Eastman to expand capacity for heat transfer fluid in the US

Eastman to expand capacity for heat transfer fluid in the US

Chemicals company Eastman announced a planned increase of its Therminol 66 heat transfer fluid manufacturing capacity in Anniston, USA. The plant expansion is expected to be complete in 2024, said Process-worldwide.

With the expansion of its capacity for Therminol 66, Eastman increases its production volume for this heat transfer fluid in the US by 50?%. The expansion of the company’s plant in Annistion, USA, is expected to be completed in 2024.

"We are significantly investing in the expansion of our worldwide capacities to ensure we meet the needs of our customers around the world for years to come,” said Sharon Dunn, Eastman’s general manager for specialty fluids and energy.

In addition to its Therminol site in Anniston, Eastman manufactures the product at its Newport, Wales, U.K., facility. Eastman also manufactures other Therminol products in Suzhou, China, under a joint venture.

As per MRC, Eastman has entered an exclusive negotiation with Port-Jerome-sur-Seine as the preferred location of the molecular recycling facility it plans to build in France. This is an important step toward a significant milestone in the company's plan to invest up to USD1 B and build the world's largest material-to-material molecular recycling plant in France - a facility that will recycle approximately 160,000 tpy of hard-to-recycle polyester waste.

We remind that Eastman is increasing capacity for its Naia-brand cellulosic filament yarn at its plant in Barcelona, Spain. Eastman is increasing its capacity to produce Naia cellulosic filament yarns at its plant Barcelona, by 30% by mid-2021, and by more than 50% by the end of 2022.

Eastman is a multinational chemical company serving customers in approximately 100 countries. Sales in 2015 amounted to around USD9.6 Billion. The company is headquartered in Kingsport, Tennessee, USA. The company employs approximately 15 thousand people around the world.
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U.S. crude stockpiles dip, gasoline builds as demand slackens

U.S. crude stockpiles dip, gasoline builds as demand slackens

U.S. crude oil stockpiles edged lower last week but gasoline inventories posted a larger-than-expected build on weakened demand, said Reuters, citing the Energy Information Administration.

Crude inventories fell by 446,000 barrels in the week to July 15 to 426.6 MM barrels, compared with expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.4 MM-barrel rise. Demand figures rebounded from the previous week's sharp fall, and product supplied rose to 21 MMbpd. However, gasoline demand continued to sag, and supply of that product over the last four weeks was 8.7 MMbpd, or about 7.6% lower than the same time a year ago.

"You don't really don't want to be going backwards on gasoline in the middle of the summer," said Robert Yawger, executive director of energy futures at Mizuho. U.S. gasoline stocks rose by 3.5 MM barrels in the week to 228.4 MM barrels, compared with expectations for a 71,000-barrel rise.

"The demand destruction is only still two weeks but sufficient to say it’s there. That's the big takeaway," said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital LLC in New York. Oil prices were lower on the data. U.S. crude lost 1.8% to USD102.35 a barrel while Brent dropped 1.1% to USD106.09 a barrel.

Refinery crude runs fell by 321,000 bpd in the last week, EIA said. Refinery utilization rates fell by 1.2 percentage points in the week, but refiners are still running at 93.7% of overall capacity. Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 1.3 MM barrels. Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub rose by 1.1 MM barrels last week, EIA said. Net U.S. imports of crude were down sharply week, falling by 891,000 bpd, a move almost entirely attributed to a surge in crude exports to 3.8 MMbpd.

As per MRC, the recovery in Russian oil production has continued this month as higher domestic demand offset a slight drop in exports to key markets. The nation’s producers pumped 10.78 million barrels a day on average from July 1 to 17, according to data from the Energy Ministry’s CDU-TEK unit that was seen by Bloomberg. That’s 0.6% above the June level, according to calculations based on the data, indicating that the pace of the country’s output recovery has slowed.
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BEWI acquisition of Jackon expected to conclude in August

BEWI acquisition of Jackon expected to conclude in August

MRC --BEWI's acquisition of expandable polystyrene (EPS) and extruded polystyrene (XPS) producer Jackon is expected to conclude in August, following the completion of divestments, according to a statement on the company website.

