Petronas mulls over maintenance shutdown at PE plant in Malaysia

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Malaysian state-owned energy giant Petroliam Nasional Berhad, or Petronas, is planning to shut its polyethylene (PE) plants in Kerteh, Malaysia in March 2021 for a brief turnaround, according to CommoPlast.

The tentative plan calls for two to three weeks offline of all PE units, however, the producer has yet to form a concrete decision on the timeline.

The Kerteh complex houses an linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE)/high denisty polyethylene (HDPE) swing line with an annual output of 250,000 tons/year and a standalone 50,000 tons/year LLDPE line.

As MRC wrote earlier, in June 2019, Petronas, and Saudi Aramco started operations at their new 1.2-million-tonnes-per-year naphtha cracker. The cracker is part of the USD2.7 billion joint-venture oil refinery and petrochemical project known as RAPID - or Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development - located in Pengerang in the state of Johor, at the southern tip of peninsular Malaysia.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,220,640 tonnes in 2020, up by 2% year on year. Only shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) increased.

Petronas, short for Petroliam Nasional Berhad, is a Malaysian oil and gas company wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia. The Group is engaged in a wide spectrum of petroleum activities, including upstream exploration and production of oil and gas to downstream oil refining; marketing and distribution of petroleum products; trading; gas processing and liquefaction; gas transmission pipeline network operations; marketing of liquefied natural gas; petrochemical manufacturing and marketing; shipping; automotive engineering; and property investment.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Celanese Corporation, a global chemical and specialty materials company, has announced its Singapore subsidiary, Celanese Singapore Pte. Ltd., has recently extended its long-term contract with Linde Gas Singapore Pte. Ltd. for the supply of carbon monoxide to its Singapore acetyls chemical facility located on Jurong Island, Singapore, as per the company's press release.

Financial details of the contract were not disclosed.

Linde operates large integrated gasification facilities in Singapore to produce gases including hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Celanese began its acetic acid operations in Singapore in 2000 and has been supplied by Linde since 2004.

Carbon monoxide is a key feedstock in the production of acetic acid. The extended contract will provide Celanese’s Singapore facility with an ongoing, reliable and strategically advantaged supply of carbon monoxide for its 600 kiloton acetic acid plant and acetyls production processes.

“Linde has been a valued partner for Celanese as our carbon monoxide supplier to the Singapore site, and this extension will continue to provide the site with a flexible and reliable supply of carbon monoxide supporting our acetyl chain business,” said John Fotheringham, Senior Vice President, Acetyls. “Our close cooperation with Linde has enabled Celanese to enhance our operational flexibility in support of our long-term strategy based upon low cost, flexible production designed to meet our customers’ needs in all regions of the world.”

“Linde is proud to strengthen our longstanding relationship with Celanese, a key global customer, while putting our Singapore business in an even stronger position for the future,” remarked Binod Patwari, Head of ASEAN, Linde. “This reflects our commitment to the region and, in particular, to our business and customers in Singapore. We look forward to continue working closely with Celanese to meet their supply needs safely and reliably.”

With manufacturing and distribution in all regions, Celanese is a leading, global producer of acetic acid, which is a basic chemical used in paints and coatings, adhesives, food packaging and construction materials. The Celanese Singapore facility produces acetyl intermediate products including acetic acid, butyl acetate, ethyl acetate, VAE emulsions and VAM, among other chemical products.

As MRC reported earlier, in H2 February, 2021, Celanese declared force majeure on its products in the Americas and EMEA region due to the severe winter weather that has heavily curtailed US petrochemicals and refinery production and operations on the US Gulf Coast.

According to MRC's DataScope report, January EVA imports to Russia rose only by 0,07% year on year to 3,084 tonnes from 3,087 tonnes a year earlier, and overall imports of this grade of ethylene copolymer into the Russian Federation dropped in January-December 2020 by 3,41% year on year to 38,170 tonnes (39,520 tonnes in 2019).

Linde is a leading global industrial gases and engineering company with 2020 sales of USD27 billion (EUR24 billion). We live our mission of making our world more productive every day by providing high-quality solutions, technologies and services which are making our customers more successful and helping to sustain and protect our planet.

Celanese Corporation is a global technology leader in the production of differentiated chemistry solutions and specialty materials used in most major industries and consumer applications. Based in Dallas, Celanese employs approximately 7,700 employees worldwide and had 2020 net sales of USD5.7 billion.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Yanbu National Petrochemical Company (Yansab), part of Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic), is expected to take additional three days of repairs at its 700,000-metric tons/year ethylene glycol unit at Yanbu, reported Chemweek.

This plant has been off-line since 1 February, 2021.

As MRC informed before, Yansab has restarted its cracker after a planned turnaround. Thus, the cracker in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia, which can produce 1.38 mln mt/year of ethylene and 400,000 mt/year of propylene, resumed operations on 15 February, 2021. It was shut for a turnaround on 5 February.

