Celanese initiates shutdown of Mexico manufacturing facility

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Celanese Corporation, a global chemical and specialty materials company, has announced a further consolidation of its global acetate manufacturing operations by initiating the shutdown of its manufacturing facility in Ocotlan, Jalisco, Mexico, as per the company's press release.

The consolidation is designed to strengthen the company's competitive position, reduce fixed costs and align future production capacities with anticipated industry demand.

Previously in June of 2018, Celanese announced it would discontinue the production of acetate tow at the Ocotlan facility. Today, Celanese is announcing that it will also discontinue the production of acetate flake at the Ocotlan site, essentially ceasing all manufacturing operations at the facility by October 31, 2019.

Marcel van Amerongen, Vice President of Celanese's Acetate Tow business, stated: "With China manufacturers completing plans for expanding acetate flake capacity in 2020, demands for imported flake will be reduced significantly. This, in combination with our ability to source additional volumes from our Narrows, Virginia facility, supports our decision to completely shut down our Ocotlan facility. This decision allows Celanese to further optimize cost and footprint as part of the long-term strategy for our acetate business to maintain its competitive position in the marketplace."

The company will continue to serve its global acetate tow customers via its wholly owned facilities in Lanaken, Belgium, and Narrows, Virginia, USA, as well as through the company's acetate tow joint venture partners in China.

Celanese has taken steps to strengthen its competitive position in the acetate tow market by lowering raw materials cost, reducing fixed costs and aligning with anticipated industry demand trends, such as optimizing production across all acetate tow manufacturing locations, as well as having made significant capital investments in the company's manufacturing operations.

Van Amerongen concluded: "This was an extremely difficult decision given the impact to our employees and the local community, and we are dedicated to making this transition as smooth as possible. All impacted employees will be eligible for a comprehensive package of benefits which includes outplacement assistance, generous severance pay and other benefits intended to help individuals and families make a successful transition to the next phase of life. Today's action is not a reflection of the quality of work performed by our employees at the Ocotlan site or the ongoing work performed by our employees in other acetate production sites, but instead the result of the critical evaluation of all strategic options to ensure the continued success of our acetate tow business."

Financial details regarding this action will be disclosed in upcoming periodic reports as required by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

As MRC informed before, Celanese Corporatio has increase May list and off-list selling prices for Vinyl Acetate Monomer (VAM) sold in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Outside China (AOC). The price increases below were effective for orders shipped on or after 24 April, 2019, or as contracts otherwise allow, and are incremental to any previously announced increases. Thus, VAM prices rose, as follows:

- by EUR100/mt - for Europe, the Middle East & Africa;
- by USD50/mt - for AOC.

Celanese Corporation is a global technology leader in the production of differentiated chemistry solutions and specialty materials used in most major industries and consumer applications. Based in Dallas, Celanese employs approximately 7,600 employees worldwide and had 2017 net sales of USD6.1 billion.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Well Resources Inc. announced that construction is complete for two brownfield Ionikylation units at Sinopec’s Anqing and Wuhan refineries, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Each unit is designed to produce 300,000 tonnes-per-year of high quality alkylate with research octane numbers ranging from 96-98.

Commissioning of the Anqing Ionikylation unit is scheduled for mid-July and the Wuhan unit will be commissioned by the end of the third quarter. Sinopec successfully commissioned its first Ionikylation unit earlier this year at its Jiujiang refinery.

Ionikylation has become the preferred alkylation technology for refiners throughout Asia-Pacific as they seek to meet increasing clean fuel standards in a safe and environmentally friendly manner. Ionikylation uses a proprietary composite ionic liquid catalyst that eliminates reliance on dangerous, corrosive, and hazardous chemicals such as hydrogen fluoride and sulfuric acid.

The entire Ionikylation system is constructed using carbon steel, and is a cost-effective option for refiners that are looking to improve the safety of their operations without sacrificing utility.

As MRC informed earlier, in June 2019, SIBUR and Sinopec signed a number of agreements concerning the production and sale of petrochemicals.

