Sipchem signs integrated logistics solutions agreement with Maersk

Sipchem has signed an agreement with A.P. Moller – Maersk (Maersk) in Saudi Arabia that will see the two parties collaborate on ocean transportation and storage through the King Abdullah Port integrated logistics park, said the company.

Through this agreement, Sipchem will export its products to wider international markets. Commenting on the agreement, Sipchem’s Vice President – Commercial, Eng. Mater Aldhafeeri, said: "This new collaboration with Maersk, a leading integrated logistics company, reflects Sipchem's great interest in bringing its diverse range of products to a wider global market through ports, logistic hubs, and new shipping lines and sea lanes. This new business direction will see us take full advantage of the Kingdom’s unique geographical position, which has helped make it a major global trade hub.

Capitalizing on the port’s capabilities also reflects our commitment to furthering the Kingdom’s broader Vision 2030 ambitions for global trade and commerce.” The agreement to him is “a prime example of Sipchem's long-term growth strategy in action, which aims to develop and upgrade commercial performance and open new avenues for global market growth and neighboring African markets in particular at this stage."

Mohammad Shihab, Managing Director of Maersk Saudi Arabia, commented: “We are committed to delivering end-to-end solutions for our customers that reduce the complexity of their supply chains.” He added: “Through this partnership, Sipchem will be provided with cargo storage options at our integrated logistics park and gain access to King Abdullah Port’s ocean network. We will help Sipchem improve their speed-to-market rates through reduced cargo handovers and single-window access to multiple logistic solutions."

Jay New, CEO of King Abdullah Port, said: “In keeping with our commitment to contributing to the maritime shipping-focused objectives of Vision 2030 and the National Transport and Logistics Strategy, we have a strong emphasis on further strengthening King Abdullah Port’s advanced capabilities and enhancing its world-class offerings leveraging the unique strengths of our strategic partners. Our collaboration with Maersk to establish the Kingdom’s first petrochemical hub at the port was an extension of this strategy and we are proud that our collective effort has been paying off with local petrochemical companies increasingly choosing to use the facility to export their products. We are confident that Sipchem will tremendously benefit from the market-leading services King Abdullah Port and the Maersk Integrated Logistics Center provide, while this agreement translates to further growth in our business and an increase in Saudi Arabia’s exports."

This agreement aims to strengthen Sipchem’s strategic position amongst regional and international petrochemical producers, enabling it to market its products worldwide in a timelier and cost-effective manner. The signing of this agreement reflects the company's role as a leading contributor to the growth of the Saudi export market and the national economy.

Further consolidating its leadership in the ports sector on the global level, King Abdullah Port was in May 2022 ranked first among the most efficient container ports in the world on the 2021 Container Port Performance Index report published by The World Bank and S&P Global Market Intelligence. The port improved its ranking from second place last year as a result of its efforts to achieve increased operational efficiency, quality controls and infrastructure development and management. Recently, the port reached 15 million TEU in container throughput, a stellar achievement in under 9 years since the launch of its container terminal.

Sahara International Petrochemical Co (Sipchem) and industrial gas firm Linde signed an exclusive agreement to set up a joint venture for developing industrial gas projects and networks in Saudi Arabia. Under a 50/50 joint venture, Linde and Sipchem said they intend to connect existing hydrogen and syngas plants owned and operated by the two parties in Jubail Industrial City.

As MRC informed earlier, Sipchem is planning to mothball the Polybutylene Terephthalate (PBT) plant, owned by its affiliate, Sipchem Chemical Co., and Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (EVA) Film plant that is owned by affiliate firm, Saudi Specialized Products Co. Steps to implement the decision are underway, Sipchem said in a statement to Tadawul, adding that the suspension of both plants will start on Jan. 1, 2021, until further notice. The company expects a positive financial impact starting from Q1 2021 results.
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Russia defaulted on its foreign-currency sovereign debt for the first time in a century, the culmination of ever-tougher Western sanctions that shut down payment routes to overseas creditors, said Bloomberg.

For months, the country found paths around the penalties imposed after the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. But at the end of the day on Sunday, the grace period on about USD100 million of snared interest payments due May 27 expired, a deadline considered an event of default if missed.

