Jubilant Ingrevia commissions new acetic anhydride plant at Bharuch, Gujarat

Jubilant Ingrevia has commissioned its new global scale acetic anhydride plant, at its manufacturing facility at Bharuch, Gujarat. This plant adds around 60,000 MT of capacity, whereby scaling Jubilant Ingrevia Limited’s overall annual acetic anhydride capacity to 210,000 MT, said Pharmabiz.

This enhanced capacity will also help the company to increase its global presence in various geographies and achieve leadership position in the global merchant markets. In the domestic market it further strengthens and consolidates Jubilant Ingrevia’s position as a market leader.

For several decades now, Jubilant Ingrevia has been regarded as a ‘partner of choice’ globally for supplying acetic anhydride for various end-usages. This facility augmentation will further strengthen the relationship that Jubilant Ingrevia enjoys with its global clients.

With this additional capacity, Jubilant Ingrevia also provides opportunity to its global customers to further expand their downstream products across end-user industries viz. pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, food, vitamins, wood acetylation, electronics, dyes industry etc.

Rajesh Srivastava, CEO & managing director, Jubilant Ingrevia said, “We are pleased with the commissioning of our new global scale acetic anhydride plant. We are happy to see that our efforts to become a reliable supplier of acetic anhydride for international customers, is now showing significant results. This has led us to the decision to add a new plant with global scale capacity and hence achieve leadership in acetic anhydride’s global merchant market..

With our well-established global distribution network, this additional capacity of acetic anhydride will further ensure sufficient feedstock availability for our various global customers for their end products, as well as help them achieve their desired growth across global markets, he added.

We remind, Jubilant Ingrevia Ltd has announced a contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) contract for around Rup 270-crore in its speciality chemicals business. Through the contract, the company will supply two GMP intermediates for one of the patented drugs of the innovator pharmaceutical customer. Commercial supplies of both products will start from FY 2023 onwards.

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Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd (PetChem) is focusing on expanding its specialties portfolio after posting a strong performance in 2022 amid geopolitical conflicts, market volatilities and general industry challenges, said the company.

The group said its landmark acquisition of Sweden-based Perstorp Group resulted in further diversification of the group’s product offerings, specifically for its specialty chemicals portfolio. “The company launched BRB Group’s new lube oil additives manufacturing facility in the Netherlands to serve as a global lube oil additives and chemicals hub for PetChem.

“In addition, two projects achieved the status of Final Investment Decision (FID), namely the development of a melamine plant in Gurun, Kedah, and the expansion of the 2-ethylhexanoic acid (2-EHA) plant in Gebeng, Pahang,” it said in a statement today, in conjunction with PetChem’s 25th annual general meeting.

PetChem closed 2022 with record revenue of RM29 billion and profit after tax of RM6.3 billion. Managing director and CEO Yusri Mohamed Yusof said the addition of Perstorp Group marks a major milestone, which will see over 130 new product offerings, seven manufacturing sites globally and more than 1,500 new members coming into the PetChem family.

“We have also established a new specialty chemicals division to manage and steer critical strategic priorities supporting the group’s long-term aspirations within this space,” he said.

PetChem also said it has enhanced its commitment towards sustainability in 2022 and surpassed its short-term target to reduce its Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) by 2024.

Through various efforts, such as process optimisation and catalyst upgrades, the group has achieved a cumulative reduction of more than 108,000 tCO2e so far, it said. In addition, Perstorp’s strength in sustainable solutions will accelerate PetChem’s value creation and its sustainability journey.

In 2022, PetChem recorded a production volume of 10.4 million tonnes per annum (tpa), and a sales volume of 8.3 million tpa while continuing with its track record on safety.

We remind, Petronas has signed two Project Development Agreements with ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Malaysia Inc. (ExxonMobil) to jointly pursue Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) activation projects in Malaysia.
Under the agreements, both parties will define next steps, including the maturation of technical scopes for the CCS value chain, evaluation of the identified fields for CO2 storage utilisation, development of appropriate commercial framework and establishment of advocacy plan support on regulations and policy development in enabling CCS projects.

