Vopak earnings, sales plunge, continues with positioning for energy transition

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Vopak (Rotterdam, Netherlands) reports a 76% fall in net profit including exceptional items to EUR24.0 million (USD29.0 million) for the fourth quarter of 2020, despite a slight rise year on year (YOY) in sales to EUR303.7 million. Net earnings are also down 69% sequentially on the third quarter, with sales falling marginally, said Chemweek.

Excluding exceptional items, net profit fell 39% YOY to EUR56.8 million and 31% sequentially. Vopak says fourth-quarter EBITDA of EUR159.8 million, including exceptional items, was down 21% compared to the prior-year period and 18% sequentially. Excluding exceptional items but impacted by a one-off accounting loss of EUR20 million related to its associate terminal in Malaysia, EBITDA was EUR188.8 million, it says.

Vopak’s total storage capacity in the fourth quarter rose by 1.2 million cubic meters YOY to 35.6 million cu meters, with an average storage occupancy rate of 91%, up 6% YOY, but down slightly sequentially. For 2021 the company says new contributions from ongoing and planned growth projects, replacing EBITDA from divested terminals, could add between €30-50 million, subject to market conditions and currency exchange movements. Between €300-350 million is planned for growth investments in 2021 through existing committed projects, new business development, and pre-FID feasibility studies in new energies, including hydrogen, it says.

“We aim to allocate the majority of our growth investments to industrial, gas, and new energies infrastructures. Our positive views on chemicals have not changed. New growth investments in oil infrastructure are expected to be reduced and will mostly be targeted towards strengthening our leading hub positions,” says Vopak CEO Eelco Hoekstra.

Vopak also announced it will expand its Vlaardingen terminal in the port of Rotterdam, Netherlands, for the storage of waste-basted renewable feedstocks, mostly for the production of biodiesel and bio-jet fuel. A total of 16 storage tanks with a combined capacity of 64,000 cu meters will be constructed, it says. The project is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2022. It will also expand its terminal services in Qinzhou, China, by constructing a new jetty, to be used exclusively for propane, butane, ethylene, and propylene. The project is scheduled for completion in the second half of 2022, it says.

“We have momentum in capturing opportunities to serve large-scale industrial clusters, and are advancing our efforts in developing infrastructure to support the energy transition,” says Hoekstra. The company will continue to transform its portfolio and position itself towards more sustainable forms of energy and feedstocks, he says.

For the full-year 2020, Vopak reports net profit including exceptional items of EUR300.9 million, a YOY fall of 47%, on sales that declined 4% to €1.19 billion. Excluding exceptional items, net income fell 15% YOY to €305.8 million. A storage occupancy rate of 90%, up 6% compared to 2019, reflected “strong storage demand from oil markets and robust storage demand in gas and chemical markets,” it says.

As per MRC, SABIC and Vopak Holding Terminals BV have signed an agreement with the Jubail and Yanbu Industrial Cities Company (JYIC), owned by the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu (RCJY). Under the agreement, JYIC will become a 20 percent stake partner in Jubail Chemical Storage and Services Company (Chemtank).

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) -- BASF has hiked its prices in Europe for its range of biodegradable bioplastics with immediate effect or as contracts allow, according to Chemweek.

No reason for the increase has been given.

Prices for several grades of the company’s bioplastic compound ecovio have been increased by EUR350/metric ton (USD422/metric ton), it says.

The bioplastic products are used mainly in bag applications for organic waste, fruit and vegetables, cling films, and agricultural mulch films, as well as for packaging solutions for paper coating, shrink films, and thermoformed and injection-molded applications.

As MRC wrote before, late last week, BASF said it was restarting one of its steam crackers at its Ludwigshafen complex in Germany after operations were halted last Wednesday due to a technical issue. The naphtha cracker produces ethylene and propylene, and is one of two crackers on the site. One has a production capacity of 420,000 metric tons/year, with the other’s capacity at 240,000 metric tons/year, according to IHS Markit data.

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).

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

MOSCOW (MRC) -- South Africa's Environmental Ministry said on Wednesday it would investigate whether petrochemical company Sasol's Secunda operations could be the source of a sulfur smell experienced in parts of Gauteng and Mpumalanga provinces since the weekend, reported Reuters.

The Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries said the smell was likely a combination of elevated levels of sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide.

Sasol said in a statement on its website on Tuesday that its Secunda operations did not have any operational incidents that could have resulted in an increase in sulfur emissions.

The company said it had also started an investigation to assist in identifying the area of origin of the sulfur odor experienced in the region. Sasol said it could not immediately comment further.

The ministry said it would decide on any further course of action once the investigations were completed.

As MRC wrote previously, Sasol's world-scale US ethane cracker with the capacity of 1.5 mln tonnes per year reached beneficial operation on 27 August 2019. Sasol's new cracker, the heart of Lake Charles Chemicals Project (LCCP), is the third and most significant of the seven LCCP facilities to come online and will provide feedstock to the company's six new derivative units at its Lake Charles multi-asset site.

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.

Sasol is an international integrated chemicals and energy company that leverages technologies and the expertise of our 31 270 people working in 32 countries. The company develops and commercialises technologies, and builds and operates world-scale facilities to produce a range of high-value product stream, including liquid fuels, petrochemicals and low-carbon electricity.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Air Liquide has sold its entities in Greece to Italian gases group SOL for an undisclosed sum, said Chemengonline.

As part of the divestiture, the existing assets of Air Liquide in Greece have been transferred to SOL. Air Liquide’s 104 employees in the country are now SOL employees.

The divestment illustrates Air Liquide’s strategy to review its asset portfolio regularly and focus its expansion in key industrial regions in order to increase its geographic density and therefore enhance performance.

The sales includes Air Liquide Hellas and Vitalaire Hellas. “The divestment illustrates Air Liquide’s strategy to review its asset portfolio regularly and focus its expansion in key industrial regions in order to increase its geographic density and therefore enhance performance,” the company said in a brief statement.

In a separate statement, SOL said that the acquired Air Liquide assets include, among others, an air separation unit (ASU), a liquid carbon dioxide (CO2) production plant, several on-site facilities, along with more than 1,000 customers.

As MRC wrote earlier, in September 2020, Air Liquide finalised an agreement with Sasol to acquire the biggest oxygen production site in the world with a plan to reduce its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 30%. After the announcement on July 29, the international major industry gas company has now entered into a business purchase agreement with Sasol to acquire the oxygen production site in Secunda, South Africa.

We remind that Sasol's world-scale US ethane cracker with the capacity of 1.5 mln tonnes per year reached beneficial operation on 27 August 2019. Sasol's new cracker, the heart of LCCP, is the third and most significant of the seven LCCP facilities that came online and will provide feedstock to the company's six new derivative units at Sasol's Lake Charles multi-asset site.

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).

Established in 1909, Air Liquide Hellas, and its controlled subsidiary Vitalaire HealthcareHellas, is a leading player in the merchant technical gases and home care markets in Greece. SOL Group is already present in the Greek market through its subsidiaries: SOL Hellas and VIVISOL Hellas which operate since many years respectively in the technical gases market and in the home care market. ALH can leverage on a solid asset base, which includes 1 ASU (Air Separation Unit), 1 liquid CO2 production plant, several on-site facilities, 2 filling centers and a complete supply chain of equipment covering the whole country, along with a diversified customer base with more than 1,000 customers served through on-site plants, bulk or cylinder contracts, a longstanding relationship with customers driven by an high level of services and customer satisfaction with more than EUR20 Million revenues in 2019 and a full experienced team of 104 employees with strong knowledge of the business and local market.
MRC

1. Sluggish demand hurts PTTGC full-year earnings

MOSCOW (MRC) -- PTT Global Chemical's (PTTGC) fourth-quarter net profit surged to Thai baht (Bt) 6.41bn from the same period last year on the back of higher product prices, with sales up 3% year on year, said Chemweek. Its full-year 2020 results, however, reflected a general weakness in demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic, with a 20% decline in sales nearly wiping out its profit. The company's EBITDA margin rose to 12% in the fourth quarter of 2020 from 5% in the same period of 2019, supported by strong margins at the olefins and derivatives business. Its olefins and derivatives business for the period posted an adjusted EBITDA margin of 23%, more than double 10% registered in the same period a year earlier. PTTGC's average polyethylene (PE) prices in the last three months of 2020 were up 22% year on year at USD1,074/tonne.


MRC