Asia distillates-jet fuel cracks inch up; renewed travel bans likely to hurt recovery

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Asian refining margins for jet fuel inched higher on Monday, but reimposed travel restrictions in several countries to slow the spread of a highly-infectious coronavirus variant is expected to dent passenger demand recovery, reported Reuters.

Refining margins, also known as cracks, for jet fuel ticked up USD0.05 to USD4.76/bbl over Dubai crude during Asian trading hours.

The cracks, however, have shed 11% since hitting a more than nine-month high of USD5.35/bbl on Dec. 18.

The Philippines on Saturday extended a ban on flights from the United Kingdom by another two weeks to mid-January in a bid to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus variant, while Japan said it would temporarily ban non-resident foreign nationals from entering the country.

Cash differentials for jet fuel were at a discount of USD0.10/bbl to Singapore quotes on Monday, compared with a discount of USD0.11/bbl in the last trading session on Thursday.

The aviation fuel market is getting some support from air cargo demand, which has firmed in recent weeks as e-commerce deliveries surged during the holiday season, market watchers said.

Meanwhile, airlines are also expected to play a vital role in the mass vaccine rollout in coming days, which is expected to unlock an immediate boost for the sector.

As MRC informed before, slumping fuel consumption during the pandemic is accelerating the long-term shift of refining capacity from North America and Europe to Asia, and from older, smaller refineries to modern, higher-capacity mega-refineries. The result is a wave of closures, often centering on refineries that only narrowly survived the previous closure wave in the years after the recession in 2008/09.

We remind that PetroChina has nearly doubled the amount of Russian crude being processed at its refinery in Dalian, the company's biggest, since January 2018, as a new supply agreement had come into effect. The Dalian Petrochemical Corp, located in the northeast port city of Dalian, was expected to process 13 million tonnes, or 260,000 bpd of Russian pipeline crude in 2018, up by about 85 to 90 percent from the previous year's level. Dalian has the capacity to process about 410,000 bpd of crude. The increase follows an agreement worked out between the Russian and Chinese governments under which Russia's top oil producer Rosneft was to supply 30 million tonnes of ESPO Blend crude to PetroChina in 2018, or about 600,000 bpd. That would have represented an increase of 50 percent over 2017 volumes.

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

According to MRC's DataScope report, PE imports to Russia decreased in January-November 2020 by 17% year on year and reached 569,900 tonnes. High density polyethylene (HDPE) accounted for the greatest reduction in imports. At the same time, PP imports into Russia increased by 21% year on year to about 202,000 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2020. Propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) accounted for the main increase in imports.
MRC

Pinnacle acquires specialty risk-based inspection firm Trinity Bridge

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Pinnacle, a leading provider of data-driven reliability and integrity programs, has acquired Houston-based Trinity Bridge, LLC, a consulting company specializing in risk-based inspection programs for the refining and petrochemical industries, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

This comes on the heels of Pinnacle’s announced rebrand and reinvestment into technology and systems to create next generation reliability solutions for the industry.

"Reliability will be the key to sustainability for industries like oil and gas refining, chemicals, mining, and water treatment, and Trinity Bridge brings a great team of people to accelerate that advancement,” said Ryan Sitton, founder and CEO, Pinnacle and author of "Crucial Decisions." "Lynne Kaley and I have worked alongside each other as competitors and collaborators for nearly 20 years, and I have always respected and admired her. She was a pioneer in the early days of Risk-Based Inspection technology development, and we are excited to have her and her team join us in building next generation of solutions to optimize reliability."

Lynne Kaley, principal owner of Trinity Bridge, will be joining Pinnacle as vice president of research and development. In this role, she will lead Pinnacle’s investment into the development of new technology, processes, and solutions to advance industrial reliability.

"We are really excited to join the Pinnacle organization and combine our expertise with the resources of such a forward-thinking company,” said Kaley. “Pinnacle’s vision and commitment to advancing credible reliability solutions for the industry is an area where we believe we have a lot to contribute. We are looking forward to being a part of driving the next revolutionary advancements."

As MRC informed earlier, in 2018, Pinnacle Polymers, one of the major PP manufacturers in the US, has announced force majeure at its polypropylene (PP) facility in Garyville, Louisanna, USA. The Pinnacle Polymers plant has a capacity of 410,000 tonnes per year.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, November PP production in the country exceeded 169,100 tonnes, compared with 152,000 tonnes in October; several producers increased their capacity utilisation. Russia's overall PP production reached 1 698,000 tonnes in January-November 2020, compared to 1 298,000 tonnes a year earlier. Six out of eight producers increased their capacity utilisation, two producers decreased production volumes.

MRC

RPM pays USD2 million to settle SEC investigation into disclosure violations

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) says that RPM International agreed to pay USD2 million to settle SEC's charges of accounting and disclosure violations related to a government investigation, according to Chemweek.

The SEC's complaint alleged that RPM failed to timely disclose a material loss contingency for a US Justice Department investigation. The US District Court for the District of Columbia entered a final judgment against RPM and Edward Moore, RPM's general counsel and chief compliance officer.

