Ecolab reports lower fourth-quarter earnings, hit by COVID-19 second wave

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ecolab today reported fourth-quarter net income down 24% year-on-year (YOY), to USD300.3 million, on net sales down 6%, to USD3.07 billion. Adjusted earnings totaled USD1.23/share, down 15% YOY and slightly short of analysts’ consensus estimate of USD1.25/share, reported Chemweek with reference to Refinitiv (New York, New York).

Growth in healthcare and sciences businesses was offset by declines in industrial businesses. Sales decline “stabilized” in the institutional and specialty, and other, businesses, Ecolab says.

“We had a solid business performance during the fourth quarter in the face of significant COVID-19 related end market restrictions that were more substantial and widespread than anticipated,” says Ecolab president and CEO Christophe Beck. “Our underlying business continued its sequential improvement as sales trends remained stable and operating income further improved, driven by new business and customer penetration gains, along with continued pricing and lower costs.”

Global industrial segment net sales fell 2% YOY, to USD1.54 billion, while segment operating income was up 18%, to USD316.4 million. Sales grew in the food and beverage and paper businesses, but declined modestly in the water business and decline significantly in the downstream business.

Global institutional and specialty segment sales fell 21% YOY, to USD881.8 million, while segment operating income was down 62%, to USD94.4 million. Sales declined significantly in the in the institutional business, and modestly in the specialty business, with both divisions hit by the second wave of COVID-19 infections during the quarter.

Healthcare and life sciences segment sales grew 26% YOY, to USD318.1 million, while segment operating income increased 71%, to USD53.8 million. COVID-19 drove demand higher, leading to higher volumes across the segment.

Other segment sales were down 7% YOY, to USD283.2 million, while segment operating income fell 9%, to USD43.5 million. A modest increase in the pest elimination business was offset by declines in the rest of the segment, including textile care and colloidal technologies, Ecolab says.

“As we enter 2021, we expect COVID-19 will continue to have a significant effect on the economy and our end markets, with its primary impact in the early part of the year,” Beck says. “We expect to see the beginning of the COVID-19 recovery in our global end markets starting in the second quarter but believe it will take several quarters to fully realize a new normal.”

As MRC informed before, in November 2020, Douglas M. Baker Jr., CEO of Ecolab Inc., announced his retirement effective January 1, 2021, according to ISSA. Baker will remain in his current position as Ecolab board chairman. Christophe Beck has been appointed Baker’s successor as CEO. Earlier, Beck serves as the company’s president and chief operating officer.

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. November 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

MOSCOW (MRC) - The continuous rise in polypropylene prices in Europe and Turkey has significantly affected prices in nearby regions, in particular in the Ukrainian market. Russian producers announced the second increase in polypropylene prices for Ukrainian consumers in a month, according to the ICIS-MRC Price Report.

Negotiations on the February price of Russian PP started in the first days of the month, and at the beginning of the month, Russian producers decided to raise export prices by USD130/tonne. This week, under the pressure of yet another jump in prices in Turkey and Europe, Russian polypropylene has risen in price by another USD190/tonne.
Deals for February shipments of Russian homopolymer PP at the beginning of the month were in the range of USD1,370-1,410/tonne FCA.

Prices for additional volumes of polypropylene and shipments in the second half of February rose to USD1,560-1,600/tonne FCA. A similar situation was with the prices of European and Middle Eastern polypropylene for the Ukrainian consumers.

Export prices of European producers were announced for homopolymer PP in the range of EUR1,250-1,310/tonne FCA in the first week of February, and already in the second week of the month, some producers announced another price increase by EUR100/tonne.

Last week, prices for Middle Eastern homopolymer PP increased in the Turkish by USD100 - 300/tonne, and then the Middle East producers announced a similar rise in prices for the Ukrainian market. Price offers for March shipments rose to USD1,600 per tonne, CIF Odessa, while in the first week of February, deals were done in the range of USD1,360 - 1,420/tonne CIF Odessa.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Yanbu National Petrochemical Company (Yansab), part of Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic), has restarted its cracker after a planned turnaround, reported Chemweek.

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 are expected to resume production this week.

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) -- Neste, the world’s leading provider of renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel and an expert in delivering drop-in renewable and circular chemical solutions, today announced that it has acquired a minority stake in Alterra Energy, an innovative chemical recycling technology company, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Neste’s equity investment supports Alterra Energy’s expansion. The collaboration between the companies will include joint technology development and global technology licensing, enabling the partners to collaborate in commercializing Alterra’s proprietary thermochemical liquefaction technology in Europe.

The companies are working together towards a global rollout of Alterra’s liquefaction technology with a strong initial focus on Europe, a leading market in the global transition towards making plastics value chains fully circular. With this, the companies aim to accelerate the adoption of chemical recycling and develop capacity to turn hard-to-recycle plastic waste into high-quality, high-performance polymers and chemicals. The collaboration of the companies supports Alterra Energy’s target of commencing the construction of a state-of-the-art liquefaction site in Europe during 2021.

