PPG to exhibit newly acquired Vanberg Specialized Coatings solutions

PPG announced that it will feature its recently acquired Vanberg Specialized Coatings line of agriculturally focused protective coatings and repair mortars at the World Pork Expo, June 8-10, 2022, at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines, said the company.

PPG added the Vanberg product portfolio as part of its acquisition of VersaFlex Inc. in February 2021. For 33 years, Vanberg coatings have provided long-lasting, cost-effective restoration and protection of concrete and metal surfaces in pork production facilities.

“As a leader in the coatings industry with deep expertise in corrosive applications and environments, PPG is proud to expand its services to pork processors,” said Michael Masorli, PPG director, resinous flooring, Protective and Marine Coatings. “We are committed to growing our technology portfolio and providing the agricultural community with the highest-quality product solutions that are backed by unmatched support."

Presented by the National Pork Producers Council, World Pork Expo is the world’s largest trade show for the pork industry.

We remind that in June 2021, PPG announced an expansion of its coatings manufacturing capacity in Europe for packaging applications. The investments at sites in The Netherlands and Poland will support growing customer demand in the region for the latest generation of coatings for aluminum and steel cans used in packaging for beverage, food and personal care items. The projects include a further expansion of the company’s location in Tiel, The Netherlands, which will increase the plant’s production capacity for PPG INNOVEL non-BPA internal coatings for beverage cans by 30%. Expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2022, the project follows a 50% expansion completed at the end of 2020.

PPG is a leading supplier of powder coatings to the automotive, transportation, appliance, furniture and other markets. The company expanded the business with its 2020 acquisition of Alpha Coating Technologies, which manufactures powder coatings for light industrial applications and heat-sensitive substrates, and its 2021 acquisition of Worwag, which makes liquid, powder and film coatings for industrial and automotive applications. PPG recently agreed to acquire the powder coatings business of Arsonsisi, including a manufacturing plant in Verbania, Italy.
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U.S. commercial crude oil inventories rose unexpectedly last week, while crude in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve fell by a record amount as refiners ramped up production to pre-pandemic levels, as per Reuters.

Crude inventories rose by 2 MM barrels in the week to June 3 to 416.8 MM barrels, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.9 MM-barrel drop. SPR crude stocks fell by a record 7.3 MM barrels to 519.3 MM, their lowest since March 1987.

Refinery crude runs rose by 354,000 barrels per day to 16.4 MMbpd, their highest since January 2020, and utilization rates jumped by 1.6 percentage points to 94.2% of capacity, their highest since December 2019, the EIA said. On the East Coast, utilization rose to 99.2%, its highest since November 2017.

"The commercial crude build is in part due to inventory shifts from the drawdowns in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, but those inventories continue to move aggressively lower and that's the expectation for the next several months," said Tony Headrick, energy market analyst at CHS Hedging. "That's a bullish consideration."

Brent and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures (WTI) rose immediately following the data release, along with gasoline and distillate futures. Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub for WTI fell by 1.6 MM barrels last week, EIA said.

U.S. gasoline stocks fell by 800,000 barrels in the week to 218.2 MM barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts' expectations for a 1.1 MM-barrel rise.? Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 2.6 MM barrels in the week to 109 MM barrels, more than double forecasts for a 1.1 MM-barrel rise, the EIA data showed. Net U.S. crude imports rose by 1.69 MMbpd, EIA said.

As per MRC, oil prices were largely unchanged after choppy trade on Monday, buoyed by Saudi Arabia raising its July crude prices but amid doubts a higher output target for OPEC+ oil producers would ease tight supply.

We remind, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is expected to release on Friday retroactive mandates for the volume of biofuels oil refiners were required to blend into their fuel for the years 2020 through 2022.
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Europe's plan to double down on renewable fuels in response to rising fuel costs could have the unintended short-term effect of increasing prices and slow down the energy transition, Chevron Corp Chief Executive Michael Wirth said, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

"That can erode the public support that will be necessary for the energy transition"," Wirth said. "There is a bit of a paradox that I observe." Fuel prices have been soaring around the world amid declining investments in fossil fuel projects. Prices have accelerated since sanctions were imposed this year against energy exporter Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.

Gasoline and diesel prices are a top electoral topic in different countries of the world, including U.S. Congressional elections and a Brazil presidential run, both later this year. A persistent period of U.S. diesel at USD6 per gallon and natural gas prices nearing USD10 per MMbtu could have political implications for policy makers, Wirth said.

"One of the things I worry the most about is a period of high prices that voters begin to identify with energy transition ambitions," Wirth said.

The CEO called for policy that would incentivize carbon emission reductions instead of restricting oil and gas supply before renewable fuels such as solar and wind power have scale to replace traditional fossil fuels. Wirth defended the need of a pricing mechanism for carbon in the United States similar to the one set in Europe.

"A price on carbon is a simple way to create a price signal that would create a business model that would mobilize capital," Wirth said. "We need to find some sort of a commercial framework. And it needs to be enabled by policy."

As per MRC, Chevron Phillips Chemical (CPChem) announced plans to expand its polyalphaolefins (PAO) business with the construction of a new unit in Beringen, Belgium. Once local permits are approved, this significant investment will double the company’s PAO production capacity in Belgium (to 120,000MT) upon targeted startup in 2024.

