Advent to sell coating resins maker Allnex to PTT Global Chemical for around USD4.75 billion

Advent to sell coating resins maker Allnex to PTT Global Chemical for around USD4.75 billion

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Buyout group Advent has agreed to sell German coating resins maker Allnex to Thailand’s PTT Global Chemical (PTTGC) for around EUR4 billion (USD4.75 billion), reported Reuters with reference to the companies' statements on Monday.

Allnex, whose products are used in the industrial metal, automotive and packaging industries, has annual revenue of EUR2 billion and employs 4,000 employees worldwide. The deal values Allnex at 12.2 times its annual core earnings.

Advent acquired Cytec Industries’ coating resins business in 2013, rebranded it Allnex and merged it with peer Nuplex in 2016.

PTTGC is a unit of Thailand’s energy group PTT, which is seeking to strengthen its chemicals business. The deal will improve Allnex’ access to raw materials and to the Asian market, which has strong growth potential for coating resins, the companies said.

The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2021.

As MRC wrote previously, PTTGC abruptly shut down three crackers at its petrochemical complex in Map Ta Phut on 14 April 2021 after a thunderstorm caused a power outage. No. 1 and 4 crackers and the recently launched No. 5 cracker on the site were off-line for around one week. The production capacities of No. 1 and 4 crackers are 461,000 and 515,000 mt/year of ethylene, whereas the new cracker can produce 500,000 mt/year of ethylene and 260,000 mt/year of propylene.

PTT Global Chemical is a leading player in the petrochemical industry and owns several petrochemical facilities with a combined capacity of 8.45 million tonnes a year.
MRC

PVC production in Russia rise by 1% in H1 2021

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russia's overall production of unmixed polyvinyl chloride (PVC) totalled 515,900 tonnes in the first half of 2021, up by 1% year on year. At the same time, two producers reduced their output, according to MRC's ScanPlast report.

June production of unmixed PVC in Russia was 83,800 tonnes versus 86,100 tonnes a month earlier, SayanskKhimPlast decreased its capacity utilisation. Overall output of polymer totalled 515,900 tonnes in January-June 2021, compared to 509,100 tonnes a year earlier. Two producers reduced their output, whereas Bashkir Soda Company and Kaustik, Volgograd managed to increase their production of resin.

The structure of PVC production by plants looked the following way over the stated period.


RusVinyl produced 29,900 tonnes of PVC in June, with emulsion polyvinyl chloride (EPVC) accounting for 2,300 tonnes, compared to 28,100 tonnes a month earlier. RusVinyl's overall output of resin reached 175,300 tonnes in the first half of 2021, compared to 177,600 tonnes a year earlier.

SayanskKhimPlast reduced its capacity utilisation last month and produced 23,400 tonnes of suspension PVC (SPVC), compared to 26,500 tonnes in May. The Sayansk plant managed to produce 156,900 tonnes of PVC in the fist six months of 2021, compared to 164,3000 tonnes a year earlier.

Baskhir Soda Company produced 23,300 tonnes of SPVC in June versus 23,800 tonnes a month earlier. The Baskhir plant's overall production of resin reached 140,500 tonnes in January-June 2021, up by 8% year on year.

Kaustik (Volgograd) produced 7,200 tonnes of SPVC last month, whereas this figure was 7,700 tonnes in May. The plant's overall production of resin reached 43,200 tonnes over the stated period versus 36,500 tonnes a year earlier.

MRC

COVID-19 - News digest as of 12.07.2021

1. U.S. crude and gasoline stocks fell

MOSCOW (MRC) -- U.S. crude and gasoline stocks fell and gasoline demand reached its highest since 2019, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said, signaling increasing strength in the U.S. economy, said Hydrocarbonprocessing. Crude inventories fell by 6.9 million barrels in the week to July 2 to 445.5 million barrels, the lowest since February 2020, and more than the expected 4 million-barrel drop estimated in a Reuters poll. Crude stocks have declined steadily for several weeks as refiners process more oil into gasoline, diesel and other products. Overall product supplied - a proxy for demand from end-users of fuels - rose to 20.9 million barrels per day (bpd), in line with the same trend two years ago prior to the coronavirus pandemic.

MRC

Venezuela oil company PDVSA resorts to upgraded oil, blends for feeding domestic refineries

Venezuela oil company PDVSA resorts to upgraded oil, blends for feeding domestic refineries

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Venezuela's state-run oil company PDVSA has started producing two upgraded crude grades for domestic refining, aiming at reanimating the country's much-needed output of motor fuels, reported Reuters with reference to a company document and sources close the decision.

Years of under-investment in PDVSA's 1.3 million-barrel-per-day capacity refining network and US sanctions since 2019 have led to intermittent scarcity of cooking gas, gasoline and diesel, making the nation more dependent on imports and forcing Venezuelans to line up for hours and even days to get fuel.

As Venezuela's refineries were originally built to process medium to light crudes, PDVSA's increasingly heavy oil output no longer meets the facilities' diet, forcing the company to decide every month whether to refine its limited stocks of light oil or use it as diluent for its flagship exportable grade Merey.

Following the restart of a key upgrader in June, operated by the Petrocedeno joint venture, PDVSA has scheduled the first cargo of light Zuata Sweet synthetic crude to be sent this month to its largest refinery, the 645,000-bpd Amuay, which remained mostly shut in June, according to the document and one of the sources.

