Meraxis buys French Fournier Plastics Group

Swiss polymer distributor Meraxis acquires French Fournier Plastics Group. The corresponding contracts were signed today in Berne. Subject to antitrust reviews, the purchase is expected to be completed before the end of 2022, said the company.

Fournier is one of the leading distributors of standard and engineering polymers as well as additives in Western Europe and North Africa. With this acquisition, Meraxis is expanding its business regionally and extending its product and service portfolio.

"With the acquisition of Fournier Plastics Group, we are strengthening our geographic footprint in important key markets,” emphasized Dr. Stefan Girschik, CEO of Meraxis.

"Together with Fournier and their partners, we can also offer a much broader product portfolio. Not only for standard polymers and additives, but especially in the engineering polymers segment. Added to this is an expanded service offering in supply chain management, research and development, and digitalization, which fits perfectly into our strategy.” Fournier specializes in engineering plastics, among other things, and thus serves various industrial sectors. Today's Fournier Plastics Group was formed 2016 from the acquisition of the Dutch Prime Polymers by the French Fournier SAS and was complemented in 2019 by the takeover of parts of the Iberian Chemieuro Group.

As per MRC, MOL (Budapest, Hungary) says it has agreed to partner with polymer distributor Meraxis (Bern, Switzerland) for the development and production of recycled polyolefin compounds. The companies have signed a letter of intent to cooperate on the development of a new product portfolio, with Meraxis to supply MOL with post-consumer recyclate to be blended with MOL’s virgin polyolefin resins.

The French company founded in 1972, with headquarters in Saint-Priest (Lyon), has branches in 9 countries in Europe and 3 in North Africa. Fournier’s more than 1,200 customers, most of whom have been with the company for a number of years, include plastics processors from a wide range of industries, such as automotive and packaging.

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China may tweak a proposed sharp increase in refined fuel export quotas for this year by extending the plan into next year, as it weighs the benefits to the economy of higher exports against low domestic stocks and operational challenges, four sources told Reuters.

However, the four sources with direct knowledge of the matter - and three others - said the government was still reviewing the matter. The market has been widely expecting China to release a fifth batch of fuel export quota of up to 15 MMt for the rest of the year, which would be its largest so far in 2022 and lift China's sagging exports.

The proposal from refiners' planning departments, following a government call to boost trade, has led some refiners to ready an increase in output to take advantage of the quota. However, the four sources said Beijing might extend the duration of the proposed volume of 15 MMt into next year to cushion its impact on global markets and avoid a price crash.

The National Development and Reform Commission, China's powerful economic planner, was hosting a meeting with the nation's major oil refiners earlier on Wednesday, the sources said. It was not immediately clear if the meeting reached a decision. The meeting reviewed companies' oil trading activities and their production capacities this year and also discussed the global oil market outlook for 2023, the four sources said.

"The government believes that domestic refiners were operating at low levels this year due to weak domestic demand and negative impact of COVID controls," said one of the sources. "Raising the quotas could help boost overall exports and also help refiners to raise runs," this person added.

Global oil markets have been supported by a sharp reduction in Chinese fuel exports for most of this year. However, the proposed large volume of export quotas caused Asian refiners' margins for diesel, jet fuel and gasoline to slump two weeks ago, although middle distillates products have recovered somewhat.

The proposed volume would mean a 63% jump from the 24 MMt released so far for 2022, too large to be practical and risk crashing refiners' margins, said officials at state refiners. "This rumored size is simply not feasible," said a Beijing-based state oil official involved in refinery production planning.

"Refiners need two to three months to procure the crude oil so you may end up missing the most opportune window for exports," the official said, adding his company's inventories of crude oil and refined products were at levels "lower than normal".

The sources declined to be named as they're not authorized to speak to the press. China's Ministry of Commerce and the NDRC did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The quotas are typically allocated to China National Petroleum Corp, China Petrochemical Corp, China National Offshore Oil Company, Sinochem Group, China National Aviation Fuel Company and private refiner Zhejiang Petrochemical Corp.

