Henkel develops polyacrylate gasketing technology

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Henkel has recently expanded its gasketing product portfolio by including new materials and technologies that have been specifically designed for the automotive industry, said the company.

With higher oil resistance and proven lower gas permeability, Loctite AA 5884 is a new polyacrylate gasketing technology that enables customers to enhance the performance and reliability of their products, all while achieving productivity goals and reducing overall costs.

The automotive industry is continually evolving, with stricter regulations and standards, emerging end-user requirements, and new product designs. The use of lightweight materials such as plastics has been a common strategy among automotive designers to help achieve their fuel efficiency and sustainability goals.

Engine covers, transmission covers and electronic components are being integrated into a growing number of plastic parts such as covers or header tanks, which need to be sealed to the core component unit. The most commonly used plastic-to-metal substrate sealing method is the press-in-place (PIP) process. This involves the solid rubber gasket or o-ring being manually applied onto the parts. This process brings with it a risk of displacement of the gasket during compression, however, which may lead to rework or leakages.

As mRC informed earlier, Henkel AG & Co. KGaA (Dusseldorf, Germany) announced that Henkel Adhesives Technologies has officially inaugurated its new production facility in Kurkumbh, India.

Henkel are also partnering with Borealis and plastics solutions company Borouge to develop flexible packaging solutions for detergents containing both virgin polyethylene (PE) and high amounts of post-consumer recyclate (PCR) in efforts to increase sustainability.

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.

Henkel operates in three business units, including laundry and home care, beauty care and adhesive technologies.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Arabia's export revenue was Riyal 197.84 billion (USD52.69 billion) in Q1 2020, down 20.7% from the same quarter in 2019, mainly due to a 21.9% decline in oil export revenue, the kingdom's General Authority for Statistics announced June 7, said S&P Global.

Total oil export revenue for Q1 was Riyal 149.95 billion, down from Riyal 192.03 billion for the same quarter the previous year. This is despite forward sales of hydrocarbons mitigating the full impact of the oil price crash on the country's quarterly revenues. Oil still made up 77% of exports, little changed year on year, showing little progress in diversifying the economy.

The entirety of the kingdom's hydrocarbon output is produced by the newly listed Saudi Aramco. During the company's listing on the local Tadawul stock exchange in December, it pledged to distribute USD75 billion in dividends annually, through 2024. This amounts to a payment of USD18.75 billion per quarter, equal to almost half of the total oil revenue. The kingdom amassed a budget deficit of Riyal 34.107 billion for the quarter. The Ministry of Finance has already announced plans to increase borrowing and tap cash reserves to plug this year's shortfalls.

The country's economy has been severely hit by the coronavirus pandemic and the oil price crash. Saudi Arabia's budget for 2020, announced in December, assumed an oil price of $60/b, and the country's fiscal breakeven price is USD80/b, according to the International Monetary Fund. The Brent front-month contract was recently priced at USD42.30/b.

The kingdom's export volumes are limited by its commitments to the OPEC+ production cuts, in an agreement intended to counteract plummeting demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic and to steady the market.

On June 6, the 23 members of the OPEC+ alliance renewed their April agreement to reduce production by 9.6 million b/d through July. Under the plan, Saudi Arabia is cutting its monthly output by at least 8.5 million b/d, which is down almost 30% from the 12 million b/d it said it was producing in April. The kingdom had previously agreed to institute an additional 1 million b/d in cuts for June but has indicated it would not be willing to continue those curbs in July.

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

MOSCOW (MRC) -- INVISTA’s technology and licensing group, INVISTA Performance Technologies (IPT), and Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Co., Ltd (Hengli) are pleased to announce that Hengli’s 4th PTA line utilising INVISTA’s P8 Process Technology has met all performance guarantees, said the company.

Hengli’s 4th PTA line of 2.5 million tonnes per annum capacity, located in Changxing Island, Dalian City, Liaoning Province, utilising INVISTA’s P8 PTA technology with industry leading variable cost, capital productivity and environmental performance, came online on January 8th, 2020. This PTA line also produces benzoic acid as co-product, utilising INVISTA’s proprietary R2R technology.

Hengli’s 4th PTA line was executed in record time of 22 months from engineering kick-off meeting to start-up. Both parties demonstrated extraordinary commitment under the difficult circumstances. INVISTA’s commissioning team provided Hengli with onsite and remote technical support to optimise the plant performance in quick time.

Adam Sackett, IPT vice president PTA, commented, “This is the latest in a series of successful collaborations between the teams of both companies and I congratulate Hengli on achieving this significant milestone on Line 4. Whilst Hengli Line 4 has already demonstrated industry leading variable cost performance, we will continue to support Hengli to further optimise the plant.”

Chen Xinhua, vice chairman of Hengli, expressed his trust in INVISTA’s PTA technology, saying, “We are honoured to choose INVISTA’s world class P8 PTA technology. We appreciate INVISTA’s excellent support throughout the whole project lifecycle. We look forward to ongoing cooperation with INVISTA in the future.”

Аccording to MRC"s DataScope report, April imports amounted to 16,600 tonnes, 26% more than the previous month. External supplies of material were at the level of 14,100 tonnes in April last year. The volume of supplies of bottle grade PET from China to Ukraine over the fur months of the year fell almost three times: from 36,400 tonnes in January-April 2019 to 12,200 tonnes.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Japan's largest refiner JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy said June 8 it will supplement any shortfall in July term crude oil requirements as a result of the near 10 million b/d OPEC+ production cut extension by purchasing cargoes from the spot market, said S&P Global.

