PPG to increase production of overvarnish coatings for beverage can exteriors at Ohio plant

MOSCOW (MRC) -- PPG Industries is increasing production of overvarnish coatings for beverage can exteriors at its Delaware, Ohio facility, said the company.

PPG expects the addition of the Delaware plant’s new volume to existing overvarnish capacity at its Oak Creek, Wisconsin, packaging coatings facility will increase the company’s overall production of overvarnish coatings in the U.S. by 40%.

“Beverage can manufacturers around the world are facing unprecedented demand for their products,” said Todd White, PPG general manager, U.S. and Canada, and global strategic accounts, packaging coatings. “With this added capacity, we are committed to helping them meet that demand while adding more security to their supply chain for beverage can coatings."

In addition to increasing supply chain security for its customers and the packaging industry, the Delaware plant will provide in-line analytical capabilities for enhanced batch consistency. “PPG is the largest global supplier of overvarnish and two-piece non-BPA internal beverage coatings,” said Robyn McMillan, PPG global beverage segment manager. “With can makers scaling up, we’re investing in our production capacity to ensure they have localized sources of the PPG coatings that they rely on."

PPG’s Delaware, Ohio, plant employs approximately 400 people and produces resins and coatings for the packaging, industrial and automotive original equipment manufacturer (OEM) markets as well as the automotive refinish and collision market.

As per MRC, PPG Industries announced it will acquired Worwag (Stuttgart, Germany), a producer of liquid, powder and film coatings for industrial and automotive applications. Terms of the transaction, including purchase price, have not been disclosed. The deal is expected to close in the first half of this year. Worwag, a family-owned business, has operations in several countries in Europe, the Americas and Africa, and generates about EUR220 million/year (USD269 million) in revenue. It has about 1,100 employees.

As per MRC, March production of polymers in primary form was 958,000 tonnes versus 861,000 tonnes in February. Overall output of polymers in primary form totalled 2,740,000 tonnes over the stated period, up by 8.5% year on year. 151,000 tonnes of synthetic rubbers were produced in March, compared to 141,000 tonnes a month earlier. Overall, Russian plants produced about 447,000 tonnes of synthetic rubbers in January-March 2021, up by 10.2% year on year.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Dow Chemical, one of the largest US petrochemical companies, saw packaging, construction materials and coatings, industrial and electronics markets surge in the second quarter amid strong demand and higher chemical and resin pricing, reported S&P Global with reference to CFO Howard Ungerleider's statement July 22.

"Strong consumer trends continue in retail, housing, and the manufacturing sectors and inventory levels remain low across most of our value chains," Ungerleider said during the company's Q2 earnings call. "We expect these dynamics to continue to support price strength in (Q3) as the industry works to fulfill pent-up demand."

The company reported USD1.9 billion in profits, up from a USD225 million loss in Q2 2020, when demand cratered for many products amid the height of coronavirus pandemic-related shutdowns in many global regions.

While some coronavirus restrictions remain or have resurfaced amid the spread of the delta variant, demand has largely roared back for single-use and durable plastics, polyurethane foam, electronics, and industrial uses as vaccinations and economic activity increase.

At the same time, downstream converter and brand owner inventories "remain at all-time lows, with balances very tight," Ungerleider said, on continued fallout of the deep freeze that hit the US Gulf Coast and much of the US in mid-February, forcing weeks-long shutdowns of petrochemical plants.

"Around the world, increasingly positive trends indicate we remain in the early stages of economic recovery with an extended runway for growth," he said.

While industrial production is up nearly 20% over the year-ago low, it has not reached pre-pandemic levels, Ungerleider said. He also noted that retail inventory to sales was at its lowest levels in more than 30 years, and strong demand continued to counter near-term restocking efforts.

US housing starts also show continued growth amid a limited supply of single-family homes after a decade of underbuilding, he said. And the slow-to-improve personal care market showed a rebound in Q2, with higher sales of cosmetics and beauty products as consumers return to offices, he noted.

"We anticipate the strong demand we experienced in (Q2) across our polyethylene, polyurethane, acrylic, and silicone chains to extend through the second half of 2021," Ungerleider said.

As MRC wrote earlier, Dow Chemical began the process of restarting operations at its cracker No.7 in Freeport (Freeport, TX, USA) on 19 July, 2021, after a technological disruption on 4 July, 2021.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 953,400 tonnes in the first five months of 2021, which virtually corresponded to the same figure a year earlier. High denisty polyethylene (HDPE) shipments decreased.

Dow Chemical is an American diversified chemical company headquartered in Midland, Michigan. It is a major manufacturer of polymer products, including polystyrene, polyurethane, polyethylene, polypropylene and synthetic rubbers. The company produces more than five thousand products at 188 production facilities in 37 countries.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- ExxonMobil and SABIC have announced that their joint venture, Gulf Coast Growth Ventures located near Corpus Christi, Texas, has reached mechanical completion of a monoethylene glycol (MEG) unit and two polyethylene (PE) units, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Project startup is expected to begin ahead of schedule, likely in the fourth quarter of 2021.

“Gulf Coast Growth Ventures is a key development of our plan to serve growing demand for our high value performance products,” said Karen McKee, president of ExxonMobil Chemical Company. “This is truly a best-in-class project, as demonstrated in schedule acceleration and cost competitiveness, despite the many challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

“We are very proud to bring GCGV one step closer to operations,” said Abdulrahman Al-Fageeh, SABIC’s executive vice president of petrochemicals. “Not only are we ahead of schedule, but we have executed this project with the highest commitment and emphasis on safety with nearly 18 million safe person-hours worked, all while acting on the promises we made to the community when we started this journey four years ago.”

