Hungary fuel price cap could lead to shortages

Hungary's cap on fuel prices should be lifted because it will lead to shortages "sooner or later", said Reuters, citing the CEO of Hungarian oil and gas company MOL.

Zsolt Hernadi, in an interview on ATV late on Sunday, said Hungary was facing an "extremely dangerous" situation as the fuel price cap was driving up consumption. "This raises the question of how long this can be done," Hernadi said. MOL, which owns the largest network of service stations in Hungary, has previously called for the cap to be phased out. The limit was introduced last November and set the retail price for both 95-octane gasoline and diesel at 480 forints (USD1.20) a liter.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government introduced the cap, now set to run until October, to shield consumers from inflation now at its highest level in two decades. Last month MOL announced passenger car drivers in Hungary would be limited to buying 50 liters of fuel a day at its stations.

Hernadi said Hungary should be stockpiling fuel right now as 65% of MOL's refinery in Hungary will shut down for maintenance in August, while its refinery in Slovakia is currently not working and due to restart on July 20 after maintenance.

Due to the above reasons, stockpiling is going slower than planned, meaning MOL will need to ask for part of the country's strategic fuel reserves to be released, Hernadi said. "The long-lasting war (in Ukraine) and Brussels' sanctions have caused fuel prices to soar across Europe," a government spokesperson said in an emailed reply to Reuters.

Without the price cap the price of fuel would be nearly twice as high as it is now, he said, adding that the "government is constantly analysing the state of the fuel supply and will make a decision on the price caps."

As per MRC, TotalEnergies Marine Fuels and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL) have successfully completed the first biofuel bunker operation for a vehicle carrier in Singapore.

The local operation was made possible with support from the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore. The MOL-operated car and truck carrier, Heroic Ace, was refueled by TotalEnergies-supplied biofuel on 11th June 2022 via ship-to-ship transfer, while the carrier performed cargo operations simultaneously. The biofuel has been consumed during the carrier’s voyage to Jebel Ali, in the United Arab Emirates.
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HPC Industries LLC and Macquarie Group's Commodities and Global Markets group (Macquarie) have formed a joint venture to produce recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET), said Petnology.

Under the name Circularix, the venture's plans include building and operating five recycling facilities across the U.S. with a total annual production capacity of more than 275 million pounds of rPET resin. The first facility, located in Hatfield, PA, is expected to be operational by December 2022. Leon Farahnik is chairman and CEO of Circularix. Alex Delnik, former CEO and founder of Verdeco Recycling, will serve as president and Chief Operating Officer. In addition to its investment as a partner in the joint venture, Macquarie is assisting Circularix with project debt, equipment finance, FX hedging and other risk management solutions to support its future growth.

"Consumer brands are struggling to meet their sustainability goals as current rPET supply is unable to scale as needed," Farahnik said. "Our move into rPET production is the beginning of a major and much-needed capacity expansion in the United States, and we are excited to continue playing an important role in the plastics recycling industry by uniting our experience with Macquarie's."

Macquarie is a leading provider of risk management, market access and capital and financing solutions to the petrochemicals industry and has played a leading role in environmental product markets, sustainable infrastructure and the waste sector around the world for more than 15 years. Macquarie formed its Sustainable Waste Solutions team in 2020 to provide finance and growth capital solutions to clients in the waste sector, with a focus on helping facilitate the transition to a circular economy.

Ben Glover, Executive Director in Macquarie's Specialized and Asset Finance division, said: "We are delighted to support our clients in delivering the practical infrastructure needed to expand production capacity for post-consumer recycled materials. Ventures such as Circularix are a key part of the supply chain that will drive more post-consumer material back into higher value recycled packaging markets."

The first facility will be located in Hatfield, Pennsylvania and is slated to be operational by the end of 2022.

We remind, Shiseido Company, Limited (Shiseido), SEKISUI CHEMICAL CO., LTD., and Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd. will start a joint initiative to establish a circular economy for plastic cosmetics containers, in which used cosmetics plastic containers are collected, converted to resources and materials without sorting, and recycled back into plastic cosmetics containers.
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BASF has released preliminary figures for the second quarter of 2022, said the company.

Sales increased by 16 percent in the second quarter of 2022 to EUR22,974 million (Q2 2021: EUR19,753 million). This was mainly driven by higher prices; currency effects, primarily relating to the U.S. dollar, had a positive effect as well. Volumes declined slightly compared with the prior-year quarter. Sales thus exceeded average analyst estimates for the second quarter of 2022 (Vara: EUR21,737 million).

Income from operations (EBIT) before special items amounted to an expected €2,339 million in the second quarter of 2022, almost on a level with the prior-year quarter (Q2 2021: EUR2,355 million) and significantly above the analyst consensus for the second quarter of 2022 (Vara: EUR2,092 million). Increased prices for raw materials and energy were largely passed on through higher selling prices.

