Formosa conducts maintenance at PVC and VCM plants in Texas

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Formosa Plastics USA is conducting maintenance works at its 798,000 mt/year polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plant and an upstream 753,000 mt/year vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) unit at its Point Comfort, Texas complex in February, reported S&P Global with reference to a source familiar with the company operations.

A company spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The company originally planned to conduct those turnarounds in the fourth quarter of this year, but pushed the work to early 2020. The maintenance works are expected to finish in H2 March 2020.

Market participants said the company was boosting its PVC stocks ahead of the work to ensure contract customers remain supplied as usual, as is typical in the lead-up to a turnaround. However, market sources expected export volume availability to be limited in February.

As MRC informed before, Formosa has recently started up its new 1.5 million tons/year cracker in Point Comfort, Texas. The company has been ramping up the operating rates of the cracker.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, contrary to seasonal factors, Russian producers of unmixed PVC have maintained a high level of capacity utilisation. Russia's overal PVC output totalled 91,700 tonnes in January 2020, up by 4% year on year. January production of unmixed PVC was 91,700 tonnes versus 87,760 tonnes in January 2019 and 81,400 tonnes in December 2019. Thus, despite relatively weak demand for resin from the domestic market, the average capacity utilisation exceeded 95% last month. Russia's overall PVC production reached 975,000 tonnes in 2019, compared to 958,600 tonnes a year earlier.

Formosa Petrochemical is involved primarily in the business of refining crude oil, selling refined petroleum products and producing and selling olefins (including ethylene, propylene, butadiene and BTX) from its naphtha cracking operations. Formosa Petrochemical is also the largest olefins producer in Taiwan and its olefins products are mostly sold to companies within the Formosa Group. Among the company's chemical products are paraxylene (PX), phenyl ethylene, acetone and pure terephthalic acid (PTA). The company"s plastic products include acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) resins, polystyrene (PS), polypropylene (PP) and panlite (PC).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The supply of imported injection moulding PET chips to Kazakhstan increased by 56% in the twelve months of 2019 compared to the same period in 2018 and amounted to 54,300 tonnes against 34,800 tonnes in January - December 2018, said MRC analysts.

External deliveries of injection moulding PET chips to the country continue to decline for the third month in a row. December PET imports in the country were 3,500 tonnes, almost four tomes exceeding the volume of imports of the same period last year.

Imports of injection moulding PET chips in November amounted to 3,900 tonnes. The key supplier of PET chips to Kazakhstan was China, with a 99% share in total imports.

The import of Chinese-made material increased this year by 76% and amounted to 53,500 tonnes against 30,500 tonnes in January-December 2018.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd's (PCG) revenue decreased in 2019 to RM16.37 billion from RM19.58 billion previously, largely due to lower product prices partially offset by the weakening of the ringgit against US dollar, according to NewStraitsTimes with reference to a filing with Bursa Malaysia..

PCG recorded a lower net profit of RM2.81 billion for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2019 from RM4.79 billion a year ago.

Basic earnings per share declined to 35 sen from 60 sen before.

The company has declared a second single tier interim dividend of seven sen per share, with its ex-date on March 12, 2020 and payable on March 27, 2020. Dividend payment for FY19 amounted to 18 sen against 32 sen in FY18.

PCG said its plant utilisation was at 92 per cent in FY19 which was comparable to the corresponding year. Consequently, production and sales volumes in FY19 were comparable with FY18.

"Overall average product prices were lower than the corresponding year in tandem with lower crude oil price and softer market demand," it said.

Moving forward, PCG said the results of the group’s operations were expected to be primarily influenced by global economic conditions, foreign exchange rate movements, utilisation rate of its production facilities, and petrochemical products prices which have a high correlation to crude oil price, particularly for the olefins and derivatives segment.

"The utilisation of our production facilities is dependent on plant maintenance activities and sufficient availability of feedstock as well as utilities supply.

"The group will continue with its operational excellence programme and supplier relationship management to sustain plant utilisation level at above industry benchmark," it said.

PCG expects product prices to stabilise in the current quarter in view of supply limitation following planned regional plant turnarounds, supported by stable demand.

