014 but warned that the economic environment had become more challenging.

BASF reiterated that it aimed to increase sales volumes excluding the effects of acquisitions and asset sales but that revenues would decline slightly due to the divestment of its gas trading and storage business.

BASF is the largest diversified chemical company in the world and is headquartered in Ludwigshafen, Germany. BASF produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries. BASF had sales of about EUR74 billion in 2013 and over 112,000 employees as of the end of the year.
MRC