Sonoco selling thermoformed, flexible packaging business to Toppan

Packaging producer Sonoco Products Co., Hartsville, South Carolina, says it has entered into an agreement to sell its thermoformed and flexibles packaging (TFP) business to Tokyo-based Toppan Holdings Inc. for approximately $1.8 billion on a cash-free and debt-free basis and subject to customary adjustments, said Recyclingtoday.

Sonoco says the transaction reflects the completion of a previously announced strategic review of its TFP business and is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals, and is expected to close in the first half of 2025. Net proceeds from the transaction are expected to be used to repay existing debt.

“The decision to sell our TFP business accelerates our portfolio simplification strategy, streamlines our organizational structure and enables more focused capital investments in our remaining industrial paper and consumer packaging businesses,” says Howard Coker, Sonoco’s president and CEO. “TFP is a great business with leadership positions in its served markets. We greatly value TFP’s tenured history as part of the Sonoco family, and I am personally proud of their longstanding commitment to serve our customers with both innovative and high-quality packaging products. We will work closely with Toppan to ensure a successful transition for our employees, customers and suppliers and wish the entire team all the best in the future.”

Toppan says the acquisition is “highly complementary,” and combines TFP’s robust sales network, customer base and product development capabilities in North and South America with Toppan’s global packaging business. The company notes that Sonoco’s TFP business serves customers in the food, retail and medical industries and provides a variety of complex packaging to value-added categories such as snacks, condiments, healthcare, prepared meals, fresh products, coffee and pet food.

Toppan says that on a pro forma standalone basis, TFP had revenue of approximately $1.3 billion in 2023.

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Propylene prices edged lower in China while remaining stable in Korea on Thursday, as per Polymerupdate.

On Thursday, CFR China propylene prices were assessed at the USD 840-850/mt levels, down USD (-5/mt) from Wednesday. An industry source in Asia on condition of anonymity informed a Polymerupdate team member, "Prices drop on the back of a weak regional buying momentum.

Meanwhile, FOB Korea propylene prices on Thursday were assessed at the USD 810-820/mt levels, unchanged from Wednesday's assessed levels.

In plant news, BASF-YPC is likely to shut its cracker in April 2025 for a maintenance turnaround. The exact date and duration of the shutdown could not be ascertained. Located in Jiangsu province, China, the cracker has a propylene production capacity of 400,000 mt/year.

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EPA advances risk evaluation for five chemicals under TSCA, including vinyl chloride, the organization said in a statement.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that it will formally designate five known or probable carcinogens as High-Priority Substances (HPS) that will undergo a risk evaluation under the nation’s chemical safety law, the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA): acetaldehyde, acrylonitrile, benzenamine, 4,4’-methylene bis(2-chloroaniline) (MBOCA) and vinyl chloride. EPA also announced the beginning of the 9- to 12-month statutory process to prioritize the next five chemicals under TSCA to determine whether to initiate risk evaluations on them: benzene, ethylbenzene, naphthalene, styrene and 4-tert-octylphenol.

“Today we begin another five chemical risk evaluations under our nation’s strengthened chemical safety law and start the yearlong process to initiate five more,” said Assistant Administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention Michal Freedhoff. “These risk evaluations will be used to determine how to protect people from harmful chemical exposures.”

EPA began the prioritization process for acetaldehyde, acrylonitrile, benzenamine, 4,4’-methylene bis(2-chloroaniline) (MBOCA) and vinyl chloride in the December 2023 announcement. Today’s final designation of each chemical for risk evaluation is the last step in the 9- to 12-monthlong statutory prioritization process.

Over the past year, EPA has continued to improve the prioritization process by investing in cutting-edge software to review more information earlier in prioritization. EPA has also implemented improvements to its systematic review approaches as recommended by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Chemicals (SACC) by incorporating additional data sources such as assessments published by other government agencies to identify potential hazards and exposures, clarifying terminology to increase transparency in the systematic review process, and presenting interactive literature inventory trees and evidence maps to better depict data sources containing potentially relevant information.

