Amcor opens China largest flexible packaging plant, strengthening its position in Asia Pacific

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Amcor, a global leader in responsible packaging solutions, on 15 Dec 2022 announced the opening of its new state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in Huizhou, China, said the company.

With an investment of almost USD100 mln, the 590,000-sq-ft plant is the largest flexible packaging plant by production capacity in China, further strengthening Amcor's ability to meet growing customer demand throughout Asia Pacific.

The new facility is expected to employ more than 550 people, who will produce flexible packaging solutions for food and personal-care products. The plant comes equipped with the first automated packaging production line in China. This, along with high-speed printing presses, laminators, and bag-making machines, can deliver double-digit reductions in manufacturing cycle times.

Amcor is also deploying the first smart production and operation system in the Chinese flexible packaging industry, which includes smart laser scanners, light curtains, high-standard machine guarding and multiple quality-control points. All key process equipment is also CE-certified to stringent European Union health, safety and environmental requirements. Other benefits of the new state-of-the-art facility are traceability throughout the production cycle, a climate-controlled production environment and low-carbon emission production.

We remind, Amcor, a global leader in developing and producing responsible packaging solutions, has announced a five-year deal with ExxonMobil to purchase certified-circular polyethylene material in support of its target to achieve 30% recycled material across its portfolio by 2030. The volume of material will increase incrementally each year and is expected to reach 100,000 metric tpy at the end of the 5-yr period.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- North American chemical rail traffic fell by 7.3% year on year to 44,458 railcar loadings for the week ended 17 December – marking a 13th consecutive decline, according to the latest freight rail data by the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

Declines in the US and Canada more than offset an increase in Mexico. The four-week average for North American chemical rail traffic was at 45,649 railcar loadings.

Despite the 13th decline in a row, for the first 50 weeks of 2022 ended 17 December North American chemical railcar traffic was still up 0.2% year on year to 2,282,455 railcar loadings.

Shipments of chemicals, coal, motor vehicles and parts, nonmetallic minerals, and oil and oil products rose for the first 50 weeks, while shipments in the remaining freight railcar categories fell.

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.

We remind, North American chemical rail traffic fell by 13.0% year on year to 41,696 railcar loadings for the week ended 10 December – marking a 12th consecutive decline. Declines in the US and Canada more than offset an increase in Mexico.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chevron Lummus Global LLC (CLG) announced Shandong Yulong Petrochemical Co., Ltd. has selected EST, which CLG licenses, for a slurry residue hydrocracking unit in Shandong Province, China, said Hydrocarbnprocessing.

The unit will produce naptha, diesel and vacuum gas oil once it is complete, and with a capacity of 3.0 MMtpy, it will be one of the largest in the world.

By selecting the EST technology and technical solutions, Yulong will be able to achieve the highest conversion from residue to distillate products and supply a maximum amount of feedstock to its petrochemical production units. Yulong will also be able to convert a large amount of high sulfur residue (3.0 MMtpy) to useful transportation fuels and petrochemical feedstock while removing sulfur and other contaminants.

The project scope includes the technology license, engineering, proprietary reactor internals and catalyst supply.

CLG, together with its partner, is able to license a complete suite of residue hydrocracking technologies, including EST, LC-FINING, LC-MAX, LC-SLURRY and LC-LSFO technologies. These world-class technologies offer refiners a wide range of conversion options, including complete conversion of residua to valuable distillate products.

We remind, KazMunayGas (KMG) and Chevron Philips Chemical representatives signed a license and engineering agreement for the second phase of the construction of an integrated gas and chemical complex in the Atyrau region. A meeting between Magzum Myrzagaliyev, Board Chair of KMG, and Venki Chandrashekar, Vice President for Research and Technology of Chevron Phillips Chemical, was held on December 11.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Activist investor PrimeStone has urged German chemicals distributor Brenntag to end talks with potential takeover target Univar Solutions and instead buy back shares and prepare for a break-up into two separate companies, said Reuters.

In a letter to Brenntag’s board and management, the UK-based investor urges Brenntag to terminate discussions with Univar immediately and refocus on improving Brenntag itself.

“The risks and uncertainties of such an ‘empire-building’ transaction are very high and vastly outweigh the potential benefits,” PrimeStone said.

“Our interviews and analysis suggest that the dis-synergies could amount to 10-20% of combined gross profit and will likely wipe out all cost reductions if not more, as observed in the case of the Univar/Nexeo deal", it said. Univar-Nexeo was completed in 2019.

Furthermore, the antitrust process for Brenntag-Univar would likely be lengthy and difficult, PrimeStone said.

We remind, Brenntag, the global market leader in chemicals and ingredients distribution, has become the exclusive distributor of Nouryon’s specialty polymers in the United State and Canada. As the sole distributor of Nouryon’s proprietary LumaTreat™ polymers, Brenntag can offer a portfolio including the patented LumaTreat™ smart-tagged polymers, Aquatreat™, Versaflex™, and Versa™ polymers which offer scale control and dispersancy.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Air Liquide welcomes the Dutch State decision to support its large-scale renewable hydrogen projects, named ELYgator and CurtHyl, through the Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI) Hy2Use program, said the company.

These electrolyzer projects, which will each have a capacity of 200 MW, will significantly contribute to the decarbonization of the Dutch and neighboring countries’ industry and support the growth of clean mobility markets.

Both electrolyzers will run on renewable electricity. The two projects will produce a total of around 30,000 tonnes of renewable hydrogen per year without generating any CO2 emissions. Compared to a traditional process, this will avoid the emission of more than 5 million tonnes of CO2 over the period of operation. The ELYgator project will be located in Terneuzen, the Netherlands. The CurtHyl project will be located at the Maasvlakte 2 conversion park in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Those two world scale electrolyzers will be integrated into the existing Air Liquide portfolio of assets and enable the supply of low-carbon hydrogen to multiple customers of the industry and the mobility markets.

Pioneering projects such as ELYgator and CurtHyl contribute to the national and European climate ambitions as hydrogen will play a key role in decarbonization, particularly for hard-to-abate industry and mobility sectors. The grant award is a major step towards the final investment decision, with both projects subject to regulatory approvals.

We remind, Air Liquide has signed a long-term contract to supply Kumho Mitsui Chemical (KMCI) in South Korea with additional hydrogen and carbon monoxide (CO). Supply will be used to help KMCI with its 50% expansion of methyl diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) production in South Korea’s Yeosu National Industrial Complex, which is scheduled to come online in 2024.

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