The judgment is related to disclosure and accrual of loss reserves in fiscal 2013 relating to RPM's Tremco Roofing Division’s General Services Administration (GSA) contracts. The restatement shifted accrual amounts among three quarters in RPM's fiscal 2013, which had the effect of reducing net income by USD7.2 million and USD10.8 million for the quarterly periods ended 31 August 2012 and 30 November 2012, respectively, and increasing net income for the quarterly period ended 28 February 2013 by USD18.0 million. RPM has previously said these restatements had no impact on audited financial statements for the full 2013 fiscal year. An RPM audit committee’s investigation concluded that there was no intentional misconduct on the part of any of its officers.

RPM agreed to pay a penalty of USD2 million. Moore agreed, without admitting or denying the complaint's allegations, to pay a penalty of USD22,500.

As MRC reported earlier, in January, 2017, RPM International Inc. announced that it ha acquired Prime Resins to be part of its USL Group. Prime Resins is a manufacturer of specialty chemicals and equipment for infrastructure construction and repair.

We remind that Russia's output of chemical products rose in November 2020 by 9.5% year on year. At the same time, production of basic chemicals increased in the first eleven months of 2020 by 6.6% year on year, according to Rosstat's data. According to the Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation, polymers in primary form accounted for the greatest increase in the January-November 2020 output. Last month"s production of polymers in primary form rose to 896,000 tonnes from 852,000 tonnes in October. Overall output of polymers in primary form totalled 9,240,000 tonnes over the stated period, up by 17.1% year on year.
MRC

BASF commits to sustainable targets

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF has set itself “clear and measurable” targets to boost sustainable agriculture by 2030. The company’s Agricultural Solutions division will annually increase its sales share of solutions with a “substantial” sustainability contribution by 7%, said Chemweek.

The company will also bring digital technologies to more than 400 million ha of farmland and continue stewardship programmes to ensure the safe use of its products. BASF aims to help farmers achieve a 30% reduction in CO2 emissions per tonne of crop produced.

The president of BASF’s Agricultural Solutions division, Vincent Gros, points out that over the coming decades, the agricultural food system will undergo an accelerated transformation to provide access to enough food for a growing world population. “At the same time, we will need to mitigate its impact on our planet,” he says.

The company says that it will support farmers to become more carbon efficient and resilient to volatile weather conditions with technologies that increase yield, make farm management more effective, and decrease environmental impact. Those include: crop protection products, such as the herbicide, saflufenacil (trade-marked as Kixor), that enable farmers to grow crops without ploughing; new crop varieties such as InVigor canola seeds with glufosinate-ammonium-tolerant LibertyLink technology, providing higher yield stability, especially under more severe weather conditions; biological inoculants and innovative digital solutions; and nitrogen management products such as Vibelsol and Vizura, that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

BASF aims to increase the number of sustainable solutions it brings to farmers. The company claims to be continuously investing in its R&D pipeline, steered systematically by sustainability criteria. It says that it assesses its entire product portfolio against clearly defined and third-party validated sustainability criteria. BASF’s Agricultural Solutions division will contribute “significantly” to the BASF Group target of EUR22 billion (USD25.6 billion) in sales by 2025. In 2019, it said that it was targeting increased market share and growth of one percentage point above the agricultural inputs market, aiming for a 50% increase in sales by 2030.

Among its stewardship initiatives, the company cites protective equipment, customised training, digital solutions, and “new and future-oriented” application technologies, such as drones. Initiatives using drones have already been launched in China and Colombia, it says. BASF also points out the Easyconnect closed transfer system, which was supported by key players in the agricultural industry, with first market launches expected from 2021/22.

As MRC reported before, German chemicals maker BASF said in early November it had put a project to build a petrochemicals complex in India worth up to USD4 billion on hold due to the economic uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. BASF signed a memorandum of understanding with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), Adani Group and Borealis AG in October 2019 to evaluate a collaboration to build the chemical site in Mundra, in India’s Gujarat state.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,760,950 tonnes in the first ten months of 2020, up by 3% year on year. Only high density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 978,870 tonnes in January-October 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports plus imports minus producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply of exclusively of PP random copolymer increased.

BASF is the leading chemical company. It produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries.
MRC

Rohm hikes MMA prices in Europe on rising raw material costs

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Rohm (Darmstadt, Germany) has announced an increase in its prices for methyl methacrylate (MMA) and other methacrylate monomer products in Europe, effective as of 1 January 2021, said Chemweek.

The price will be hiked by EUR120 per metric ton (USD146) across all products, and includes an additional EUR50/metric ton acetone surcharge, it says. Rohm also announced price rises for MMA in October and November.

In a recent update the company highlighted a tightening of the MMA market, with “prices surging in Asia and continuously firming in Europe” on strong demand in critical end user applications such as coatings, construction, and healthcare. The market is also suffering from production and supply issues that are limiting availability, with prices for raw materials such as acetone also on the rise, it said.

As MRC informed earlier, Roehm intends to increase prices for methyl methacrylate (MMA) and related products in the US by 4-8% from January 1. Roehm also raised prices for methyl methacrylate (MMA) and related products in the US by 2-4% from November 1, and also 2-4% in December.

The main sector consuming approximately 75% of MMA is the production of polymethyl methacrylate acrylic plastics (PMMA). Methyl methacrylate is also used to produce methyl methacrylate-butadiene-styrene copolymer (MBS) used as a modifier for polyvinyl chloride (PVC).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's overall PVC production reached 891,200 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2020, down by 0.3% year on year. However, two producers managed to increase their PVC output.

MRC