Clariant to increase prices for products containing titanium dioxide and carbon black pigments

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Clariant, a world leader in masterbatches and specialty compounds, has today announced a price increase globally for all products containing titanium dioxide and/or carbon black pigments by between 5%-10% (depending on the grade, concentration and quality of the titanium dioxide and/or carbon black), as per the company website.

The increase includes white, black and color masterbatches and relates to the following product brands: REMAFIN, RENOL, CESA, HiFormer & MEVOPUR. This will be effective for all deliveries from October 1, 2017 or as soon as contracts allow. This price increase is due to the sustained rise in prices of titanium dioxide, carbon black and other key raw materials driven by several factors including force majeure declarations, supply-demand dynamics and capacity related issues.

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MOSCOW (MRC) — Baker Hughes, a GE company and KBC a wholly owned subsidiary of Yokogawa Electric Corporation, announced a preferred partnership that will provide a combination of process simulation, asset performance management and operational software solutions to the oil and gas industry, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Leveraging GE's Predix, the platform for the industrial internet, to deliver one unified view, this partnership extends KBC's Petro-SIM process simulation modeling further into the fullstream oil and gas value chain, and provides connectivity between operations, assets, people and business processes for end-to-end optimization.

Integrating KBC technology with BHGE's suite of digital solutions, the company said in a press release, will allow customers to reduce bottlenecks in facilities, processes and equipment to achieve optimal production and lower risk. By integrating data analytics connected by seamless workflows between facilities and operations, the time spent to analyze operations will be significantly reduced and the insight gained will increase production, reduce energy usage and improve product quality consistency.

KBC's Petro-SIM simulation technology already connects to cloud-based Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) data-as-a-service solutions to remotely monitor and help improve customers' process operations. With full integration to commercial data historian and database systems, the KBC technology offers a central repository for process topology, and stream and equipment data, with access to live and historical plant operating data for performance monitoring. Asset Performance Management (APM) from GE enables intelligent asset strategies to help optimize performance to make operations safer by helping to predict and prevent failures. It can answer critical questions on the history and current operation of an asset, as well as provide an answer to what actions should be taken to improve performance, mitigate risk and ensure overall operational safety and efficiency.

The integration of KBC process simulation and models with BHGE analytics, digital twins, fullstream software and Predix provides real-time congruence between the digital and physical worlds. A plant digital twin, enabled by this partnership, would provide a complete view of all equipment, operations and processes, comparing actual performance to expected outcomes, and enabling predictive actions. This plant twin will also enable efficient workforce management, allowing personnel to focus on critical plant operations.

The announcement was made in Paris during UNIFY, BHGE's first-ever Digital User Conference dedicated to productivity-driving software applications for the oil and gas industry.
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MOSCOW (MRC) — Hurricane Harvey's crippling impact on US oil refinery operations this month and the challenge buyers faced in filling the gap in gasoline supplies has exposed a shortage of spare refining capacity around the globe, said Reuters.

Nearly a quarter of US refining capacity was knocked out by the storm this month, driving US gasoline prices to two-year highs above USD2/gal. Many plants are still struggling to resume normal operations, prompting other refineries around the world to crank up output to fill the gap.

Global refining is considered to be running at its maximum when capacity utilization is 85.5%, the highest level reached in the modern era, BP's head of refining economics Richard de Caux said. Today the utilization level is 83%, he told the Platts Refining Summit in Brussels, suggesting a very slim buffer.

"The spare capacity is not really there," said Dario Scaffardi, general manager of Italian refiner Saras. "In as much as consumption worldwide is growing, refinery capacity is not long at all." Spare capacity is needed to meet demand when refineries undergo maintenance or face unexpected outages. Too much in reserve is costly for refiners. But Hurricane Harvey has shown the world may not have enough.

Consultant JBC Energy said refiners could process 83 MMbpd of crude by the end of 2017. In 2016, BP data showed processing at roughly 80.6 MMbpd.

Energy consultancy FGE estimates spare global refining capacity, based on official or nameplate numbers, stands at 14 MMbpd, down from 18 MMbpd earlier this decade. But nameplate figures can be misleading, as they are based on capacity of a refinery when built or refurbished. Many cannot match those levels due to years of underinvestment. So actual spare capacity may only be a fraction of that 14 MMbpd.

For example, Venezuela's four refineries have run at record lows this year as they lack spare parts. Plants in Mexico, Brazil and Nigeria have also suffered poor investment for years.

At the same time, demand for oil and its products is climbing, led by China and India, and more developed economies.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Silane Business Line of Evonik Resource Efficiency GmbH will be raising sales prices globally for their Organofunctional Silanes being marketed under the brands Dynasylan® and Protectosil, said the company on its site.

The prices will be adjusted on average eight percent depending on the product from October 15th 2017, or as contracts allow.

Evonik is one of the world leaders in specialty chemicals. The focus on more specialty businesses, customer-orientated innovative prowess and a trustful and performance-oriented corporate culture form the heart of Evonik’s corporate strategy. They are the lever for profitable growth and a sustained increase in the value of the company. Evonik benefits specifically from its customer proximity and leading market positions. Evonik is active in over 100 countries around the world with more than 35,000 employees. In fiscal 2016, the enterprise generated sales of around EUR12.7 billion.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- LyondellBasell announced the successful startup of a new 20 ktpy polypropylene (PP) compounding plant in Dalian, China, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

This is the company's third facility in China, strategically located to serve the region's growing automotive market.

LyondellBasell is the largest producer of PP compounds in the world, with 15 wholly owned facilities, including the Dalian plant, and three JVs in 12 countries. Currently in China, LyondellBasell operates PP compounding plants in Suzhou and Guangzhou. The addition of the Dalian plant allows the company's further expansion into the strategically important North China region which is home to a number of major automobile manufacturers including BMW, Daimler, GM, Volkswagen, Audi, Nissan and Chery.

LyondellBasell's PP compounds are found in almost all modern vehicles and significantly contribute to improved fuel efficiency and the ability of automobile manufacturers to comply with strict environmental standards for car interiors. For example:
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