Worley and CAM Industrial Solutions announce the sale and purchase of Worley's North American maintenance and turnaround business

An agreement has been reached with CAM Industrial Solutions LLC (CAM Industrial), whereby Worley will sell its maintenance and turnaround business in North America, which is part of Worley's Americas Field Services, for a cash consideration of USD 125 million (approximately AUD180 million), said the company.

Worley's construction and fabrication business in North America is not included in the sale. The sale also includes Worley's power operations and maintenance business. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and customary closure conditions and is expected to close in the second half of FY2023.

The North America maintenance and turnaround business is Worley's operating and shutdown maintenance craft work (non-professional services) in the USA and Canada, which supports refineries, petrochemical plants, and other industrial facilities.

Worley Chief Executive Officer Chris Ashton said Worley was delighted to be entering into this agreement with CAM Industrial and was looking forward to seeing the company continue to successfully service its many loyal customers across its markets.

CAM Industrial is a new company, formed by an investor group, led by Cross Rapids Capital L.P. (Cross Rapids Capital) and including strategic partner The Baupost Group. Cross Rapids is an operationally driven investment firm, focused on acquiring industrial and services companies in North America.

We remind, Corpus Christi Polymers LLC has awarded Worley construction management and general services contracts. The scope of the construction management contract includes Corpus Christi’s new polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and purified tereph-thalic acid (PTA) facilities in Corpus Christi, Texas, US. The scope of the general services contract includes providing support to the installation and maintenance of the construction of temporary facilities.

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Berry Global Healthcare is introducing a new PET bottle combination for the pharmaceutical syrup and herbal market for liquid medicines.

The bundle aims to help customers capitalize on the increasing demand for child-resistant and tamper-evident packaging. Customers can select the bottle and compatible closure with liners and dosing cups to meet their particular application and capacity requirements. To help companies meet their sustainability objectives, some bottles can be produced in 100% food-grade recycled PET.

Berry explains its new bundle features seven ranges of 28 mm neck PET bottles in sizes from 20 mL to 1,000 mL.
The package combination is supplied from eight Berry factories across Europe, ensuring a fast and flexible service for companies of all sizes to help them quickly bring products to market.

The company says it is utilizing its longstanding design and technical expertise in the healthcare sector to combine a range of bottle and closure solutions that can meet the market’s diverse needs.

Some of the bottles and closures are fully tested and certified as child-resistant to the latest global standards – ISO8317 standard (EU) and 16CFR1700.20 standard (US). Berry asserts these measures ensure that the packaging is safe and meets regulatory requirements.

We remind, Berry Global Group, Inc. is the first plastic packaging manufacturer in Europe to supply The Coca-Cola Company with a lightweight, tethered closure for its carbonated soft drinks in PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles. Bolstered by the European Union (EU) Single-Use Plastics Directive, Berry’s new tethered closure for Coca-Cola is designed to remain intact with the bottle – making it less likely to be littered and more likely to be recycled.

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Sri Lanka is banning single-use plastic as announced by the government last week. The move follows a series of wild elephant and deer deaths from plastic poisoning, said Packaginginsights.

Cabinet spokesman and media minister, Bandula Gunawardana, says the manufacture or sale of plastic cutlery, cocktail shakers and artificial flowers will be prohibited from June this year. The move was recommended by a panel appointed 18 months ago to study the impact of plastic waste on the environment and wildlife. Autopsies showed numerous animals had died after eating plastics mixed with food waste.

Although non-biodegradable plastic bags were banned in 2017 due to concerns over flash floods, local manufacture and sale of plastic products continued.

Sri Lanka’s top authority on Asian elephants, Jayantha Jayewardene, welcomed the move to stop single-use plastic but told global news agency AFP the ban should be extended to biodegradable plastic bags. “These bags are getting into the food chain of elephants and wildlife and that is not a good thing,” he says.

Many elephants in Sri Lanka suffer agonizing deaths after foraging for food at dumps filled with plastic waste.
Elephants are considered sacred and protected by law in Sri Lanka, but about 400 die a year due to human-elephant conflict near wildlife reserves, as do approximately 50 people.

Shrinking habitat has led to elephants raiding villages looking for food and many suffer agonizing deaths after foraging for food at dumps filled with plastic waste. Dozens of wild deer died from plastic poisoning in the northeastern district of Trincomalee about five years ago, prompting the government to ban the open dumping of garbage near jungle reserves.

We remind, LyondellBasell and Nexus Circular announced they have signed a definite long-term contract, which will supply LyondellBasell with approximately 24,000 tpy of recycled feedstock. The material will be produced at Nexus Circular's new advanced recycling facility, which will begin construction in 2023. The new facility will convert mixed plastic waste, which today mostly ends up in landfills or incineration, into recycled feedstock. LyondellBasell will use the recycled feedstock at its Channelview, Texas facility to produce new plastics which will be marketed under the CirculenRevive brand.
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North American chemical railcar traffic fell for a 22nd straight week, with loadings for the week ended 18 February down 1.7% year on year to 47,253, led by a 3.9% decline in the US, according to the latest freight rail data by the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

For the first seven weeks of 2023 ended 18 February, North American chemical rail traffic was down 4.7% year on year to 311,306 railcar loadings, with US traffic down 8.4%, to 221,076 loadings.

In the US, chemical railcar loadings represent about 20% of chemical transportation by tonnage, with trucks, barges and pipelines carrying the rest. In Canada, chemical producers rely on rail to ship more than 70% of their products, with some exclusively using rail.

We remind, North American chemical railcar traffic fell for a 21st straight week, with loadings for the week ended 11 February down 2.6% year on year to 46,254, led by a 5.8% decline in the US. For the first six weeks of 2023 ended 11 February, North American chemical rail traffic was down 5.2% year on year to 264,053 railcar loadings, with US traffic down by 9.1%, to 187,166 loadings.

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Huntsman expects a sharp drop in its first quarter adjusted earnings, much of which will occur in its polyurethanes (PU) segment, said the company.

The following table shows the company's forecasts for adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA).

It compares the forecasts with the company's performance in Q1 2022 and Q1 2021. Figures are in millions of dollars.

In the PU segment, tough market conditions have led Huntsman to idle two production lines that make methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) in the US and Europe. Huntsman warned that Europe is in a recessionary environment, and energy costs remain high despite recent declines.

In Asia, Huntsman is seeing early signs of a recovery as China continues to reopen following the end of its zero COVID-19 policies. Signs of the recovery are appearing in the cold chain, which refers to the refrigerated logistical network that keeps food, beverages and other goods cold from the point of production to the point of consumption.

Such logistical networks require insulation to keep the goods cold and PU is a powerful insulator. Other recovering end-markets in China include infrastructure and individual consumer markets such as furniture.

China's outlook is critical for the PU segment because it is the world's largest market for MDI, accounting for more than 40% of global capacity and demand, Huntsman said. For China in general, Huntman expects that consumer goods and the automobile industry will recover the soonest, while infrastructure and other end-markets connected to government stimulus could stage a more gradual recovery. Exports could remain relatively weak, they said.

We remind, Huntsman Corporation announced that it has secured all regulatory approvals required to complete the sale of its textile effects division to Archroma, a portfolio company of SK Capital Partners, said the company.
Both parties expect the transaction to close 28 February. The agreed purchase price was USD593m in cash plus assumed pension liabilities, and Huntsman expects the net after tax cash proceeds to be approximately $540m before customary post-closing adjustments.

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