We remind, Johnson Matthey (JM), and Dow announced Anqing Shuguang Petrochemical Oxo Co., Ltd. (Anqing), has licensed LP Oxo Technology to produce approximately 200 kta 2-ethylhexanol and 25 kta iso-butyraldehdye. This licence, the second LP Oxo? Licence for Anqing and the 23rd licence of LP Oxo? Technology served in China, will support expanding Anqing's oxo business in the growing oxo alcohols' market. The plant is expected to come online in 2024. Anqing first started operating LP Oxo? Technology in 2016 to produce 100kta 2-ethylhexanol, 115 kta nomal butanol and 23 kta iso butanol.
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bp laid off most contractors at the approximately 160,000 barrel-per-day Toledo, Ohio, refinery it owns with Cenovus Energy Inc, according to sources familiar with the matter, indicating that the plant will experience a prolonged shutdown following last week's explosion and fire, said Reuters.

The explosion killed two United Steelworkers members, identified as brothers Max and Ben Morrissey. The more than 100-year-old refinery has been offline since the middle of last week following the explosion and could be shut for several months.

At least one contracting company is on site assessing the damage. The U.S. Chemical Safety Board is also investigating the incident, which it said additionally caused the release of sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide and significant property damage.


Cenovus has referred comment to BP, which has declined to comment further. The outage caused Chicago gasoline cash differentials to reach new highs on Wednesday. Chicago CBOB gasoline gained 7.75 cents, trading 80 cents per gallon above futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange, traders said, more than 700% higher than prices were a year ago.

The official cause of the explosion has not been reported. Leaking fumes from a crude unit may have caused the ignition in another unit at the facility, a source told Reuters. Multiple units were engulfed in flames, the source said.

Workers finished a maintenance turnaround at the facility in recent weeks and the plant had resumed operating. In August, Cenovus said it would buy the remaining 50% stake it does not already own in the BP-Husky Toledo Refinery. The deal is expected to close by the end of 2022.

In 2008, Husky Energy Inc formed a joint venture with BP by acquiring a 50% stake in the Toledo refinery. The stake then moved to Calgary-based Cenovus when it combined with Husky in 2021.

We remind, BP Plc restarted the largest crude distillation unit (CDU) at its 435,000 bpd Whiting, Indiana, refinery.
BP restarted the 250,000-bpd Pipestill 12 CDU as part of restoring production at the Whiting refinery following an Aug. 24 fire, which idled key utilities forcing the entire plant to shut down.
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Trinseo, a specialty material solutions provider, announced it has initiated an information and consultation process with the Works Council of Trinseo Deutschland GmbH regarding the potential closure of its styrene monomer production site in Boehlen, Germany, said the company.

The facility, which has a nameplate annual capacity of 300 kilotons, generated negative profitability of approximately USD30 million over the last four quarters ending Q2 2022.

Frank Bozich, President and Chief Executive Officer of Trinseo, commented, “Given the current economic outlook of higher inflation, lower customer demand and elevated energy costs, we are evaluating asset optimization across our portfolio."

Bozich continued, “The cost position of the Boehlen facility is challenged due to the current energy cost environment in Europe as well as the facility’s smaller scale, and it’s difficult to envision significant earnings improvement at the site in the near to medium term. Therefore, we have decided to evaluate the potential closure of this plant. In addition to improved profitability for Trinseo, we believe a closure will aid in achieving our 2030 sustainability goals, as Boehlen is one of our most carbon intensive plants."

We remind, Trinseo announced that it has appointed Han Hendriks to the newly created role of Chief Technology Officer (CTO), effective Oct. 1, 2022. As CTO, Hendriks will be a member of Trinseo’s executive leadership team and will be based in The Netherlands. In this role, he will drive the development of differentiated technology and innovation, allowing Trinseo to meet unfilled and unrecognized customer needs and develop sustainable solutions across Trinseo’s innovation pillars.

