Covestro Q4 net income declined

Covestro's fourth-quarter net income fell by 3.2% but the full year 2021 income surged manifold over the previous year to EUR1.62bn on the back of strong global demand for its products, said the company.

"The group benefited from strong global demand and buoyant earnings in the year as a whole. Core volumes sold increased by 10% year on year, mainly due to additional volumes from the Resins & Functional Materials (RFM) business acquired from DSM," it said in a statement.

Covestro anticipates EBITDA for the first quarter of 2022 to be between EUR750m and EUR850m while for the full year 2022 the company expects an EBITDA value between EUR2.5bn and EUR3.0bn.

As MRC informed before, in April 2021, DSM completed the sale of the resins & functional materials businesses to Covestro for EUR1.6 bn (USD1.9 bn), including EUR1.4 bn in cash.

We remind that Covestro closed the sale of its European polycarbonates (PC) sheets business to the Munich-based Serafin Group effective January 2, 2020. This includes key management and sales functions throughout Europe as well as production sites in Belgium and Italy.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated consumption of PC granules (excluding imports and exports to/from Belarus) decreased in the first eleven months of 2021 by 11% year on year due to a major fall of imports and higher exports. Thus, overall estimated consumption in Russia totalled 74,300 tonnes in January-November 2021 versus 83,600 tonnes a year earlier.

Covestro (formerly Bayer MaterialScience) is an independent subgroup within Bayer. It was created as part of the restructuring of Bayer AG from the former business group Bayer Polymers, with certain of its activities being spun off to Lanxess AG. Covestro manufactures and develops materials such as coatings, adhesives and sealants, polycarbonates (CDs, DVDs), polyurethanes (automotive seating, insulation for refrigerating appliances) etc. With 2020 sales of EUR 10.7 billion, Covestro has 33 production sites worldwide and employs approximately 16,500 people (calculated as full-time equivalents).

MRC

1. Westlake reports record Q4 and full year 2021 results

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Westlake Corporation’s 4Q net income rose more than fivefold year on year on the back of stronger sales prices and higher margins across most of its businesses, said the company. Profitability during the quarter was driven by an over sevenfold increase in net income for Westlake’s performance and essential materials business year on year, rising to USD821m due to higher pricing and the impact of hurricane outages in Louisiana during the same period in 2020. Housing and infrastructure products division 4Q net income rose USD21m year on year to USD86m on the back of healthy housing and remodelling demand.

MRC

TotalEnergies condemned what it called Moscow's military aggression in Ukraine but stopped short on Tuesday of joining rivals Shell and BP in planning to exit positions in resource-rich Russia, reported Reuters.

The French oil major, which holds a 19.4% stake in Novatek, Russia's largest producer of liquefied natural gas, said it "will no longer provide capital for new projects in Russia".

"TotalEnergies supports the scope and strength of the sanctions put in place by Europe and will implement them regardless of the consequences (currently being assessed) on its activities in Russia," it said in a statement.

"We are somewhat surprised that TTE didn't follow Shell and BP and signal intentions to exit Russia," said RBC equity analyst Biraj Borkhataria.

TotalEnergies announced in January it was pulling out of Myanmar almost a year after a coup there. In 2018 it had to drop its involvement in Iran's South Pars gas field after it failed to receive sanctions waivers for the project.

Earlier, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire had said he would be holding discussions with the heads of TotalEnergies and energy company Engie about their business interests in Russia.

"I believe there is a question of principle in working with any political or financial person close to Russian power," Le Maire told France Info radio.

Russia constituted 24% of TotalEnergies proven reserves and 17% of its oil and gas production in 2020. The Yamal LNG project in northern Russia launched production in late 2017.

As MRC informed previously, Total Petrochemicals and Refining USA, the US petrochemical major and part of TotalEnergies, restarted all of its three polypropylene (PP) units in La Porte as of 17 June 2021. At the same time, the force majeure (FM) at this plant with an annual capacity of 1.15 million tons/year remains in place as the company attempts to stabilize operating rates and build inventories ahead of the hurricane season. Previously, Total Petrochemical declared FM on its PP output after an abrupt loss of electricity supply during a severe weather condition on 18 May, 2021.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 1,494.280 tonnes, up by 21% year on year. Deliveries of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whreas.shipments of PP random copolymers decreased significantly.

