Trinseo reduces February PS prices in Europe

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Trinseo, a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex binders, and synthetic rubber, and its affiliate companies in Europe, have announced a price reduction for all polystyrene (PS) in Europe, according to the company's press release as of February 2.

Effective February 1, 2022, or as existing contract terms allow, the contract and spot prices for the products listed below went down, as follows:

- STYRON general purpose polystyrene grades (GPPS) -- by EUR40 per metric ton;
- STYRON and STYRON A-Tech and STYRON X- Tech and STYRON C- Tech high impact polystyrene grades (HIPS) - by EUR40 per metric ton.

As MRC reported earlier, Trinseo raised its prices for all PS, acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) and acrylonitrile-styrene copolymer (SAN) grades on January 1, 2021, as stated below:

- STYRON GPPS -- by EUR175 per metric ton;
- STYRON and STYRON A-Tech and STYRON X- Tech and STYRON C- Tech HIPS - by EUR175 per metric ton;
- MAGNUM ABS resins - by EUR155 per metric ton;
- TYRIL SAN resins - by EUR155 per metric ton.

According to ICIS-MRC Price report, in Russia, prices of Nizhnekamskneftekhim's GPPS were at Rb190,750-201,700/tonne, CPT Moscow, including VAT, in February, whereas HIPS prices were at Rb202,750-213,700/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT. Prices of Penoplex's material to be shipped in February grew to the range of Rb209,000-211,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT. Prices of Gazprom neftekhim Salavat's GPPS were at Rb190,500-199,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT, in early February.

Trinseo is a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex and rubber. Trinseo's technology is used by customers in industries such as home appliances, automotive, building & construction, carpet, consumer electronics, consumer goods, electrical & lighting, medical, packaging, paper & paperboard, rubber goods and tires. Formerly known as Styron, Trinseo completed its renaming process in 1Q 2015. Trinseo had approximately USD3.0 billion in net sales in 2020, with 17 manufacturing sites around the world, and approximately 2,600 employees.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical (NSRP) will not shut its new polypropylene (PP) plant in Vietnam in February because of feedstock supply disruption, according to CommoPlast.

The new plant has a production capacity of 400,000 mt/year of PP.

NSRP previously reduced its capacity utilisation to 80% in January due to financial difficulties.

As MRC reported earlier, on 26 January, 2022, state oil firm PetroVietnam blamed NSRP for the recent production cut. State media had reported PetroVietnam had failed to make an early payment under a "Fuel Products Offtake Agreement" (FPOA) with the refinery, causing financial difficulties for Nghi Son. But PetroVietnam, which owns 25.1% of the 200,000 barrel-per-day refinery in Thanh Hoa province, insisted it was not to blame.

According to recent media reports, NSRP will no longer require a lengthy shutdown this February after major shareholders agreed to provide short-term funding to the company to settle the debts.

We remind that NSRP shut its new PP plant in Vietnam for maintenance on 24 August, 2021, instead of the initially scheduled date of 17 August, for approximately three weeks. The company decided to postpone the maintenance shutdown at this plant by one week from the previous schedule due to the COVID-19 related lockdown. Thus, the new PP plant came back on-line in mid-September, 2021.

We also remind that Vietnam’s Nghi Son oil refinery officially began commercial production from 14 November 2018, following months of tests. The USD9 billion refinery is 35.1% owned by Japan’s Idemitsu Kosan Co, 35.1% - by Kuwait Petroleum, 25.1% - by PetroVietnam and 4.7% - by Mitsui Chemicals Inc.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,363,850 tonnes in January-November, 2021, up by 25% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding PP random copolymers decreased significantly.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Air Liquide continues its development of biomethane activities with the construction in the USA of its largest biomethane production unit in the world, said the company.

This will bring the worldwide biomethane production capacity of the Group to 1.8 TWh. The new production unit in the State of Illinois will allow Air Liquide to keep providing low-carbon solutions to its customers in the industrial and transportation sectors and to accompany them in the reduction of their emissions.

Located in Rockford, Illinois, the new production unit will produce biomethane from biogas from a solid waste treatment plant, owned and operated by Waste Connections Inc. It will have a production capacity of 380 GWh per year, which represents the largest production capacity per plant for the Group. It will be operational by the end of 2023. Another biomethane production unit from another landfill is also being built in Delavan, Wisconsin, and will be operational at the beginning of Q2 2022. Thanks to these two new units, Air Liquide is becoming a significant biomethane production player in the U.S. to accompany its customers from the industrial and transportation sectors in the USA and in Canada.

