Huntsman wins BMW Supplier Innovation Award for sustainability

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Huntsman announced that its polyurethanes division has won a Supplier Innovation Award from BMW Group for developing a technology which reduces total emissions from the polyurethane seating foam used in its vehicles, as per GV.

According to Huntsman, its automotive team developed a unique MDI system, new polyol and formaldehyde 'scavenger' technology. This chemistry enabled BMW to reduce total emissions from its seating foams by a factor of ten - without compromising comfort or quality. Huntsman says it is the only supplier to meet the BMW Group’s requirements for moulded foams.

"BMW is well known for its exacting performance standards and Huntsman has been a long-term technology partner to the business, assisting in its drive for improved safety, performance, comfort and sustainability," Tony Hankins, President of Huntsman’s Polyurethanes division, said. "We are incredibly proud of this award and the difference that our technology will make to BMW customers worldwide."

We remind that, as MRC reported earlier, Huntsman Corporation has recently announced global price increases for all its titanium dioxide (TiO2) pigments. The following increases are effective January 1, 2017 or as contracts allow:

- Europe: EUR150 per tonne or USD160 per tonne in dollar-based markets;
- Asia-Pacific, Africa, Latin America and Middle East: USD160 per tonne;
- North America: USD0.07 per pound.

Huntsman Corporation is a publicly traded global manufacturer and marketer of differentiated chemicals with 2015 revenues of over USD10 billion. Huntsman is a global manufacturer and marketer of differentiated chemicals. The company's operating companies manufacture products for a variety of global industries, including chemicals, plastics, automotive, aviation, textiles, footwear, paints and coatings, construction, technology, agriculture, health care, detergent, personal care, furniture, appliances and packaging. The company operates more than 100 manufacturing and R&D facilities in approximately 30 countries and employ approximately 15,000 associates within its 5 distinct business divisions.
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МОSCOW (MRC) -- Honeywell International Inc. (HON), a technology and manufacturing company, reported Friday that its third-quarter net income attributable to the company declined slightly to USD1.24 billion from last year's USD1.26 billion. Earnings per share of USD1.60 remained flat with last year, said Finanznachrichten.

The latest results included USD0.07 per share deployed to restructuring. Excluding the charge, adjusted earnings were USD1.67 per share.

On average, 19 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of USD1.70 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items. Operating income margin dropped 270 basis points to 15.6%.

Sales increased 2 percent to USD9.80 billion from last year's USD9.61 billion. Analysts were looking for sales of USD9.79 billion. Looking ahead, the company said it is ell-positioned for double-digit earnings growth in the fourth quarter, leading to 8%-9% earnings growth in 2016.

The company also said it intends in the fourth quarter to refinance outstanding debt maturing in 2017-2019, which will lower interest expense by approximately $60 million annually beginning in 2017. For fiscal 2016, the company continues to expect earnings per share Ex-Pension MTM between USD6.60 and USD6.64.

Sales are expected to be in a range of USD39.4 billion to USD39.6 billion, a growth of 2% to 3% from last year. Core organic sales are still expected to be down 1-2 percent for the full year. Analysts expect earnings of USD6.68 per share on sales of USD39.63 billion for the year.

Honeywell Chairman and CEO Dave Cote said, 'Moving ahead, we are targeting low single-digit core organic sales growth, continued segment margin improvement, and a double-digit increase in EPS in 2017.'

As MRC informed earlier, Honeywell says that president and COO Darius Adamczyk will succeed Dave Cote as CEO on 31 March 2017. Cote, who has been chairman and CEO of Honeywell since 2002, will continue as executive chairman until the company’s annual meeting in April 2018.

Honeywell UOP has an 80-year history in China, beginning in 1937 when it built one of China’s first refineries in Yumen. It was one of the first American companies invited back to China during the 1970s, to help modernize the Chinese petroleum industry. More recently, Honeywell UOP hydroprocessing and Platforming technology has helped China develop cleaner-burning transportation fuels to combat air pollution.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc said it is selling USD1.03 billion worth of non-core oil and gas properties in western Canada to Tourmaline Oil Corp, the latest example of the global oil major trimming its operations in the region, reported Reuters.

Shell said it will sell 206,000 acres (83,365 hectares) of developed and undeveloped lands, amounting to production of about 24,850 barrels of oil equivalent per day, to Calgary-based Tourmaline.

The assets include 61,000 acres (24,685 hectares) in the Gundy area in northeast British Columbia and 145,000 acres (58,679 hectares) in the Deep Basin area of west-central Alberta.

Shell is undergoing a USD30 billion asset divestment program globally and has already pulled back from some capital commitments in western Canada.