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Sika’s acquisition of the MBCC construction chemicals business “is now in the final stages”, with closing expected by the end of Q2, the Swiss construction and specialty chemicals company said.

Sika agreed to acquire MBCC back in 2021, but closing has been delayed as regulatory authorities had concerns about the deal's impacts on competition in markets for admixtures.

Mannheim, Germany-based MBCC has a total staff of about 7,500 people worldwide and annual sales of around EUR3bn.

Last month, Sika agreed to divest some of MBCC’s admixtures assets, with 1,600 employees and sales of Swiss franc (Swfr) 920m (USD1bn) last year, to investment fund Cinven.

MBCC was carved out of BASF and acquired in 2020 for EUR3.17bn by private equity firm Lone Star, which, a year later, agreed to sell it to Sika for Swfr 5.5bn.

We remind, the European Commission has approved the proposed acquisition of Germany-based construction chemicals producer MBCC by Switzerland’s Sika. The approval, under the EU Merger Regulation, is conditional on the divestiture of MBCC's global chemical admixture business.

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Global monoethylene glycol (MEG) producer EQUATE has nominated its April 2023 MEG India Contract Price (ICP) at USD515/tonne CFR India Main Ports, said the company.

The April nomination was USD23/tonne lower than the March number.

Spot MEG prices closed at USD495-505/tonne CFR China Main Ports (CMP) on 21 March.

We remind, The EQUATE Group, a global producer of petrochemicals and the world’s leading supplier of Ethylene Glycol, announced its full-year earnings for 2022. The EQUATE Group reported total revenue of USD3,947 million in 2022, compared to USD4,159 million in 2021. The Group also reported a net income after tax of USD611 million and EBITDA of USD1,217 million, compared to USD1,109 million and USD1,735 million, respectively, for 2021.

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China's diesel exports shipments surged to 1.44 million tons, up 113.8% in March, from 0.67 million tons a year ago, data from the General Administration of Customs showed, as per Reuters.

Jet fuel exports rose to 1.12 million tons, up dramatically from 0.77 million tons in the same period last year. However, the country's gasoline exports fell to 0.76 million tons from 1.16 million tons last year, the data showed.

Total diesel exports for the first quarter were up more than 450% on the same period last year, following dramatically increased shipments over the January to February period. Beijing issued 18.99 million tons of export quotas for refined fuel in the first batch of its 2023 allocation, up 46% from the corresponding 2022 allotment, as it aimed to ramp up refinery output and hoped to capture stronger export margins.

Discounts on crude imported from Russia have improved margins for Chinese refiners, helping to stimulate their export sector as China sells fuel that other refiners steer away from. The slowdown in China's property and construction sectors has reduced domestic demand for diesel, leading refiners to shift their inventories overseas.

Demand for kerosene in Asia has picked up sharply as governments, most notably China, have rolled back travel restrictions as the pandemic recedes.

China's domestic aviation market has seen a strong uptick, while the resumption of international flights has also pushed up demand for refueling airplanes at Chinese airports. Such fuel sales are counted as exports.

Though road traffic levels have dropped since their spike around the Chinese New Year period, resurgent domestic demand for gasoline following the ending of COVID restrictions led exports to fall.

Customs data also showed that China's imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in March rose 16.9% to 5.36 million tons. Total imports for Q1 stood at 16.43 million tons, down from 17.28 million tons in the same period last year.

As per MRC, CJ Biomaterials, Inc., a division of South Korea-based CJ CheilJedang and a primary producer of polyhydroxyalkanoates has appointed the Netherlands-based Helian Polymers as a distributing partner. Going forward, Helian will distribute CJ Biomaterials’ proprietary PHACT A1000P amorphous polyhydroxyalkanoate - aPHA - biopolymer in Europe. CJ Biomaterials launched its biopolymer activities in 2010. As part of the CJ Corporation, CJ Biomaterials plays a significant part in its global operations with production sites in Indonesia, Malaysia, China, the USA, and Brazil.

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