Henkel's adhesives business achieved sales growth in third quarter

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Henkel has provided a business update for the third quarter and says that, based on preliminary figures, its adhesive technologies business unit achieved positive organic sales growth of 1.3% in the quarter, said Chemweek.

All business areas in adhesive technologies showed a recovery in demand compared with the second quarter, the company says. Henkel notes that in the first nine months of 2020, adhesive technologies recorded a 6.8% decline in organic sales.

“Despite the continued challenging economic environment as a result of the corona crisis, based on preliminary sales figures, Henkel delivered a strong organic sales growth of plus 3.9% in the third quarter. Sales reached around EUR5.0 billion [USD5.9 billion] and all business units contributed to the good performance,” says Carsten Knobel, CEO at Henkel.

Based on the preliminary business performance in the first nine months, Henkel has provided new guidance for 2020, following the withdrawal of its full-year guidance in April due to the high level of uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

For the adhesive technologies business, which is significantly impacted by a sharp decline in general industrial demand such as in the automotive industry, Henkel anticipates organic sales growth in the range of 5.5-6.5%, and an EBIT margin in the range of 14.5-15.0%. Henkel will publish its third-quarter results on 10 November.

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.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,496,500 tonnes in the first eight months of 2020, up by 5% year on year. Shipments of all ethylene polymers increased, except for linear low desnity polyethylene (LLDPE). At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 767,2900 tonnes in the eight months of 2020 (calculated using the formula - production minus exports plus imports - and not counting producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply increased exclusively of PP random copolymer.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Workers at French oil and gas major Total's Grandpuits refinery southeast of Paris have decided to suspend their strike, reported Reuters with reference to the union's statement.

Total said earlier that the strike had disrupted product shipments from its refinery near Paris but that the company would ensure supplies to petrol stations and customers could continue.

Workers at Grandpuits voted on Monday to hold a 24-hour strike, halting fuel shipments.

As MRC wrote before, Within the framework of its net zero strategy, Total will convert its Grandpuits refinery (Seine-et-Marne) into a zero-crude platform and will invest more then EUR500 mln into this project. By 2024 the platform will focus on four new industrial activities: production of renewable diesel primarily intended for the aviation industry, production of bioplastics, plastics recycling and operation of two photovoltaic solar power plants.

We remind that in November 2019, Total disclosed that itis evaluating construction of a new gas cracker at its Deasan, South Korea, joint venture (JV) with Hanwha Chemical.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,496,500 tonnes in the first eight months of 2020, up by 5% year on year. Shipments of all ethylene polymers increased, except for linear low desnity polyethylene (LLDPE). At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 767,2900 tonnes in the eight months of 2020 (calculated using the formula - production minus exports plus imports - and not counting producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply increased exclusively of PP random copolymer.

Total S.A. is a French multinational oil and gas company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world with business in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia. The company's petrochemical products cover two main groups: base chemicals and the consumer polymers (polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene) that are derived from them.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russian Energy minister Alexander Novak said he had invited other BRICS countries - Brazil, India, China and South Africa - to take part in joint oil and gas projects in the Arctic, reported Reuters.

In a speech at a meeting of energy ministers from the group of major emerging economies, Novak added that the recovery on global energy markets would be slow in the wake of the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

As MRC informed earlier, Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft and producer Rosneft have reached a settlement with Total over dirty oil supplies to the French company’s Leune refinery in Germany, Transneft said. Up to 5 MM tons of Russian oil in route to central Europe via the Druzhba pipeline were found to be contaminated last year. Total declared a force majeure in June 2019 on the production of jet fuel at its Leuna refinery in Germany following the supply of contaminated crude from Russia. Transneft did not disclose how much compensation would be paid to Total.

We remind that in November 2019, Total disclosed that itis evaluating construction of a new gas cracker at its Deasan, South Korea, joint venture (JV) with Hanwha Chemical.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,496,500 tonnes in the first eight months of 2020, up by 5% year on year. Shipments of all ethylene polymers increased, except for linear low desnity polyethylene (LLDPE). At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 767,2900 tonnes in the eight months of 2020 (calculated using the formula - production minus exports plus imports - and not counting producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply increased exclusively of PP random copolymer.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Kemira has provided a brief business update and says that based on preliminary and unaudited information, the company's revenue in the third quarter was approximately EUR597 million (USD704 million) and operative EBITDA EUR113 million, said Chemweek.

In the second quarter of 2020, the company's revenue was EUR582.9 million, down 12% on a year-on-year basis.

Following the developments in the third quarter, Kemira has updated its outlook and still expects, in line with its previous guidance announced in July, that its operative EBITDA in the second half of 2020 will be lower than the EUR214 million recorded in the first half of the year, but it now expects full-year operative EBITDA to increase from the EUR410 million posted in 2019.