Alterra’s existing industrial-scale waste plastics liquefaction plant in Akron, Ohio produces commercial volumes that can already be refined and upgraded into high-quality feedstock for plastics and chemicals. This, together with Neste’s refining capability, enables sustainability-oriented brands globally to start introducing recycled content into their products and offerings.

"Collaboration with Alterra Energy strengthens Neste’s ecosystem of partnerships that are aimed at accelerating the transition to a circular plastics economy. It demonstrates our commitment to continue developing the chemical recycling industry by supporting some of the leading companies in commercializing promising technologies. This partnership also supports Neste’s aim of building new business growth based on chemical recycling, while marking another significant step towards our target of processing more than one million tons of plastic waste from 2030 onwards,” says Mercedes Alonso, Executive Vice President, Renewable Polymers and Chemicals at Neste.

“The Neste-Alterra partnership will unlock the full potential of the circular economy, bringing our technology to more partners around the world, creating a cleaner planet,” said Alterra’s CEO Frederic Schmuck. “Neste is a world leader in renewable and circular solutions and its endorsement of Alterra's proprietary process is both extremely rewarding and validating.”

As per MRC, Neste is planning to restructure its refinery operations in Porvoo and Naantali, Finland. The company is exploring the shutdown of its refinery operations in Naantali and focusing the Naantali site on the terminal and harbor operations, as well as transforming the Porvoo refinery operations to co-processing renewable and circular raw materials.

As MRC informed earlier, last year, Exxon Mobil Corp announced it will lay off about 1,900 employees in the United States as the COVID-19 pandemic batters energy demand and prices.

We remind that ExxonMobil has undertaken a planned shutdown at its cracker in Singapore. The company halted operations at the cracker for maintenance on September 14, 2020. The cracker was expected to remain off-line till end-October, 2020. Located at Jurong Island, Singapore, the cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 1 million mt/year and a propylene production capacity of 450,000 mt/year.

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

MOSCOW (MRC) -- American Chemistry Council (ACC) voiced support for the Biden administration efforts to determine the social costs of greenhouse gas emissions, but urged for methodologies that “adhere to rigorous methodology” and include “ample” channels and opportunities for public and stakeholder input, said Chemweek.

ACC was among 11 signatories on a letter sent to Biden administration officials tasked with implementing the president’s executive order (EO) 13990, Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis. Signed on 20 January, EO 13990 mandates the formation of an Interagency Working Group on Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases (IWG) to update estimates of the Social Cost of Carbon (SCC), Social Cost of Nitrous Oxide (SCN) and Social Cost of Methane (SCM) using recommendations from the National Academies of Sciences (NAS). “An accurate social cost is essential for agencies to accurately determine the social benefits of reducing greenhouse gas emissions when conducting cost-benefit analyses of regulatory and other actions,” EO 13990 stated.

EO 13990 required the IWG to publish interim estimates of these “economically significant values” within 30 days of the EO and a final set of updated estimates by January 2022, the signatories say. “However, it is not clear what the process is to solicit public and stakeholder input for developing the interim estimates presumably by February 19, 2021 or final estimates by January 2022. For example, when updating estimates, the NAS recommends that such estimates draw on external technical expertise and that revisions be subject to public notice and comment. EO 13990 directs the IWG to consider the NAS recommendations, solicit public comment and engage with stakeholders in its activities related to the SCC, SCN and SCM."

The group also called for the administration to harmonize the SCC, SCN and SCM activities with the directives contained in the President’s “Modernizing Regulatory Review” Memorandum for Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies, also issued on 20 January 2021. “That Memorandum requires the Director of Office of Management and Budget to update, as soon as practicable, the tools used by the Executive Branch to quantify the costs and benefits of regulations, including OMB Circular A-4. These include some of the same tools and methodologies that will be used to revise the SCC, SCN and SCM. The timelines for these two regulatory efforts should be complementary and should benefit from robust stakeholder input so that the resulting guidance from each is consistent with the other.”

The letter was addressed to four key officials within the Biden Administration: Robert S. Fairweather, acting director, Office of Management and Budget; Dr. Robert M. Fisher, General Counsel and Senior Economist, Council of Economic Advisers; Rachael Leonard, Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel.

Office of Science and Technology Policy; and Dominic Mancini, Deputy Administrator, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. The full list of signatories are ACC, American Forest & Paper Association, American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, American Iron and Steel Institute, American Petroleum Institute, Council of Industrial Boiler Owners, Fertilizer Institute, Independent Petroleum Association of America, National Association of Manufacturers, Portland Cement Association and U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

As MRC informed earlier, last year, Exxon Mobil Corp announced it will lay off about 1,900 employees in the United States as the COVID-19 pandemic batters energy demand and prices.

We remind that ExxonMobil has undertaken a planned shutdown at its cracker in Singapore. The company halted operations at the cracker for maintenance on September 14, 2020. The cracker was expected to remain off-line till end-October, 2020. Located at Jurong Island, Singapore, the cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 1 million mt/year and a propylene production capacity of 450,000 mt/year.

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