"The acquisition of Jackon is on track to conclude by the end of August," confirmed a company source.

BEWI originally announced the plans in October 2021 to acquire all shares in Jackon, and following this, offers were accepted by all shareholders in H1 2022.

BEWI has now received approval from all the relevant competition authorities, in the case of Finland and Norway with certain conditions. The approval in Finland is conditional upon divestment of two smaller insulation facilities and the approval in Norway is conditional upon divestment of two smaller fish box facilities in the north. BEWI has also received approvals from the Swedish and German competition authorities, according to the press release.

BEWI maintains its previously communicated expectations of synergies of at least EUR12m to EUR15m.

BEWI is an international provider of packaging, components, and insulation solutions. The company’s commitment to sustainability is integrated throughout the value chain, from production of raw materials and end goods, to recycling of used products. With a vision to protect people and goods for a better every day, BEWI is leading the change towards a circular economy. BEWI ASA is listed at the Oslo Bors under ticker BEWI.
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Johnson Matthey unveils plans to build hydrogen gigafactory to boost energy ambitions

Johnson Matthey unveils plans to build hydrogen gigafactory to boost energy ambitions

Sustainable technologies group Johnson Matthey will build an GDP80.0m gigafactory at its existing site in Royston as part of an effort to scale up the manufacturing of hydrogen fuel cell components, said Cityam.

Johnson Matthey said on Monday that the gigafactory will initially be capable of manufacturing three gigawatts of proton exchange membrane fuel cell components for hydrogen vehicles per annum and will be supported by the UK Government's Automotive Transformation Fund.

The FTSE 250-listed firm stated the investment will safeguard highly skilled manufacturing jobs in the UK and added that the site was expected to be in operation by the first half of 2024.

Johnson Matthey also highlighted that the Advanced Propulsion Centre forecasts that the UK will need 14 gigawatts of fuel cell stack production and 400,000 high-pressure carbon fibre tanks annually to meet local vehicle production demands by 2035, while the market expects that there could be as many as 3.0m fuel cell electric vehicles on the road globally by 2030.

Chief executive Liam Condon said: "Decarbonising freight transportation is critical to help societies and industries meet their ambitious net zero emission targets - fuel cells will be a crucial part of the energy transition. For more than two decades, JM has been at the forefront of fuel cell innovation.

"The fuel cell market has now reached a pivotal moment with the increasing urgency to decarbonise transportation and today marks the next step of the journey to a low-carbon future in the UK. We're delighted to be playing a key role in driving it forward." As of 0815 BST, Johnson Matthey shares were up 0.10% at 2,071.97p.

As per MRC, MyRechemical, NextChem’s subsidiary dedicated to waste-to-chemical technologies, and Johnson Matthey (JM), a global leader in sustainable technologies, will jointly cooperate to commercially develop "waste-to-methanol" technology worldwide.
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North American weekly chem rail traffic increased by 1.1%

North American weekly chem rail traffic increased by 1.1%

North American chemical railcar traffic rose by 1.1% year on year to 45,125 loadings for the week ended 16 July, according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

An 8.6% increase in Canada more than offset declines in the US and Mexico. The week before, North American chemical railcar traffic fell 0.9%, following three consecutive increases.

The four-week average for North American chemical rail traffic was at 46,810 railcar loadings. For the first 28 weeks of 2022 ended 16 July, North American chemical railcar traffic was up by 2.5% year on year to 1,310,683 railcar loadings.

In the US, chemical railcar loadings represent about 20% of chemical transportation by tonnage, with trucks, barges and pipelines carrying the rest. In Canada, producers rely on rail to ship more than 70% of their products, with some exclusively using rail.

Shipments of chemicals, coal, motor vehicles and nonmetallic minerals rose for the first 28 weeks while shipments in all other railcar categories fell.

We remind, that a week earlier, total U.S. weekly rail traffic was 437,600 carloads and intermodal units, down 3.1% compared with the same week last year. Total carloads for the week ending July 9 were 207,450 carloads, down 1.3% compared with the same week in 2021, while U.S. weekly intermodal volume was 230,150 containers and trailers, down 4.7% compared to 2021.
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