Hyosung and Linde to build liquid hydrogen plant in South Korea

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Hyosung Group has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Linde to build a liquid hydrogen plant in South Korea, according to Chemicals Technology.

The two companies also agreed to jointly invest KRW300bn (USD250m) by 2022 to create a value chain, involving liquid hydrogen production, storage, transport and recharging facilities.

The liquid hydrogen plant will be located on a 30,000m area within the site of Hyosung Yongyeon plant in Ulsan. The facility will have an annual production capacity of 13,000t of liquid hydrogen.

According to the company, the plant will be the single largest liquid hydrogen manufacturing facility in the world.

Construction work is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of next year and to be completed in 2022.

Meanwhile, Hyosung and Linde will invest in building liquid hydrogen recharging infrastructure. As agreed, the two companies will set up around 120 hydrogen recharging stations across the country, including 50 new units and 70 enlarged stations.

Hyosung Chairman Cho Hyun-joon said: "Hydrogen is an eco-friendly energy source that can change existing carbon-centred economic structure. Its possibilities are endless.
"The point of liquid hydrogen business sought by Hyosung is to store and transport hydrogen efficiently and safely. Investment this time will play a big role in invigorating the ecology of domestic hydrogen industry."

The new hydrogen plant will leverage Linde’s hydrogen liquefaction technology and system to produce liquid hydrogen.

Liquid hydrogen has several uses in mobility segments, including its use as a fuel for cars.

We remind that, as MRC informed earlier, LyondellBasell, the world’s largest licensor of polyolefin technologies, has recently announced that Hyosung Vina Chemicals Co., Ltd. will use the LyondellBasell Spheripol technology for a new facility. The process technology will be used for a 300 KTA polypropylene (PP) plant to be built in Cai Mep Industrial Zone, Vung Tau Province, Vietnam.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, 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.

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Asian gasoil markets will continue to face headwinds over the next few months even as refineries cut processing rates further and economies gradually start picking up as the coronavirus pandemic becomes contained, Hydrocarbonprocessing said.

Sluggish industrial activity and travel restrictions due to extended lockdowns, alongside disruptions to global supply chains, could cut gasoil demand by more than 4 million barrels per day in the second quarter from the same period in 2019, depressing refiners’ margins, they said.

Refining margins, also known as cracks, for gasoil with a sulphur content of 10 parts per million (ppm) slid to a record low of USD2.83 a barrel over Dubai crude this week.

The gasoil crack, which until last month showed resilience when the downward spiral engulfed jet fuel and gasoline, is currently one of two oil products that yield positive margins in the refining complex. However, it has shed over 67% in the last one month, prompting refiners and traders to worry that the worst might be yet to come. Gasoil and jet fuel, or middle distillates, account for about 40% of refiners’ output.

“Weakening cracks, plus worries over the availability of off-takers, is prompting more Asian refineries to consider additional run cuts,” said Sri Paravaikkarasu, director for Asia oil at consultancy FGE.

“Even with this, Asian gasoil length should be some 900,000 barrels per day (bpd) higher y-o-y over May. Consequently, Singapore 10-ppm gasoil cracks should face more headwinds in the near term, before stabilizing in late-June/July."

An ongoing shift in refinery yields away from the beleaguered products such as jet fuel and gasoline partially offsets the reduction in gasoil output from ongoing refinery run cuts, analysts said.

Rystad Energy expects COVID-19 to remove nearly 4 million bpd of road diesel demand worldwide in the second quarter, and diesel demand in other sectors to drop by another 1.2 million bpd.

Subdued demand in major domestic markets including India and China would likely force these countries to export more fuel into the region, which is already grappling with supplies, trade sources said.

“The lockdown in India is expected to negatively impact diesel cracks in the region as the drop in domestic consumption will free more diesel for exports,” said Rystad senior oil market analyst Paola Rodriguez-Masiu. “The progressive recovery of China will offer some support to diesel cracks, but weakness is expected to persist until the end of third quarter 2020."

