Evonik began operations in China

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Evonik resumed full operation at its 10 plants and four offices in China, said the company.

Since its outbreak, Evonik has been closely monitoring situation. In order to protect our employees and ensure safe operations, we are taking various measures according to the national and local disease control requirements.

All 10 plants and 4 offices of Evonik China have resumed full operation on February 10. Meanwhile, we are pulling together the global procurement and supply chain resources of the Evonik Group to support the production of our customers and partners. The whole business team of Evonik is ready to assist you in any emergent order for disease control purposes, seeking every possibility of fast delivery in line with local policies. It is our responsibility to provide professional, high-quality services to every customer and partner, anytime and anywhere.

Fighting against epidemic demands immediate action. In the past few weeks, many of our customers and partners were among the first movers to make donations and efforts to help control the spread of nCoV. Deeply impressed and inspired by them, Evonik also made our own contributions to the battle against nCoV through joint donation and free supply of raw materials urgently needed on the frontline.

Up to now, zero case of nCoV infection has been reported neither in Evonik China nor in other regions Evonik operates. We are doing everything within our power to keep the record. At the very beginning of the outbreak, Evonik China has assembled a regional emergency response team to guide the disease control work and the implementation of the production and operation plan. Our business teams maintain close contact with our customers and partners to fulfill their needs promptly. Our function teams are joining forces in employee communication, PPE procurement and distribution, supplier emergency management, etc. to protect our employees and operations, while at the same time to reduce the impacts to our customers and partners to the minimum.

As MRC informed earlier, Evonik joined with other manufacturers in the High Phthalates Panel (HPP), a sector group of the American Chemistry Council (ACC), in a voluntary manufacturer request to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to conduct a broad-based risk evaluation of the uses of DINP. The EPA granted the request in early December 2019, a decision welcomed by Evonik. The EPA’s risk evaluation will be performed using the best available science and weight of scientific evidence. The process will be documented and open for public review and comment.

As per MRC's ScanPlast, Russia's overall production of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) reached 975,000 tonnes in 2019, up by 2% year on year. At the same time, not all Russian producers raised their output. December total production of unmixed PVC was about 81,400 tonnes versus 84,600 tonnes a month earlier, RusVinyl decreased their capacity utilisation in November. Overall PVC production reached 975,000 tonnes in January-December 2019, compared to 958,600 tonnes a year earlier. All plants raised their output, except for Kaustik Volgograd.

Evonik is one of the world leaders in specialty chemicals. The focus on more specialty businesses, customer-oriented 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. In fiscal 2018, the enterprise with more than 32,000 employees generated sales of €13.3 billion and an operating profit (adjusted EBITDA) of €2.15 billion from continuing operations.

Evonik regards China as one of the driving forces of the global economy and we consequently endeavor to grow our business here. The company now employs over 2,500 employees and has in total of 10 production sites in China.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BP pledged to sharply reduce its carbon emissions by 2050 as part of a reinvention of the 111-year old company by newly-appointed chief executive Bernard Looney, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

BP on Wednesday set more ambitious targets than rivals such as Royal Dutch Shell and Total but fell short of commitments made by smaller Spanish peer Repsol. “We need to reinvent BP,” Looney said in a statement.

The world’s top oil and gas companies have come under heavy pressure from investors and climate activists to fall in line with the 2015 Paris climate accord which aims to limit global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels.

“The world’s carbon budget is finite and running out fast; we need a rapid transition to net zero. We all want energy that is reliable and affordable, but that is no longer enough. It must also be cleaner,” he added.

U.S. groups such as Exxon, Chevron and ConocoPhillips are far less ambitious with their greenhouse gas related targets than their European rivals. BP said it plans to halve the intensity of the carbon emissions of the oil and gas products it sells, known as Scope 3 emissions, by 2050.

A pioneering “Beyond Petroleum” plan in the early 2000s to build a large renewables business ended with huge losses. Over the past two years, Europe’s top oil and gas companies have ceded some ground to growing investor pressure to tackle climate change by reducing carbon emissions.

Intensity-based targets measure the amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per unit of energy or barrel of oil and gas produced. That means that absolute emissions can rise with growing production, even if the headline intensity metric falls.

Scope 3 emissions vastly exceed greenhouse gases caused by the production of crude oil, natural gas and refined products, including electricity generation, typically by a factor of about six among oil majors, according to Reuters calculations.

In one of its biggest changes, BP will dismantle the traditional model of an oil and gas production, or upstream, unit and a refining, trading and marketing, or downstream, unit. Its new organisation includes four units: Production and Operations; Customers and Products; Gas and Low Carbon Energy; and Innovation & Engineering.

s MRC reported before, in September 2019, six world's major petrochemical companies in Flanders, Belgium, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, and the Netherlands (Trilateral Region) announced the creation of a consortium to jointly investigate how naphtha or gas steam crackers could be operated using renewable electricity instead of fossil fuels. The Cracker of the Future consortium, which includes BASF, Borealis, BP, LyondellBasell, SABIC and Total, aims to produce base chemicals while also significantly reducing carbon emissions. The companies agreed to invest in R&D and knowledge sharing as they assess the possibility of transitioning their base chemical production to renewable electricity.

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).