In July, the company delayed a decision on whether to build a liquefied natural gas export terminal in British Columbia, citing global industry challenges. In October 2015, it halted its Carmon Creek oil sands project in northern Alberta because of the lack of infrastructure to move Canadian crude to market.

Shell Upstream Director Andy Brown said the company was selling to Tourmaline because the assets did not fit into Shell's near-term development plans.

Shell spokesman Cameron Yost said after the sale the company would still have ample production from its Groundbirch acreage to supply the LNG terminal should the project go forward.

The deal consists of USD758 million in cash and Tourmaline shares valued at USD279 million, and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2016.

As MRC wrote before, Royal Dutch Shell is evaluating whether to sell part of its assets in Argentina. According to Executive President Ben van Beurden, refineries, transporting and distribution assets in the country could be put up for sale as part of a massive global disvestment programme worth an estimate USD30 billion. The move amounts to a massive revision of the firm’s "downstream” services, van Beurden said during a conference in New York in September.

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".
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Chemours Company,a global chemistry company with leading market positions in titanium technologies, fluoroproducts and chemical solutions, has announced that it has increased the expected greenhouse gas reduction provided by its Opteon portfolio by over 8%, reported GV.

The company now expects that its line of low GWP refrigerants and blowing agents will eliminate an estimated 325 million t CO2 equivalent by 2025 on a global basis.

The Opteon line is based on hydrofluoro-olefin technologies, such as HFO-1234yf and HFO-1336MzzZ, and was developed to help meet the increasing global phase out of hydrofluorocarbons. Chemours has commercialised Opteon products for use in automotive air conditioning, stationary and transport refrigeration and chillers. The company says it also has a development pipeline of additional Opteon solutions for stationary air conditioning, foam blowing agents, and waste heat recovery.

The announcement comes in support of a call from global leaders of over 100 countries to amend the Montreal Protocol in order to accelerate the phasedown of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).

"Chemours fully supports the continued effort to reduce the use and emissions of high GWP HFCs," said Paul Kirsch, president of Chemours Fluoroproducts. "We believe that our portfolio of Opteon low GWP solutions provides the industry with a clear path forward when it comes to transitioning to more sustainable alternatives, without reducing performance."

Chemours recently announced two major investments in the large scale manufacturing of Opteon products. In May 2016, the company announced that it will invest hundreds of millions USD over the next three years to construct a new HFO-1234yf plant in Corpus Christi, TX, USA, with expected start-up in the second half of 2018. In November 2015, the company also officially broke ground on the world’s first full-scale production facility for HFO-1336mzzZ, with expected production beginning mid-year 2017.

As MRC wrote before, in May 2016, Chemours announced that it has begun the commercial startup of its new titanium dioxide (TiO2) line at its Altamira plant in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. Chemours reached mechanical completion of the line in December 2015. Thus, the company began to run the new line using the Chemours chloride process, producing Ti-Pure TiO2 pigment for customer qualification. Production on the new line is expected to ramp up steadily with full nameplate capacity of 200,000 metric tonnes per year being achieved over a few years. As this happens, Chemours will balance utilization across its other facilities to align with our customers' needs.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Aramco said last Thursday that two workers died of injuries sustained in a fire that broke out at its Wasea crude oil plant in central Saudi Arabia, reported Reuters.

The state oil firm said late on Wednesday that the blaze was put out and did not affect operations.

"We sadly announce the tragic loss of two workers and 16 injured from a fire" at the plant, it said on Thursday on its official twitter page.

It gave no further details about the victims.

In September, a fire ripped through Aramco’s Gulf coast Ras Tanura oil terminal, injuring eight workers.

As MRC informed before, in June 2016, Saudi Arabian Oil Co. and Saudi Basic Industries Corp. announced to be one step closer to building their first plant to process crude directly into chemicals, cutting out a link in the production chain from hydrocarbons to the finished products that go into plastics and other consumer goods.

The state-owned companies signed an agreement to study such a project to be located in Saudi Arabia. A joint venture is possible if the companies decide to move ahead after the study is completed by early 2017, they said. The companies could "substantially" increase Saudi Arabia’s production of petrochemicals, while enabling them to boost commodity exports and spur industrial diversification, Amin Nasser, chief executive officer of the oil producer known as Saudi Aramco, said in the statement. It could also add more chemical products to the domestic market, he said at the signing ceremony.

Saudi Aramco and Sabic, the third-biggest petrochemical maker in the world by sales, are planning to build the refinery in Yanbu on the Red Sea coast, two people with knowledge of the plans said in April, asking not to be identified because the project was confidential. Saudi Aramco and Sabic had been working separately on projects to produce chemicals straight from oil without the need to operate separate facilities, the people said.
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