French refinery, metro strikes loom in clash over pension reform

France's CGT trade union on Thursday called for strikes in the refinery sector against plans to make people work longer before they can retire and Paris metro unions said they would do "everything they can" to stop the pension reform, said Reuters.

The French will have to work two years longer, to age 64, before retiring, if the reform, announced by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne on Tuesday, is adopted by parliament. They will also need to work longer to get a full pension.

All unions have already announced a nationwide day of strike and protests for Jan. 19, but have also warned that more action will follow in different sectors.

The CGT union called on refinery workers and other staff in the petrol sector to strike on Jan. 26 for 48 hours and on Feb. 6 for 72 hours, at which date they said the strike could be further extended and include halting operations at refineries.

"One day (on Jan. 19) will not be enough to make the government back down on this reform," Eric Sellini, CGT coordinator at TotalEnergies, told BFM TV. "If the conflict were to last, there would inevitably be consequences for refining operations, with potentially a stoppage of the installations in the weeks to come."

Last autumn, a strike at the refineries and depots of TotalEnergies and Exxon linked to wage demands led to a shortage of gasoline for several weeks in several regions. Borne called on unions to be "responsible" and not harm the economy.

"There is a right to strike, there is a right to demonstrate, but I think it is also important not to penalize the French," she said.

We remind, LANXESS and French energy group TotalEnergies have entered into a cooperation on the supply of biocircular styrene. Unlike conventional styrene, the raw material used by TotalEnergies is based on tall oil, which is derived from a tree resin and is a by-product of pulp production. LANXESS uses the styrene to produce sustainable ion exchange resins. These products are applied primarily in the treatment of wastewater and chemical process flows as well as in the food industry.

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Vietnam's largest refinery, Nghi Son, will be shut down for 55 days starting August 25 for major maintenance, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said, as per Reuters.

The 200,000-barrel-per-day refinery will process 7.96 MMt of crude oil this year, the ministry said in a statement.
This will be the first major maintenance at the refinery, which started commercial production in May, 2018. The refinery supplies more than a third of Vietnam's needs for refined fuels.

Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical suffered a leak at its residual fluid catalytic cracking (RFCC), which had been shut down since late last month. The ministry said the unit will be restarted on Jan. 15 at the latest. The closure of the unit causes a 20%-25% fall in the refinery's total output.

Nghi Son refinery is 35.1% owned by Japan's Idemitsu Kosan Co, 35.1% by Kuwait Petroleum, 25.1% by Vietnam's state oil firm PetroVietnam and 4.7% by Mitsui Chemicals Inc. Vietnam's other refinery, the 130,000-barrel-per-day Binh Son, will also be shut down from June 22 through to August 11 for maintenance.

We remind, Vietnam's largest oil refinery will complete repairs needed to fix a technical problem at its residual fluid catalytic cracking (RFCC) unit by Jan. 15. The 200,000-barrel-per-day Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical had a leak at the RFCC unit, the government said on Friday, adding the problem would reduce the refinery's output by 20%-25%. Nghi Son, which provides more a third of Vietnam's petroleum needs, is one of only two oil refineries in the country.

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Borealis acquires a majority stake in Belgian recycling firm Renasci, the polyolefins producer announced.

Borealis announced the acquisition of a ; today it announces an increase of its investment to acquire a majority stake of 50.01%, signalling on-going confidence in the potential of Renasci’s patented SCP concept to drive the circular transformation. The investment is an important component of Borealis’ strategy to reach its ambitious circular goals, which target a six-fold increase in the volume of circular products and solutions to 600 kilotonnes by 2025, rising to 1.8 million tonnes by 2030. The acquisition will support Borealis to reach these goals by providing increasing long-term access to chemically recycled feedstock from Renasci’s Ostend facility and through enabling access to key circular technologies.

SCP is unique because it enables the processing of multiple waste streams using different recycling technologies under one roof, resulting in exceptionally high valorisation of waste. Through leveraging its market access, know-how, and innovative technological capabilities, Borealis will accelerate the implementation of the SCP concept and will also explore opportunities for replicating the model in strategic locations.

