Nova Chemicals suspends construction activities on Ontario and Alberta projects

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Nova Chemicals Corp. is making substantial reductions in its construction activities in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, reported Kemicalinfo.

"We are adjusting construction work on our new AST2 polyethylene facility and Corunna cracker expansion projects in Ontario to temporarily focus on only the most critical work, which will result in a reduction of approximately 90% of our total construction workforce," Nova Chemicals CEO Todd Karran said.

Karran said that the company’s commissioning and construction activities have been suspended on its furnace refurbishment project in Alberta.

"It is too early to say what impact COVID-19 will have on our overall construction schedule, and a phased ramp-up will be considered at the appropriate time to allow for the safe completion of construction activities," he added.

Nova Chemicals’ manufacturing sites remain operational and product delivery has not been impacted currently by the pandemic.

Chemical industry has been listed as essential critical infrastructure in the US and an important place of work in Canada.

"Despite borders being closed to the north and south, we do not anticipate any issues with cross-border shipments at this time as trade is considered critical and distribution/supply chains in North America are open," Karran said.

"We have adjusted polyethylene and expandable polystyrene production to provide sufficient supply of resins for food packaging, medical supplies, and other high-demand goods," he added.

As MRC reported earlier, in January 2017, NOVA Chemicals announced the start up of its new world-scale linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) gas phase reactor at its Joffre, Alberta site.

Besides, NOVA Chemicals expanded ethylene production capacity by 20% at its cracker in Corunna, Ontario from the previous capacity of about 839,000 tpy. The expansion occurred between 2014 and 2018 and was part of a wave of expansions and upgrades to NOVA's existing facilities near Sarnia, Ontario. Other upgrades in the plan included a debottlenecking of the Moore low-density polyethylene (LDPE) line and a retrofit of the Moore high-density polyethylene (HDPE) line.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 383,760 tonnes in the first two month of 2020, up by 14% year on year. High density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments increased due to the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 192,760 tonnes in January-February 2020, down by 6% year on year. Homopolymer PP accounted for the main decrease in imports.

NOVA Chemicals Corporation is a plastics and chemical company headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and is wholly-owned ultimately by Mubadala Investment Company of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
MRC

Petrochemical group to use Honeywell UOP hydrogen technology for new China complex

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Honeywell UOP announced that Shenghong Petrochemical Group will use five Honeywell UOP Polybed pressure swing adsorption (PSA) units to supply high-purity hydrogen for a new refinery complex in Lianyuangang, Jiangsu Province in China, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

"Petrochemical manufacturers including Shenghong Petrochemical increasingly need extremely pure, reliable and economical supplies of hydrogen, and UOP’s PSA technology continues to be among the most advanced and efficient source of pure hydrogen in the industry," said Bryan Glover, vice president and general manager, Petrochemicals & Refining Technologies at Honeywell UOP. "Hydrogen purification is an essential component for making clean transportation fuels, remove contaminants and improve the quality of fuels and petrochemicals."

Polybed PSA systems are skid-mounted, modular units complete with hardware, adsorbents, control systems and embedded process technology, enabling quick and efficient installation to reduce cost and downtime.

The PSA process uses proprietary UOP adsorbents to remove impurities at high pressure from hydrogen-containing process streams, allowing hydrogen to be recovered and upgraded to more than 99.9% purity to meet refining needs. In addition to recovering and purifying hydrogen from steam reformers and refinery off-gases, the Polybed PSA system can be used to produce hydrogen from other sources such as ethylene off-gas, methanol off-gas and partial-oxidation synthesis gas.

Since its introduction in 1966, UOP has improved Polybed PSA technology with new generations of adsorbents, enhanced cycle configurations, modified process and equipment designs and more reliable control systems and equipment. Today, Honeywell UOP has installed more than 1,100 Polybed PSA units in more than 70 countries. As a result, Polybed PSA is a proven technology with dozens of large-scale unit references globally.

As MRC wrote before, Fujian Meide Petrochemical Co. Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Packing Group Company Ltd, will utilize the Honeywell Process Reliability Advisor for prescriptive monitoring of on-purpose propylene at its new UOP C3 Oleflex unit in Fuzhou, Fujian Province. The plant is designed to convert propane into 660,000 t/y of propylene.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 383,760 tonnes in the first two month of 2020, up by 14% year on year. High density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments increased due to the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 192,760 tonnes in January-February 2020, down by 6% year on year. Homopolymer PP accounted for the main decrease in imports.

Honeywell is a global diversified technology and manufacturing company with a wide range of aerospace products and services, control, sensing and security technologies for buildings, homes and industry, turbochargers, automotive products, specialty chemicals, electronic and advanced materials, process technology for refining and petrochemicals and energy efficient products and solutions for homes, business and transportation.
MRC

Celanese completes acquisition of Nouryon redispersible polymer powders business

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Celanese Corporation, a global chemical and specialty materials company, has announced it has completed the acquisition of Nouryon’s redispersible polymer powders business offered under the Elotex brand, according to the company's press release.