The company also has polyolefin plants at the same site with production capacity of 400,000 tons/year of polypropylene (PP) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) each. They were also taken off-line for maintenance on 5 February. Both plants resumed production in mid-February.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,220,640 tonnes in 2020, up by 2% year on year. Only shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) increased. At the same time, polypropylene (PP) shipments to the Russian market reached 1 240,000 tonnes in 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.

Yansab is the most recent SABIC, (Saudi Basic Industries Corp), affiliate in Saudi Arabia, and will be the largest Sabic petrochemical complex. It will have an annual capacity exceeding 4 million metric tons (MT) of petrochemical products including: 1.3 million MT (metric-tons) of ethylene; 400,000 MT of propylene; 900,000 MT of polyethylene; 400,000 MT of polypropylene; 700,000 MT of ethylene glycol; 250,000 MT of benzene, xylene and toluene, and 100,000 MT of butene-1 and butene-2.

Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) ranks among the world's top petrochemical companies. The company is among the world's market leaders in the production of polyethylene, polypropylene and other advanced thermoplastics, glycols, methanol and fertilizers.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Orbia Advance (Mexico City, Mexico) reports fourth-quarter net income of USD98 million, up 227% year-over-year (YOY) from USD30 million, said Chemweek.

Revenue totaled USD1.742 billion, up 6% YOY from USD1.636 billion, mainly driven by higher sales in polymer solutions, building and infrastructure, and data communications, says the company. EBITDA increased 30% YOY to USD383 million, driven largely by higher prices of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and specialty products in the polymer solutions segment and favorable market conditions in building and infrastructure.

Assuming no significant unexpected disruptions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, Orbia expects EBITDA to increase by 4-7% in 2021, driven by economic recovery.

The polymer solutions segment, consisting of Vestolit and Alphagary, turned in revenue of USD617 million, up 12% YOY on high PVC prices driven by tight supply. EBITDA increased 86% to USD158 million. All PVC sites operated at full capacity, Orbia notes.

The fluorinated solutions segment, or Koura, turned in revenue of $182 million, down 3% YOY on the continued impact of COVID-19 on key markets, partly offset by strong fluorspar shipments in December. EBITDA declined 23% to USD58 million on weak pricing and volumes.

Revenue in the precision agriculture segment, Netafim, totaled USD270 million, flat YOY as a rebound across most major markets in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia was offset by continued pandemic-related challenges in Latin America, says Orbia. EBITDA increased 8% YOY to USD53 million.

The data communications segment, Dura-Line, turned in revenue of USD176 million, up 9% YOY, mainly driven by higher order volume in the US and Canada, partly offset by lower volume in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America, where recovery was slower. EBITDA was flat at $34 million as a more favorable mix of higher-margin advanced products and accessories was partly offset by higher raw material costs.

Wavin, the building and infrastructure segment, had revenue of USD582 million, up 12% YOY, driven by strong demand in several countries across Europe and Latin America. EBITDA increased 69% to USD88 million.

As per MRC, Orbia Advance Corporation, S.A.B. de C.V., formerly Mexichem (Mexico City), announced that its board of directors has appointed Sameer S. Bharadwaj as its new Chief Executive Officer, effective February 1, 2021.

The shortage of suspension polyvinyl chloride (SPVC) remained in the world, and in recent weeks it has been exacerbated by a series of force majeure shutdown of the largest US producers. Many producers announced further price rise for March shipment; Russian producers also announced price increase for March shipment, according to the ICIS-MRC Price Report.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Vietnam's Nghi Son refinery has restarted after a shutdown on 12 February because of a blackout, a company spokesman said on Thursday, adding that it is investigating the cause, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Thus, it resumed production in the middle of the third week of February.

Vietnam's biggest oil refinery, the USD9-B Nghi Son, started commercial operations in late 2018, and has a capacity of 200,000 bpd.

"The refinery will be fully operational in days, around a week," and the shutdown had not caused any damage, said a source with direct knowledge of the matter, who sought anonymity in the absence of authorization to speak to the media.

The refinery, located 260 km (160 miles) south of Hanoi, is 35.1% owned by Japan's Idemitsu Kosan Co, 35.1% by Kuwait Petroleum, 25.1% by PetroVietnam and 4.7% by Mitsui Chemicals Inc.

Nghi Son and the 130,000-bpd Dung Quat refinery, which started production in 2009, together meet about 70% of Vietnam's demand for refined oil products.

As MRC reported earlier, Nghi Son Refinery & Petrochemical (NSRP) is planning a major overhaul at its polypropylene (PP) unit in Vietnam in June 2021. The production capacity of the company's PP line is 370,000 tons/year. And the entire complex will be shut in 2023 for maintenance.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 1 240,000 tonnes in 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