Trinseo raises May PS prices in Europe

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Trinseo, a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex binders and synthetic rubber, and its affiliate companies in Europe have announced a price increase for all polystyrene (PS) in Europe, as per the company's press release.

Effective May 1, 2020, or as existing contract terms allow, the contract and spot prices for the products listed below rose as follows:

- STYRON general purpose polystyrene grades (GPPS) -- by EUR10 per metric ton;
- STYRON and STYRON A-Tech and STYRON X- Tech high impact polystyrene grades (HIPS) - by EUR10 per metric ton.

As MRC informed before, Trinseo reduced its prices for all PS grades on 1 April 2020, as stated below:

- STYRON GPPS grades - by EUR180 per metric ton;
- STYRON and STYRON A-Tech HIPS grades - by EUR180 per metric ton.

According to ICIS-MRC Price report, in Russia, after another price reduction in May, several major market participants are determined to maintain the achieved price levels next month. Prices of European material, including delivery to the domestic market, were steadily higher than prices of Russian PS. Nizhnekamskneftekhim's GPPS was offered at Rb71,000-74,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT, in May, whereas HIPS - at UAH75,000-78,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT.

Trinseo is a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex and rubber. Trinseo's technology is used by customers in industries such as home appliances, automotive, building & construction, carpet, consumer electronics, consumer goods, electrical & lighting, medical, packaging, paper & paperboard, rubber goods and tires. Formerly known as Styron, Trinseo completed its renaming process in 1Q 2015. Trinseo had approximately USD4.6 billion in net sales in 2018, with 16 manufacturing sites around the world, and approximately 2,500 employees.
MRC

Mubadala says subsidiary begins producing N95 masks with Honeywell

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala Investment Company said on Tuesday its subsidiary Strata Manufacturing has started to produce the N95 face masks used to protect medical workers fighting the deadly coronavirus, said Reuters.

The venture, in partnership with Honeywell International , will have an annual output capacity of over 30 million masks, Mubadala said in a statement.

“This manufacturing line will not only be able to meet the national requirements of the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) health industry...but also transform the UAE into an exporter of this critical product,” Mubadala said.

The UAE currently imports all the N95 masks it requires, the statement added.

Strata, established in 2009, has an aero parts manufacturing facility in Al Ain, an oasis town within the Abu Dhabi emirate, producing components for Airbus, Boeing and others.

The UAE has confirmed 24,190 cases of the coronavirus with 224 deaths.

We also remind that China's greenfield Zhejiang Petrochemical will use a range of process technology from Honeywell UOP for the second phase of its integrated refining and petrochemical complex in Zhoushan, Zhejiang province, according to a document, quoting a senior Honeywell official. "This second phase of the complex by itself will process 20 million tons per year of crude oil and produce another six million tons per year of aromatics when completed," Bryan Glover, vice president and general manager, Process Technology and Equipment, at Honeywell UOP, stated in the document as of January 2019.

ACN is the main feedstock for the production of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's ABS output was 920 tonnes in March. Russian producers manufactured 2,600 tonnes of ABS plastics in January-March 2020, down by 59% a year earlier.
MRC

Successful OPEC output deal fits a pattern

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Arabia and its allies in the expanded OPEC+ group of oil-exporting nations have successfully engineered a prospective deficit in the oil market, boosting spot prices and calendar spreads over the last four weeks, said Reuters.

Front-month Brent futures prices have risen by more than USD15 per barrel (80%) since the second trimester of April, while the six-month calendar spread has tightened from more than USD12 contango to less than USD3.

The unprecedented scale of the production cuts announced by Saudi Arabia and its allies last month, and signs of strong compliance from many countries, including Russia, have attracted a lot of comment.

But experience suggests Saudi Arabia and its allies in OPEC and OPEC+ have always been able to force the market into deficit, boosting prices and spreads, when they wanted to do so, so it should not have come as a surprise.

The producer group, with a rotating cast of members, but always led by Saudi Arabia, successfully engineered deficits in 1998/99, 2001/02, 2006/07, 2008/09, 2016/17 and 2019/2020.

The recent production-cutting agreement, announced on April 9, and the subsequent response of spot prices and spreads, have fitted the pattern perfectly (tmsnrt.rs/36hngRN).

Most commentary focuses on the top-level diplomacy and personalities involved in production-cutting agreements.

But a more structural approach that focuses on the financial costs and incentives that lie behind each deal shows a recurring pattern.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing PE and 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

Valero Memphis refinery raises production as demand improves

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Valero's 180K bbl/day Memphis, Tenn., refinery along the Mississippi River is operating at 60%-65% of capacity after gradual rate increases in recent weeks, reproted Seeking Alpha with reference to Bloomberg.

Rates at the Memphis refinery were reduced as low as 50% last month as demand slumped in the wake of the spread of the coronavirus.

The Memphis refinery reportedly is at least the second Valero U.S. site whose rates have been increased, as the 195K bbl/day Valero McKee refinery in west Texas was running at 77% of normal as of May 8 after cuts had reduced rates by a third.

As MRC wrote previously, two workers at Valero's Port Arthur refinery were tested positive for the coronavirus in early April 2020. Valero, the second largest refinery company in the United States, cut nonessential work and related contractors in the first week of April after initiating temperature checks last week - much later than than its peers in the industry.

Besides, in late March 2020, an employee at Valero Energy Corp’s Meraux, Louisiana, refinery was tested positive for the coronavirus.

We also remind that Valero Energy Corp restarted the small CDU at its Port Arthur refinery after repairing a valve on 25 September 2019. And in late October 2019, Valero Energy Corp shut the small crude distillation unit (CDU) at its Port Arthur refinery. The 75,000-bpd AVU 147 CDU was shut to repair a heat exchanger.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 557,060 tonnes in the first three month of 2020, up by 7% year on year. High density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments rose because of the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. Demand for LDPE subsided. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market was 267,630 tonnes in January-March 2020, down 20% year on year. Homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers accounted for the main decrease in imports.
MRC

Two people injured in oil tank explosion

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Fire crews worked to clear a fire at an oil storage container in the Galveston, Texas area after an explosion Tuesday, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Local media reports the Galveston Fire Department was called to the Pelican Island Storage Terminal where two people were injured in a crude oil tank explosion.

Officials said it appeared welding was being done near or at the tank that holds 2 million gallons of heavy crude oil products.

The two people who were injured were transported to the University of Texas Medical Branch for treatment, according to city spokeswoman, Marissa Barnett.

A university located near the facility issued a shelter-in-place for anyone that was on campus.

It is not immediately known what caused the explosion.

We remind that as MRC wrote before, two major explosions and fire hit the TPC Group's Port Neches butadiene and raffinate petrochemical plant east of Houston, Texas, in late November 2019, injuring three workers. The site produces 20% of US butadiene, a raw material used in the production of synthetic rubbers and resins, according to a source familiar with company operations.

Butadiene is the main feedstock for the production of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS).

According to MRC's DataScope report, overall ABS imports to the Russian market increased in the first two months of 2020 by 8% year on year to 4,800 tonnes. This figure was at 4,500 tonnes in January-February 2019. February imports of material into the Russian Federation rose by 48% year on year to 2,500 tonnes from 2,700 tonnes a year earlier. Imports were 2,300 tonnes in January 2020.
MRC