Petkim reports H1 production rises 64%

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Overall production by Turkish petrochemical producer Petkim reached 1.638 million mt over the first half of 2016, up 6.4% on the year, as per the company's report, said Apic-online.

Total product sales over the same period were reported as 935,700 mt, up 14.4%.

Capacity usage at Petkim's sole production facility at Aliaga was 94.02% up from 86.85% over the first half of 2015.

The plant has a total production capacity of 3.6 million mt/year, the company said.

No other production or sales data was released.

Over the past month there have been a number of senior personnel changes at the former state petrochemical producer which is now majority owned by Azerbaijani state oil company Socar, with Turkey's state news agency Anatolia reporting as many as 231 staff arrested or alleged connections to the group blamed for the failed military coup in Turkey on July 15. Those reported as having been arrested include CEO Saadetin Korkut who was replaced by Anar Mammadov, formerly the CEO of Socar's Greek subsidiary and before that the CEO of Socar's Georgian subsidiary, deputy CEO Muhammet Altay Ozgur, corporate communications manager Memduh Taslicali, and the company's head of security retired colonel Serhat Ozmilli.

Petkim's parent company Socar Turkey has confirmed only 27 staff as having been removed and that production and operations at the company's Aliaga plant have not been affected.

As MRC informed before, in late July 2016, Petkim petrochemical complex declared force majeure on ethylene and propylene supply. A cracker in Aliagha district had to be shutdown due to technical failure on July 17. The cracker was closed until late July. Cracker capacity is pegged at 588,000 tpa of ethylene and 271,000 tpa of propylene.
The cracker’s closing led to disruptions in the supply of raw materials for the production of derivatives, including acrylonitrile and ethylene glycol. The force-maujeure was lifted in early August.

Petkim is a sole manufacturer of plastic packages, fabrics, detergents, and other petrochemical products in Turkey. By the end of 2015 Petkim’s assets increased by 44% as compared to 2014. Its net profit stood at 639.2 million liras in 2015. According to shareholder information published by the Istanbul stock exchange (BIST) Petkim is 51.39% owned by Socar with 7.68% owned by Goldman Sachs International and 40.93% traded on the BIST.

SOCAR Polymer is a subsidiary of the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR). The entity was formed at the end of 2013 to run investments at the Sumgait Chemical Industrial Park, a production park which intends to become a chemical hub in central Asia.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- PolymaxTPE has added two new styrenic TPE grades for gasket and seals applications to its portfolio, reported GV.

The grades, P32-010 and P32-011, can replace TPV elastomers in a variety of applications that include gaskets, seals, valves, home appliance, and food packaging requiring high resilience for seal integrity.

PolymaxTPE says that the grades stand out for their low compression set at elevated temperatures. According to the company, measurements show that the compression set of the P32-011 TPE (60 Shore A) has 16% at RT, 26% at 70 C and 38% at 100 C for 22 h. P31-010 (40 Shore A) has 20% compression set at RT, 27% at 70 C and 48% at 100 C.

Further advantages of the new grades are their good tear strength, cold temperature flexibility, low odour, stability at high temperature, and weather resistance. The raw materials used to manufacture these two grades are compliant with food contact regulations. These materials can be used in stand-alone injection moulding and extrusion applications, or bonded with polypropylene substrates.

"The development of new TPEs with low compression set for the seal industry reflects the focus of PolymaxTPE on R+D and its strategy of working proactively with customers", noted Dr. Martin Lu, CTO of PolymaxTPE.

"Thanks to their improved tear strength and easy processability, our recent commercialization successes of 35 and 45 shore A hardness TPE, D6935 & D6945, with low compression set has been well received by our customers in replacing TPV in weatherseals. The new addition of P32-010 and P32-011 will continue to provide a low-cost alternative to TPV in gaskets, stoppers, flexible connectors, and sealing for food, beverage caps + closures requiring durable sealing performance," added Tom Castile, VP sales of PolymaxTPE.

PolymaxTPE has a full-service facility in Waukegan, near Chicago, IL, USA. Sister company, Nantong Polymax, is one of the leading TPE manufacturers in China. The company’s products are marketed under the PolymaxTPE and Maxelast brands.

