Mammoet completes heavy haul for Portugal's Sines Industrial Complex's ALBA project

The ALBA project will see significant expansion of the Sines Industrial Complex in Portugal. This large facility includes a linear polyethylene plant and a polypropylene plant, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Planned for operation by 2025, they will provide 100% recyclable polymeric materials for use in pharmaceutical, automotive and food industries.

Performing heavy logistics in the complex for over twenty years, Nippon Express approached Mammoet as a partner to perform heavy haulage of 12 cargo pieces, including four oversized components, to the site.

Over a route of 14 km, there were three significant obstacles that the convoys had to overcome – all relating to bridges and all preventing the oversized cargo from passing.

Using bridge-crossing techniques with Self-Propelled Modular Transporters (SPMTs), Mammoet presented a series of solutions to ensure that the components arrived safely, and without delay.

The Spanish government has approved the takeover of chlorine and PVC producer Ercros by Portuguese company Bondalti. In March, it became known that the Portuguese company Bondalti was considering the possibility of acquiring Spain's largest chlor-alkali and PVC producer, Ercros, for EUR329 million.

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Phillips 66 has achieved the full conversion of the Rodeo Renewable Energy Complex, expanding commercial-scale production and positioning the company as a leader in renewable fuels, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The Rodeo facility in the San Francisco Bay Area, California (U.S.), increased rates to approximately 50,000 bpd (800 MMgal/yr), reaching the company’s goal of achieving full capacity by 2Q 2024. The announcement also marks a significant step in Phillips 66’s commitment to play a meaningful role in the energy transition and provide customers with lower-carbon solutions.

“Phillips 66 has reached another important milestone, which is a testament to our employees’ dedication to achieving our company’s strategic priorities,” said Rich Harbison, Phillips 66 executive vice president of Refining. “The facility running at full capacity supports the growing demand for renewable fuels, lowers our carbon footprint and creates long-term value for our shareholders.”

Announced in 2020, Rodeo Renewed is designed to produce renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), among other products. In addition to supplying California markets, the complex is providing renewable diesel in other areas along the West Coast.

The Rodeo complex includes new pre-treatment units that process lower carbon intensity feedstocks, such as used cooking oil, fats, greases and vegetable oil. It began producing approximately 30,000 bpd of renewable fuel at the end of 1Q 2024.

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Interfax) - China's CITIC Construction plans to build a USD1 billion advanced grain processing plant in Kazakhstan, National Company Kazakh Invest said in a press release.

The processing capacity of the new plant, to be built in the Almaty region, would be up to 1 million tonnes of wheat a year. The proposal was discussed at a meeting between Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister Serik Zhumangarin and the leadership of CITIC Construction during a visit by a delegation from Kazakhstan to China.

The plant will be built in several stages and will produce fructose syrup, crystalline fructose, allulose, crystalline dextrose, sodium gluconate, gluten and feed. The project would create about 2,000 jobs.

Kazakh Invest chief Yerzhan Yelekeyev said advanced grain processing was a strategic priority for the national economy. "Our country is one of the world's biggest wheat producers and is ready to make its own contribution to ensuring food security in the region, since the area of land for cultivation and pastureland is more than 200 million hectares," Yelekeyev said.

Another Chinese company, Fuxin Casting Pipe Co. Ltd. from the Shanxi Province, expressed an intention to launch in Kazakhstan the production of reinforcement steel and semi-finished steel with design capacity of 1 million tonnes a year. Investment in the project is estimated at USD160 million, the press release says.

In May 2023, CITIC Construction signed five commercial documents with Kazakh partners concerning their joint implementation of projects in the energy and petrochemical industries for over USD1.6 billion.

CITIC Construction is a construction and engineering subsidiary of CITIC Group, a Chinese state-owned conglomerate, which is among the 100 largest construction companies in the world.

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Mexican state energy company Pemex is unlikely to produce any commercially viable motor fuels at its new Olmeca refinery before the end of the year, five sources said, despite pressure that it should be ready before the outgoing president's term ends, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a resource nationalist, inaugurated the 340,000-bpd refinery in July 2022 in his home state Tabasco, billing it as crucial to energy self-sufficiency for Mexico.

However, delays at the refinery in the port of Dos Bocas, whose cost has more than doubled to USD16.8 B, means it will be up to his successor Claudia Sheinbaum to try to make the dream a reality when she takes office on Oct. 1.

As recently as last Thursday, Pemex CEO Octavio Romero insisted during an industry event the refinery would "work at full capacity next month." Now, five sources familiar with the operations told Reuters that it was impossible to meet these targets and that progress had been exaggerated ahead of the June presidential election.

Neither Pemex nor the president's office responded to requests for comment. Two sources with detailed knowledge of the operations said engineers were still working on individual parts of the refinery and will then face the even bigger challenge of linking them.

One of the sources, an engineer, described this last step as a hugely complex and "agonizing" process of trial and error that takes months. The other source, also an engineer, said that in the most optimistic scenario the first of two production lines of the refinery would be ready between October and November.

We remind, British energy giant Shell and Mexico's Pemex could each be fined more than $1 million over a fire at a chemical plant in Deer Park, Texas. The state Attorney General filed the corresponding lawsuit on August 7, 2023 in the Austin District Court. Pemex operates a 312,500 barrels per day refinery located next to its Deer Park chemical plant. Each violation could result in fines of up to USD25,000 per day for each individual polluter, according to the statement.

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Westlake Innovations, Inc., an investment arm of Westlake Corporation, said it has invested in Blackhorn Industrial Impact Fund II, a fund managed by venture capital firm Blackhorn Ventures (Boulder, Colo.), said the company.

The size of the investment was not disclosed.

“The fund seeks to invest in 40 capital-efficient companies enabling the decarbonization of the toughest-to-transition sectors in the US economy,” Westlake said. Blackhorn has focused on investments in the energy, transportation, logistics, and construction and infrastructure, sectors, Westlake added.

Blackhorn Ventures has built a portfolio of 65 companies over the past five years, including some in the industrial and materials sectors. The firm has about USD32 million in ‘dry powder,’ or capital to invest, and has raised USD209 million across 15 funds over the past decade, according to S&P Capital IQ.

We remind, Olin and Westlake filed petitions in April to impose anti-dumping and countervailing duties on imports of certain epoxy resins from China, India, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.

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