Cargill to buy bio-based performance, industrial chemical businesses from Croda

MOSCOW (MRC) -- British speciality chemicals group Croda will sell most of its performance technologies and industrial chemicals division to commodities group Cargill Inc in a USD1 billion deal, said Reuters.

The sale of the unit, which makes low-carbon, sustainable additives and materials used in applications from food packaging to medical kits and devices, follows a strategic review as Croda shifts focus to its life sciences and consumer businesses. "We will focus our capital and resources on delivering sustainable solutions and scaling our consumer, health and crop care technologies," CEO Steve Foots said in a statement.

In a separate statement, Cargill said the deal would help broaden its offerings to industrial manufacturers looking for sustainable options. Croda is selling the majority of the business for an enterprise value of 915 million euros ($1 billion) on a cash-free, debt-free basis, it said. The business raked in 470 million pounds (USD626 million) in revenue last year.

Shares in the company, of the year's best performers in the FTSE 100 index (.FTSE), were down 1.5% at 1120 GMT. Some investors expecting a higher price for the deal may have been disappointed, Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Susannah Streeter said. Croda has been focusing its performance tech division towards markets such as renewable technology and electric vehicles.

More recently, the Yorkshire-based company has been supplying vaccine delivery components to Pfizer (PFE.N) for its COVID-19 vaccine, which helped it boost overall sales projections.

As per MRC, Cargill Inc and Thailand’s PTT Global Chemical Pcl announced they will build a biopolymer production facility at a cost of more than USD600 million in Thailand. The plant will be built through their joint venture, NatureWorks, and will help meet increasing demand for sustainable materials, PTTGC said in a statement. The manufacturing complex will use about 110,000 tonnes of sugar annually from Thai farmers as a raw material and have an annual biopolymer capacity of 75,000 tonnes. Its products can be used to make hygiene masks, wiping cloths and food packaging. The new plant is due to begin operations in 2024.

It was reported earlier, Arkema announces the proposed divestment of its epoxides business to Cargill, a leader in agricultural products and services. With this project, Arkema is pursuing the repositioning of its portfolio on its core businesses. Arkema produces bio-based and specialty epoxides in Blooming Prairie (MN, USA), used as additives or intermediates in the manufacture of lubricants, plastic additives and a wide variety of other applications.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Indonesia is likely to start operations of 22 petrochemicals projects from 2021 to 2025, mainly driven by strong demand for plastics and fertilizers, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing with reference to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

GlobalData’s latest report, ‘Petrochemicals New Build and Expansion Projects Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis report by type, region, key commodities, and key countries forecasts and analysis 2021–2025’ reveals that out of the 22 projects expected to commence operations in Indonesia, four will be methanol projects, followed by three polypropylene (PP) projects.

Bhargavi Gandham, Oil & Gas Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Indonesia, one of the largest economies in Southeast Asia, is witnessing strong demand for petrochemicals, especially for plastics and fertilizers. Indonesian government plans to minimize dependence on petrochemicals imports by promoting the domestic petrochemical sector to meet the soaring demand.”

Among the upcoming methanol projects in Indonesia, the Air products Bengalon Methanol Plant project leads with a production capacity of 2 MMtpy. The project is expected to start operations in 2025.

GlobalData notes that among the upcoming PP projects, the PT Trans Pacific Petrochemical Indotama Tuban PP Plant project and Lotte Chemical Corporation Cilegon PP Plant project lead with a production capacity of 600,000 tpy each.

The PT Trans Pacific Petrochemical Indotama Tuban PP Plant is expected to start operations in 2024 while Lotte Chemical Corporation Cilegon PP Plant will commence operations in 2025.

As MRC wrote before, PT Chandra Asri Petrochemical (CAP), one of the largest integrated petrochemical companies in Indonesia, is in plans to announce its final investment decision (FID) for its second petrochemical complex in Indonesia (CAP2) in 2022.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,226,530 tonnes in January-October 2021, up by 26% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymers (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding stat-copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) decreased significantly.
MRC

1. Crude oil prices rise over 3% on Tuesday, but market wary of Omicron

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Oil prices settled more than 3% higher on Tuesday, rebounding on renewed risk appetite the day after a sharp fall, but investors remained cautious as the Omicron coronavirus variant cut holiday travel plans, dimming the near-term fuel demand outlook, reported Reuters. “This is a pragmatic market that wants to be bullish but knows relief rallies, like the one this morning, will not last,” said Tamas Varga, oil analyst at London brokerage PVM Oil Associates. “The upside is likely to be limited and more restrictions will be greeted with renewed selling,” he added. Brent crude settled up USD2.46, or 3.4%, at USD73.98 a barrel, and US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose USD2.51, or 3.7%, to USD71.12 a barrel.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A massive fire broke out on the premises ofan Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) refinery at Haldia in Purba Medinipur district on Tuesday, reported The Indian Express.

At least three persons were killed and 44 injured after the fire, police said.

The cause of the blaze, which sources termed as a “flash fire” that broke out after a drill, is yet to be ascertained.
It was extinguished by a fire team and the situation is now under control, the sources said.

The refinery has been under shutdown since the first week of this month as maintenance work is underway at many major units, they added.

“In the motor spirit quality (MSQ) unit, during shutdown-related work, at around 14:50 hours, today an incident occurred. The primary cause seems to be a flash fire leading to burn injuries to 44 persons and 3 persons have unfortunately succumbed to their injuries,” read a statement issued by Haldia Refinery authorities.

As MRC informed before, in June 2021, IOC let contracts to McDermott International Ltd. to provide engineering, procurement, construction, and commissioning (EPCC) services for separate projects involving the addition of new units at two of its refineries in India.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,047,100 tonnes in the first ten months of 2021, up by 17% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,226,530 tonnes in January-October 2021, up by 26% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymers (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding stat-copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) decreased significantly.

Indian Oil Corporation Limited, or IndianOil, is an Indian state-owned oil and gas corporation with its headquarters in New Delhi, India.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- High density polyethylene (HDPE) prices began to grow dynamically in Russia in December 2020 under the pressure of the situation in foreign markets. A year later, weak demand and oversupply led to cuts in prices, particularly, for film grade HDPE, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

In September-October, HDPE prices in the Russian market were pressured by scheduled shutdowns for repairs at two producers: Kazanorgsintez and Stavrolen. But already from the second half of November, supply of polyethylene (PE) began to gradually grow in the market with the end of the plants' turnarounds and an increase in capacity utilisation. HDPE imports have also begun to increase since the last month of autumn. Record high PE prices had a negative impact on demand, and oversupply forced some sellers to reduce their December prices.

In addition to the CIS markets, attractive offer prices for HDPE shipments to Russia have been gradually emerging from non-CIS countries. But due to long-term logistics and exchange rate risks, Russian companies refrained from any purchases with a long delivery time.

Film grade HDPE is the most sensitive to prices. In other PE consumption segments, there was also a slight surplus, but this factor has not been as critical as in the film grade HDPE segment yet.

Prices of film grade HDPE have begun to gradually go down in the spot market since early December, some suppliers' prices had reached Rb148,000-150,000/tonne, including VAT and delivery, by the third decade of the month. There were deals done at lower prices.
MRC