Russian price caps are attracting India interest in buying low-cost naphtha feedstock

Russian price caps are attracting India interest in buying low-cost naphtha feedstock

More Indian firms are attracted to buying Russian naphtha as low-cost feedstock for their refineries and petrochemical plants after price caps imposed by Western nations, six refining sources said, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Prices for refined products such as naphtha and fuel oil are capped at USD45/bbl by the Group of Seven nations, the European Union, and Australia in a scheme aimed at curbing Moscow funding its war against Ukraine. By comparison, Singapore naphtha traded at USD80.03/bbl on Tuesday on a free on board basis. The price cap was implemented along with an EU ban on Russian oil products imports on Feb. 5.

India's interest in ramping up Russian oil products imports comes after the world's third largest crude importer became Moscow's top oil client after China as the West shunned supplies from Moscow. Cheap Russian crude has shaved costs at Indian refiners and boosted margins. Reliance Industries Ltd. boosted its imports of Russian naphtha imports in February to about 222,000 t, ship tracking data from Refinitiv showed.

Reliance began importing Russian naphtha in September and by the end of January had shipped in about 217,000 t, the data showed. Reliance, already India's largest buyer of Russian naphtha and fuel oil, would consider increasing imports further, one of the sources said.

Its Russian fuel oil imports are set to triple a record of around 4.8 MMt between April 2022 and Feb. 2023, the first 11 months of this financial year, from about 1.6 MMt in 2021/22, Refinitiv Eikon data showed. State-owned refiners Bharat Petroleum Corp. and Indian Oil Corp., which have petrochemical facilities, are also looking for opportunities to buy Russian naphtha, sources said.

"So far there is no offer made to us for Russian oil. It is early days..we will definitely buy Russian naphtha if we get it at cheaper rate," said an official at one of the state refiners. Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd would also consider buying Russian naphtha if the quality and cost are suitable for its plants, two sources at the company said.

Reliance, IOC, BPCL and Haldia Petrochemicals did not respond to Reuters' emails seeking comment. The G7 price caps prohibit Western insurance, shipping and other companies from financing, insuring, trading, brokering or carrying cargoes of Russian crude and oil products unless they were bought at or below the set price caps.

We remind, Russia has diverted its diesel export supplies to Africa and Asia, as well for ship-to-ship (STS) loadings in February, as embargo closed the European markets for Russian-origin fuel, according to traders and Refinitiv data.
Russia has long been the main diesel supplier for Europe, where refineries do not produce enough fuel to meet domestic demand from its large diesel car fleet. A full EU embargo on Russian oil products went into effect on Feb. 5.

mrchub.com

Solvay supports biotech consortium

Solvay supports biotech consortium

Solvay has joined the Genesis Consortium to support biotech companies through its venture capital arm, said the company.

Funding will be put towards the IndieBio start-up development programme, which includes a portfolio of early-stage venture-backed companies with ties to Solvay’s key end markets, including agri-tech, food, bio-based materials and personal care.

Solvay Ventures did not specify how much they would spend on the programme but is currently investing from an €80m global evergreen fund.

The Genesis Consortium was founded by Silicon Valley-based venture capital firms SOSV and Mayfield as a global alliance of venture capital firms and corporations focussing on biotechnology start-ups addressing human health and environmental challenges.

SOSV is a multi-stage venture fund which operates start-up development programme IndieBio, which was founded in 2015, based in New York and San Francisco in a variety of sectors including food, materials, climate tech, biopharma, and agriculture.

The strategic investment will enable Solvay to accelerate and expand it portfolio using biotechnology and will strengthen the specialty firm’s renewable materials and biotechnology platform.

We remind, Solvay in advanced negotiations to divest its stake in Rusvinyl. The company confirms it is in advanced negotiations to divest its stake in Rusvinyl, an independent 50/50 joint venture in Russia, to its joint venture partner, Sibur. In addition to the recently obtained preliminary clearance from Russian governmental authorities, the potential transaction is still subject to several other regulatory approvals. Solvay will keep the market informed if and when appropriate, in accordance with applicable law.

