Russia oil contamination impacts 250,000 bpd of European refinery runs

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The impact on European refinery throughput in the second quarter of 2019 from contaminated crude on the Druzhba pipeline is seen at roughly 250,000 barrels per day, under 2% of the continent’s product demand, reported Reuters with reference to the International Energy Agency.

The Czech Republic released about 1.5 million barrels of crude from its emergency stocks, or 10 days of the country’s average refining throughput, the IEA said on Wednesday.

Although Hungary announced on April 30 that it would make 3 million barrels of crude stocks available, not all of this has been taken up, the Paris-based IEA said in a report.

No stock release has been reported for Slovakia.

"We assume a total of 100,000 bpd impact on refinery throughput in these three countries over May-June, but expect operations to ramp up from July, even if this implies further crude stock draws," the agency said.

Crude oil stocks in the three countries were at 27 million barrels at the end of February, or around nine months of forward cover.

Poland released 5.9 million barrels of crude stocks, while Germany had not released any emergency stocks as of May 14, the IEA said.

In 2018, Poland received about 300,000 bpd through the pipeline for its Gdansk and Plock refineries, while Germany’s Leuna and Schwedt refineries received 440,000 bpd.

As MRC informed earlier, Belarus state oil firm Belneftekhim said in a statement on Saturday that not enough clean oil is available for the Novopolotsk refinery to work at its optimal capacity, after contaminated oil was received via the Russian Druzhba pipeline.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Trinseo, a global materials solutions provider and manufacturer of plastics, latex binders and synthetic rubber, today announced that the Company is evaluating strategic alternatives for its polycarbonate (PC) resin activities, as per the company's press release.

The Company has not set a timeline for this evaluation process.

Trinseo is fully committed to continue serving its customers in specialty polycarbonate applications, as well as polycarbonate compounds and blends - for industries including automotive, medical devices, durable goods, and consumer electronics. The Company’s Performance Plastics business segment continues to be a focus area for growth.

As MRC wrote before, Trinseo and its affiliate companies in Europe has announced a price increase for all polystyrene (PS). Effective May 1, 2019, or as existing contract terms allow, the contract and spot prices for the products listed below increased as follows:

- STYRON general purpose polystyrene grades (GPPS) - by EUR50 per metric ton;
- STYRON and STYRON A-Tech and STYRON X- Tech and STYRON C- Tech high impact polystyrene grades (HIPS) -by EUR50 per metric ton.

Trinseo is a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex and rubber. Trinseo's technology is used by customers in industries such as home appliances, automotive, building & construction, carpet, consumer electronics, consumer goods, electrical & lighting, medical, packaging, paper & paperboard, rubber goods and tires. Formerly known as Styron, Trinseo completed its renaming process in 1Q 2015. Trinseo had approximately USD4.6 billion in net sales in 2018, with 16 manufacturing sites around the world, and approximately 2,500 employees.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Volgograd Kaustik, Russia's fourth largest polyvinyl chloride (PVC) producer, has begun shutting down its polyvinyl chloride (PVC) production capacities for a scheduled turnaround, according to ICIS-MRC Price Report.

The plant's customers said the shutdown of PVC production for scheduled maintenance started from 15 May. The outage will be short and will last for three weeks. The plant's PVC production capacity is 90,000 tonnes/year.

It is also worth noting that next shutdowns for maintenance at Russian PVC plants are scheduled from mid-July.
SayanskKhimPlast and Bashkir Soda Company, which annual capacities are 350,000 tonnes and 240,000 tonnes, respectively, will take off-stream their production capacities for maintenance.

PVC production at Volgograd Kaustik was launched in December 1972 with the assistance of the Japanese firm Kureh's specialists. Nikokhim Group is one of the leaders of the Russian chemical industry, the main production assets of which are located in the southern industrial hub of Volgograd.