Total is a major energy player, which produces and markets fuels, natural gas and low-carbon electricity. Our 100,000 employees are committed to better energy that is safer, more affordable, cleaner and accessible to as many people as possible. Active in more than 130 countries, our ambition is to become the responsible energy major.
MRC

Global oil and gas giant Shell said Monday that it is pulling out of Russia as President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine continues to cost the country’s all-important energy industry foreign investment and expertise, reported TIME.

Shell announced its intention to exit its joint ventures with Russia’s state-owned energy giant Gazprom and related entities, including a 27.5% stake in a key liquefied natural gas project as well as 50% stakes in two projects that are developing oil fields in Siberia.

Shell also said it intends to end its involvement in Nord Stream 2, a controversial pipeline built to carry Russian natural gas to western Europe. German Chancellor Olaf Sholz halted certification of the project after Russia invaded Ukraine.

“We are shocked by the loss of life in Ukraine, which we deplore, resulting from a senseless act of military aggression which threatens European security,” Shell Chief Executive Ben van Beurden said in a statement.

Shell’s most important investment in Russia is its stake in the Sakhalin-II project in the waters near Sakhalin Island off Russia’s east coast. Japan-based Mitsui owns 12.5% of the project, and Mitsubishi holds 10%.

Shell also holds 50% stakes in two joint ventures with Gazprom that are developing oil fields on the Gydan Peninsula in northwestern Siberia and for the Salym Development project in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous District of western Siberia.

In addition to investment, Shell provided expertise that helped develop Sakhalin-II, Russia’s first offshore gas project. It began year-round production in 2008 and includes three offshore platforms designed to withstand earthquakes and crashing ice sheets in the frozen seas.

The project supplies about 6% of the liquefied natural gas used in the Asia-Pacific region and is “one of the world’s largest integrated, export-oriented oil and gas projects,” Shell said.

As MRC informed earlier, on Sunday, Shell’s U.K. rival BP announced plans to shed its almost 20% stake in Rosneft, which is controlled by the Russian state. Norway’s Equinor said Monday that it would halt new investment in Russia and begin selling its holdings in the country.

We remind that Shell Chemicals expects its new petrochemical complex in southwest Pennsylvania to come online by the end of 2022, Royal Dutch Shell CFO Jessica Uhl said February 3, during the company's Q4 2021 earnings call.

Royal Dutch Shell plc is an Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the biggest company in the world in terms of revenue and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors". Shell is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading.
MRC

Technip Energies announces that it has signed an agreement with Encina Development Group, LLC (Encina) to deliver the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) of the fluidized bed catalytic pyrolysis reaction section for Encina’s commercial Plastic Fluid Catalytic Cracking (PFCC) unit to produce circular chemicals from plastic waste in North America, according to SpecialChem.

Encina utilizes a proprietary process to convert post-consumer scrap plastic to valuable circular chemical products. The process, called Plastic Fluid Catalytic Cracking (PFCC), converts mixed hard-to-recycle plastics into petrochemical feedstock such as light olefins and BTX aromatics.

These circular feedstock chemicals can be seamlessly dropped into the fabrication process of new consumer products, reducing the need for virgin materials, and significantly reducing waste plastics.

This FEED will leverage Technip Energies’ industry credentials and know-how in fluidized design, established in the Process Technology FCC program. Technip Energies has an extensive portfolio of licensed and engineered FCC units, including more than 60 grassroots and 250 revamps, demonstrating its process and mechanical design experience.

The company’s development team is committed to ongoing development initiatives in providing technology and engineering solutions to support the industry and its energy transition targets.

As MRC wrote before, Encina (The Woodlands, Texas) was founded to produce benzene, toluene, and xylenes (BTX) from coal, but the company made a sharp change in direction in October, 2019, after discovering that an alternative feedstock - plastic waste - dramatically improved the economics of its process. Advanced plans to build a coal-based facility in Wyoming have since been scrapped, and Encina will soon announce the location for a USD255-million, 100,000-metric tons/year plastics-to-BTX facility. “Our business plan is to have at least five operating facilities with expansion capabilities (located) globally to tackle the plastic problem,” says David Schwedel, founder and executive director in July, 2020. “We’re looking to do an IPO in about two years, and we’re positioning ourselves to be the go-to waste-plastics-to-chemical/fuels company in the world. That is our focus.”

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.
MRC