Lanxess completes divestment of membranes business to Suez

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Lanxess has completed the sale of its membrane business to French resource management firm SUEZ, said Chemweek.

The deal was previously announced in July as Lanxess realigned its water treatment technologies segment, resulting in the sale of its reverse osmosis membrane business.

Both parties agreed not to disclose the purchase price of the water treatment business but it was thought to generate around EUR20m in sales in 2019, according to German Baader bank.

As of 1 January 2021, the production plant, research facilities and employees attached to the site in Bitterfeld, Germany were transferred to SUEZ.

As MRC informed before, Lanxess' net profits in the second quarter of 2020 were almost eight times higher than in the same period of the previous year, to EUR798 million (USD943 million). This is primarily due to the sale of its 40% stake in chemical park curator Currenta to Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets in April, which resulted in a disposal gain of EUR740 million. Sales declined 16.7% year on year, to EUR1.44 billion, due to weak demand across many industries and lower raw material prices, the company says. EBITDA and EBIT shrank by 23.8% and 57.3%, to EUR198 million and EUR61 million, respectively.

We remind that Russia's output of chemical products rose in September 2020 by 6.7% year on year. At the same time, production of basic chemicals increased by 6.1% year on year in the first nine months of 2020, 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-September output. Last month's production of primary polymers decreased to 852,000 tonnes from 888,000 tonnes in August due to shutdowns in Tomsk, Ufa and Kazan. Overall output of polymers in primary form totalled 7,480,000 tonnes over the stated period, up by 16.4% year on year.

MRC

Enel, Maire Tecnimont to build green hydrogen plant in US

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Enel Green Power (EGP), the renewable energy subsidiary of Italy’s Enel Group, and Maire Tecnimont (Rome, Italy) have agreed to work together on the development and construction of a green hydrogen production plant in the US, according to Chemweek.

A specific location has not been given.

EGP and NextChem, a subsidiary of Maire Tecnimont, have signed a memorandum of understanding for the project, which will produce green hydrogen via electrolysis using renewable energy from an existing EGP solar plant. The project is expected to be operational in 2023 and supply hydrogen to a biorefinery, Enel says.

NextChem, Maire Tecnimont’s business dedicated to the deployment of technologies for the energy transition, will act as a technology and engineering partner, and the full turnkey engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor for the project. EGP says it will leverage NextChem’s hydrogen technology and engineering expertise to grow its green hydrogen business in the US.

EGP is “actively scouting for opportunities” in the green hydrogen sector in several parts of the world, both in Europe and in the Americas, says Salvatore Bernabei, EGP’s CEO. The company says it is evaluating opportunities to colocate electrolyzers across its development pipeline in the US, focused on states where it has an existing operational presence, such as Texas, Utah, and North Dakota. It is already developing green hydrogen projects in Italy, Spain, and Chile, with plans to grow its capacity to over 2 gigawatts by 2030, it says.

As MRC wrote before, in early December, 2020, Enel and Eni announced they would develop two green hydrogen pilot schemes aimed at supplying two of Eni’s refineries in Italy, with each project expected to start operations by 2022–23.

We remind that in September 2020, Italy’s Eni proposed building bio-refineries in Abu Dhabi, according to the energy group’s chief executive Claudio Descalzi. The Italian oil major has been focusing on developing new clean technologies in recent years as it steps up preparations for a decarbonized future.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated polyethylene (PE) consumption totalled 1,990,280 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2020, up by 1% year on year. Only high density polyethylene (HDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, polypropylene (PP) shipments to the Russian market reached 1 090,900 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2020 (calculated using the formula: production, minus exports, plus imports, excluding producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply of exclusively PP random copolymer increased.
MRC

US gasoline prices reach 9-month high as refiners cut more output

MOSCOW (MRC) -- US gasoline prices hit a nine-month peak as drivers took to the roads on holiday travel, crude oil prices kept climbing and refiners further cut fuel production due to weak margins, reported Reuters.

Prices at the pump topped USD2.25 a gallon in end-December, according to the American Automobile Association, the highest since March when COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic. Supplies fell to the lowest in a month at 236.6 million barrels, according to US government data.

US rush-hour traffic this holiday season reached pandemic highs, with a congestion index posting the biggest month-on-month increase since July, according to location technology company TomTom. Still, no US city is above 2019 levels.

Stay-at-home orders to stop the spread of COVID-19 have weighed on fuel demand all year, sinking demand and prices for gasoline and other motor fuels. Refineries were running at average utilization rates below 80% last year, the latest Energy Information Administration data showed.

Major refiners Exxon Mobil Corp and Royal Dutch Shell Plc were trimming output on weak profits. Contributing to the retail price rise: oil has rallied to around 10-month highs as vaccine distributions expand.

As MRC informed previously, Shell said in late December, 2020, it expects improved base and intermediate chemicals margins in the fourth quarter compared with the third quarter of 2020. The company did not give specific estimates for the forecast margins in a trading update for the fourth quarter.

We remind that Royal Dutch Shell plc. said in November, 2020, that its petrochemical complex of several billion dollars in Western Pennsylvania was about 70% complete and was in the process to enter service in the early 2020s. The plant's costs are estimated to be USD6-USD10 billion, where ethane will be transformed into plastic feedstock. The facility is equipped to produce 1.5 million metric tons per year (mmty) of ethylene and 1.6 mmty of polyethylene (PE), two important constituents of plastics.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated polyethylene (PE) consumption totalled 1,990,280 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2020, up by 1% year on year. Only high density polyethylene (HDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, polypropylene (PP) shipments to the Russian market reached 1 090,900 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2020 (calculated using the formula: production, minus exports, plus imports, excluding producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply of exclusively PP random copolymer increased.