Air Liquide has developed competencies throughout the whole biomethane value chain, from biogas production from waste, to its purification into biomethane, liquefaction, storage, and transportation to distribution. For these two projects, Air Liquide will use, in addition to its own membrane technology, a complementary technology developed by Waga Energy, a company specialized in the valorization of biogas from landfill sites, founded in 2015 and supported by ALIAD, the Group’s capital venture fund.

Globally, Air Liquide now has 21 biomethane operational production units in the world for a yearly production capacity of about 1.4 TWh. After the commissioning of the two new Rockford and Delavan plants, the Group’s biomethane production capacity will reach 1.8 TWh per year.

As per MRC, Air Liquide will invest around 350 Crores Rupees (40 million euros) in a new Air Separation Unit (ASU) dedicated to Industrial Merchant activities in Kosi, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, Northern India. This unit will have a production capacity of 350 tonnes per day, with a maximum of 300 tonnes of oxygen. Air Liquide India will build, own and operate this ASU, which is planned to start operating by the end of 2023.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Yokogawa Electric Corporation has revealed the results of its latest survey to gain further insights into the current and future state of industrial autonomy in process manufacturing, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The survey highlights that the number of manufacturers moving forward with industrial autonomy is clearly increasing, and that there is a high awareness of the expected benefits on environmental sustainability.

The global survey was conducted in seven markets (China, Germany, India, Japan, Saudi Arabia, SE Asia and the US) amongst 534 respondents from 390 companies in the chemical & petrochemical, life sciences, oil & gas, power generation, and renewable energy industry sectors.

Key insights. Regarding environmental sustainability, 45% of the respondents anticipate that industrial autonomy will have a significant impact and another 36% expect a moderate impact in the areas of dynamic energy optimization, water management, and emissions reduction. In contrast, only 6% expect industrial autonomy to have no impact at all on environmental sustainability.

The implementation of industrial autonomy projects is starting to gather pace, with 51% of the respondents surveyed now scaling deployment across multiple facilities and business functions and another 19% reporting they have deployed in at least one facility or business function.

While productivity improvements in production and manufacturing processes are expected to deliver the highest return on investment (ROI) in digital transformation over the next three years – with 31% ranking this area first and a further 20% ranking it second – health, safety and environment is emerging as a key area of ROI, with 26% ranking it first (13%) or second (13%).

With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, increasing remote operations capabilities represents a key factor in industrial autonomy. The survey reveals that one-third (33%) of manufacturers have deployed remote operations in single sites and 31% have implemented across multi-sites in connection to industrial autonomy.

As MRC reported before, in January, 2022, Yokogawa was selected by ExxonMobil as the system integrator for the first field trial of an open process automation (OPA) system designed to operate an entire production facility. The field trial will take place at an ExxonMobil manufacturing facility located on the US Gulf Coast, replacing the existing distributed control system (DCS) and programmable logic controllers (PLC) with a single, integrated system that meets the open process automation standard (O-PAS). The project will incorporate enhanced control capabilities enabled through the implementation of OPA technologies and interfaces.

We remind that, earlier this month, ExxonMobil and SABIC successful started up Gulf Coast Growth Ventures world-scale manufacturing facility in San Patricio County, Texas. The new facility will produce materials used in packaging, agricultural film, construction materials, clothing, and automotive coolants. The operation includes a 1.8 MM metric tpy ethane steam cracker, two polyethylene (PE) units capable of producing up to 1.3 MM metric tpy, and a monoethylene glycol (MEG) unit with a capacity of 1.1 MM metric tpy.

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 2,265,290 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2021, up by 14% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,363,850 tonnes in January-November, 2021, up by 25% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding PP random copolymers decreased significantly.

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.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF, the world's petrochemical major, has increased prices for all polyurethane systems products in North America for orders shipping on or after February 1, 2022, or as contracts allow, as per the company's press release.

According to the statement, the required increase will depend on the specific chemistry of each polyurethane system.

The price adjustment is in response to higher costs for raw materials and logistics.

As MRC reported earlier, Air Liquide and BASF plan to develop world largest cross-border CCS value chain. The goal is to significantly reduce CO2 emissions at the industrial cluster in the port of Antwerp. The joint project Kairos@C has been selected for funding by the European Commission through its Innovation Fund, as one of the seven large-scale projects out of more than 300 applications.

We remind that BASF aims to electrify its production processes for basic chemicals, which are currently based on fossil fuels.

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 1,868,160 tonnes in the first nine months of 2021, up by 18% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,138,510 tonnes in the first nine months of 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding PP random copolymers decreased significantly.

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