China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation or Sinopec Limited is a Chinese oil and gas company based in Beijing, China. Sinopec's business includes oil and gas exploration, refining, and marketing; production and sales of petrochemicals, chemical fibers, chemical fertilizers, and other chemical products; storage and pipeline transportation of crude oil and natural gas; import, export and import/export agency business of crude oil, natural gas, refined oil products, petrochemicals, and other chemicals.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Solutions notified union workers on Wednesday that it was delaying planned layoffs until Aug. 25, according to two sources familiar with the company's operations, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The refiner, owned by Credit Suisse Asset Management and Baird Capital, initially planned to lay off union workers in mid-July as they seek to close the plant following a destructive fire last month.

The Girard Point section of the 330,000 bpd refinery complex has been shut since the June 21 fire that destroyed an alky unit.

The company had initially planned on shutting the Point Breeze section of the plant this week, but has pushed it back, the sources said. However, the section will run at significantly lower rates and without a gasoline-making unit or the largest crude unit, the sources said. Other products made at the refinery include distillates such as jet fuel and intermediates.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Michael COUDYSER, CEO of Corsica Sole, an innovator in photovoltaics, and Pascal MILLET,
Director of the Arkema plant in Saint-Auban, has inaugurated a solar power plant within this plant, in the
presence of Rene MASSETTE, President of the Departmental Council of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, said the company.

With a power of 10 MWp, its annual production will be equal to 19 GWh. It covers 10 of the 51 hectares of the
plant, itself specialized in the production of solvents for the manufacture of fluoropolymers. The Saint-Auban
site has the special feature of being fully located within the perimeter of an operating Seveso-classified
industrial site.

Much of the industrial brownfield land at the plant has been repurposed in this way, solar power offering it a
second, more environmentally friendly, life. This contaminated land formerly served as the location of solvent
production workshops.

The energy produced is used for local consumption to power the operation of the Arkema plant. This
environmentally fragile industrial site thus becomes a driver of clean solutions, producing and consuming green
energy.

More generally speaking, this innovative project shows that the operation of Seveso sites offers promising
solutions for dealing with the lack of land in France available for the installation of photovoltaic units.

"This plant,” explains Michael COUDYSER, “is proof of Corsica Sole’s capacity to provide new responses to
complex problems. Innovation is in our DNA. We have already shown this with the opening of the first plant with
energy storage in 2015 in Corsica and construction of the first solar parasol in the world by our subsidiary,
Driv’Eco, in 2016."

For Chantal DEGRENDELE, Environmental Director of Arkema, “this project is part of the sustainable
development and energy transition policy of Arkema. It’s why we supported the Corsica Sole project and
participated actively in its implementation. We are also in charge of maintenance for Corsica Sole. We would like
to build on this experience to implement renewable energy solutions on other sites of the Group.”
Winner of the 2016 call for tenders of the Commission de regulation de l'energie (the French energy regulation
commission), the Saint-Auban plant represents an investment of 13 million euros with a 20-year fixed–rate
power purchase agreement.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) – The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company announced that it has completed the de-bottlenecking of its world-scale Ultra High Purity Dicyclopentadiene (UHP-DCPD) Recovery Unit at its chemical plant in Beaumont, Texas, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The DCPD concentration unit was constructed in late 2016 to purify DCPD up to the 99+ percent purity levels. The Goodyear-Beaumont facility has been refining crude C5s into High Purity Isoprene monomer, Piperylenes and DCPD since the 1970s.

Ultra High Purity DCPD is used in the manufacturing of Reaction Injection Molded poly-DCPD tractor truck fascia, hoods, fenders and air deflectors. It is also used to manufacture specialty chemicals such as time release fertilizer coatings, thermoset electrical circuit boards, aroma chemicals for laundry detergents and antioxidants. UHP-DCPD is also used to make EPDM rubber and ENB, a diene monomer in EPDM.
MRC