We remind that, as MRC informed before, in December 2015, Teknor Apex expanded its "polymer-neutral" product by developing styrenic TPEs with alternative cost and performance profiles to those of TPVs in automotive exterior application. The Sarlink ME-2200 series exhibit higher flow than comparable TPVs, enabling molders of exterior components such as gaskets, seals, and trim to process complex, intricate designs while shortening cycles through reduced packing and cooling time. In applications where TPV compounds are over-engineered, these compounds can provide a cost savings while still meeting the performance requirements of the part. Like TPVs, the compounds are less dense than EPDM and PVC, yielding weight savings of up to 15 and 23 %, respectively.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Starting January next year, the Selangor state will ban the use of polystyrene (PS) containers and extend the No Plastic Bag Day on Saturdays to seven days a week, as per GV.

Green Technology and Environment committee chairman Elizabeth Wong said all official events and buildings of the Selangor state government would stop using plastic bags and PS by next month (Sept. 2016) to get the ball rolling.

"The current 20sen charge to buy a plastic bag on Saturdays as part of the No Plastic Bag Day campaign will be extended to every day of the week while polystyrene containers will be banned.

"Up until now, many peddlers and traders have had a positive response to the campaign to reduce the use of plastic bags and polystyrene," she said.

As MRC informed before, in January 2015, New York city Mayor Bill announced that all plastic-foam containers and packaging would be banned from New York City as of July 1, 2015. Restaurants, stores and manufacturers will no longer be allowed to possess, sell or offer items made with expanded polystyrene (EPS). The ban on Styrofoam stems from a law passed in December 2013 that gave officials a year to determine whether EPS could be recycled in a safe, environmental effective and economically feasible matter. According to the mayor's office, the Department of Sanitation determined it cannot.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- State-led oil company Petrobras reported Q2 2016 profit fell by nearly a third from a year earlier, missing analysts' expectations as oil prices fell, it took charges for layoffs and the impairment of a refinery, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Petrobras said net income fell 30% to USD118 million in the three months ended June 30.

Last year's profit was one of the most anemic quarterly results in the company's recent history. The second-quarter 2016 profit comes after a USD395 M loss in the first quarter of this year.

The average profit estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Reuters was USD570 M. Estimates, though, ranged from a USD1.75 B real profit to a USD395 M real loss, as analysts struggled again with a lack of clear Petrobras guidance.

While total debt has eased 2% since the end of 2015, at USD124 billion it is still the largest in the oil industry.

The USD380 M cost of a voluntary dismissal program and USD350 M impairment charges for the Comperj refinery, whose construction was halted last year after eating up USD13.5 billion of investment, kept costs high even as revenue fell.

As a result, operating profit fell 25% to USD2.27 B. If a scaled back Comperj opens as now planned in 2023, it will be more than a decade late and nearly triple its original USD5.2 B budget.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, a measure of a company's ability to generate cash from operations, was little changed rising 2.8% to USD6.4B, in line with analysts estimates.

As MRC wrote previously, since January 2016, Petrobras has been seeking to sell its 5.8 billion Brazilian real (USD1.4 billion) stake in petrochemical producer Braskem SA. Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) hired Brazilian bank Banco Bradesco SA as a financial adviser and started to pitch the sale to foreign investors. Petrobras owns a 36 percent stake in Braskem, Latin America's largest petrochemical producer. The sale would help Petrobras meet its target of selling USD15.1 billion worth of assets in 2015-16, a key part of its plan to cut debt as oil prices plunge to 12-year lows.

Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Petrobras is an integrated energy firm. Petrobras' activities include exploration, exploitation and production of oil from reservoir wells, shale and other rocks as well as refining, processing, trade and transport of oil and oil products, natural gas and other fluid hydrocarbons, in addition to other energy-related activities.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A technical issue at a carbon monoxide plant owned by Saudi International Petrochemical Co. (Sipchem) and operated by its affiliate, International Gases Co. (IGC), has led to reduced capacity at plants producing acetic acid and ethyl acetate, as per Reuters.

The plants use carbon monoxide as a feedstock for some of their products.

Technical teams are focused on resolving the issue and restoring full operating capacity at the carbon monoxide plant. Initial estimates indicate the issue may continue until the third week of August, 2016.

As MRC informed previously, on July 26, 2014, Sipchem commenced trial runs at a new ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA)/low density polyethylene (LDPE) swing plant in Saudi Arabia. Located in Jubail, the plant has a production capacity of 200,000 mt/year.

Established in 1999, Saudi International Petrochemical Company (Sipchem) manufactures and markets methanol, butanediol, tetrahydrofuran, acetic acid, acetic anhydride, vinyl acetate monomer. Besides, it launched several down-stream projects to manufacture ethylene vinyl acetate, low density polyethylene, ethyl acetate, butyl acetate, cross linkable polyethylene, and semi conductive compound in 2013.
MRC