Royal Dutch Shell plc is an Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the biggest company in the world in terms of revenue and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors". Shell is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading.
MRC

Japan aims to eliminate gasoline vehicles by mid-2030s, boost green growth

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Japan aims to eliminate gasoline-powered vehicles in the next 15 years, the government said on Friday in a plan to reach net zero carbon emissions and generate nearly USD2 trillion a year in green growth by 2050, reported Reuters.

The "green growth strategy," targeting the hydrogen and auto industries, is meant as an action plan to achieve Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's October pledge to eliminate carbon emissions on a net basis by mid-century.

Suga has made green investment a top priority to help revive the economy hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and to bring Japan into line with the European Union, China and other economies setting ambitious emissions targets.

"The government has set up ambitious targets to achieve a carbon neutral society in 2050," said Yukari Takamura, professor at the University of Tokyo.

"Making clear goals and policy direction in the green growth strategy will give incentives for companies to invest in future technology."

The government will offer tax incentives and other financial support to companies, targeting 90 trillion yen (USD870 billion) a year in additional economic growth through green investment and sales by 2030 and 190 trillion yen (USD1.8 trillion) by 2050.

A 2 trillion yen green fund will support corporate investment in green technology.

The plan seeks to replace the sale of new gasoline-powered vehicles with electric vehicles, including hybrid and fuel-cell vehicles, by the mid-2030s.

To accelerate the spread of electric vehicles, the government targets slashing the cost of vehicle batteries by more than half to 10,000 yen or less per kilowatt hour by 2030.

It aims to boost hydrogen consumption to 3 million tonnes by 2030 and to about 20 million tonnes by 2050 from 200 tonnes in 2017, in areas such as power generation and transportation.

The strategy identifies 14 industries, such as offshore wind and fuel ammonia, and targets the installation of up to 45 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind power by 2040.

Japan also aims to use renewable energy "as much as possible" by 2050, mainly through off-shore wind farms, with reference goal of renewable energy sources accounting for 50% to 60% of the nation's power by 2050, up from less than 20% now, while reducing reliance on nuclear power.

As MRC informed earlier, Japan will aim to make hydrogen a power source viable enough to produce the output of more than 30 nuclear reactors by 2030, the Nikkei newspaper reported in December, 2020. To achieve that goal in its bid to reduce carbon emissions Japan will have to make a technology now in its infancy commercially viable at scale, as the world accelerates an energy transition to prevent the worst impacts of climate change. Japanese companies including Toyota Motor Corp on 7 December, 2020, said they established a new organisation, the Japan Hydrogen Association, to promote the creation of a hydrogen supply chain in the country. By 7 December, 88 companies had joined the initiative, including Japan's biggest refiner ENEOS Holdings Inc and trading house Mitsui & Co Ltd.

We remind that ENEOS Corporation (formerly known as JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy) took its larger naphtha cracker in Kawasaki off-line on 4 December 2020 for repairment after a technical issue reported at the butadiene separation unit in late November. The cracker was operating at 95% capacity before the shutdown in early December. The cracker with an annual capacity of 515,000 tons/year of ethylene, 300,000 tons/year of propylene, and 105,000 tons/year of butadiene would be shut for a month. The company’s smaller cracker at the same location is not affected by the issue.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated polyethylene (PE) consumption totalled 1,990,280 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2020, up by 1% year on year. Only high density polyethylene (HDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, polypropylene (PP) shipments to the Russian market reached 1 090,900 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2020 (calculated using the formula: production, minus exports, plus imports, excluding producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply of exclusively PP random copolymer increased.
MRC

Dallas Fed appoints LyondellBasell CEO to Houston branch board

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas has appointed LyondellBasell CEO Bob Patel to its Houston branch board of directors for a term ending 31 December 2023, according to Chemweek.

Patel has served as LyondellBasell CEO since 2015. Patel also serves on the board of Union Pacific.

As MRC reported previously, in early December 2020, LyondellBasell, one of the world's largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies, announced it had joined the United Nations (U.N.) Global Compact, the world's largest corporate sustainability initiative. Under the U.N. Global Compact, signatories are encouraged to align their operations and strategies with key principles on human rights, labor and anti-corruption.

We remind that in September 2020, LyondellBasell announced that Duqm Refinery and Petrochemical Industries Company LLC (DRPIC) selected LyondellBasell's world-leading polypropylene (PP) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) technologies for a new facility. The new plants will comprise of a PP plant that will utilize LyondellBasell's Spheripol PP process technology to produce 280,000 metric tons per year (m.t./yr) of PP and a 480-m.t./yr high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plant which will utilize LyondellBasell's Hostalen ACP process technology and will be built in Al Duqm, Oman.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated polyethylene (PE) consumption totalled 1,990,280 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2020, up by 1% year on year. Only high density polyethylene (HDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, polypropylene (PP) shipments to the Russian market reached 1 090,900 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2020 (calculated using the formula: production, minus exports, plus imports, excluding producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply of exclusively PP random copolymer increased.

LyondellBasell is one of the largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies in the world. Driven by its 13,000 employees around the globe, LyondellBasell produces materials and products that are key to advancing solutions to modern challenges like enhancing food safety through lightweight and flexible packaging, protecting the purity of water supplies through stronger and more versatile pipes, and improving the safety, comfort and fuel efficiency of many of the cars and trucks on the road. LyondellBasell sells products into approximately 100 countries and is the world"s largest licensor of polyolefin technologies.
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