BP is one of the world's leading international oil and gas companies, providing its customers with fuel for transportation, energy for heat and light, retail services and petrochemicals products for everyday items.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ascend Performance Materials, an integrated polyamide (PA) 66 supplier, has signed an agreement to purchase Poliblend and Esseti Plast GD from D’Ottavio Group, according to Kemicalinfo.

The acquisition includes a manufacturing facility in Mozzate, Italy, the masterbatch portfolio of Esseti Plast GD and the engineering plastics portfolio of Poliblend, which consists of virgin and recycled grades of PA 66, PA 6, PBT and POM.

“This strategic acquisition marks an important transformation for our company as we grow our European manufacturing and distribution footprint,” said Phil McDivitt, Ascend’s president and CEO.

Giancarlo D’Ottavio, Poliblend’s president, will continue to run Poliblend’s operations and join Ascend’s European management team. “Combining the shared expertise of our companies creates opportunities to expand our reach while continuing to provide the high-quality products and service that our customers have come to trust,” said D’Ottavio.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter.

As MRC wrote previously, in May 2016, Ascend Performance Materials said it had put plans to build a propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plant on hold because of market conditions. The two-train project at Chocolate Bayou, TX, with a combined capacity of more than 1 million m.t./year of propylene, was expected to become the largest such facility in the United States and cost an estimated USD1.2 billion. It has already been delayed once from the original onstream date of 2016 to mid-2019. Ascend is expected to use the UOP Oleflex PDH technology.

Propylene is the main feedstock for the production of polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, 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).

Ascend Performance Materials is a global leader in the production of Nylon 6,6.

Poliblend was founded in 1999 and offers compounding and masterbatch services, including color and additive concentrates that enhance the appeal and end-use performance of plastics products, packaging, and fibers.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) – Specialty chemicals company LANXESS has added a plant-based raw material variant to its Aktiplast PP product range, said the company.

These processing promoters for polymer blends are used in the production of tires and all kinds of technical rubber articles. Aktiplast PP-veg, which is based on renewable raw materials, was developed specifically in response to a customer requirement from Asia. In this way, the LANXESS Rhein Chemie business unit aims to enable rubber processors to reduce their CO2 footprint. An international tire manufacturer from Europe has already expressed great interest.

Unlike the conventional product, Aktiplast PP-veg is manufactured only from vegetable oils. The proportion of renewable raw materials in Aktiplast PP-veg is around 90 percent, so that its CO2 footprint is significantly reduced. The starting point are raw materials made from the fruits of oil palms. They are ecologically more sustainable than coconut palms, rapeseed or sunflowers, as they provide by far the highest oil yield per hectare of farmland area.

The processing promoter is particularly suitable for polymer blends based on natural rubber. It reduces the viscosity of rubber compounds and significantly improves injection and extrusion behavior, also in combination with functionalized polymers. Depending on the compound composition, the product improves scorch behavior, promotes vulcanization and ensures easy demolding without contamination of the mold.

This company release contains certain forward-looking statements, including assumptions, opinions, expectations and views of the company or cited from third party sources. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could cause the actual results, financial position, development or performance of LANXESS AG to differ materially from the estimations expressed or implied herein. LANXESS AG does not guarantee that the assumptions underlying such forward-looking statements are free from errors nor does it accept any responsibility for the future accuracy of the opinions expressed in this presentation or the actual occurrence of the forecast developments. No representation or warranty (expressed or implied) is made as to, and no reliance should be placed on, any information, estimates, targets and opinions, contained herein, and no liability whatsoever is accepted as to any errors, omissions or misstatements contained herein, and accordingly, no representative of LANXESS AG or any of its affiliated companies or any of such person's officers, directors or employees accept any liability whatsoever arising directly or indirectly from the use of this document.

As MRC informed earlier, Vinmar Polymers America will distribute Lanxess Corp.'s high-performance plastics to customers in North America.

Earlier, Covestro closed the sale of its European polycarbonates (PC) sheets business to the Munich-based Serafin Group effective January 2, 2020. This includes key management and sales functions throughout Europe as well as production sites in Belgium and Italy.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated consumption of PC granules (excluding imports and exports to\\from Belarus) fell in January-November 2019 by 14% year on year to 70,700 tonnes (62,000 tonnes a year earlier).

LANXESS is a leading specialty chemicals company with sales of EUR 7.2 billion in 2018. The company currently has about 15,500 employees in 33 countries and is represented at 58 production sites worldwide. The core business of LANXESS is the development, manufacturing and marketing of chemical intermediates, additives, specialty chemicals and plastics. LANXESS is listed in the leading sustainability indices Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI World and Europe) and FTSE4Good.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- US crude stocks rose more than expected while gasoline and distillate inventories fell last week, reported Reuters with reference to the Energy Information Administration's statement.

Crude inventories rose by 7.5 million barrels in the week to Feb. 7 to 435 million barrels, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 3 million-barrel rise.

Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub rose by 1.7 million barrels in the last week, EIA said.

Refinery crude runs rose by 48,000 barrels per day in the last week, EIA said. Refinery utilization rates rose by 0.6 percentage points.

US gasoline stocks fell by 95,000 barrels in the week to 261.1 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 546,000-barrel rise.

Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 2 million barrels in the week to 143.2 million barrels, versus expectations for a 557,000-barrel drop, the EIA data showed.

Net US crude imports rose last week by 806,000 barrels per day in the last week, EIA said.
MRC