S. Korea exports down 5.7% in October, first on-year decline in 2 years

South Korea's exports logged an on-year decline in October for the first time in two years on sluggish global demand amid high inflation and an economic slowdown, said Koreaherald.

The country also suffered a trade deficit for the seventh consecutive month on high global energy prices, sparking concerns over its growth momentum.

Outbound shipments fell 5.7 percent on-year to come to USD52.48 billion last month, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. It was the first time since October 2020 that the country's exports marked an on-year decline.

The country's imports grew 9.9 percent on-year to USD59.18 billion in October on high global energy prices, resulting in a trade deficit of USD6.7 billion.

Imports have exceeded exports in South Korea since April, and it is the first time since 1995 that the country has suffered a trade deficit for seven months in a row.

South Korea depends on imports for most of its energy needs, and the country's energy imports surged 42.1 percent on-year to USD15.53 billion in October, the ministry said. (Yonhap).

We remind, KBR, Inc. (Houston) announced that it has won a contract from GS Caltex (Seoul, South Korea)for its planned plastics circularity project in South Korea. Based on KBR and Mura’s Hydro-PRT process, the 50,000-ton/yr unit will convert waste plastics into raw materials for conversion into new plastics, achieving total circularity.
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China produced a record volume of gasoil in September as refiners ramped up production ahead of winter and sought to capitalise on high export prices, said Hellenicshippingnews.

Output reached just over 17 million tonnes, up 26 per cent from August, noted China’s National Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday. Domestic demand is set to rise with winter approaching, but there are export dollars to be earned as well with refining margins rising to around USD40 a barrel in Asia, according to Refinitiv, a unit of the London Stock Exchange Group.

Output reached just over 17 million tonnes, up 26 per cent from August, noted China’s National Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday.

Domestic demand is set to rise with winter approaching, but there are export dollars to be earned as well with refining margins rising to around USD40 a barrel in Asia, according to Refinitiv, a unit of the London Stock Exchange Group. Ms Emma Li, a senior analyst at data intelligence firm Vortexa, said the higher production volumes could be linked to tighter supply in the domestic market.

Ms Li noted: “Recently, refiners have increased diesel yields at the expense of gasoline and jet fuel, and the state-run refiners need to increase refining run rates to fulfil the export target announced in September." Mr Steve Tan, vice-president of strategic content at Opis, a price reporting agency for energy and commodities, said the larger refiners in China will likely focus on domestic consumption and try to limit their exports to excess inventories.

He said: “We expect the smaller refiners will have a greater impetus to export. The key difference is that the larger refiners are able to roll over their export quotas to 2023 while the smaller refiners have to use theirs up by the end of 2022."

In September, Beijing granted refiners up to 15 million tonnes of oil product quotas for the rest of the year, partially reversing an export ban imposed in 2021. The decision to expand international sales was widely expected to offer relief to global markets, which have been grappling with the loss of Russian gasoil.

Gasoil is widely used for heating in the Northern Hemisphere, but supplies have been under severe pressure because of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

We remind, The world’s first commercial scale CO2-to-methanol plant has started production in Anyang, Henan Province, China. The cutting-edge facility is the first of its type in the world to produce methanol — a valuable fuel and chemical feedstock — at this scale from captured waste carbon dioxide and hydrogen gases.
The plant's production process is based on the Emissions-to-Liquids (ETL) technology developed by Carbon Recycling International (CRI) and first demonstrated in Iceland. The new facility can capture 160,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year, which is equivalent to taking more than 60,000 cars off the road.
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LG Chem's operating profit rose by 23.9% year on year in the third quarter amid strong earnings at its advanced materials and energy solution business units, as per Pulsenews.

Sales at the advanced materials business grew on the back of higher shipments of battery materials and sales prices, the company said in a statement.

Petrochemical earnings fell in the third quarter due to worsened spreads as a result of poorer demand amid growing gas prices and global inflation.

"It is expected that market conditions will be tough in Q4 due to the ongoing slack in global demand and increased supply, but it is expected that it will hit bottom in the second half of this year and the market will gradually begin to recover," the company said.

South Korea’s LG Chem Ltd. and its standalone battery maker LG Energy Solution Ltd. closed the third quarter with record quarterly revenue after the stellar performance by its battery and advanced materials businesses more than offset loss from its mainstay petrochemical business.

We remind, LG Chem, a major South Korean manufacturer of petrochemical products, closed production at its Bisphenol A (BPA) plant in Yeosu (Yeosu, South Korea) on October 14 for scheduled repairs. The company closed three lines with a total capacity of 165,000 tonnes of PC per year in Yeosu for about two months.
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Russia’s second-largest oil producer, saw its January-September net profit more than double to 647.9 billion roubles (USD10.51 billion), said the company.

Sales rose by 1.5 times to 2.335 trillion roubles. Revenue increased by 1.5 times - up to 2.334 trillion rubles, cost - by 30%, up to 1.425 billion rubles, gross profit - 2 times, up to 909 billion rubles, profit from sales - 2.3 times, up to 798 billion rubles , profit before tax - 2.3 times, up to 712 billion rubles.

Russian accounting standards typically do not take into account financial results of subsidiaries.

We remind, Italian authorities have provided Lukoil with a "comfort letter" to help a refinery it owns in Sicily get bank financing to buy non-Russian oil and remain operational. The move is aimed at staving off worries that Lukoil's ISAB refinery, which accounts for around 20% of Italian refining capacity, stops working due to an embargo on seaborne Russian oil that comes into force on Dec. 5. ISAB has been forced to rely solely on Russian oil after creditor banks halted financing and stopped providing guarantees needed to buy oil from alternative suppliers.
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Clariant, a focused, sustainable, and innovative specialty chemical company, announces that it has completed the acquisition of BASF’s U.S. based Attapulgite business assets for USD 60 million in cash, said the company.

Structured as an asset deal, the transaction includes the transfer of land as well as mining rights, the processing facility, and inventories, which will be integrated into Clariant’s Functional Minerals business. The finalized deal also includes an agreement for the long-term supply of attapulgite-based products to BASF. The transaction will improve the EBITDA margin profile of Clariant’s Business Area Natural Resources while supporting the company’s path towards reaching its 2025 targets.

Adsorbent clays, such as attapulgite, are an important enabler for growth in the purification of edible oils and renewable fuels. In edible oil they remove contaminants thereby enhancing the shelf-life and oil quality, whereas in renewable fuels they play a key role in removing contaminants during the pre-treatment process, thereby protecting the catalyst. This enables a particularly stable and economically viable process. Clariant offers unique technologies for the purification of biodiesel to reduce greenhouse gases in road transportation and for the purification of pyrolysis oil to enable the chemical recycling of plastics. With this acquisition Clariant’s Functional Minerals business will increase its production capacity and subsequently its footprint in the attractive North American market.

The newly acquired attapulgite business is one of the largest miners and producers of attapulgite in North America. It encompasses mining operations in Georgia as well as Florida and processing operations in Quincy, Florida. This business is well recognized in the industry for its unique combination of mineral quality, mine reserve size, and strategic location. It produces attapulgite based products for a wide range of applications and end markets, and generated sales of approximately USD 36 million in 2020.

We remind, Clariant and Dorf Ketal, two of the world's leading specialty chemical products and services companies, have today announced a definitive agreement for Dorf Ketal to acquire Clariant's North American (NORAM) Land Oil business, a provider of chemical technologies and services to the North American oil and gas industry. The transaction announced today is subject to regulatory and other customary closing conditions and is expected to be finalized during the first quarter of 2023.

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