Restaurant giant Yum Brands to phase out EPS packaging by 2022

MOSCOW (MRC) -- After being lobbied by a non-profit organization, quick service restaurant company Yum Brands will eliminate the use of expanded polystyrene (EPS) packaging – better known as Styrofoam – worldwide by 2022, said Canplastics.

The company has also committed to making all of its packaging fully compostable or reusable by 2025. A shareholder proposal filed by non-profit As You Sow urging the company to phase out EPS foam among other actions to improve packaging sustainability was supported by 33 per cent of shares voted with a share value of USD7 billion in 2019.

Yum Brands owns the Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and Kentucky Fried Chicken global restaurant chains. Collectively across its brands, it has over 49,000 locations, making it the largest quick-service restaurant company in the world.

EPS foam is used mostly for side dish take-out containers in about 40 of Yum’s global markets, including 4,000 U.S. locations and 2,700 non-U.S. locations.

As You Sow previously lobbied for change at McDonald’s. In 2017, similar As You Sow proposals received support from 32 per cent of McDonald’s shareholders, causing McDonald’s to agree to eliminate foam packaging by the end of 2018.

As per MRC's ScanPlast, overall imports of general purpose polystyrene (GPPS) and high impact polystyrene (HIPS) to Ukraine dropped in the first month of 2020 by 8% year on year to 1,440 tonnes. This figure was at 1,570 tonnes in January 2019. GPPS and HIPS imports were 1,940 tonnes in December 2019.
MRC

SK Energy to cut run rates by 10-15% as coronavirus hits demand

MOSCOW (MRC) -- South Korea's top refiner SK Energy will reduce its crude distillation units' run rates by 10-15% in March as exports and domestic demand have been hit by the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, reported Reuters with reference to a company spokesman's statement.

SK Energy, owned by SK Innovation, runs five crude distillation units with a total refining capacity of 840,000 barrels-per-day in the southeastern city of Ulsan.

As MRC wrote previously, SK Global Chemical restarted its naphtha cracker in late January 2018 after a brief but unplanned shutdown earlier in the day. The 660,000 tonnes-per-year (tpy) naphtha cracker began to operate normally the following day. Located in Ulsan, South Korea, the No. 2 cracker has a production capacity of 690,000 mt/year.

SK Global Chemical also operates a smaller 200,000 tpy cracker at the site.

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).
MRC

Lukoil replaced the head of the board of directors for the first time in 20 years

MOSCOW (MRC) - Lukoil’s board of directors has compiled a list of candidates to vote on the company's board of directors at the annual general meeting of shareholders, the company said.

The current chairman of the board, Valery Graifer, is not included in the list of candidates for the new composition of the board of directors of Lukoil.

Graefer has been in charge of the board since 2000. November 20, 2019 he turned 90 years old. Graifer owns a 0.012% stake in Lukoil.

Instead of Graifer, the vice-president of Lukoil Nikolai Nikolaev was nominated to the board of directors.

The following members are recommended for election to the company’s board of directors: former Deputy Minister of Finance Sergey Shatalov, ex-Federal Chancellor of Austria, member of the Supervisory Board of RWE AG, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation Wolfgang Schussel, former manager of Troika Dialog, former head of Deutsche Bank in Russia, now the independent director of Rusnano and president of Matrix Advisors LLC Pavel Teplukhin, head of LUKOIL Vagit Alekperov, top managers of the company Ravil Maganov and Leonid Fedun, former chief accountant of Lyubov NK Khoba, Rector of Moscow State Law University. O.E. Kutafina Victor Blazheev, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Russian-British Chamber of Commerce Roger Mannings and member of the American-Russian Business Council (ARDS), expert of the Valdai International Discussion Club, president of TTG Global LLC Toby Gati.

Also, the Director General of Russian Innovative Fuel and Energy Company LLC (RITEK LLC) Nikolay Nikolaev was nominated for election.

Earlier it was reported that Lukoil took the second place in market capitalization in Russia after the company's shares updated their historic highs against corporate news.

Lukoil is one of the leading vertically integrated oil companies in Russia. The main activities of the company include exploration and production of oil and gas, production and sale of petroleum products. Lukoil is the second largest privately owned oil company in the world in terms of proven hydrocarbon reserves. The structure of Lukoil includes one of the largest petrochemical enterprises in Russia - Stavrolen. Previously, the company also included Karpatneftekhim, the largest polymer producer in Ukraine, but in February 2017, Lukoil completed a sale of this asset.
MRC

Imports of injection moulding PET chips to Russia increased by 31% in January

MOSCOW (MRC) - Imports of PET chips into Russia increased by 31% in January of this year compared to the same time a year ago and reached 11,570 tonnes compared to 8,8700 tonnes (excluding supplies from Belarus over the past two months), according to MRC's DataScope.

A month earlier, import deliveries of material to the Russian market were at the level of 14,940 tonnes. The share of Chinese material was 58% (6,700 tonnes) in January versus 75% (11,600 tonnes) a month earlier.

In January, the share of Chinese material in total imports amounted to 94% (8,300 tonnes).

The largest Chinese material suppliers were Jiangsu Sanfangxiang - 2,900 tonnes, Yisheng - 1,700 tonnes, Indorama - 1,200 tonnes.


MRC

Ukraine reduces GPPS and HIPS imports by 8% in January 2020

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Overall imports of general purpose polystyrene (GPPS) and high impact polystyrene (HIPS) to Ukraine dropped in the first month of 2020 by 8% year on year to 1,440 tonnes, according to MRC's DataScope report.

This figure was at 1,570 tonnes in January 2019.

GPPS and HIPS imports were 1,940 tonnes in December 2019.


At the same time, Ukrainian companies increased their HIPS imports in January 2020 by 48% year on year: from 570 tonnes in January 2019 to 840 tonnes, imports were 660 tonnes a month earlier.

At the same time GPPS imports fell in January 2020 by 40% to 600 tonnes from 1,000 tonnes a year earlier. Imports of material were at 1,280 tonnes in December 2019.

Imports of Russian GPPS and HIPS of Nizhnekamskneftekhim to Ukraine grew in the first month of 2020 by 6% year on year to 699 tonnes. This figure was at 660 tonnes in January 2019. Imports of material from Russia was in December 2019 at the minimum for the recent years - 480 tonnes, down by 46% from the stated period.

Nizhnekamskneftekhim's material accounted for 48% in the overall structure of imports to the Ukrainian market in the first months of 2020, compared to 42% in January 2019.

MRC