Indonesia to start operations at 22 new petrochemicals projects through 2025 on strong demand for plastics and fertilizers

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.
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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.

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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

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Arkema announces the proposed acquisition of Permoseal in South Africa, one of the leaders in adhesive solutions for woodworking, packaging, construction and DIY, as per the company's press release.

Its well-known brands, including Alcolin, and its extensive range of high-performance adhesive solutions will complement Bostik’s offering in the region, strengthening their positions in South Africa’s and Sub-Saharan Africa’s dynamic industrial, construction and DIY markets.

Permoseal offers a large portfolio of technical and sustainable solutions for packaging, as well as for wall and floor preparation, renovation and waterproofing. Leveraging its well-known brands, Permoseal has a strong presence in South Africa’s retail chains, and is the exclusive distributor of the Bostik® and Evo-Stik brands in the region. The company, with sales estimated at EUR44 million in 2021, operates two production plants in the country.

With this proposed acquisition, Bostik will significantly strengthen its presence in South Africa in the DIY adhesives sector, in which the Bostik and Den Braven brands are already well established. The complementarity of product portfolios will allow Bostik to broaden its customer offering in the South African construction market, and continue its expansion in the region, benefiting in particular from strongly growing demand in the building renovation market. The project will also enable Bostik to consolidate its position in packaging adhesives, and expand its offering of sustainable solutions for the industrial sector in the South African market.

This bolt-on acquisition is in line with the strategy to grow the Group’s Adhesive Solutions segment and offers many development synergies.

This project, which is subject to approval by antitrust authorities, should be finalized in second-quarter 2022.

As MRC reported before, with the planned acquisition of Agiplast, a leader in the regeneration of high performance polymers, in particular specialty polyamides and fluoropolymers, Arkema will be able to offer a full service to customers in terms of materials circularity, addressing growing market expectations in this field. This project, which contributes to the sustainable development of the polymer industry, is perfectly in line with Arkema’s sustainable growth strategy.

We remind that Arkema is further increasing its fluoropolymer production capacities in Changshu, China, by 35% in 2022. The increase in capacity is scheduled to come on stream before the end of 2022. Financial and overall capacity details of the expansion project were not disclosed.

Arkema is one of the world's leading chemical manufacturers headquartered in Colombes (near Paris, France). Founded in 2004 as a result of the restructuring of the French oil company Total, Arkema, with a turnover of EUR6.5 billion, has operations in 40 countries, 10 research centers around the world, and 85 plants in Europe, North America and Asia.
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