"However, we remain cautious amidst market uncertainties caused by the ongoing US-China trade disputes and the Covid-19 outbreak which could further dampen gross domestic product growth," it added.

As MRC wrote previously, in June 2019, Petronas and Saudi Aramco started operations at their new 1.2-million-tonnes-per-year naphtha cracker. The cracker is part of the USD2.7 billion joint-venture oil refinery and petrochemical project known as RAPID - or Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development - located in Pengerang in the state of Johor, at the southern tip of peninsular Malaysia.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,093,260 tonnes in 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments rose from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,260,400 tonnes in January-December 2019, up by 4% year on year. Supply of almost all grades of propylene polymers increased, except for statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers).

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) -- Celanese Corporation, a global chemical and specialty materials company, has declared a quarterly cash dividend of USD0.62 per share on its common stock, payable February 28, 2020, as per the company's press release.

The dividend is payable to stockholders of record as of February 18, 2020.

As MRC reported before, Celanese Corporation has undertaken a turnaround at its vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) unit in Singapore. The company shut the unit for maintenance on February 4, 2020. The unit was likely to remain off-line for about 10-12 days, but then the restart was delayed. Located in Jurong Island, Singapore, the unit has a production capacity of 210,000 mt/year.

VAM is one the main feedstocks for the production of ethylene-vinyl-acetate (EVA).

According to MRC's DataScope report, December 2019 EVA imports to Russia dropped by 4,1% year on year to 3,600 tonnes from 3,760 tonnes a year earlier, and overall imports of this grade of ethylene copolymer into the Russian Federation decreased in January-December 2019 by 17,8% year on year to 39,55 tonnes (48,09 tonnes in 2018).

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 7,700 employees worldwide and had 2019 net sales of USD6.3 billion.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- World No. 1 oil producer Saudi Aramco is set to gain unconditional EU antitrust approval for its USD69 billion buy of a 70% stake in petrochemicals group Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC), reported Reuters with reference to people familiar with the matter.

Aramco announced the deal to acquire the controlling stake from sovereign investor Public Investment Fund (PIF) in March last year, a move key to its diversification into refining and petrochemicals.

Riyadh-headquartered SABIC, the world’s fourth largest petrochemicals group, has operations in over 50 countries.

The European Commission, which is scheduled to decide on the case by Feb. 27, declined to comment.

Competition watchdogs in India and a number of other countries have already given the green light without demanding concessions.

Aramco’s downstream expansion strategy tracks rivals such as Exxon Mobil, BP, Total and Shell, which have over the years transformed themselves from merely oil companies to energy companies with extensive upstream and downstream operations.

As MRC wrote earlier, in October 2019, McDermott International announced that it had been awarded a contract by Saudi Aramco and Total Raffinage Chimie (Total) for their joint venture (JV) Amiral steam cracker project at Jubail, Saudi Arabia. Amiral is a JV in which Aramco holds 62.5% and Total the rest. The plant, designed to produce 1.5 million metric tons/year (MMt/y) of ethylene, will be one of the world's largest mixed-feed crackers.

Aramco and Total launched their USD5-billion Amiral JV project in October 2018. The steam cracker will be fed with a mixture of 50% ethane and refinery off-gases. It will supply ethylene to a downstream 1 MMt/y polyethylene manufacturing complex and other petrochemical products. The project aims to fully exploit operational synergies with the adjacent refinery, owned by Satorp, another JV between Aramco and Total. Third-party investors, including Daelim and Ineos, will locate plants at the value park adjacent to Amiral with a combined investment of USD4 billion. A final investment decision is expected in 2021.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,093,260 tonnes in 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments rose from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,260,400 tonnes in January-December 2019, up by 4% year on year. Supply of almost all grades of propylene polymers increased, except for statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers).

Saudi Aramco is an integrated oil and chemicals company, a global leader in hydrocarbon production, refining processes and distribution, as well as one of the largest global oil exporters. It manages proven reserves of crude oil and condensate estimated at 261.1bn barrels, and produces 9.54 million bbl daily. Headquartered in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, the company employs over 61,000 staff in 77 countries.
MRC