Dow, Aston Martin form technical partnership

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Aston Martin and Dow Automotive Systems have formed a technical partnership that will see a broader portfolio of Dow’s materials being utilized for Aston Martin production models and race cars, said Canplastics.

For more than 25 years, Dow Automotive Systems has supplied Aston Martin with BETAMATE and BETAFORCE structural adhesives to enable multi-material lightweight constructions that also offer structural strength. Dow has customized the adhesives to meet a wide range of open time and cure time requirements and bond many different materials, including electro-coated steel, anodized aluminum, carbon fibre and glass fibre reinforced composites.

Most recently, on the DB11, a version of BETAMATE was developed to adhere to anodized aluminum, providing long-term durability and improved crash performance. According to Dow, the adhesive also absorbs less moisture and enabled Aston Martin to delete the anodizing oven drying process, resulting in annual energy savings.

On other Aston Martin models, BETASEAL glass bonding systems are used to bond front, rear and side glazing as well as bonding the Vanquish carbon fiber composite roof. BETAFILL polyurethane body sealant is also used for primerless adhesion to a variety of substrates.

"We look forward to working more closely with Dow Automotive Systems in a partnership that will enable us to accelerate development and demonstrate capabilities of new products and technologies in on-road and racing environments," said David King, vice president and chief special operations officer, Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd. "Our companies have had great success together for many years and this agreement moves us to the next level of collaboration through joint technology development."

As MRC informed earlier, Dow Chemical Company recently became the first company to receive a trading license from the Government of Saudi Arabia, allowing 100% ownership in the country’s trading sector, expanding Dow’s long history of partnership and investment in the Kingdom.

The Dow Chemical Company is an American multinational chemical corporation. Dow is a large producer of plastics, including polystyrene, polyurethane, polyethylene, polypropylene, and synthetic rubber.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sibur (Moscow), Russia’s largest integrated petrochemical company, has announced its first-quarter 2016 results with petrochemical revenue rising 15.7% year-on-year (YOY), to 48.6 billion Russian rubles (USD758.3 million) on a strong performance across all petrochemical product groups, particularly higher sales of basic polymers, as per company's press release.

The company has also increased sales of certain intermediates and chemicals on higher production compared with the first quarter of 2015.

In the first quarter of 2016, revenue from sales of petrochemical products increased by 15.7% year-on-year to RR 48,607 million on strong performance across all petrochemicals product groups. The growth was primarily attributable to higher sales of basic polymers. We increased sales of certain intermediates and other chemicals on higher production as compared to the first quarter of 2015. Growth in revenues from sales of plastics and organic synthesis products was largely attributable to higher BOPP-film sales. Increase in revenues from synthetic rubbers was largely a result of completed homologation of thermoplastic elastomers with key clients. Russian rouble depreciation strongly supported our petrochemicals products sales.

Total debt: a 14.2% decrease vs. 31 December 2015 to RR 392,267 million was attributable to the repayment of debt denominated primarily in foreign currencies, as well as to Russian rouble appreciation as RR/USD rate decreased by 7.2% to 67.6076 as of 31 March 2016 from 72.8827 as of 31 December 2015.

Net debt: a 4.3% increase vs. 31 December 2015 to RR 297,373 million, which was attributable to financing of ZapSibNeftekhim capital expenditures from the sources provided by the National Wealth Fund.

Credit lines: RR 277,479 million available under existing credit facilities denominated in Russian roubles, US dollars and euros, both short- and long-term, of which an equivalent of RR 164,113 million committed.

As MRC infromed earlier, Sibur is in talks with shareholder Sinopec about investing in a planned gas chemical plant in Russia's Far East. Sibur plans to buy gas from fields which Russia's Gazprom will develop in Eastern Siberia.

Sibur is a uniquely positioned vertically integrated gas processing and petrochemicals company. We own and operate Russia’s largest gas processing business in terms of associated petroleum gas processing volumes and are a leader in the Russian petrochemicals industry. As of 31 March 2014, SIBUR operated 27 production sites located all over Russia, had over 1,400 large customers engaged in the energy, chemical, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), automotive, construction and other industries in approximately 70 countries worldwide and employed over 27,000 personnel.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russia's state-controlled gas giant Gazprom could gain control over some of the assets that Shell acquired earlier this year from BG group, a senior Gazprom executive said in an interview, reported Reuters.

Gazprom's Deputy Chief Executive Alexander Medvedev said the BG holdings could be included in an asset swap deal between Gazprom and Shell that was announced last year. He did not say what the BG holdings were or where they were located.

"The work is under way, progress has been made and the final result is just around the corner - it's certain that the (deals will be completed) by the year-end, maybe earlier," Medvedev said in an interview cleared for publication on Monday.

"Obviously, the BG assets are also in that basket," Medvedev told Reuters in the interview.

Gazprom is subject to U.S. financial sanctions imposed on Russia over the conflict in Ukraine.

Shell signed a deal with Gazprom last week to study jointly building a USD10 billion gas plant on the Baltic Sea, as part of their strategic partnership which also foresees asset swaps.

Shell, which wants to sell as much as USD30 billion worth of assets and exit 10 countries after merging with BG, has never commented on the assets it plans to offer to Gazprom.

The asset swap deal is not covered by the scope of the sanctions.

