LG Chem names vice chair of 3M as its new CEO

MOSCOW (MRC) -- LG Chem Ltd., South Korea's top chemicals firm, said Friday that it has named a top executive of U.S. industrial giant 3M Co. as its new vice chairman and CEO, reported KoreaTimes.

LG Chem said Shin Hak-cheol, a vice chair and executive vice president of 3M, is the "the right person" to respond to rapidly changing business environments while leading a change in corporate culture and structure, citing his global perspective and experience in operating a global materials and components business.

Shin climbed the corporate ladder to a top post after joining 3M Korea as a technical service supervisor in 1984, becoming the first South Korean senior executive to lead 3M's overseas business.

"Based on his accumulated experience in a world-renowned company, we expect LG Chem to take a further step forward in becoming a global innovative company," LG Chem said in a statement.

It marked the first time that LG Chem has nominated a CEO from outside of the company since its foundation in 1947.

Shin is set to replace LG Chem Vice Chairman and CEO Park Jin-soo in March next year if approved by the company's board.

LG Chem makes a wide variety of products, ranging from petrochemical goods to plastics, rechargeable batteries, electronic materials and drugs and vaccines.

Currently, LG Chem is a key supplier of electric vehicle batteries to US auto giant General Motors Co., Volvo and Renault, as well as South Korea's largest carmaker Hyundai Motor Co. and its smaller affiliate Kia Motors Corp. (Yonhap).

As MRC informed earlier, in January 2016, LG Chem said it had decided to drop a plan to jointly build a USD4.2-billion petrochemical complex in Kazakhstan, citing a prolonged slump in oil prices and a sharp increase in facility investments. In 2011, the chemical company said it would construct the complex near the western Kazakh city of Atyrau as part of a 50-50 joint venture with two Kazakh companies. The plan involved building ethylene and polyethylene plants with annual capacities of 840,000 tonnes and 800,000 tonnes, respectively. The project was announced in 2013.

LG Chem Ltd., often referred to as LG Chemical, is the largest Korean chemical company and is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. According to ICIS report, it is 15th biggest chemical company in the world in 2011. It has eight domestic factories and global network of 29 business locations in 15 countries. LG Chem is a manufacturer, supplier, and exporter of petrochemical goods, IT&E Materials and Energy Solutions.
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MOSCOW (MRC) - U.S. liquefied natural gas company Tellurian Inc said on Wednesday it expects to start construction on its Driftwood LNG export terminal in Louisiana in the first half of 2019 and begin operations in 2023, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Chief Executive Meg Gentle said in the company's third-quarter earnings that Tellurian will announce partners in the USD27.5 billion project by the end of 2018. Driftwood is one of dozens LNG export projects under development in the United States seeking customers so they can start construction and enter service over the next decade to meet growing global demand for the fuel.

U.S. LNG exports have almost quadrupled from 183.9 billion cubic feet (bcf) of natural gas in 2016 to 706.4 bcf in 2017, worth about USD3.3 billion, and are on track to top 1,000 bcf in 2018, making the country one of the world's biggest exporters of the super-cooled form of natural gas.

One billion cubic feet of gas is enough to fuel about 5 million U.S. homes for a day. Including plants under construction, U.S. LNG export capacity is expected to jump from 3.8 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) now to 5.2 bcfd by the end of the year, 8.9 bcfd by the end of 2019 and 10.3 bcfd by the end of 2020.

Tellurian said about 35 customers were interested in partnering with and buying gas from the project. Unlike most other proposed U.S. LNG export projects that will liquefy gas for a fee, Tellurian is offering customers the opportunity to meet their gas needs by investing in a full range of services from production to pipelines and liquefaction.

In addition to the LNG terminal, Tellurian is also developing pipelines to transport gas from shale formations in Texas and Louisiana to LNG terminals and other Gulf Coast customers.

The company has proposed to put two of those lines into service in 2022 - Permian Global Access and Haynesville Global Access.