It’s a grim marker in the country’s rapid transformation into an economic, financial and political outcast. The nation’s eurobonds have traded at distressed levels since the start of March, the central bank’s foreign reserves remain frozen, and the biggest banks are severed from the global financial system.

But given the damage already done to the economy and markets, the default is also mostly symbolic for now, and matters little to Russians dealing with double-digit inflation and the worst economic contraction in years.

Russia has pushed back against the default designation, saying it has the funds to cover any bills and has been forced into non-payment. As it tried to twist its way out, it announced last week that it would switch to servicing its $40 billion of outstanding sovereign debt in rubles, criticizing a “force-majeure” situation it said was artificially manufactured by the West.

As per MRC, TotalEnergies' Leuna refinery in eastern Germany is reducing its intake of Russian crude oil via the Druzhba pipeline as it has started working on a supply solution via the Polish port of Gdansk. Druzhba feeds not just Leuna but also the PCK Schwedt refinery, majority-owned by Russia's Rosneft. Poyanne said Russian oil use in May had fallen to filling 555,000 tons of refinery capacity at the plant, down from 900,000 tons last October, and 800,000 tons in February.
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Canada is banning the manufacture and import of single-use plastics by the end of the year, the government announced on Monday, in a major effort to combat plastic waste and address climate change, said Washingtonpost.

The ban will cover items like checkout bags, cutlery, straws, and food-service ware made from or containing plastics that are hard to recycle, with a few exceptions for medical reasons. It will come into effect in December 2022, and the sale of those items will be prohibited as of December 2023 to provide businesses in Canada enough time to transition and to deplete existing stocks, the government said.

Single-use plastics make up most of the plastic waste found on Canadian shorelines. Up to 15 billion plastic checkout bags are used each year and approximately 16 million straws are used every day, according to government data.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who vowed in 2019 to phase out plastics, said the ban will eliminate more than 1.3 million tons of plastic waste over the next decade — the equivalent of 1 million garbage bags of trash.
“We promised to ban harmful single-use plastics, and we’re keeping that promise,” Trudeau wrote in a tweet on Monday.

Canada will also prohibit the export of those plastics by the end of 2025 to address international plastic pollution. “By the end of the year, you won’t be able to manufacture or import these harmful plastics,” said Steven Guilbeault, the federal minister of environment and climate change. “After that, businesses will begin offering the sustainable solutions Canadians want, whether that’s paper straws or reusable bags."

"With these new regulations, we’re taking a historic step forward in reducing plastic pollution, and keeping our communities and the places we love clean,” Guilbeault said.

As per MRC, Canada will offer a substantial incentive to companies that invest in carbon capture technologies (CCT) and will set aside as much as USD3 B over eight years to accelerate critical mineral exploration, extraction and processing as it seeks to cut carbon emissions. In this year's budget, Canada is introducing a 60% tax credit for equipment used to capture carbon from the air, and 50% for all other capture equipment, plus a 37.5% credit for transportation and storage equipment.
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ExxonMobil, Grieg Edge, North Ammonia, and GreenH have signed a memorandum of understanding to study potential production and distribution of green hydrogen and ammonia for lower-emission marine fuels at ExxonMobil’s Slagen terminal in Norway, said the company.

The study will explore the potential for the terminal, which is powered by hydroelectricity, to produce up to 20,000 metric tons of green hydrogen per year and distribute up to 100,000 metric tons of green ammonia per year. The hydrogen would be produced from hydro-powered electrolysis.

"Hydrogen has the potential to significantly reduce CO2 emissions in key sectors of the global economy that create valuable products that support modern life,” said Dan Ammann, president of ExxonMobil Low Carbon Solutions. “This study will explore the potential for ExxonMobil’s Slagen fuel terminal to help reduce emissions from Norway’s maritime sector and help achieve society’s net-zero ambitions."

ExxonMobil brings its experience and expertise in developing complex, global projects to advance meaningful greenhouse gas emissions reductions, such as the Slagen terminal opportunity. Grieg Edge, GreenH and North Ammonia will provide their expertise in sustainable maritime transport, hydrogen infrastructure, and green hydrogen and ammonia project development, to study the feasibility for a green hydrogen and ammonia redistribution facility.