Trinseo a specialty material solutions provider, partners with companies to bring ideas to life in an imaginative, smart, and sustainability-focused manner by combining its premier expertise, forward-looking innovations and best-in-class materials to unlock value for companies and consumers. From design to manufacturing, Trinseo taps into decades of experience in diverse material solutions to address customers’ unique challenges in a wide range of industries, including consumer goods, mobility, building and construction, and medical. Trinseo’s approximately 3,400 employees bring endless creativity to reimagining the possibilities with clients all over the world from the company’s locations in North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. Trinseo reported net sales of approximately USD4.8 bn in 2021.
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Vincent Van Quickenborne, Belgian Federal Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the North Sea, Flemish Minister for The Environment and Energy Zuhal Demir and the Danish Minister for Climate, Energy and Energy Supply in Denmark, Mr. Dan Jorgensen, have entered into a ground-breaking agreement to enable captured CO2 to be shipped across their boarders to be permanently stored in a sandstone reservoir 1800 meters beneath the seabed of the Danish North Sea, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The agreement allows Project Greensand to move forwards with Europe’s first ever trial of the entire supply chain for carbon capture and storage to be carried out later this year. Carbon Dioxide, captured by INEOS from its plant at the Zwijndrecht site can now be shipped via the port of Antwerp to INEOS’ Nini West oil platform 200 kms off the West Coast of Denmark where it will be injected as a liquid, into the former oil field below the seabed surface.

There is currently no captured CO2 in Denmark that is suitable for storage in connection with the demonstration phase of Greensand. But with the new agreement, it will be possible to transport captured CO2 from INEOS in Belgium to Project Greensand's storage locations in the North Sea.

Project Greensand is one of the frontrunners of CO2 storage projects in Europe. It brings together a consortium of 23 specialized companies, research centres, institutions and logistics partners led by INEOS and Wintershall Dea, with an ambition to eventually store up to 8 MMt of CO2 per year by 2030.

Vincent Van Quickenborne, Belgian Federal Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the North Sea: "The development of new methods to reduce carbon emissions is vital for the future of our planet. The sea can play a key role in this. Not only has it always been very important for regulating our climate, but it also offers opportunities for carbon capture, recycling and storage. Our Belgian industry is very much involved in this. The Greensand project is one of the leading CO2 storage projects in Europe. This is a promising technology. We have signed an agreement with Denmark to cooperate on this so that we can store our captured CO2 in their empty oil and gas fields."

"We are very pleased that the Danish Minister of Climate, Energy and Energy Supply and the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of North Sea of the Belgian government as well as the Flemish Minister of Justice and Enforcement, Environment and Energy have concluded this groundbreaking agreement. It has been the subject of many and lengthy negotiations - and we would like to acknowledge their great efforts. This is an important step forward to continue Project Greensand, which is making an important contribution to the green transition in Denmark," explains Soren Reinhold Poulsen, project director of Project Greensand.

Roel De Vil, site manager INEOS Oxide in Zwijndrecht, said: "INEOS Oxide has built on extensive experience in capturing CO2 emissions from its ethylene oxide process. Over the past 12 years, we have worked in collaboration with two other industrial partners to capture, purify and liquefy CO2 on the site. Thanks to our expertise, we can supply CO2 that can be used for the pilot project. In addition to our role in the Greensand consortium, INEOS will also be the first Belgian company to store CO2 in the Danish North Sea under the agreement. The project will play a pioneering role in the refinement of carbon storage technology and will make an important contribution to the achievement of the Danish, European and Belgian climate objectives. "

Quote Jacques Vandermeiren, CEO Port of Antwerp Zeebrugge: "Seeing is believing. This project will demonstrate very tangibly that the storage of CO2 under the North Sea is technically possible and can also be carried out safely. I'm delighted to work together with INEOS as part of the Greensand project, carrying out this pilot from the port of Antwerp as a first mover, giving us a front row seat to support it. CCS ('carbon capture and storage') is therefore an indispensable intermediate step in our transformation to a sustainable port."

We rermind, INEOS Styrolution, the global leader in styrenics, has introduced a lineup of commercially available sustainable polystyrene products that is second to none. The new products provide customers a choice to select the best fit for their application. The complete lineup introduced today follows initial announcements on mechanically-recycled polystyrene solutions in 2021[1]. The new “ECO” products offer the performance of the respective virgin products, but with a significantly lower CO2 footprint. All products are drop-in solutions.
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