Tellurian's partners include Total SA, General Electric Co and Bechtel, which has a $15.2 billion contract to build the liquefaction facility at the center of the project. Pipelines, reserves and other costs make up the rest of the USD27.5 billion price tag of the project.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- The technology company The Linde Group has signed a contract with U.S. industrial gas company, Praxair Inc., to supply a hydrogen plant that will be part of the company's U.S. Gulf Coast hydrogen system which spans Southeast Texas and Western Louisiana, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

"We are very pleased to have won this important contract from Praxair to provide the largest hydrogen production unit in Linde's history," said Dr Christian Bruch, Member of the Executive Board of Linde AG and responsible for the company's plant engineering business. "We attribute this success to our compelling and customer-oriented engineering solutions."

Linde's Engineering Division is responsible for the design and supply of the equipment for the core components of the hydrogen plant. The order includes the steam-methane reformer, designed and supplied by Linde subsidiary Selas Linde in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, the pressure swing adsorption unit, and the balance of the core plant. The plant will have a production capacity of over 190,000 Nm3/hr of high-purity hydrogen and will also generate steam. The new plant will be highly modularized with world-class reliability and energy efficiency and is scheduled to come on stream in early 2021.

In the 2017 financial year, The Linde Group generated revenue of EUR 17.113 bn, making it one of the leading gases and engineering companies in the world, with approximately 58,000 employees working in more than 100 countries worldwide. The strategy of The Linde Group is geared towards long-term profitable growth and focuses on the expansion of its international business, with forward-looking products and services. Linde acts responsibly towards its shareholders, business partners, employees, society and the environment in every one of its business areas, regions and locations across the globe. The company is committed to technologies and products that unite the goals of customer value and sustainable development.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Nippon Shokubai Indonesian (NSI), a subsidiary of Nippon Shokubai, has received board approval to go ahead with a project to increase acrylic acid (AA) capacity at its site in Cilegon, Banten, Indonesia, as per Apic-online.

"In recent years, the demand and supply balance of AA is highly tight, especially in Asia," Nippon Shokubai noted. "To accommodate the demand and fulfill its duty to supply products, Nippon Shokubai has studied a further expansion of AA."

As a result of the study, it has decided to invest approximately USD200-million in the construction of a new 100,000-t/y AA plant at the NSI site. Mechanical completion is scheduled for March 2021 with commercial operations planned to begin in November 2021.

The new AA unit will increase Nippon Shokubai's global AA production capacity to 980,000 t/y and ensure a more stable supply. The NSI site currently has 140,000 t/y of AA capacity.

As MRC reported earlier, on 10 November, 2015, Nippon Shokubai Co announced that Nippon Shokubai Europe, a subsidiary in Belgium, had held a groundbreaking ceremony for new superabsorbent polymer (SAP) plant and acrylic acid (AA) plant in its plant site in Antwerp, Belgium.

Nippon Shokubai Europe N.V. manufactures chemical products. The Company offers a wide range of superabsorbent polymers such as acrylic acids and polyacrylates for diverse applications. Nippon Shokubai Europe conducts business worldwide.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China's crude oil imports rose to all-time high on a daily basis in October, supported by record demand from private refiners and healthy margins, reported Reuters with reference to customs data showed Thursday.

Imports in October surged 32 percent from a year earlier to 40.80 million tons, or 9.61 million barrels per day (bpd), data from the General Administration of Customs showed, climbing from 9.05 million bpd in September. The previous daily record of 9.60 million bpd was touched in April 2018.

The imports rose 8.1 percent for the first 10 months of the year from the same period last year to 377.16 million tons, or 9.06 million bpd, on track for another record year of shipments.

The record volumes were a result of strong imports from China's private refiners, often known as "teapots".

These oil processors bought 8.22 million tons of crude during the month, the highest monthly amount ever since Beijing began issuing import quotas to them in 2015, according to Emma Li, an analyst with Refinitiv Oil Research and Forecasts.

"Independents bought record amounts of crude in October as they ramped up utilization rates to meet pent-up demand for gasoline and diesel," Li said.

"Many teapots also started stockpiling for January and February next year in a rush to use up their quota this year."

China's overall import volumes for October were in line with Refinitiv Oil Forecast's expectations of 40.95 million tonnes.

The imports might have been higher except CNOOC Ltd's Huizhou oil plant started a two-month long turnaround in October, curbing purchases from one of China's largest refineries.

Total natural gas imports in October via both pipeline and as liquefied natural gas (LNG) were at 7.3 million tons, up 25.6 percent from the same month last year, but easing from 7.62 million tonsin September.
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