With the completion of the acquisition - having cleared all necessary closing conditions, regulatory and works council requirements - Celanese takes ownership of Nouryon’s global production facilities for redispersible polymer powders across Europe and Asia, all products under the Elotex portfolio, and all customer agreements, technology and commercial facilities globally.

Celanese will integrate the Elotex product portfolio and production facilities into its global vinyl acetate ethylene (VAE) emulsions business to further meet global product demand. Elotex has production facilities in these locations: Frankfurt, Germany; Geleen, Netherlands; Moosleerau, Switzerland; Shanghai, China.

Elotex manufacturing facilities in Frankfurt and Geleen are co-located and operationally integrated with Celanese emulsions assets at these locations. Elotex R&D and Technical Services functions are located in Sempach, Switzerland.

Elotex is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of redispersible polymer powders for growing applications including: self-leveling flooring and wall texturing smoothing/painting. exterior thermal insulation composite systems (ETICS) which provide exterior walls with an insulated and waterproof surface, applied as a topcoat by trowel or spraying, cement tile adhesives and grouts for floor and wall tiles, mosaic and flat natural stone on dimensionally stable sub floors, gypsum plaster and joint fillers, polymer binding systems, and cement and time-based renders.

Celanese announced its intent to acquire Elotex on January 30. Financial details of the acquisition will be reported as part of the company’s regular quarterly financial disclosure.

As MRC reported earlier, Celanese Corporation has restarted its vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) unit in Singapore. The company has resumed operations at the unit on March 16, 2020. The unit was shut since February 4, 2020 following a fire at the site. Located in Jurong Island, Singapore, the unit has a production capacity of 210,000 mt/year.

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

According to MRC's DataScope report, February EVA imports to Russia rose by 9,83% year on year to 3,107 tonnes from 2,829 tonnes a year earlier, and overall imports of this grade of ethylene copolymer into the Russian Federation increased in January-February 2020 by 8,36% year on year to 6,194 tonnes (5,716 tonnes a year earlier).

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

Covid-19 compounds European refiners’ challenges

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The demand impact from widespread lockdowns causes an immediate demand headache. But longer-term structural obstacles remain, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

“The prospects for European gasoline look particularly grim at the moment.” So says Chris Judge, vice-president, crude and oil products at price reporting agency Argus Media and an analyst of European refined products markets for well over 20 years.

Or, rather said. As, to put into context the scale of both the short and longer-term challenges facing the European refining sector, Judge uttered these words in late February, before the extent of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on European and global products demand was clear.

These short-term challenges are daunting enough in themselves. The grounding of the majority of the world’s plane and strict lockdowns on people’s mobility bite hard into transport fuel demand.

Requirements for jet fuel have fallen dramatically. Consultancy Energy Aspects warns that refineries in Spain and the Netherlands are at particular risk of being forced to cut jet fuel output. “The financial pressures from [the pandemic] event will perhaps accelerate the rationalisation of capacity in Europe,” says Robert Campbell, the firm’s head of oil products research.

Not every refinery throughput is hit as hard as jet and middle distillates. There will be a more muted impact for refiners that produce a lot of marine fuel, according to Eugene Lindell, a senior consultant at research firm JBC Energy.

"From the [marine fuel] refiners’ side, we do not see any production issues as the low sulphur fuel oil crack is expected to be higher than the gasoline crack meaning that refiners will have an incentive to supply this fuel first,” says Lindell. “One complicating issue is that the low outright crude price automatically creates a narrower price spread between clean and dirty fuel. This is bad news for ship owners that invested in scrubbers, as it lengthens the payback period."

We also remind that the COVID-19 outbreak has led Shell Chemical to temporarily suspend construction on the massive plastics and petrochemicals site it's building in Monaca, Pa, USA.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 383,760 tonnes in the first two month of 2020, up by 14% year on year. High density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments increased due to the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 192,760 tonnes in January-February 2020, down by 6% year on year. Homopolymer PP accounted for the main decrease in imports.
MRC

Vietnamese Dung Quat oil refinery cuts output on virus-hit demand

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Vietnam’s Dung Quat oil refinery plans to cut output because of weaker domestic fuel demand caused by the coronavirus oubreak, the facility’s operator said Reuters.

Domestic demand for refined fuels has fallen 30% to 40% since February, Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical said in a news release on its website, without saying how much refining production it has cut, adding that it may have to cease production if demand continues to decline.

As MRC informed earlier, Vietnam is seeking to import more goods from the United States to help narrow a favorable trade surplus following threats by US President Donald Trump to impose tariffs on products from the Southeast Asian nation amid a Sino-US trade war.

Vietnam is trying to accelerate the sale of stakes in state firms, including an initial public offering (IPO) of the firm that runs the country's sole refinery, which has been meeting about 30% of local oil product demand since it began operating in 2011.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 383,760 tonnes in the first two month of 2020, up by 14% year on year. High density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments increased due to the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 192,760 tonnes in January-February 2020, down by 6% year on year. Homopolymer PP accounted for the main decrease in imports.
MRC