Solvay is a science company whose technologies bring benefits to many aspects of daily life. With more than 21,000 employees in 63 countries, Solvay bonds people, ideas and elements to reinvent progress.

mrchub.com

Tronox swings to Q4 loss

Tronox swings to Q4 loss

Tronox swung to a Q4 net loss and warned that Q1 earnings could fall sharply year on year, the US-based pigment producer said.

The following table shows the company's Q4 financial performance. Income fell because sales fell faster than costs.

During the second half of 2022, Tronox said a significant market pullback started in China and then spread to the rest of the Asia-Pacific region as well as Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and the Americas.

For the first quarter, Tronox expects to report USD120m-130m in adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA). That is down from USD240m in adjusted EBITDA that Tronox reported in Q1 2022.

First quarter sales volumes for TiO2 should rise versus the fourth quarter by the low- to mid-teens percent, Tronox said. Year on year, they should decline. The company will continue to contend with the aftermath of a fire at its KZN mineral separation plant in South Africa and floods at its Gingko and Atlas Campaspe mines in Australia.

The fire and floods should affect the amount of zircon that is available for sale and the cost of ore produced from the new mine in Australia. Zircon production and ore costs should improve during the first quarter.

In South Africa, Tronox's KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Sands operations include the Fairbreeze mine, a concentration plant, a mineral separation plant and two smelting furnaces that produce titanium slag.

We remind, Tronox reported an increase in third-quarter net income on increased sales and a tax benefit, said the company. The following table shows the company’s financial performance. Figures are in millions of dollars. The company said revenue was up year on year driven by higher prices for titanium dioxide (TiO2), zircon and pig iron and on higher pig iron volumes. John D Romano, co-CEO, said the results were despite a significant reduction in demand in Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Asia Pacific.

mrchub.com

Tianchen Qixiang starts up new nylon 66 plant at one go

Tianchen Qixiang starts up new nylon 66 plant at one go

On February 11, the 50kt/year nylon 66 plant of nylon new material project phase I of China Chemical Tianchen Qixiang New Materials Co., Ltd., has successfully commenced and yielded the first batch of high-grade products, said Ccfgroup.

This is another successful start-up of Tianchen Qixiang following the startup of acrylonitrile, hexanediamine (HMDA) and adionitrile (ADN), which marks the comprehensive formation of the complete industrial chain system of the first phase of Tianchen Qixiang nylon new material industrial base. It has laid a more solid foundation for the industrial chain and cluster development of high-end nylon new materials.

In the next step, Tianchen Qixiang will continue to focus on solving the problems of "lack of core technology and raw materials" in the field of new materials and new energy, and insist on new chemical materials, special nylon and other chemicals with high technical threshold, engineering plastics, high-performance fibers and other materials, and continue to expand into the field of high value-added products in the chemical industry.

We remind, Toray has announced that it has developed technology to create a recycled nylon 66 recovered from discarded silicone-coated airbags offering the same flowability and mechanical properties as virgin nylon 66 injection moulding grades. Airbag fabric can be coated or non-coated with silicone. Recycling of the non-coated fabric is common practice; Refinverse was the first in Japan to achieve commercial-scale silicone-coated fabric recycling. It strips the silicone from airbag fabric scrap cuttings, after which these are washed.

mrchub.com

Alfa reverses losses in Q4 as sales grow

Alfa reverses losses in Q4 as sales grow

Mexican polyester producer Alpek reported on Wednesday a year-on-year rise in Q4 net income because of lower taxes, said the company.

Alpek reported a Q4 tax charge of Mexican peso (Ps)549m (USD29.5m), down from Ps1.41bn from the same time in 2022.

The following shows the company's Q4 financial performance.

We remind, Alpek, Indorama and FENC announced earlier that Corpus Christi Polymers (CCP) will resume construction on the facility in August. The plant is expected to begin production of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and purified terephthalic acid (PTA) in early 2025. Construction of the state-of-the-art plan is resuming following a period of pandemic-related disruptions. The new facility is expected to be the largest vertically integrated PTA-PET production plant in the Americas, with annual capacities of 1.1m tonnes of PET and 1.3m tonnes of PTA. It will employ three state-of-the-art technologies.

mrchub.com