Huntsman to raise global TiO2 prices

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Huntsman Corporation’s Pigments and Additives division, now known as Venator, has announced global price increases for all its titanium dioxide (TiO2) pigments, said the producer on its site.

The following increases are effective July 1, 2017 or as contracts allow:

- Europe: EUR250/tonne;
- Asia Pacific, Africa, Middle East and Latin America: USD250/tonne.

Besides, the company will raise TiO2 prices in Noth America by USD0.08/pound (USD178/tonne) effective June 1, 2017 or as contracts allow.

As MRC infromed before, in October 2014, Huntsman Corporation completed the acquisition of the Performance Additives and TiO2 businesses of Rockwood Holdings, Inc. And, in February 2015, the company announced its plans to reduce its TiO2 capacity by approximately 100,000 tons, representing 13% of Huntsman's European TiO2 capacity. As part of the plan, Huntsman is proposing to close certain operations at its site in Calais, France.

Huntsman Corporation is a publicly traded global manufacturer and marketer of differentiated chemicals with 2016 revenues of approximately USD10 billion. The company's chemical products number in the thousands and are sold worldwide to manufacturers serving a broad and diverse range of consumer and industrial end markets. Huntsman operates more than 100 manufacturing and R&D facilities in approximately 30 countries and employ approximately 15,000 associates within our 5 distinct business divisions including the Pigments and Additives division that the company intend to IPO or spin-off as Venator Materials Corporation.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Moscow oil refinery, halted because of an emergency at the weekend, will resume production within two or three days, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Transneft said that oil loadings from the port of Kozmino, on the Pacific Ocean, resumed after a storm.

The stoppage will not have an impact on fuel supplies in Moscow, the agency quoted the ministry as saying.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Evonik increased sales considerably by 19 percent to EUR3.68 billion in the first three months of 2017. The main growth drivers were higher demand, which boosted sales volumes, and the first-time inclusion of the Air Products specialty additives business, said the company on its website.

"The successful start to the year shows that we are on the right track with our growth strategy," said Klaus Engel, Chairman of the Executive Board. "The combination of organic growth and strategic acquisitions has strengthened the company. We are on the road to becoming less vulnerable to economic cycles and having a more balanced portfolio. Demand for our specialty chemicals such as silica, coating additives and pharmaceutical ingredients boosted quarterly earnings."

Adjusted EBITDA rose 8 percent to EUR612 million in the first quarter driven by improved results in the Resource Efficiency and Performance Materials segments. Earnings at Nutrition & Care were significantly below the prior year period mainly because of lower prices for animal nutrition products.

The company’s adjusted net income at EUR260 million remained at about the same level as the first quarter last year with adjusted earnings per share at EUR0.56. Net income was EUR160 million, about EUR80 million less than last year. The decline was primarily due to one-time effects tied to the acquisition of the Air Products specialty additives business.

The specialty additives business acquired from Air Products at the beginning of the year is being integrated successfully and smoothly. The company is still on track to achieve its planned synergies of about EUR70 million by 2020. The acquisition of the silica business of U.S. company J. M. Huber is progressing well and Evonik aims to close the purchase in the second half of the year.

The company’s net financial debt amounted to EUR2.3 billion at the end of the first quarter after payment for the Air Products specialty additives business. "Evonik still has a solid financial position after the biggest acquisition in the company’s history," said Chief Financial Officer Ute Wolf. "We are within the framework of a solid investment-grade rating."

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Yokogawa Electric Corp. has announced that its subsidiary, Yokogawa Kontrol (Malaysia), has won an order to supply process analysis system integration (SI) services and advanced solutions for the oil storage facilities that are being built for the Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) project in Malaysia, as per Plastemart.

To implement these solutions, the company has been appointed an engineering, procurement, construction & commissioning (EPCC) contractor.

The Pengerang Integrated Complex (PIC) is PETRONAS' largest investment in Malaysia and the PIC consists of RAPID and is supported by its Associated Facilities. RAPID is a project that comprises a refinery, a steam cracker and a number of petrochemical units. The refinery has a capacity of 300 000 bpd and the steam cracker and petrochemical units will have a combined production capacity of about 3.5 million tpy of Ethylene, Propylene and C4-C6 Olefin products.