All segments except Nutrition & Care exceeded average analyst estimates for EBIT before special items in the second quarter of 2022. The Agricultural Solutions, Chemicals and Surface Technologies segments significantly exceeded average analyst estimates. In the Nutrition & Care segment, earnings were slightly lower than the average analyst estimates. In Other, EBIT before special items was significantly less negative than analysts had expected on average.

The BASF Group’s EBIT amounted to an expected EUR2,350 million in the second quarter of 2022, slightly above the figure for the prior-year quarter (Q2 2021: EUR2,316 million) and significantly above the analyst consensus for the second quarter of 2022 (Vara: EUR2,012 million).

Net income reached an expected EUR2,090 million, considerably above the figure for the prior-year quarter (Q2 2021: EUR1,654 million) and significantly above average analyst estimates for the second quarter of 2022 (Vara: EUR1,408 million). The considerable increase compared with the prior-year quarter primarily resulted from the higher income from the shareholding in Wintershall Dea.

The forecast published by the BASF Group for the 2022 business year remains unchanged for the time being.

As per MRC, BASF and Malaysia's Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd announced that they will build a major new production plant for 2-Ethylhexanoic Acid (2-EHAcid). The new facility will be located at the site of their existing joint venture, BASF Petronas Chemicals, in Kuantan, Malaysia. Construction is anticipated to start in the second quarter of 2015. Financial details of the investment were not disclosed.

As per MRC, BASF completed a double-digit million euro investment to increase production capacity for Tinopal CBS optical brighteners at its Monthey site. Following phase one of the stepwise capacity increase in 2021, the recent completion of the investment program has now brought significantly increased capacity on stream to meet growing global customer demand.

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.
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INEOS agreed a five-year steam exchange deal between its cracker and petrochemicals production site near Cologne, Germany, and the nearby Dormagen chemical park, which is operated by Currenta, said the company.

Both INEOS Cologne and the Dormagen park have power plants, generating 600 tonnes/hour and 900 tonnes/hour of steam, respectively. The new agreement will double steam exchange volumes and is expected to lead to a reduction in energy costs and natural gas use, officials said.

Ongoing uncertainties over Russian gas supplies and rising energy prices are forcing Germany's chemical and other industries to explore every opportunity to save on gas use. The exchange deal will improve steam supply security for both INEOS Cologne and Dormagen.

INEOS has more steam available at Cologne than it needs during normal production and therefore can transfer the surplus to Dormagen, reducing the need for gas to make steam there. At the same time, during peak chemical production or a power plant outage at Cologne, INEOS can source steam from Dormagen, reducing the need for costly backup systems.

In a next step, INEOS and Currenta will install two new steam transfer points, with completion expected this summer. The chemical industry, with a share of 15% of usage, is Germany’s largest consumer of natural gas.

As per MRC, INEOS Olefins Belgium is the first industrial player to sign an agreement with Fluxys to participate in the feasibility study for the development of an open access hydrogen network in the port of Antwerp, said the company.
The cooperation follows the market consultation initiated by Fluxys last year to match supply and demand for hydrogen in the Belgian industrial clusters. The European Commission considers hydrogen essential for becoming carbon-neutral. When hydrogen is used as a fuel, it is carbon-free and essentially only water vapour is emitted. It is also an important raw material for the chemical industry.
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Trinseo and GMP Group plan to collaborate on a polystyrene (PS) recycling plant in the Netherlands, said the company.

The plant - with a minimum capacity of 25,000 tonnes/year and expected to start up in 2024 - will purify PS waste and deliver high-quality recycled PS pellets via a “ Super Clean recycling process,” they said in a statement. It would be built and operated by GMP.

Details about the recycling process or the project’s expected costs were not disclosed. “The Trinseo–GMP collaboration is yet another important move toward helping our customers reach their sustainability goals and closing the loop for a circular economy, and both companies realise that the most successful way to do this is through synergy along the value chain,” said Nicolas Joly, Trinseo’s senior vice president, Plastics and Feedstocks.

Trinseo and GMP also intend to execute a long-term tolling and off-taking agreement for the plant’s recycled PS pellets. Trinseo is a US-based international chemicals and engineered materials company. GMP Group is a Dutch recycling company. Earlier this year, Trinseo acquired Netherlands-based waste manager and recycler Heathland.

As per MRC, Trinseo will use gasification technology to depolymerize post-consumer polystyrene waste into pure styrene. It’s a first-of-its-kind project on an industrial scale. Trinseo’s plant will process 15 kilotons of recycled polystyrene flakes every year. These will be transformed into high-quality recycled styrene and used for the production of new polystyrene and/or styrene derivatives, including acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and styrene acrylonitrile (SAN).

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 $4.8 billion in net sales in 2021 and has 26 manufacturing sites and one recycling facility around the world and approximately 3,400 employees.
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