"Even in the event of facing supply cuts from our direct term contracts, we intend to procure our crude requirements from spot markets so that we do not foresee a major obstacle," a company spokesman told S&P Global Platts.

Japan sources roughly 90% of its crude imports from the Middle East, of which 70%-80% of the supplies are based on term contracts.

OPEC and its allies have agreed to maintain their record oil cuts through July -- albeit without Mexico -- to help steer the market through its nascent recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

Ministers on June 6 approved a one-month rollover of their now 9.6 million b/d production cut accord, brushing aside Mexico's defection from the pact and receiving pledges of improved compliance from Iraq, Nigeria, Angola and Kazakhstan. The cuts -- originally 9.7 million b/d including Mexico -- had been scheduled to taper to 7.7 million b/d in July through the rest of the year.

For June loadings, Japanese refiners have received "larger-than-expected cuts" to their term crude supply from OPEC producers, keeping them balanced against plummeting domestic demand due to the coronavirus pandemic, Tsutomu Sugimori, president of the Petroleum Association of Japan, said May 22.

Saudi Aramco has informed at least one Japanese refiner that it will reduce its June-loading crude allocations by 20%-40%, with the cuts being made across all grades and larger cuts to heavier grades.

As mRC informed earlier, JXTG Nippon Oil and Energy brought on-stream its cracker following a turnaround. The company resumed operations at the cracker on April 28, 2020. The cracker was shut for maintenance on February 27, 2020.

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

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Pertamina and CPC (Taipei) signed a head of agreement (HOA) to develop a previously announced integrated petrochemical complex at Balongan, West Java, Indonesia with an investment of up to USD8 billion, said Chemweek.

The accord was signed by Pertamina's president director Nicke Widyawati in Jakarta and vice president of CPC Corp. Ming-Huei Chen via teleconference in Jakarta and Taipei. Pertamina and CPC will each hold a 45% stake in the joint venture (JV). The remaining 10% will be reserved for potential participants in the deal.

Work to develop the project was first initiated by the two companies in 2018. This led to the subsequent signing of a framework agreement and joint feasibility studies carried out since mid-2019. The Indonesia Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM; Jakarta) said it is pleased that the HOA was signed despite the global COVID-19 pandemic. "This cooperation is formed over a long and deep negotiation process…The project is a government priority and we will support it. We confirmed the tax holiday yesterday,” said Bahlil Lahadalia, head of BKPM.

As a national oil and gas company, Pertamina is committed to creating a strong petrochemical industry in Indonesia so that it can meet domestic needs and help reduce imports of petrochemical products,” said Nicke Widyawati. "This project is an important milestone to strengthen the petrochemical business portfolio so that in the next 10 years Pertamina can become a major player in the petrochemical business in the Asia Pacific region," Nicke said.

The petchems complex, slated for commercial operation in 2026, represents the third phase of expansion of the Balongan oil refinery. The refinery, which will supply naphtha feedstock to the petchems complex, will be expanded by 20% to 150,000 b/d. The Balongan naphtha cracker will be designed to produce 1 million metric tons/year of ethylene, which will be used to feed downstream facilities.

Development of the Balongan refinery forms part of Pertamina’s six refinery development master plan which aims to double the company’s refining capacity to around 2 million b/d. The six projects are Cilacap, Balikpapan, Balongan, Dumai, Tuban, and Bontang. The company was planning to develop the Cilacap refinery and aromatics project together with Saudi Aramco but last month said that it will go ahead alone with the project after failing to agree a deal with Aramco.

Meanwhile, the Tuban project is being developed by a JV between Pertamina and Rosneft (Moscow). The companies said earlier this year that they plan to make a final investment decision in 2021. The Tuban refinery is expected to have a throughput capacity of 15 million metric tons/year (MMt/y) of crude oil, while the downstream units will be designed to produce 1 MMt/y of ethylene and 1.3 MMt/y of aromatics. Commissioning is due in 2025. The company said on Friday it had put its $10 billion refinery project at Bontang, East Kalimantan on hold.

Development of the Balongan petchems project began when CPC was trying to relocate its fifth naphtha cracker at Kaohsiung, Taiwan which was closed in 2015 under the country’s scrap-and-build program, to Indonesia. That deal fell through, but the companies decided to extend their collaboration into a new investment project in Indonesia.

As MRC informed earlier, PT Pertamina will develop its Cilacap refinery in Central Java “independently”, the state energy company said, dropping a plan to boost capacity through a joint venture with Saudi Aramco. The two companies have been in talks to upgrade the Cilacap refinery since 2016 and last year said that they would finalise a joint venture plan in the first quarter of 2020.

As MRC informed earlier, Pertamina carried out planned maintenances at the liquid catalytic cracking unit in Balongan (Balongan, West Java, Indonesia). Repair work on this installation with a capacity of 180,000 tonnes/year of propylene started on 19 March of this year and ended on 19 April.

Propylene is a feedstock for producing of PP.

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.

Pertamina is an Indonesian state-owned oil and natural gas corporation based in Jakarta. It was created in August 1968 by the merger of Pertamin (established 1961) and Permina (established 1957). Pertamina is the world's largest producer and exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
MRC