Industrial output up 4% in first four months in China

China reported a drop in retail sales and industrial production in April — far worse than analysts had expected, said Reuters.

Retail sales fell by 11.1% in April from a year ago, more than the 6.1% decline predicted in a Reuters poll. Industrial production dropped by 2.9% in April from a year ago, in contrast with expectations for a slight increase of 0.4%. The output of mining and utilities businesses grew.

But manufacturing fell by 4.6%, mostly dragged down by a slump in the auto sector and equipment manufacturing, said Statistics Bureau Spokesperson Fu Linghui. In addition to Covid, he said industrial production faces pressure from insufficient market demand, rising costs and other factors.

Last month, the persistent spread of Covid and resulting stay-home orders — primarily in Shanghai — forced factories to close or operate at limited capacity.

The “increasingly grim and complex international environment and greater shock of [the] Covid-19 pandemic at home obviously exceeded expectation, new downward pressure on the economy continued to grow,” the statistics bureau said in a statement. The bureau said the impact of Covid is temporary and that the economy “is expected to stabilize and recover."

As per MRC, oil prices fell on Monday as concerns over weak economic growth in China, the world's top oil importer, overshadowed fears supply might be crimped by a potential European Union ban on Russian crude. Brent crude futures were down USD3.73, or 3.4%, to $103.41 a barrel at 1403 GMT, while U.S. WTI crude futures fell USD3.98, or 3.8%, to USD100.71 a barrel. Markets in Japan, Britain, India and across Southeast Asia were closed for public holidays on Monday. China released data showing factory activity in the world's second-largest economy contracted for a second month to its lowest since February 2020 because of COVID lockdowns.

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 2,487,450 tonnes in 2021, up by 13% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, 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.
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Saudi Aramco posted a record first-quarter net profit of riyal (SR) 148bn (USD39.5bn), up by about 82% year on year, thanks for strong crude oil prices and sales volumes, as well as improved downstream margins, said the company.

The energy giant’s total hydrocarbon production in the first three months of the year stood at 13m boe/day (barrels of oil equivalent per day), Saudi Aramco said in a statement on 15 May. Capital expenditure in January-March 2022 was USD7.6bn, it said.

“Aramco continues to expect capital expenditure to grow until around the middle of the decade, to support the company’s long-term strategy realization,” it said. During the quarter, Saudi Aramco made a final investment decision to jointly develop a major integrated refinery and petrochemical complex in China with North Huajin Chemical Industries Group Corporation and Panjin Xincheng Industrial Group.

The joint venture to be called Huajin Aramco Petrochemical Company (HAPCO) plans to build a 300,000 bbl/day refinery and petrochemicals complex. Saudi Aramco expects its full-year 2022 capex of USD40bn-50bn, which was 25-57% higher than the USD31.9bn spent in 2021, amid elevated oil prices.

At 11:42 Singapore time (03:42 GMT), Brent crude was trading at USD109.65/bbl, while WTI was at USD108.74/bbl.

As per MRC, Aramco is exploring further collaboration with Thailand’s national oil company PTT, as it expands its downstream presence in Asia. The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding at a ceremony in Bangkok on May 11. The companies aim to strengthen cooperation across crude oil sourcing and the marketing of refining and petrochemical products and LNG. Other potential areas of activity include blue and green hydrogen and various clean energy initiatives.

Saudi Aramco, officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, is a Saudi Arabian national oil and natural gas company based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Aramco's value has been estimated at up to USD10 trillion in the Financial Times, making it the world"s most valuable company. Saudi Aramco has both the largest proven crude oil reserves, at more than 260 billion barrels, and largest daily oil production.
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Automotive supplier Faurecia and global waste management company Veolia have signed a cooperation and research agreement to jointly develop compounds based on recycled materials for automotive interior modules in Europe, said Sustainableplastics.

The companies aim to achieve an average of 30% of recycled content by 2025. Targeted applications, say the companies, are instrument panels, door panels and centre consoles.

Increasing the use of recycled plastics will help to reduce CO2 emissions and improve cars’ environmental performance. Veolia has been providing polypropylene compounds twith recycled content to the automotive industry in France for over 5 years. Today, however, automotive interiors are still mostly made of virgin material.

This collaboration project with Faurecia will enable the automotive product range to be extended to vehicle interiors.
“As demand for recycled plastic increases across all sectors in the context of resource scarcity, there is a need to recycle more plastic waste streams. The collaboration with Faurecia allows us to increase our supply of secondary raw materials to the automotive industry through the development of high value-added compounds,” said Estelle Brachlianoff, Group Chief Operating Officer at Veolia.

Faurecia has been exploring the use of alternative materials in its interior products for many years. In 2011, the company became the first automotive supplier to introduce a complete range of bio-composite cockpit solutions offering a 28% lower CO2 footprint that of conventional all-plastic counterparts. Now, more than a decade later, these products have already been installed in around 13 million vehicles. In 2021, In line with its CO2 neutrality objectives, Faurecia created a cross-Business Group Sustainable Materials division to engineeer and manufacture new material solutions.