The holding company includes: JSC Kaustik is the principal plant of the group, manufactures basic products - caustic soda, chloroparaffins, synthetic hydrochloric acid, chlorine trademark, polyvinyl chloride, sodium hypochlorite, etc .; CJSC NikoMag - production of anti-icing materials, magnesium chloride, magnesium oxide and hydroxide; Zirax, Ltd. - production of high-purity reagents for various industries and JSC Poligran - the production of plastic compounds and rigid PVC compounds.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- In a move to build its extrusion coating business in Asia, extrusion equipment maker Davis-Standard LLC is expanding the floorspace and manufacturing capabilities of its Chinese division Davis-Standard (Suzhou) Plastics Packaging Machinery Co. Ltd., as per Canplastics.

Newly opened, the company added an additional 35,000-square-foot (3,251-square-meter) facility near the existing shop in Suzhou that will house control panel assembly and provide additional warehousing.

"The additional space will allow us to build more extrusion coating lines at our main plant while supporting other machine services, including faster delivery," said Jinsong Lin, general manager at Suzhou.

The medical tubing and packaging segments continue to be strong markets for Davis-Standard throughout Asia, Lin added.

Equipment sold to regional customers for medical tubing, extrusion coating and co-extrusion applications is built in Suzhou, as is assembly of electrical control panels, extruders and gearcases.

The plant also housed an R&D facility, equipped with technology for testing a range of rigid and flexible products, as well as FPVC tubing for IV and fluid delivery. Examples include microbore tubing, multi- lumen and catheter tubing, endotracheal and tracheotomy tubing, bubble tubing, taper tubing and others. Most recently, Davis-Standard added a new dsX flex-packTM 300S to this lab for customer trials – this is a single-station extrusion and lamination line built specifically for the Asian flexible packaging market.

Davis-Standard is headquartered in Pawcatuck, Conn. The company is represented in Canada by Auxiplast Inc., of Sainte-Julie, Que.

As MRC informed earlier, Davis-Standard LLC has acquired Thermoforming Systems LLC (TSL), a manufacturer of thermoforming equipment for the North American food packaging industry. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

Davis-Standard designs, develops, and distributes extrusion and converting technology. The company employs more than 1,300 workers, and has manufacturing and technical facilities in the U.S., China, Germany, Finland, Switzerland, Canada, and the UK.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- DowDuPont announced that Nicholas C. (Nick) Fanandakis will retire as Executive Vice President effective July 31. Mr. Fanandakis is a 40-year DuPont veteran, who served as the company's CFO through 2017, when E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company merged with The Dow Chemical Company, said the company.

He continued to serve as CFO of the DuPont legal entity within DowDuPont until 2019. He has played a key role in the DowDuPont separation process into three companies, Dow (the former materials science division and now an independent company), Corteva Agriscience (the agriculture division) and DuPont (the specialty products division), which concludes on June 1.

DowDuPont CEO Ed Breen said, "On behalf of our Board of Directors and the entire company, I want to thank Nick for his great dedication and extraordinary service. Nick is responsible for countless achievements during his long career at DuPont, and he has shown tremendous leadership in the work we have done over the past three years to complete the DowDuPont merger and deliver on our plan to create three industry-leading, independent companies. We wish Nick and his family all the best in his well-earned retirement."

Mr. Fanandakis' career at DuPont began in 1979 in the Petrochemicals Department. In the years that followed, he served in a variety of positions across the company's divisions before taking on a series of key business leadership roles, focused primarily on the Industrial Solutions, Chemical and Applied Biosciences markets. Mr. Fanandakis became DuPont's CFO in 2009. He was instrumental in DuPont's transformation, overseeing the reshaping of the business portfolio, including the acquisition of Danisco, sale of the coatings business, and the spinoff of the chemical division. He also devoted considerable time and energy to developing and mentoring his team, many of whom are on the leadership teams of Dow, Corteva and DuPont.

DowDuPont is a holding company comprised of the future Corteva Agriscience and DuPont, which are expected to separate on June 1, 2019, creating two strong, independent, publicly traded companies in the agriculture and specialty products sectors, respectively. Each will lead their industry through productive, science-based innovation to meet the needs of customers and help solve global challenges. DowDuPont completed the separation of the materials science business through the spin-off of Dow Inc.

AS MRC informed earlier, in Feb. 2019, DowDuPont reported earnings per share of 88 cents for the fourth quarter of the year. This is an increase over the company’s earnings per share of 83 cents from the same time last year.
MRC