"Slagen is an exceptionally suitable location as a central hub for hydrogen and ammonia to the maritime sector,” said Matt Duke, CEO of Grieg Maritime Group. “With the complementary expertise amongst the MOU partners, we have now taken an important next step in our efforts to achieve emissions reductions in the maritime sector."

The International Energy Agency projects hydrogen will meet 10% of global energy needs by 2050, and says it is critical to achieving societal net-zero global emissions. The Norwegian government has published a road map for hydrogen that includes establishing low-emissions hydrogen hubs along the coast of Norway. The Slagen terminal is located at the opening of the Oslofjord, where more than 10,000 ships pass through every year.

"There is high value in producing green hydrogen close to where consumption is,” said Morten S. Watle, CEO of GreenH. “At Slagen, bunkering of hydrogen could be offered straight from the production facility." Green ammonia is made by using renewable power to separate hydrogen from water (electrolysis). When used as a fuel, green ammonia has no carbon and generates zero CO2.

"This MOU underlines our strategy to make ammonia available where there is market demand,” said Vidar Lundberg, CEO of North Ammonia. “We will also assess the potential distribution of ammonia from production facilities south of Slagen."

ExxonMobil is working to commercialize lower-emission technologies and support society’s net-zero ambitions by leveraging the skills, knowledge and scale of the business. In addition to evaluating development of ammonia and hydrogen, the company is pursuing strategic investments in carbon capture and storage and biofuels to help bring those lower-emissions energy technologies to scale for hard-to-decarbonize sectors of the global economy.

ExxonMobil is planning to build one of North America’s largest low-carbon hydrogen production facilities at its Baytown, Texas petrochemical complex and is also studying potential for a similar facility at its Southampton Fawley complex in the United Kingdom.

ExxonMobil is exploring opportunities to use ammonia as a low-emission and high-efficiency energy carrier, particularly to ship and store hydrogen over long distances. Ammonia is typically produced from natural gas and is commonly used as an industrial and agricultural chemical, particularly in fertilizer, but has the potential for wide use in power generation, industrial heat and marine fuels.

As per MRC, Neptune Energy, ExxonMobil subsidiary XTO Netherlands, Ltd., Rosewood Exploration Ltd., and EBN Capital B.V. announced the signing of a Cooperation Agreement to progress the L10 large-scale offshore carbon capture and storage project in the Dutch North Sea. The agreement brings together the technical and commercial capabilities necessary to create a robust carbon storage offering for industrial customers in the Dutch sector. It intends to take the L10 carbon capture and storage development to the concept select stage in 2022 and to have the project FEED-ready by the end of the year, followed by the submission of a storage licence application.

As per MRC, ExxonMobil expects to add approximately 20,000 bpd of light, heavy and extra-heavy lubricant base stocks when upgrades at its Singapore integrated refining and petrochemical complex are complete in 2025.
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Entegris, Inc. and CMC Materials, Inc. announced a definitive merger agreement under which Entegris will acquire CMC Materials in a cash and stock transaction with an enterprise value of approximately USD6.5 billion, said the company.

Under the terms of the agreement, CMC Materials shareholders will receive USD133.00 in cash and 0.4506 shares of Entegris common stock for each share of CMC Materials common stock they own. The total per share consideration represents a 35% premium over CMC Materials’ closing price on December 14, 2021, and a 38% premium to the 10-day volume weighted average share price. Upon completion of the transaction, Entegris shareholders will own approximately 91% of the combined company and CMC Materials shareholders will own approximately 9%.

As per MRC, A new report by the EIA, titled Global Surplus Crude Oil Production Capacity, provides estimates of global surplus crude oil production capacity in both OPEC countries and non-OPEC countries. Preliminary estimates for these data show that, as of May 2022, surplus capacity in non-OPEC countries decreased by 80% compared with 2021. The data show that, in 2021, 1.4 MMbpd of surplus production capacity was available in non-OPEC countries, about 60% of which was in Russia.

CMC Materials is a leading supplier of advanced materials primarily for the semiconductor industry. The addition of CMC Materials’ leading CMP portfolio will broaden Entegris’ solutions set, creating a comprehensive electronic materials offering. The complementary nature of the companies’ technology platforms will enable Entegris to bring to market a broader array of innovative and high-value solutions, at a faster pace. These enhanced materials and process solutions for the most advanced manufacturing environments will help customers improve productivity, performance and total cost of ownership.
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