Manufacturing optimism soars in Korea

The latest survey suggests more South Korean manufacturing companies have a positive economic forecast in the second quarter of 2024, said Pulsenews.

According to the survey conducted by the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade, there was a notable uptick in optimism among manufacturers for economic activity in the second half of 2024. The Business Survey Index (BSI), an aggregation of confidence indices to grasp future landscapes for manufacturing firms, stood at 100 and 102 on business conditions and sales respectively, and were at their highest levels in two years since the second quarter of 2022.

The index between 100 and 200 means companies with positive economic outlooks outnumber those without.

The outlook for the second quarter of 2024 demonstrates a significant surge compared to the previous quarter, with business conditions climbing by 10 points from 90 to 100 and sales rising by 8 points. All key components, including domestic demand and exports, saw increases quarter-over-quarter.

We remind, Russian oil producer Lukoil expects its damaged CDU-6 primary unit and catalytic cracker at the NORSI oil refinery to return to operations in the second quarter following seasonal maintenance. The source also said that the damaged CDU-5 unit at the Volgograd refinery was put back into work on Feb. 21 and was now working in line with its designed capacity.

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Poland’s largest energy player Orlen has appointed energy, pharmaceuticals and banking veteran Ireneusz Fafara as its new chief executive after authorities opened inquiries into the company's spending, said Upstreamonline.

The inquiries into the state-controlled energy company, which began in October, are examining Orlen’s acquisition spending over the last several years and its record-high investment budget for the period until 2030.

Orlen’s former chief executive, Daniel Obajtek, left his post in early February, and authorities in Poland revamped the company's eight-member supervisory board.

Fafara, the supervisory board's choice to lead the company forward, served for eight years between 2010 and 2018 as general manager of Orlen’s subsidiary in the Baltic state of Lithuania that manages the country’s largest refinery, before joining a pharmaceuticals business in Canada and then working in Poland. He begins serving as chief executive on 11 April, the company said.

The company's open recruitment processes to select a new leader attracted close to 300 candidates, according to a Reuters report.

Orlen's supervisory board also selected two people to join the company’s managing board. It appointed acting chief executive Witold Literacki to be the company’s first vice-president. Independent director Ireneusz Sitarski has resigned from the supervisory board to become a member of the Orlen managing board.

Orlen's plans until 2030 include building gas-fired power plants, Poland’s first offshore wind farm in the Baltic Sea and operating an Arctic carbon capture and storage project in Norway.

Among the company's recent acquisitions was Poland’s largest oil and gas producer PGNiG, which has spearheaded Poland’s efforts to diversify its energy sources away from Russia by farming in to mostly natural gas developments in the North Sea.

Earlier this week, PGNiG said its gas production in Norway had risen to an annual rate of about 4 billion cubic metres from about 3 Bcm last year. The company said it increased by 30% the volume of gas it is sending by pipeline to Poland from Norway, following its recent acquisition of a Norwegian subsidiary of Kuwait-based Kufpec.
Orlen's supervisory board is scheduled to hold another meeting to discuss other possible appointments on 16 April.

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TotalEnergies has declared a force majeure on styrene deliveries from its 200,000-barrel-a-day petrochemical plant at Gonfreville in northern France, said Chemanager-online.

On Wednesday, April 3, the Normandy (Gonfreville) steam cracker suffered a shutdown of all its operating units due to an electrical incident. The operator said that the incident resulted in TotalEnergies being unable to supply the full quantity of styrene under our contract. Therefore th company declared the electrical incident on our installations as a force majeure situation.

The letter didn't say how long the force majeure would last, but a source told that styrene production at the site is expected to resume early next week.

The 600,000-mt/year styrene monomer unit at Gonfreville, is Europe's second-largest production facility of this aromatic. The same plant declared force majeure on toluene and xylene in March that was lifted on March 27.

Styrene is used to produce latex and polystyrene resins, which are in turn used to make many end-user products, including plastic packaging, insulation and synthetic rubber.

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Rhone Energies, a consortium of commodity trader Trafigura and Entara LLC, is in exclusive negotiations with Exxon Mobil's ESSO SAF to acquire the Fos-sur-Mer refinery in southern France and the Toulouse and Villette de Vienne terminals, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Trafigura said in a statement on Thursday it would enter into a minimum 10-year exclusive crude oil supply and product offtake agreement, including ownership of crude oil and product stocks in tank. Fos-sur-Mer refinery has a crude oil processing capacity of 140,000 bpd.

Trafigura added that Rhone Energies would continue to supply ESSO SAF in the region. The deal's "completion is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected by the end of 2024. The financial terms of the proposed transaction are confidential," the company said.

This is the second major acquisition by Trafigura this year following an agreement to buy the European business of Greenergy, a UK-based supplier of road fuels and a biodiesel producer. Trading firms like Trafigura and rival Vitol are looking for acquisition opportunities globally after they raked in billions over the last two years due to the European energy crisis and market volatility caused by sweeping western sanctions on Russia.

Trafigura posted a record net profit of about $7.4 billion for last year, up 5% from 2022. ESSO shares are up 9.2% on Thursday, the highest since July 2008.

We remind, Russia's Orsk oil refinery, which has halted output after widespread floods, declared force majeure on fuel supplies from April 8. Russia's oil refineries were already struggling with Ukrainian drone attacks and technical outages, forcing the country to ban gasoline exports, with some exceptions, for half a year from March 1.

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Russia has begun diesel exports to Sudan as Moscow seeks new markets for its refined products after an EU embargo, LSEG data shows, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Since the full EU embargo on Russian oil product imports was imposed in February 2023, diesel supplies have been diverted to Brazil, Turkey, countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East as well as ship-to-ship loadings.

LSEG data shows that two fuel tankers - Pavo Rock and Conga - delivered a total of about 70,000 metric tons of ultra-low sulfur diesel to Sudan after it was loaded in February at the Russian Baltic port of Primorsk.

The cargoes discharged at Port Sudan Al Khair Terminal on April 2 and April 5 respectively, shipping data shows. Another vessel - the Marabella Sun - loaded in March at the Russian Baltic port of Vysotsk, is heading towards Port Sudan and should be discharged on April 17, LSEG data shows.

Sudan's petroleum ministry did not respond to a request for comment. Sudan needs about 45,000 bpd of diesel to meet local demand, one analyst said.

The country imports 60,000-70,000 metric tons of diesel a month, mainly from Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. Diesel arrivals in Sudan totaled about 116,000 metric tons in March, the LSEG data shows.

We remind, Russian oil producer Lukoil expects its damaged CDU-6 primary unit and catalytic cracker at the NORSI oil refinery to return to operations in the second quarter following seasonal maintenance. The source also said that the damaged CDU-5 unit at the Volgograd refinery was put back into work on Feb. 21 and was now working in line with its designed capacity.

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