COVID-19 - News digest as of 20.01.2021

1. Petrobras has not signed Brazil antitrust body deferral for refinery sales

MOSCOW (MRC) - Brazilian oil producer Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) has not signed an agreement with antitrust regulator Cade on additional commitments regarding refinery divestments, reported Reuters with reference to a securities filing, issued on Monday. Petrobras has been trying to sell refineries in one of the world's largest fuel markets for almost a decade and it relauched its plan under Chief Executive Officer Roberto Castello Branco, who took office in January 2019. The latest amendment, which it has not signed, would give the company more time to sign deals after the COVID-19 pandemic reduced demand for fuel and affected the valuation of the plants.



MRC

Johnson Matthey builds up catalyst-coated membranes capacity at UK site

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Johnson Matthey (JM), a global leader in sustainable technologies, has taken the next major step in its plans to commercialise technologies to enable production of zero carbon ‘green’ hydrogen, announcing new manufacturing capacity for the production of catalyst coated membranes, said Chemweek.

This capacity is co-located with JM’s cutting edge plant in Swindon, UK, where high performance fuel cell components including membrane electrode assemblies, catalyst coated membranes, and fuel processor catalysts are produced at scale.

Hydrogen has the potential to significantly contribute to the fight to tackle the climate crisis by decarbonising industries that are difficult to electrify, such as heavy industry, heavy mobility, aviation and shipping. This is a critical step in helping societies meet their ambitious net zero targets.

JM specialises in catalyst coated membranes which sit at the heart of electrolyser units and enable the green hydrogen production process, creating hydrogen through the electrolysis of water with no harmful emissions.

The new capacity enables JM to produce components now, initially for tens of megawatts of hydrogen production – enough to power several thousand homes. The largest electrolyser units in operation in the world today range from 10 to 20 MW. As such, the new capacity puts JM in a position to work with world scale projects, with a roadmap to scale to multi-gigawatt manufacturing capacity in line with customer demand as the market continues its anticipated growth.

As MRC informed earlier, Johnson Matthey (JM; London, U.K.) has secured a multiple licence win for China’s Ningxia Baofeng Energy Group’s latest project to develop five of the largest single-train methanol plants in the world. Located at Baofeng’s Ordos City complex in Inner Mongolia, PRC, the plants have a planned capacity of 5 x 7,200 metric tons (m.t.) per day, and mark the fourth project on which Baofeng has selected Johnson Matthey as its collaboration partner for methanol technology.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (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

Ineos donates USD136 million to Oxford University for antimicrobial research

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ineos, one of the world’s largest manufacturing companies, and the University of Oxford are launching a new world-leading institute to combat the growing global issue of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which currently causes an estimated 1.5 million excess deaths each year- and could cause over 10m deaths per year by 2050, said Chemweek.

Predicted to also create a global economic toll of USD100 trillion by mid-century, it is arguably the greatest economic and healthcare challenge facing the world post-Covid.It is bacterial resistance, caused by overuse and misuse of antibiotics, which arguably poses the broadest threat to global populations. The world is fast running out of effective antibiotics as bacteria evolve to develop resistance to our taken-for-granted treatments. Without urgent collaborative action to prevent common microbes becoming multi-drug resistant (commonly known as ‘superbugs’), we could return to a world where taken-for-granted treatments such as chemotherapy and hip replacements could become too risky, childbirth becomes extremely dangerous, and even a basic scratch could kill.

The rapid progression of antibacterial resistance is a natural process, exacerbated by significant overuse and misuse of antibiotics not only in human populations but especially in agriculture. Meanwhile, the field of new drug discovery has attracted insufficient scientific interest and funding in recent decades meaning no new antibiotics have been successfully developed since the 1980s.

