Alpla Group acquires iTEC Packaging’s Mansfield plant

Alpla Group has strengthened its commitment to the UK market with the acquisition of iTEC Packaging’s plant in Mansfield, UK, said Foodbev.

iTEC Packaging is a manufacturer specialising in injection moulding, thermoforming, extrusion and compression moulding. The company’s plant in Mansfield specialises in the production of closures primarily for dairy applications, but also for other food and beverage sectors.

Alpla says that the acquisition will expand its expertise as a packaging system provider in the UK market. Jens Seifried, Alpla’s UK MD, said: “With our global know-how, with this acquisition we can increasingly offer the UK dairy industry sustainable, efficient and innovative packaging solutions”.

The takeover will enable Alpla to push the use of post-consumer recycled material in the closure sector, with the company hoping to offer complete solutions with high recycling content.

Alpla says that this will build on its work in the processing of recycled high-density polyethene (rHDPE) in the ultra-light ‘Eco-Bottle’ – the Eco-Bottle uses around 20% less materials across its container sizes, compared to traditional milk vessels.

The company developed the Eco-Bottle last year for Arla Foods UK and it is now used by other dairy businesses, the bottle’s packaging can be made of up to 40% food-grade rHDPE with new developments having the potential to increase this inclusion in coming years.

The incorporation of the former iTEC Packaging plant in Mansfield provides further capacity and product range and at the same time secures jobs at the site. Alpla said the site’s current staff “will be taken over in their entirety”.

We remind, Alpla, together with its partners Ecohelp SRL (Romania) and United Polymer Trading AG (Switzerland), have started production at their joint recycling plant in Targu Mures, Romania. The plant, located adjacent to the existing Ecohelp site in Targu Mures, has an annual capacity of around 18,000 tonnes of post-consumer-recycled PET (rPET) per year and aims to supply the southeast European market with food-grade rPET. The project has led to the creation of around 20 new jobs. The joint venture partners will host the official opening ceremony on 4 May 2023.

mrchub.com

Nigeria's state oil firm NNPC Ltd is winding down crude swap contracts with traders and will pay cash for gasoline imports, its chief executive told Reuters, adding that private companies could begin importing petrol as soon as this month, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The move is part of new Nigerian President Bola Tinubu's plans to deregulate the gasoline market and reduce the burden on government finances. Tinubu has already scrapped a costly fuel subsidy, effective from last Tuesday, a decision which tripled petrol prices, angering labor unions who have called for a strike starting on Wednesday if the decision is not reversed.

NNPC has been importing gasoline from consortiums of foreign and local trading firms and repaying them with crude oil via what are known as Direct Sale Direct Purchase (DSDP) contracts since 2016 because it does not have enough cash to pay for the purchases, data and trading sources said.

"In the last four months we practically terminated all DSDP contracts. And we now have an arm's-length process where we can pay cash for the imports," Kyari told Reuters in an interview late on Saturday. This is the first time NNPC has said it is terminating crude swap contracts. By importing less gasoline as private companies import the bulk, NNPC will be able to pay for its purchases in cash, Kyari said.

Nigeria is Africa's biggest crude producer but imports most of its refined products after running down its refineries.

A significant drop in oil production last year coupled with high global fuel prices due to the war in Ukraine pushed NNPC's debt to traders higher. It owed the consortiums about $2 B, a September 2022 NNPC report to the Federation Account Allocation Committee shows.

An industry source with direct knowledge of the matter said NNPC was still allocating crude for fuel swaps for July loading, though less than in previous months. In its report detailing March crude oil loadings, NNPC also allocated crude to the swap contracts held by the consortiums.

Kyari said NNPC's monopoly on gasoline supplies was ending and private firms could start importing as early as this month.

We remind, Nigeria's main labor union said on Friday it plans to go on strike from Wednesday to protest against a tripling of fuel prices in the country after new president Bola Tinubu scrapped a costly subsidy. The government hopes the lifting of the fuel subsidies - which caused prices to rise to 557 naira per liter from 189 naira at the petrol pumps - will help alleviate a funding crisis in Africa's biggest economy. Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) Joe Ajaero made the announcement after an emergency meeting of the union's executive council in Abuja.

mrchub.com

The catalytic cracking unit at Venezuela's Cardon refinery, the country's second-biggest, has broken down and paused operations since the middle of the week, four people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Friday, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Venezuela's refining network has the capacity to process 1.3-million-barrels per day but it suffers frequent production problems. Critics of the state-owned oil company PDVSA blame a lack of investment and mismanagement, while the company says saboteurs cause damage to its refineries.

The fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) plant refines oil into other products with greater commercial value, such as gasoline. Outages across the refining network lead to frequent shortages of fuel in the South American country. "The plant broke down due to a failing compressor," one of the sources said, adding that the unit "had considerable damage."

PDVSA did not respond to requests for comment. Cardon, which forms part of the Paraguana Refining Center in Venezuela's northwest, alongside the Amuay refinery, can process up to 310,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd).

The refinery restarted one distillation unit on Friday after a failure, while a second unit remains shutdown. The catalytic cracking unit at Amuay, Venezuela's largest refinery, has been shutdown for repairs since March, impacting production of gasoline.

PDVSA has in recent months made efforts to ramp up refining operations, without success, forcing users to wait in long lines to fill vehicles with gasoline, especially outside of capital Caracas.

We remind, Venezuelan state energy company PDVSA's new management expects to boost the country's oil production to 1.17 million bpd by year end while increasing refining and exploration activities, an internal planning document showed. Venezuela's monthly crude output in April surpassed 800,000 bpd for the first time since December 2021 following a company shake up triggered by an anti-corruption probe that demanded an audit of all its operations, subsidiaries and joint ventures, uncovering some USD21 B in accounts receivable.


mrchub.com

Russian is fulfilling its oil output cut obligations, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told Rossiya-24 TV channel on Sunday following a meeting of the OPEC+ group of leading oil producers, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

OPEC+, which groups the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies led by Russia, on Sunday after seven hours of talks decided to reduce overall production targets from 2024 by a further total of 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd).

"The result of the discussions was the extension of the deal until the end of 2024," Novak said. He said that total production cuts, which OPEC+ has undertaken since October 2022, reached 3.66 million bpd to ensure stability on the global oil market.

However, many of these reductions will not be real as the group lowered the targets for Russia, Nigeria and Angola to bring them into line with their actual current production levels. Separately, Novak's office said that Russia will tweak its crude oil production level to 9.828 million bpd from Jan.1 and taking into account earlier announced additional voluntary reduction of 500,000 bpd, its output target will stand at around 9.3 million bpd.

Novak also said the market is more or less balanced, and demand is rising, although the group would monitor interest rate decisions by global central banks, including the U.S. Federal Reserve, for clues on the economy that could influence fuel consumption.

"That's the indicator (interest rate decisions), which is having an impact on investments, on demand for oil and oil products," he said. Novak also said that OPEC+ could adjust its decisions if necessary.

He said the data from secondary sources related to the OPEC+ voluntary cuts starting from May will emerge in the middle of this month.

We remind, Russia agreed to extend its existing 0.5 million bpd curbs into 2024, Angola and Nigeria agreed to give up their unused quotas. The United Arab Emirates was allowed to boost its production quota by 0.2 million bpd to 3.2 million from 2024.

mrchub.com

Ports in China's Shandong province are demanding more detailed information about oil tankers that are more than 15 years old that call at their terminals, sources with knowledge of the matter said, potentially delaying the unloading of crude shipments in the world's biggest oil importer, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Last week, the maritime safety administrations at Qingdao and Rizhao, which covers the oil terminals at the port of Lanshan, notified shipping agencies to submit details on their ships' age, where a ship is flagged, insurance coverage, and any instances where the ship changed its name and ownership in the past 36 months as well as past inspection records, said a shipping agent and two traders who handle Chinese oil imports.

The sources declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter. The shipping agent said the details are all new requirements that the safety administrations did not ask for before. The new documentation must be submitted five days before a vessel arrives, the sources said.

Qingdao and Lanshan are two of the top five biggest Chinese oil importing ports, according to data from Kpler. Delays at these terminals may cause disruptions to Chinese refineries that are expected to ramp up fuel output as the country recovers from the COVID restrictions of 2022. Shandong is home to numerous independent refineries known as teapots that account for up to one-fifth of China's processing capacity.

The Shandong Maritime Safety Administration told Reuters that it had not set any special inspection requirements for tankers beyond current regulations and international conventions. The ports of Qingdao and Rizhao did not respond to requests for comment sent on Friday.

Port authorities could detain ships for days to rectify any issues, prompting shippers to divert cargoes to other Chinese ports, the sources said.

We remind, Russia agreed to extend its existing 0.5 million bpd curbs into 2024, Angola and Nigeria agreed to give up their unused quotas. The United Arab Emirates was allowed to boost its production quota by 0.2 million bpd to 3.2 million from 2024.

mrchub.com