Under the previously-announced terms of their asset swap deal, Gazprom and Shell will jointly invest USD13 billion in three projects in Russia, including construction of a liquefied natural gas plant on the Baltic Sea and the Sakhalin-2 LNG plant expansion, in the Pacific Ocean.

Shell is also eyeing the Yuzhno-Kirinskoye gas field off Sakhalin island as part of the asset swap deal. That asset is specifically subject to the U.S. sanctions, complicating any involvement by Shell.

As MRC informed before, on 15 February 2016, Hague-based LNG giant Shell said that the scheme with BG Group became effective and the UK-based company is now owned by Shell. Shell acquired BG Group for USD54 billion in February. This merger created the world’s largest liquefied natural gas company. BG and Shell’ shareholders approved the historic merger in January. This is Shell’s biggest ever acquisition and the largest oil and gas deal since Exxon bought Mobil in 1999.

OMV is an integrated international oil and gas company, headquartered in Vienna. Its main businesses are exploration and production of oil and gas, natural gas distribution and power generation, and refining and marketing oil products. OMV is the largest listed manufacturing company in Austria.

Royal Dutch Shell, commonly known as Shell, is an Anglo–Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in the Netherlands and incorporated in the United Kingdom.Created by the merger of Royal Dutch Petroleum and UK-based Shell Transport & Trading, it is the fourth largest company in the world as of 2014, in terms of revenue, and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors".

PAO Gazprom (Russia) is a large Russian company founded in 1989 which carries on the business of extraction, production, transport and sale of natural gas. The company name is a contraction of the Russian words Gazovaya Promyshlennost. The headquarters of Gazprom are in Moscow.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- In the South Korean port of Ulsan, the first delivery of heavylift and oversized equipment has been made for ethylene cracker unit to be installed at the ZapSibNeftekhim polyolefin production facility, which is currently under construction, said the company on its site.

While certain types of equipment for ZapSibNeftekhim are not produced in Russia and have to be sourced from abroad, others are being manufactured locally at Uralkhimmash, Kamkabel and ZAVKOM Industries. Equipment delivery contracts have been signed with companies from over 35 regions across Russia.

1st Ulsan shipment includes five columns, including two C3-splitters which are 106 meters long, 6.8 meters in diameter and weighting 917 tons each. The equipment is being transported on a unique ship equipped with two heavylift cranes with a lifting capacity of 900 tonnes each. The ship is designed under Arc 4 ice class, which is fit for sailing via the Northern Sea Route. The equipment has been shipped by sea through the Indian Ocean and the Suez Canal, from where it will travel across the Arctic Ocean to the transshipment ports along the Northern Sea Route. In those ports, the columns will be transshipped onto special barges for further delivery to the industrial port of Tobolsk down the Ob’ and Irtysh rivers.

Once onshore, the equipment will be loaded onto self-propelled module transporters (SPMT) for further carriage to the ZapSibNeftekhim construction site. To make the transportation of heavylift and oversized equipment possible, special infrastructure has been set up in Tobolsk: the industrial port revamped, parking spaces and interim equipment storage sites prepared, the transportation route and enroute power transmission lines rearranged, detour roads designed and built to enable the convoy to bypass various utilities and railway infrastructure.

As MRC informed earlier, SIBUR launched construction of ZapSibNeftekhim,a facility for deep hydrocarbon to polyolefin processing, on 17 February 2015.

SIBUR is a vertically integrated gas processing and petrochemicals company. SIBUR owns and operates Russia’s largest gas processing business in terms of associated petroleum gas processing volumes and is a leader in the Russian petrochemicals industry. SIBUR operates 26 production sites in various regions of Russia. The Group employs 26,000 people. The Company sells its products to over 1,400 major customers engaged in the energy, automotive, construction, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), chemical and other industries in approximately 70 countries worldwide.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Imports of polyethylene (PE) into Ukraine increased to 106,700 tonnes in the first five months of 2016, up 38% compared to the same period of 2015. The greatest increase in demand occurred for high density polyethylene (HDPE), according to MRC DataScope.

May PE imports into Ukraine reduced significantly, but still significantly exceeded actual consumption. May imports of polyethylene dropped to 19,200 tonnes compared to 24,800 tonnes in April, most of the reduction in supply accounted for HDPE. Total PE imports into the country grew to 106,700 tonnes in January - May 2016, compared with 77,300 tonnes year on year.

Structure of PE imports over the reported period was as follows.

May imports of HDPE into the country decreased to 8,700 tonnes, compared with 13,300 tonnes in April. Local companies reduced the volume of purchases of all HDPE grades. In general, HDPE imports into the country exceeded 52,000 tonnes in January - May of this year, compared with 33,300 tonnes in the same time a year earlier.

May imports of low density polyethylene (LDPE) into Ukraine decreased to 3,600 tonnes in May because of the limited export quotas from Russian and Belarusian producers compared with 5,000 tonnes in April. Total LDPE imports into Ukraine were 26,400 tonnes in the first five months of the year, up 9% year on year.

May imports of linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) into the country were about 5,500 tonnes, which was close to the previous month level. In general, January - May LLDPE imports into Ukraine increased to 23,800 tonnes compared with 16,600 tonnes year on year.

Import other types of polyethylene, including EVA for the period under review amounted to slightly more than 4,400 tonnes against 3,200 a year earlier.


MRC