A. Schulman to buy Citadel Plastics for USD800 mln

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Plastics manufacturer A. Schulman Inc. has agreed to buy Citadel Plastics for USD800 million, a move to expand its product portfolio into specialty plastics and gain access to new industries, said The Wall Street Journal.

Chicago-based Citadel, a portfolio company of private-equity firms HGGC and Charlesbank Capital Partners, engineers specialty thermoset composites, which are used in industries including transportation, electrical and health care. It had about USD525 million in pro forma revenue last year and has more than 2,000 products.

"Their product offering not only enhances our existing portfolio, but presents attractive expansion opportunities in other fast-growing sectors such as aerospace, medical, LED lighting and oil and gas," said Chief Executive Bernard Rzepka , who added the acquisition will help its portfolio become more highly specialized.

The deal is expected to add to earnings in the first 12 months of ownership, and could contribute as much as USD25 million within 18 months, due mostly to sourcing and plant efficiency actions.

Acquisitions are a key strategy for the Ohio-based company. In the past five years, it has completed 10 acquisitions and three joint ventures, which contributed 30% of sales last year.

A. Schulman, which has a market capitalization of USD1.2 billion, will fund the transaction with long-term debt and senior unsecured notes. The deal is expected to close before the end of the year.

As MRC informed before, A. Schulman signed an agreement and a strategic partnership with the South Korean polymer producer INITZ for the compounding and marketing of INITZ Co. Ltd.'s ECOTRAN Polyphenylene Sulfide (PPS) compounds.

A. Schulman is a global plastics supplier, headquartered in Akron, Ohio, and a leading international supplier of high-performance plastic compounds and resins, which are used as raw materials in a variety of markets. A. Schulman has 33 manufacturing facilities globally. A. Schulman's fiscal third-quarter earnings fell 69% amid continued sluggishness in European markets and higher-than-expected costs in Latin America, where the company has been consolidating its Brazilian operations.
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Exxon to return Baytown refinery to normal rates as Ship Channel reopens

MOSCOW (MRC) -- ExxonMobil planned to resume normal processing rates at its refinery in Baytown, Texas, after cutting them Wednesday because the closing was delaying crude shipments, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Vessel traffic and refinery operations began to get back to normal Thursday as a stretch of the Houston Ship Channel reopened after being closed three days because of a collision.

The section was reopened Thursday morning after the area was deemed safe and a tanker damaged in the March 9 collision was moved, the US Coast Guard said in an e-mailed statement. The tanker was carrying the gasoline additive MTBE, which leaked into the water. Air and water tests have shown no signs of public health or environmental concerns, the Coast Guard said.

The four-mile section of the channel between Light 86 and the Fred Hartman Bridge leads to five refineries with 1.34 million bpd of capacity, as well as docks used to export 600,000 bpd of propane and other liquid petroleum gases.

As the vessels waiting to move through the channel were prioritized for movement, ExxonMobil planned to resume normal processing rates at its Baytown, Texas, refinery after cutting them Wednesday because the closing was delaying crude shipments.

Deedra Moe, a spokeswoman for Exxon, said in an e-mail Thursday that the refinery, which has a capacity of 560,500 bpd, would be receiving shipments soon. There were 91 vessels in the queue as of 4 a.m. local time, 50 inbound and 41 outbound, according to the Coast Guard’s Vessel Traffic Service in Houston.

MTBE, or methyl tertiary butyl ether, is an oxygenate added to gasoline to boost octane levels and to help fuel burn cleaner. While it’s been replaced by ethanol in the US after it contaminated drinking water, other countries still use it. Its offensive odor and taste can render water undrinkable, while its health effects are unclear. US production is shipped abroad, with Venezuela receiving the second-most in December, behind Mexico.

As MRC informed before, US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a final notice of decision for the Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) for greenhouse gas (GHG) construction permit for the ExxonMobil Olefins Plant in Baytown, Texas. The company proposes to construct a new ethylene production unit consisting of eight ethylene cracking furnaces and recovery equipment to produce polymer-grade ethylene.

ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world's oil and about 2% of the world's energy.
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PTT Global Chemical looks for import more feedstock after declines in global oil prices

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Thailand's PTT Global Chemical PCL is studying several options for supplying sufficient raw material to its petrochemical plants, including imports of oil feedstocks after declines in global crude prices, as per Reuters.

The move is part of a plan to cope with a potential drop in domestic natural gas supply after Thailand's government put bidding for new oil and gas concessions on hold, chief executive Supattanapong Punmeechaow told reporters.