In 2014, Yokogawa Kontrol (Malaysia) was selected as a main automation contractor (MAC) for the RAPID project. After completing the front end engineering and design (FEED) process, the company received orders to supply CENTUM VP integrated production control systems and ProSafe-RS safety instrumented systems for the project's Oil Refinery, Naphtha Cracker, and Petrochemical plants.

Further to the success, PETRONAS recognised Yokogawa's capabilities and awarded an EPCC package to supply one analyser house with process analysers and sampling devices that will control the quality of the Gasoline, Diesel and Kerosene stored at this complex's oil storage facilities. For this project, Yokogawa will also carry out the design, engineering, procurement, installation, and commissioning of advanced tank quality estimator, blending property control, and pipe tracking system solutions. All construction is scheduled to be completed by August 2018, and commissioning will commence the following month.

As MRC informed before, in early 2017, Petronas announced that its new USD27 billion refining and petrochemical complex project in the southeast Asian country is on track for start-up in 2019.

As part of the new complex, Petronas plans to build a C6-based metallocene linear LDPE plant and a low density polyethylene (LDPE)/ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) swing plant at its greenfield integrated refinery and petrochemical complex in southern Johor state by mid-2019. The proposed metallocene LLDPE will have a capacity of 350,000 tpa, while the LDPE/EVA will have a capacity of about 150,000 tpa. The two plants are part of Petronas' planned Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development project in Pengerang at Johor.

Petronas, short for Petroliam Nasional Berhad, is a Malaysian oil and gas company wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia. The Group is engaged in a wide spectrum of petroleum activities, including upstream exploration and production of oil and gas to downstream oil refining; marketing and distribution of petroleum products; trading; gas processing and liquefaction; gas transmission pipeline network operations; marketing of liquefied natural gas; petrochemical manufacturing and marketing; shipping; automotive engineering; and property investment.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The commercial start-up of Vietnam's new USD7.5 B Nghi Son oil refinery will be delayed to 2018, from an initial expected start-up in the third quarter of this year, according to a notice on a government website., said Reuters.

The 200,000 bpd oil refinery is now planning to start commercial operations in the Q1 2018, according to a notice on the website for Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue and a source close to the matter. Trouble with a mechanical test on some of the refinery's components set back test runs at the plant, causing the delay, according to the notice.

A spokesman for Nghi Son did not immediately reply when contacted by Reuters. The start-up delay should defer an expected decline in product margins until after Nghi Son starts operating, said Nevyn Nah, an oil analyst with consultancy Energy Aspects.

"The impact on margins will be shifted to mid-2018 if the refinery is commissioned in first quarter of next year," he said.

Vietnam's imports of oil products were expected to fall after Nghi Son began operations. The delay of additional fuel supplies in Asia could be good news for refiners, a trader with a North Asian refinery said.

Still, it could weigh on the crude oil market, a Singapore-based crude trader said. The refinery was expected to take delivery of its first crude oil in May and send out its first oil products by the third quarter of the year, the company said in February.

The plant is Vietnam's second refinery and will process Kuwaiti crude oil to produce liquefied petroleum gases, gasoline, diesel, kerosene and jet fuel, mainly for the domestic markets.

Kuwait now has less demand for its crude after shutting its 200,000 bpd Shuaiba refinery in April and this is expected to continue until Nghi Son starts, four crude traders said.

Nghi Son Refinery sent out requests to shipbrokers earlier this month to charter 27 very large crude carriers, ships capable of carrying 2 MMbbl of oil each, over July 2017 to June 2018 to transport crude from Kuwait to the refinery, according to a tender document seen by Reuters.

Japan's Idemitsu Kosan and Kuwait Petroleum International each own 35.1% of Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemicals, while PetroVietnam has 25.1% and Mitsui Chemicals 4.7%.

Vietnam's existing Dung Quat refinery meets about 30 percent of domestic demand.
MRC