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

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Construction on Nan Ya Plastics' 800,000 mt/year ethylene glycol plant in Texas has been suspended, and the company does not have a timeline to resume the work amid coronavirus pandemic uncertainty, reported S&P Global with reference to a spokesman's confirmation Tuesday.

"We are currently evaluating the schedule to resume construction on the new EG plant," Formosa Plastics USA spokesman Fred Neske said in an email. "A timeline is not yet available."

The new plant had been expected to come online in the third quarter of this year. Construction was halted in March.

Other companies that have suspended or slowed construction on large projects amid the pandemic include Shell at its new petrochemical complex in southwest Pennsylvania, NOVA Chemicals' new polyethylene (PE) plant and an ethylene expansion in Ontario and LyondellBasell's new propylene oxide/tertiary butyl alcohol facility near Houston.

The new glycols plant at Formosa's Point Comfort, Texas, complex will be owned by Nan Ya Plastics, a division of Formosa Plastics Group in Taiwan. Formosa Plastics Group also is Formosa Plastics USA's parent.

Nan Ya owns the complex's existing 370,000 mt/year glycols unit.

Neske also confirmed that 10 employees and seven contractors at the complex have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The infections are being addressed through testing, tracing and isolation, he said, and the contractors are following their own company protocols, including isolation.

The employees who tested positive worked at the same unit, which Neske declined to identify. He said production rates have not been reduced, nor have shifts been eliminated, and the company has been able to adjust to staffing issues with existing personnel.

A source familiar with company operations said the affected employees were affiliated with a cracker at the complex, and colleagues they may have been in contact with were also self-isolating. However, the company's ongoing turnaround at its 680,000 mt/year Olefins 1 unit allowed existing staff to cover shifts of isolating employees without affecting output, the source said.

As MRC reported before, Formosa Plastics' new 1.5 million mt/year cracker in Point Comfort, Texas, came online in H1 January, 2020, and was seen ramping up through January.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing 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.

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

1. Brenntag to hold virtual shareholders meeting

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Brenntag, the global market leader in chemical distribution, says that its annual shareholders' meeting will take place as planned on 10 June. But, due to the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the meeting will be held as a purely virtual event, without the physical presence of shareholders, according to Chemweek. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and to protect the health of shareholders, employees, and the service providers involved, this year's shareholders’ meeting cannot take place as planned in Essen, Germany, says Brenntag.


MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Clariant Chemicals India Limited announced that it has restarted operations at its production facilities in the country, following the partial relaxations from COVID - 19 related Nationwide Lockdown by Government of India, according to Kemicalinfo.

Clariant’s production facilities situated in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu are back in partial operation with limited capacity and will continue with partial operations till complete relaxations are granted.

The company in its stock exchange statement said, "Pursuant to the partial relaxations from Nationwide Lockdown granted by Central Government and advisories issued by State Governments in order to prevent and tackle the spread of COVID - 19, the Companys manufacturing units/factories situated in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu are back in partial operation with limited capacity."

"This partial operation will continue till complete relaxations are granted in this regard. The Company will continue to closely monitor the situation and take appropriate action as per regulatory guidance. The Company shall keep all the stakeholders informed about further update(s) through Stock Exchanges."

As MRC reported earlier, in early March 2020, Sabic announced that it has purchased additional shares in Clariant, increasing its holding in the company from 24.99% to 31.5%.

We remind that SABIC Europe, an affiliate of SABIC, conducted a maintenance work at its cracker No.3 at Geleen site in the Netherlands last autumn. The planned maintenance started in September and lasted around 2 months. The company operates two steam crackers in Geleen which are capable of producing 1,250,000 tons/year of ethylene and 675,000 tons/year of propylene in total.

Earlier last year, SABIC took off-stream its SABIC Olefins 4 cracker owing to technical issues on May 10, 2019. Further details on duration of the shutdown could not be ascertained. Located in beek, the Netherlands, the cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 690,000 mt/year and a propylene production capacity of 360,000 mt/year.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, 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.

Clariant AG is a Swiss chemical company and a world leader in the production of specialty chemicals for the textile, printing, mining and metallurgical industries. It is engaged in processing crude oil products in pigments, plastics and paints.
MRC