PDVSA had stopped producing Zuata Sweet and other upgraded crudes in 2019 shortly after US sanctions deprived the firm and its private partners from the largest market for those grades, the US Gulf.

The state company last month also began production of a new upgraded crude grade, Hamaca 22, at neighboring project Petropiar, with the first 500,000-barrel cargo loading this week at the Jose port bound for Amuay, the document showed.

The company's fuel production has fallen since May after slightly rising in the first four months of the year. Venezuela also imported diesel to ease the lack of motor fuels.

Amuay's three-week paralysis, the continued outage of the El Palito refinery and low output at the Puerto La Cruz refinery contributed to the decline, for a total average of 193,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude processed last month, 15% of the nation's installed capacity, the source said.

The 310,000-bpd Cardon has been the only refinery with stable output around 120,000 bpd this year, two sources added. PDVSA earlier this year began formulating a crude blend similar to its medium Leona by mixing grades from the Orinoco belt with diluents. That crude has since fed Amuay and Cardon, according to internal company documents.

The move to use blends and upgraded crudes for domestic refining is not only expected to allow more motor fuel output, but it would also free Mesa 30 crude to be used in production of exportable Merey, likely solving bottlenecks that in recent months have caused delays for loading cargoes bound for Asia.

As MRC informed before, in June 2021, Venezuela's political opposition has replaced members of the boards overseeing Citgo Petroleum Corp as factions in the movement led by Juan Guaido try to gain greater influence over Houston-based oil refiner. Citgo split from Venezuelan state-run oil company PDVSA in 2019 after the US imposed sanctions intended to oust Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro. Then congress chief Juan Guaido appointed new boards and won US court recognition of their authority over the refining subsidiary.

We remind that in September 2020, Citgo Petroleum Corp said it did not plan to idle its 418,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Lake Charles, Louisiana, refinery damaged by Hurricane Laura. Rumors have circulated since Laura’s passage over the Lake Charles area on Aug. 27 that Citgo was considering shutting the refinery for an indefinite period because of the extent of the damage and continuing low demand for motor fuels in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 744,130 tonnes in the first four month of 2021, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, PP deliveries to the Russian market were 523,900 tonnes in January-April 2021, up by 55% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whereas shipments of PP random copolymers decreased.
MRC

Nizhnekamskneftekhim received the latest equipment for EP-600 by water

Nizhnekamskneftekhim received the latest equipment for EP-600 by water

MOSCOW (MRC) - Nizhnekamskneftekhim Plant (NKNKH, TAIF) announced that the Oksky-56 cargo ship delivered a decoking air compressor unit for the EP-600 ethylene complex under construction to the TransKama industrial port on June 6, the message says. companies.

The injection device was manufactured in South Korea and sent to Russia by sea through the Indian Ocean on a special barge. The installation includes two compressors. One of the positions is intended for supplying technical and instrumentation air to the EP-600 technological shops. Another compressor is used to supply compressed air to the coils of the pyrolysis ovens for the decoking procedure. The equipment will be installed in the water treatment shop No. 7209 EP-600.

The compressor unit will be the last batch of equipment delivered by water transport. The delivery of the main part of large-sized equipment, in particular 17 technological columns for EP-600, was carried out in navigation 2020 - from April to October. Cargo delivery will now continue by land transport.

At present, more than 2,500 employees of the Turkish company "Gemont" and more than 150 units of construction equipment have been mobilized at the construction site. It is noted that 89 thousand m3 of reinforced concrete structures have already been manufactured at the EP-600 construction site, more than 16 700 tons of metal structures have been installed. 313 units of equipment have been installed on the foundation, work has begun on the installation of pumping and compressor equipment.

In February 2020, Nizhnekamskneftekhim and the Turkish company Gemont signed a contract for the construction of EP-600 olefin complex. The planned completion date for the construction and installation work of the olefin complex is July 2023. A year later, in February 2021, the enterprise received another batch of equipment for the EP-600 ethylene production complex under construction.

Also, Nizhnekamskneftekhim signed contracts with Lummus Technology LLC for the provision of licenses and technologies for the production of ethylbenzene, styrene and propylene for the olefin complex. Facilities include a 250 ktpa ethylbenzene and styrene unit using EBOne and CLASSIC SM technologies, and a 150 ktpa olefin metathesis unit for polymer-grade propylene using Lummus ethylene dimerization and olefin conversion technology Technology. The units will operate as part of the olefin complex under construction (EP-600).

It is planned that the new plant will annually produce 600 thousand tons of ethylene, 270 thousand tons of propylene, 248 thousand tons of benzene, 89 thousand tons of butadiene per year. The company will create 600 new jobs.

According to the ScanPlast of MRC, Nizhnekamskneftekhim produced slightly less than 18,700 tonnes of propylene polymers in May, which is in line with the previous month. In January - May, the total polymer output at the Nizhnekamsk enterprise reached 91,400 tonnes against 92,100 tonnesin 2020.

PJSC "Nizhnekamskneftekhim" (NKNKH) is one of the largest Russian producers of petrochemical products. The production complex of the company includes ten factories of the main production and ten departments (railway transport, main ethylene pipelines, etc.). NKNKh produces over 120 types of chemical products, including synthetic rubber, polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, surfactants. Nizhnekamskneftekhim is a part of TAIF Group.
MRC