“With this investment, we mark another milestone on our path to realising our Strategy 2030 goals. Our acquisition of a controlling stake in Renasci has the potential to unlock significant progress on circularity for our entire industry, and is proof of the spirit in action,” says Borealis CEO Thomas Gangl.

We remind, Borealis, one of the world’s leading providers of advanced and sustainable polyolefin solutions, and a European front-runner in polyolefins recycling; and VERBUND, Austria’s leading energy company, announce that they have signed a ten-year power purchase agreement (PPA) to supply hydropower to Borealis operations in Schwechat, Austria, starting in January of 2023.

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ExxonMobil has reached an agreement with Bangchak Corporation to sell its interest in Esso Thailand that includes the Sriracha Refinery, select distribution terminals, and a network of Esso-branded retail stations, delivering on its commitment to strengthen value and overall competitiveness, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The transaction will be executed by ExxonMobil’s affiliate, ExxonMobil Asia Holdings Pte. Ltd, which holds 65.99% interest in Esso Thailand.

“As we execute our strategy, ExxonMobil is focusing its investments on global production facilities to meet the world’s demand for lower-emissions fuels and high-performance products, while divesting assets where others see the potential for greater value,” said Karen McKee, president of ExxonMobil Product Solutions. “We appreciate the talent and determination of our colleagues in Thailand who have safely provided reliable product supply to the Thailand and Greater Mekong markets for more than 125 years, and we thank them for their dedicated service."

ExxonMobil will continue to supply the Thailand market with branded finished lubricants and chemical products through a new company to be formed. ExxonMobil’s upstream operations through its affiliate ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Khorat Inc., and ExxonMobil’s Bangkok Global Business Center, which employs about 2,000 people, will not be impacted.

ExxonMobil remains focused on safe and reliable operations and ensuring compliance with commitments made to customers and relevant government agencies and regulators.

The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2023, subject to standard conditions and applicable legal requirements, including approval from regulatory authorities.

As per MRC, ExxonMobil has initiated legal proceedings against the European Union to try to stop a proposed windfall tax on fossil fuel companies, arguing Brussels has exceeded its legal authority. In September, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the plan to impose a 33% “solidarity contribution” after oil and gas companies posted record profits in 2022.
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Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd. has developed new process technologies that can be applied for the manufacturing of Micro LED displays, said Polymerupdate.

The size of a Micro LED chip is not visible to the naked eye, with the length of one side being less than 50 ?m (micrometers). For example, in order to manufacture one 4K display that has 4 times the resolution of a conventional high-definition screen, it is necessary to precisely array about 24.90 million chips. In order to implement improvements in the complexity and yield ratio in the processes of Micro LED chip manufacturing and the transfer process of each chip, Shin-Etsu Chemical has been working together with Shin-Etsu Group companies to take advantage of our unique materials technologies. We have proceeded to develop various advanced innovative transfer equipment and transfer parts to solve the key manufacturing challenges of Micro LED display manufacturing.

The new process technologies we are announcing were jointly developed with Dexerials Corporation (Head Office: Shimotsuke City, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan; President: Yoshihisa Shinya) and introduces innovative technology that will transfer singulated anisotropic conductive film (ACF) of?80?m or less onto the targeted location by laser equipment. Employing this technology, it becomes possible to transfer the singulated ACF only to the designated plate and mount the Micro LED chip on it and makes the repair process in Micro LED display manufacturing easy to carry out, a matter which had been a large issue up until now.

We remind, on 16 Feb 2022, Shin-Etsu Chemical Co Ltd announced plans to invest over $695 M to expand its silicone manufacturing plants across Japan to meet a very strong demand for advanced functional products. According to the company, the new plant investments will expand the manufacturing capacity of "highly diversified" kinds of silicone resins, fluids, and rubber end products by 2025. The expansion project will start with Shin-Etsu's main facility, the Gunma Complex in Gunma Prefecture, and will be followed by two other facilities in Naoetsu, Niigata Prefecture, and Takefu, Fukui Prefecture.

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