The partnership with Veolia is aimed at accelerating the introduction of new sustainable materials and their time-to-market, said Patrick Koller, CEO at Faurecia, as well as contributing to reducing plastic waste and strengthening the circular economy. “This agreement will also strongly contribute to Faurecia’s roadmap towards CO2 neutrality for scope 3, based on the principles of using less, using better and using longer,” he explained. Veolia will start the production of these secondary raw materials at its existing recycling sites in France starting from 2023.

As per MRC, Faurecia has signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the sale of its Automotive Exteriors business worldwide to Compagnie Plastic Omnium. The deal does not include Faurecia’s composites business, its plant for Smart in Hambach, France, or two joint ventures in Brazil and China. The business to be sold, which includes bumpers and front end modules, had 2014 sales of EUR2 billion (USD2.2 billion), according to a news release. About 90 percent of the business is located in Europe.
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Technology group Heraeus Holding GMBH, a Germany-based family-owned portfolio company with roots going back to the seventeenth century, has announced that it has acquired a majority stake in perPETual Technologies, a leading PET recycling company based in Kleinostheim, Germany, said Sustainableplastics.

The company also announced that perPETual Technologies would be renamed revalyu Resources GmbH. The reasons for the the name change is to drive global expansion under one brand, said Heraeus. Founded in 2007, revalyu Resources built and commercialised in Nashik, India the world’s first chemical full glycolysis recycling plant.

Based on the company’s proprietary depolymerisation technology, the process first converts post consumer PET bottles into sustainable esters (monomers), the base chemical building blocks for anything polyester materials. These are then filtered to remove all impurities before being re-polymerised. The result is the production of a very pure sustainable PET polymer of a quality equal to PET polymers produced from virgin petrochemicals. The process also uses 91 percent less energy and 75 percent less water than conventional processes for producing PET polymers. It can be used in all PET production processes.

According to Jan Rinnert, Chairman of the Board of Managing Directors and CEO of Heraeus Holding GmbH, the global strength of Heraeus will provide the investment, infrastructure and strategic support needed to accelerate revalyu’s growth.

Heraeus aims to develop the business into one of the world’s largest and technologically advanced PET recycling companies.The aim is to recycle 100 million bottles a day of used PET Bottles by 2026, which will be a big step toward solving the PET waste problem.

Hereaus features in the FORTUNE Global 500 list. The Group employs some 14,800 employees in 40 countries aand generated revenues of EUR31.5 billion in financial 2020. Heraeus is one of the top 10 family-owned companies in Germany.

As per MRC, Songwon and Heraeus announced that they have signed a co-operation agreement to jointly develop and market high end specialty chemicals for the electronics industry. This new co-operation combines Songwon's strong expertise in R&D and chemical manufacturing with Heraeus' technical capabilities and high reputation in the electronics chemical industry, thereby broadening both companies' access to the global electronics market.
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Dow Inc. has announced the launch of a new high-performance polyolefin elastomer (POE) from plant-based feedstock, said Sustainableplastics.

Engage Ren, is a “more sustainable brand extension” to the company’s Engage range POEs and is produced using renewable energy and feedstocks such as used cooking oil, Dow said 3 May. The brand was enabled by Dow’s Ecolibrium technology, which transforms sustainably sourced waste and by-products from other industries, into plastics.

As only waste residues or by-products from an alternative production process are utilised, the raw feedstock materials don’t consume extra land resources nor compete with the food chain, Dow added.

According to the materials supplier, the polymers deliver “equivalent performance” in the final application as fossil-fuel counterparts and do not require reformulation. Dow said it has begun supplying the plant-based polymers for use in Crocs’ manufacturing process of its Croslite material.

The materials, according to Dow, will have a lower CO2 impact compared to Croc’s current sustainable materials.

As per MRC, Dow has announced plans to expand its global alkoxylation capacity in the US and Europe to meet increasing demand across a wide range of fast-growing end-markets where the company is delivering 10% to 15% annual growth rates, from home and personal care to industrial and institutional cleaning solutions and pharmaceuticals. The faster-payback, higher return investments announced today will increase Dow's capacity, while maintaining current carbon emissions levels through the use of efficient technologies and site improvements. These investments in the US and Europe are backed by supply agreements with customers, including leading consumer brands, and expected to come online in 2024 and 2025, respectively.

As MRC informed before, earlier this month, Dow and Plastogaz SA announced a strategic investment which will help simplify the process of converting plastic waste to feedstock and provide another carbon-efficient option to keep plastic waste out of landfills and the environment. The collaboration marks another milestone in Dow’s ongoing mission to protect the climate and close the loop on plastic waste.

Dow combines global breadth, asset integration and scale, focused innovation and leading business positions to achieve profitable growth. The Company's ambition is to become the most innovative, customer centric, inclusive and sustainable materials science company, with a purpose to deliver a sustainable future for the world through our materials science expertise and collaboration with our partners. Dow's portfolio of plastics, industrial intermediates, coatings and silicones businesses delivers a broad range of differentiated science-based products and solutions for its customers in high-growth market segments, such as packaging, infrastructure, mobility and consumer care. Dow operates 106 manufacturing sites in 31 countries and employs approximately 35,700 people.

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