Kemira will announce third-quarter results on 27 October.

As MRC informed earlier, Kemira has signed a multiyear extension of its polymer supply agreement with Ithaca Energy. Kemira says it has signed a multiyear extension to its polymer supply agreement with Ithaca Energy (Aberdeen, UK). The agreement extends the contract between the two companies, signed in 2018, covering the supply of polymers to enhance oil extraction performance at one of the assets operated by Ithaca Energy in the UK North Sea.

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

According to MRC"s ScanPlast report, Russia"s overall PE production totalled 1,712,400 tonnes in the first seven months of 2020, up by 58% year on year. Linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) accounted for the greatest increase in the output. At the same time, overall PP production in Russia increased in January-July 2020 by 24% year on year to 1,063,700 tonne. ZapSibNeftekhim accounted for the main increase in the output.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The European Commission today adopted the EU's chemicals strategy for sustainability, describing it as the first step towards a zero-pollution ambition for a toxic-free environment announced in the European Green Deal, reported Chemweek.

The strategy includes actions that prohibit the use of the most harmful chemicals in consumer products such as toys, childcare articles, cosmetics, detergents, food contact materials, and textiles, unless proven essential for society, and ensures that all chemicals are used more safely and sustainably, the Commission says.

The strategy sets out concrete actions to make chemicals safe and sustainable by design, and to ensure that chemicals can deliver their benefits without harming the planet, and both current and future generations, according to the Commission. Several innovation and investment actions "will be foreseen to accompany the chemicals industry through this transition," it says, although no further details were provided. The strategy also draws the attention of EU member states to the possibilities of the Recovery and Resilience Facility to invest in the green and digital transition of EU industries, including in the chemical sector, according to the Commission.

“We owe our well-being and high living standards to the many useful chemicals that people have invented over the past 100 years. However, we cannot close our eyes to the harm that hazardous chemicals pose to our environment and health. We have come a long way regulating chemicals in the EU, and with this strategy we want to build on our achievements and go further to prevent the most dangerous chemicals from entering into the environment and our bodies, and affecting especially the most fragile and vulnerable ones,” says Virginijus Sinkevicius, Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries.

Some of the main initiatives of the strategy that aim to increase the protection of human health and the environment from harmful chemicals include the phasing out from consumer products of the most harmful substances, such as endocrine disruptors, chemicals that affect the immune and respiratory systems, and persistent substances such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), unless their use is proven essential for society. Others include minimizing and substituting as far possible the presence of substances of concern in all products; addressing the combination effect of chemicals (cocktail effect); and ensuring that producers and consumers have access to information on chemical content and safe use.

The actions announced in the strategy will support industrial innovation so that safer and more sustainable chemicals become the norm on the EU market and a benchmark worldwide, the Commission says. It aims to capture the economic opportunity that arises with this and enable the green transition of the chemicals sector and its value chains, it says.

Actions within the strategy that aim to boost innovation and promote the EU's competitiveness worldwide include developing safe-and-sustainable-by-design criteria and ensuring financial support for the commercialization and uptake of safe and sustainable chemicals; ensuring the development and uptake of safe and sustainable-by-design substances, materials and products through EU funding and investment instruments and public-private partnerships; and stepping up enforcement of EU rules considerably at the borders and in the single market. Others include putting in place an EU research and innovation agenda for chemicals, and simplifying and consolidating the EU legal framework.

The Commission says that it will promote safety and sustainability standards globally, lead by example, and promote a coherent approach so that hazardous substances banned in the EU are not produced for export.

The adoption by the Commission today is in line with the European Parliament’s call on the Commission in July to come up with a strategy that effectively ensures health and the environment are well protected by minimizing exposure to hazardous chemicals, and includes measures to protect vulnerable groups such as children, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and the elderly.

As MRC informed before, in mid-July, 2020, The European Commission approved PKN Orlen’s acquisition of Grupa Loto,. The approval is conditional on full compliance with a commitments package offered by PKN Orlen.

We remind that n H1 September 2019, Honeywell announced that PKN ORLEN had licensed the UOP MaxEne process, which can increase production of ethylene and aromatics and improve the flexibility of gasoline production. The project, for the PKN Orlen facility in Plock, Poland, currently is in the basic engineering stage. Honeywell UOP, a leading provider of technologies for the oil and gas industry, first commercialized the UOP MaxEne process in 2013. The process enables refiners and petrochemical producers to direct molecules within the naphtha feed to the processes that deliver the greatest value and improve yields of fuels and petrochemicals.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,496,500 tonnes in the first eight months of 2020, up by 5% year on year. Shipments of all ethylene polymers increased, except for linear low desnity polyethylene (LLDPE). At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 767,2900 tonnes in the eight months of 2020 (calculated using the formula - production minus exports plus imports - and not counting producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply increased exclusively of PP random copolymer.
MRC