The new Ineos Oxford Institute will benefit from the internationally outstanding facilities and expertise of Oxford University, which played the key role in the origin of antibiotics following Fleming and Oxford’s discovery and development of penicillin in the last century. The IOI will create collaborative and cross-disciplinary links across the sciences, and will be based between two sites in Oxford, linking the University’s Department of Chemistry with the new Life & Mind Building, which is currently under construction.

Prolonging the benefits of antibiotics the world has known since the 1940s requires both urgent new drug development, and better management of the existing drugs we have. It is natural that the microbes causing illness and infection gradually evolve to evade our treatments, but misuse of antibiotics - for instance overusing them and not finishing a full prescribed course - drastically accelerates this process.

The majority of global antibiotic consumption by volume is used for agriculture, and drug use in animals is contributing significantly to their lessening effectiveness in humans. The INEOS Oxford Institute for AMR Research (IOI) will therefore focus on designing novel antimicrobials just for animals, as well as exploring new human drugs.

As MRC informed earlier, Ineos agreed on a long-term power purchase agreement for renewable offshore wind power in Belgium with RWE (Essen, Germany). Under the terms of the 10-year deal, which begins in 2021, Ineos will purchase 56 megawatts (198 gigawatt hours/year) of offshore wind power from RWE Supply &Trading, an RWE subsidiary, produced at the Northwester2 wind park in the North Sea off Belgium.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (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.

Ineos Group Limited is a privately owned multinational chemicals company consisting of 15 standalone business units, headquartered in Rolle, Switzerland and with its registered office in Lyndhurst, United Kingdom. It is the fourth largest chemicals company in the world measured by revenues (after BASF, Dow Chemical and LyondellBasell) and the largest privately owned company in the United Kingdom.
MRC

PVC imports to Russia down by 20% in 2020

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Imports of suspension polyvinyl chloride (SPVC) into Russia totalled about 40,800 tonnes in 2020, down by 20% year on year. At the same time, exports decreased by 6%, according to MRC's DataScope report.

Last month's SPVC imports to Russia dropped to 0,600 tonnes from 1,600 tonnes in November. High PVC prices in foreign markets and a seasonal decline in demand in the last two months have put serious pressure on import purchases of PVC from Russian companies.

Thus, overall imports were 40,800 tonnes in January-December 2020, compared to 50,900 tonnes a year earlier, with PVC from China and the United States accounting for the main reduction in imports. PVC shipments from these countries decreased by almost a third over the stated period.
Good demand for PVC from the domestic market allowed Russian producers to reduce export sales in 2020 compared to a year earlier, including in the last two months of the year. Thus, the total export of Russian suspension PVC amounted to about 10,200 tonnes (excluding shipments to Belarus and Kazakhstan) and 12,800 tonnes, respectively, against 17,000 tonnes and 19,100 tonnes a year earlier in December and November last year.

Thus, overall exports of PVC from Russia totalled 192,700 tonnes in 2020 versus 204,400 tonnes a year earlier.
MRC

Karpatneftekhim raises HDPE prices by USD30/tonne

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Karpatneftekhim (Kalush, Ivano-Frankivsk region), Ukraine's largest petrochemical plant, raised its high density polyethylene (HDPE) prices by USD30/tonne on 18 January for shipments to the domestic market, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

The plant's clients said on Monday, the Ukrainian producer increased its HDPE prices for shipments to the domestic market by USD30/tonne from previous week. Prices started from USD1,130-1,140/tonne FCA, excluding VAT, for end-users. The price rise was primarily caused by higher feedstocks prices.

As reported earlier, the fire that occurred at the pyrolysis furnace (dichloroethane) on January 15 did not affect Karpatneftekhim's operations. All production units have been operating normally.

Karpatneftekhim is one of the largest enterprises of Ukraine's petrochemical complex. Currently, the plant can produce annually 300,000 tonnes of PVC, 200,000 tonnes of caustic soda, about 180,000 tonnes of chlorine, as well as 250,000 tonnes of ethylene and 100,000 tonnes of polyethylene.
MRC