"Natural gas in the Gulf of Thailand is likely to be depleted over the next 7-8 years. We have to consider several options including using raw material from our refinery, importing more feedstock and shale gas," Supattanapong said.
PTT Global, petrochemical flagship of Thailand's top energy firm PTT PCL, will use more naphtha from its oil refinery to feed its olefins crackers which make products such as ethylene and propylene. PTT Global, one of the world's top 10 ethylene makers, has petrochemical capacity of 8.75 mln tpa and runs a refinery with a crude and condensate refining capacity of 280,000 bpd.

As MRC wrote previously, in 2013, Indonesian state-owned energy company Pertamina signed an agreement to purchase petrochemical products from Thailand’s PTT Global Chemical. The agreement serves as a pre-marketing strategy for Pertamina and PTT’s joint Indonesian petrochemical business. Under the agreement, PTT will deliver at least 5,000 tonnes of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) products each month to Pertamina for sale in Indonesia.

Last year, Pertamina and PTTGC announced that they would start joint shipments of PE to the Indonesian market from 1 July 2014, but they were posponed till September.

PTT Global Chemical is a leading player in the petrochemical industry and owns several petrochemical facilities with a combined capacity of 8.45 million tonnes a year.
MRC

Total sets a new standard in multilayer composite pipe productivity with new HDPE grade

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Total, Europe’s third-largest oil company, has developed new high density polyethylene (HDPE) pipe grade, as per the company's press release.

Total's latest pipe grade HDPE - XSene XRT70 - combines excellent processability with elevated temperature performance and long-term stability to raise processing performance to a level never seen before. XSene XRT70 incorporates the best of Total’s expertise in materials for gas and water pressure pipe, accumulated over more than 30 years serving the gas and water pressure pipes industry.

XSene XRT70 is a PE-RT (PE with Raised Temperature resistance) Type II HDPE produced using Total’s Advanced Double Loop technology. High extrusion speeds can be reached at low extrusion temperatures and without any melt fracture, while keeping an excellent surface finish.

Recent industrial production runs at key customers producing multilayer composite pipes (MLCP) have clearly demonstrated the productivity gains made possible by this resin. These pipes have inner and outer layers of PE-RT that encase a core layer of aluminium foil.

In Poland, established hot & cold pipe system manufacturer Sigma-Li has used XSene XRT70 to achieve a stable pipe production at high line speeds of 40 m/min for 16-mm diameter HDPE-aluminium composite pipes for central heating systems. They were produced on a battenfeld-cincinnati uniEX 45-30 line that the company recently installed, one of the most advanced in Europe. In China, the same high line speed was achieved with the same material for a 20 mm diameter PE-RT pipe.

As MRC wrote before, Total intends to invest EUR160m before 2016 to adapt its petrochemical platform in Carling, in the Lorraine region of eastern France, and to restore its competitiveness. Total plans indeed to develop new activities on the platform in the growing markets for hydrocarbon resins (Cray Valley) and for polymers, while shutting down the acutely loss-making steam cracker in the second half of 2015.

Total S.A. is a French multinational oil and gas company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world with business in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia. The company's petrochemical products cover two main groups: base chemicals and the consumer polymers (polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene) that are derived from them.
MRC

Sasol posts 6pc rise in earnings

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Petrochemicals Company Sasol reported a 6% rise in first-half earnings after higher sales and chemical prices helped offset the impact of falling oil prices, said Customstoday.

The company said headline earnings per share rose to R32, the middle of the range it flagged to the market. Sasol also cuts its interim dividend by 12.5%, a move it had previously signalled, to save cash in a volatile environment.
Sasol, the world’s top maker of motor fuel from coal, said it had changed its progressive dividend policy to a more fluid payout based on headline earnings. It declared an interim dividend of R7 per share.

"They didn’t want to make the first reduction to the dividend too aggressive because they wanted to give the market a bit more confidence," said Nedbank Capital analyst Mohamed Kharva.

Sasol shares rose 1% to R400 on Monday but they have lost about 36% of their value from all-time highs in June 2014. The company said it expected various initiatives to result in savings of R4bn (USD332m) "by financial year 2016 off a 2013 cost base".

Sasol, which makes about 40% of its earnings from oil, said it expects the average Brent crude oil price to be at least 30% lower in the second half of its financial year compared to the first. Brent crude fell 19% in the reporting period.

The weakness of the rand boosted profit as the company pays its costs in rands while selling its products in dollars.
Brent crude oil, in oversupply, fell to USD59 a barrel on Monday. But it rose by almost a third between January and February on the back of Middle East supply disruptions, strong winter demand and high refinery margins.

As MRC informed before, KBR was awarded a contract from INEOS and Sasol to provide engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) services for a new high-density polyethylene (HDPE) facility to be located at INEOS's Battleground complex in La Porte, Texas.

Sasol Limited is an integrated energy and chemical company based in Johannesburg, South Africa. It develops and commercialises technologies, including synthetic fuels technologies, and produces different liquid fuels, chemicals and electricity.
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