In a July 2024 announcement, EPA proposed to designate the five chemicals for risk evaluation. At that time, the agency made considerably more information about those chemicals publicly available a full year earlier in the process as compared to the first 30 chemicals to undergo risk evaluations under TSCA, giving the agency a head start on its work and giving the public earlier and better opportunities to provide input.

The agency will now begin risk evaluations for these chemical substances to determine whether they present an unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment, without consideration of costs or other non-risk factors, under the conditions of use. If at the end of the risk evaluation process EPA determines that a chemical presents an unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment, the agency must immediately start the risk management process to address the unreasonable risk.

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Russia's GDP growth is expected to reach 3.9%-4% in 2024, and the government and the Central Bank are planning a soft landing with 2%-2.5% growth in 2025, as per Interfax.

As reported, the Federal State Statistics Service estimated the GDP growth at 4.2% in 9M 2024, including 5.4% year-on-year in Q1 2024, 4.1% in Q2 2024, and 3.1% in Q3 2024.

The Central Bank forecasts a GDP growth of 3.5%-4% this year, while the Economic Development Ministry's forecast is 3.9%.

Forecasts of the Central Bank and the Economic Development Ministry for 2025 differ quite significantly.

The Central Bank raised the key rate from 19% to 21% in October, and confirmed its outlook for Russia's GDP growth in 2025 at only 0.5%-1.5%. Most analysts, polled by Interfax in December, are confident that, against the backdrop of high inflation, the Central Bank will keep raising the key rate to 23% at the Board of Directors meeting on December 20, and some experts do not even rule out its immediate increase to 25%.

The official forecast given by the Economic Development Ministry in September, which was included in the 2025 budget (the ministry based its forecast on expectations of a softer monetary policy at the end of 2024 and 2025), says the GDP will grow 2.5% in 2025. The current stringent monetary policy makes this forecast look quite optimistic.

A consensus forecast of analysts polled by Interfax in early December is a 1.5% GDP growth in Russia in 2025.

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Major northeast Asian oil exporters have mostly finalized their 2025 sales for 10-ppm sulfur diesel exports at lower levels from 2024, trade sources said, underscoring a bearish market outlook for a second straight year, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) cargoes from Taiwanese refiners CPC Corp. and Formosa Petrochemical Corp. were sold at premiums of between 20 cents and 40 cents a barrel to Singapore quotes to Western traders such as Vitol and TotalEnergies, while supply from South Korea's GS Caltex and SK Energy was sold at discounts between 10 cents and 20 cents a barrel, multiple sources told Reuters.

Japan's ENEOS sold 2025 cargoes at discounts of up to 30 cents per barrel, they added. This compares with premiums of between 50 cents and $1 per barrel for this year's term supplies, marking a second straight year of decline in term prices.

These companies typically do not comment on commercial deals. South Korean refiners have also slightly reduced 2025 ULSD term sales from 2024 due to lower prices, two of the traders said, although the volume could not be confirmed.

With lower term requirements, these refiners could end up offering more spot cargoes next year or cutting runs depending on the situation, one of them said.

South Korean diesel exports averaged 13.9 MMbbl per month between January and October this year, down from a monthly average of 16 MMbbl in the same period a year ago, government data showed.

Traders are not interested in paying up for term supply amid persistent worries about weak regional demand, with supplies likely to remain sufficient given capacity growth in China and India next year, one northeast Asian refinery source said.

Refineries in Asia are not even running at full steam yet and supplies are already more than enough for some regions in northeast Asia, another one of the sources said.

The lower term prices may lead to Asia's supply becoming the cheapest globally, allowing swing supplies from the Middle East and India to pivot more cargoes west and possibly opening up arbitrage opportunities for Asia-Pacific cargoes to Europe, two trade sources said.

Stricter sanctions on Russia that target more shipping vessels from Moscow's so-called shadow fleet could end up hindering the movement of some oil products and buyers may have to seek alternative sources.

Meanwhile, analysts are expecting some demand improvement in the West, which in turn may help buoy Asian refining margins.

Despite the year-on-year declines, 2025 term prices are still an improvement from this year's spot deal levels - which average at discounts of around $1 a barrel, Reuters records showed.

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