We remind that Chevron Phillips Chemical, a joint venture of Phillips 66 and Chevron, will make a final investment decision on a new cracker in far southeast Texas in 2022, followed by an FID in 2023 on an USD8 billion joint venture petrochemical complex along the US Gulf Coast in 2023.
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Clariant announced that it has been awarded by the American Chemistry Council (ACC) with the prestigious Sustainability Leadership Award 2022 in the category “Environmental Protection”, said the company.

The accolade is in recognition of Clariant’s global climate initiative, in which the company offered a free load of its nitrous oxide (N2O) removal catalyst EnviCat N2O-S to ten nitric acid producers who did not have such an abatement technology in place yet.

After strong interest and numerous applications, an independent attorney has now drawn the winning companies. With a combined annual nitric acid production of more than 2 MMtons, the companies will be able to reduce their N2O emissions by more than 4 MMtons of CO2 equivalents annually when using EnviCat N2O-S. This translates into more than 860,000 gasoline passenger vehicles driven for one year. The catalyst is proven to effectively remove up to 95% of harmful N2O emissions.

Conrad Keijzer, Chief Executive Officer at Clariant, commented, “We are grateful to the ACC for acknowledging our efforts with the Sustainability Leadership Award for the second year in a row. In 2021, we were recognized for our low-carbon footprint Glucamide surfactants, and this year for our global N2O reduction campaign. This proves our purpose-led strategy driving towards sustainability transformation, both in our own company and for our customers."

Stefan Heuser, Senior Vice President and General Manager at Clariant Catalysts, added, “Globally, around half of all 500 nitric acid plants operate without N2O removal technology. Through our campaign, we wanted to show the industry that the problem is serious, yet the solution is simple. We are pleased to have converted our winning nitric acid producers into N2O reducers, and the strong interest in our initiative gives us hope that many others will follow".

Chris Jahn, President and CEO of the American Chemistry Council, stated, “Judged by an external panel of experts, the Sustainability Leadership Award recognizes outstanding initiatives led by chemical industry visionaries advancing sustainability. Clariant is dedicated to developing innovative products that can considerably reduce its customers’ environmental footprint. We applaud Clariant on their achievement, and the impact their products make on helping create a better, more sustainable world."

Nitric acid is a highly valuable chemical. Approximately 65.5 MMtons are produced annually around the world, mainly as a base material for fertilizers. However, its production creates large amounts of N2O as a by-product, which is extremely harmful to the climate. N2O molecules remain in the atmosphere for an average of 114 years, which is 25 times longer than CO2 molecules.

Lummus Technology announced it and its catalyst partner Clariant have been awarded a major contract by Fujian Meide to supply CATOFIN technology and catalysts for a new, world-scale propane dehydrogenation (PDH) unit in Fuzhou, China. Already operating one PDH unit at its Fuzhou petrochemical complex, Fujian Meide is now building one of the largest PDH units in the world and has selected the CATOFIN process and catalysts for the project's second phase. The new unit will produce 900,000 mtons of propylene annually and is scheduled to commence operation in 2023.

We remind that in October 2020, Clariant announced the construction of a new state-of-the-art catalyst production site in China. This project represents a significant investment which further strengthens Clariant’s position in China and enhances its ability to support its customers in the country’s thriving petrochemicals industry.

Clariant AG is a Swiss chemical company and a world leader in the production of specialty chemicals for the textile, printing, mining and metallurgical industries. It is engaged in processing crude oil products in pigments, plastics and paints.
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Sasol and Uzbekistan GTL’s ongoing cooperation took a significant step forward with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the supply of Low Temperature Fischer Tropsch (LTFT) catalysts, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The signing took place during Baku Energy Week, one of most prestigious events in the energy sector in the Caspian region, held in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. The MoU builds on the initial 2018 catalyst supply agreement between Sasol and Uzbekistan GTL and includes technical support by Sasol, as well as the supply of a next generation catalyst.

“The MoU is an important milestone in our cooperation with Uzbekistan GTL and underpins their trust in our Fischer Tropsch catalyst and our technology leadership in this field,” said Dr Cronje Grove, Vice President of Advanced Materials, Sasol Chemicals.

Sasol Chemicals’ leading position in the GTL catalyst field is highlighted by the recent establishment of the CARE-O-SENE consortium focused on the development and production of future generation catalysts. These new catalysts will further improve product yield with the same resource input/optimized resource use and will also reduce costs for our customers. The CARE-O-SENE project will be funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and Sasol.

We remind that Sasol's world-scale US ethane cracker with the capacity of 1.5 mln tonnes per year reached beneficial operation on 27 August 2019. Sasol's new cracker, the heart of Lake Charles Chemicals Project (LCCP), is the third and most significant of the seven LCCP facilities to come online and will provide feedstock to the company's six new derivative units at its Lake Charles multi-asset site.

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, whereas, shipments of PP random copolymers decreased significantly.

Sasol is an international integrated chemicals and energy company that leverages technologies and the expertise of our 31 270 people working in 32 countries. The company develops and commercialises technologies, and builds and operates world-scale facilities to produce a range of high-value product stream, including liquid fuels, petrochemicals and low-carbon electricity.
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