The project, which includes a 1.8 million metric ton ethane steam cracker, is expected to be delivered under budget and approximately 25% less than the average cost of similar projects along the US Gulf Coast. When completed, GCGV will produce 1,100 kilotons of MEG and 1,300 kilotons of PE per year.

As MRC wrote previously, a little more than two years after announcing it had selected San Patricio County as the site for its new ethylene cracker plant, ExxonMobil and Saudi Basic Industries Corp. celebrated the groundbreaking for the new facility (September 2019).

MEG is commonly used in the manufacturing of polyesters and automotive coolants, and as a building block to create various forms of high-performance plastics. PE is commonly used in protective film, packaging and bottles and containers that prolong the shelf-life of food and medicines, as well as in various automotive parts that improve fuel efficiency and performance, and in medical applications.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 953,400 tonnes in the first five months of 2021, which virtually corresponded to the same figure a year earlier. High denisty polyethylene (HDPE) shipments decreased.

ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world's oil and about 2% of the world's energy.

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.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- TotalEnergies (formerly Total), through its Belgian subsidiary Lampiris, has signed a corporate power purchase agreement with Air Liquide for the supply of 50 GWh/year of renewable electricity for 15 years, reported S&P Global with reference to the company's statement July 26.

TotalEnergies will source the power from an offshore wind farm in the Belgian North Sea, it said in a statement.
Air Liquide will use the electricity to power industrial and medical gas production sites in Belgium, avoiding around 270,000 mt of CO2 emissions over the course of the contract, TotalEnergies said.

"A growing number of companies are shifting to renewable energy, and we want to support them on their path towards carbon neutrality," TotalEnergies senior vice president renewables Julien Pouget said. "There is a dynamic market for corporate PPAs in Europe, and we want TotalEnergies to take a strong leadership position."

TotalEnergies signed several other corporate PPAs earlier in 2021 with Orange, Microsoft and Merck.

The company had 7 GW of renewable energy generation in operation at the end of 2020, of a total 12 GW power generation capacity. It aims to have 35 GW of renewable production capacity by 2025, rising to 100 GW by 2030.

As MRC informed before, earlier this month, Air Liquide, Borealis, Esso S.A.F., TotalEnergies and Yara International ASA signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore the development of a CO2 infrastructure including capture and storage, to help decarbonize the industrial basin located in the Normandy region, France.

Besides, in June 2021, TotalEnergies and Novatek signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly work on sustainable reductions of the CO emission resulting from the production of liquefied natural gas (LNG) including with the use of renewable power, to develop large-scale carbon capture and storage solutions (CCS) and to explore new opportunities for developing decarbonized hydrogen and ammonia.

TotalEnergies is a broad energy company that produces and markets energies on a global scale: oil and biofuels, natural gas and green gases, renewables, and electricity. Its 105,000 employees are committed to energy that is ever more affordable, clean, reliable and accessible to as many people as possible. Active in more than 130 countries, TotalEnergies puts sustainable development in all its dimensions at the heart of its projects and operations to contribute to the well-being of people.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Maire Tecnimont S.p.A. announces that its subsidiary Tecnimont S.p.A. has been awarded a contract by Repsol for the realization of a polypropylene (PP) Unit and a linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) unit on an EPC (Engineering Procurement and Construction) Lump Sum Turn-Key basis, as part of Repsol’s expansion of Sines Industrial Complex in Portugal, as per Maire Tecnimont's press release.

The total contract value is approximately EUR430 million. The project scope of work entails complete engineering services, equipment and material supply, installation and construction activities and, as an optional part of the scope, commissioning and start up.

The project completion is expected by 2025.

The new PP and LLDPE units, which represent the largest industrial investment in Portugal in the last ten years, will have a capacity of 300,000 tons per year each and will be located inside Repsol’s industrial complex in Sines, Portugal.

The technologies applied in both units will guarantee maximum energy efficiency and will be the first of their kind to be implemented in the Iberian Peninsula, making the Sines Industrial Complex one of the most advanced in Europe due to its flexibility and high degree of integration.

As MRC wrote previously, Repsol shut down its cracker in Tarragona (Spain) for maintenance in the fourth quarter of 2019. The turnaround at this steam cracker, which produces 702,000 mt/year of ethylene and 372,000 mt/year of propylene, was pushed back from Q3 2019. The exact dates of maintenance works were not disclosed.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 953,400 tonnes in the first five months of 2021, which virtually corresponded to the same figure a year earlier. High denisty polyethylene (HDPE) shipments decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 607,8900 tonnes in January-May 2021, up by 33% year on year. Shipments of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whereas deliveries of PP random copolymers decreased.

Maire Tecnimont S.p.A., listed on the Milan Stock Exchange, heads an industrial group which leads the global natural resource conversion market (downstream oil & gas plant engineering, with technological and executive expertise). Its subsidiary NextChem operates in the field of green chemicals and technologies in support of the energy transition. The Maire Tecnimont Group operates in approx. 45 countries, through approx. 50 operative companies and about 9,000 people. For further information:

Repsol is a global multi-energy company established in Spain and listed on the Spanish Stock Exchange for 25 years. Its products are distributed in nearly 100 countries to around 24 million customers. Repsol Industrial Complex in Sines is the largest chemical site in Portugal.
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