Grupa Azoty, Orlen extend cooperation talks focused on PDH/PP project in Poland

Grupa Azoty has signed a cooperation agreement with Orlen SA, Hyundai Engineering Co., LTD., and Korean Overseas Infrastructure & Urban Development Corporation, said the company.

New agreement extends talks on potential collaboration, transactions between the Polish firms in polymers sector, based mainly around Azoty’s new polyolefins complex at Police.

This agreement resolved some of the disputes between Grupa Azoty and Orlen regarding the Polimery Police plant. Under the agreement, which is valid until March 31, 2025, Grupa Azoty Polyolefins and Hyundai Engineering Co. undertook to perform the contract for the construction of the plant (EPC contract), and Hyundai agreed to defer payments on invoices issued or to be issued during the term of the agreement. The validity period of the performance guarantees specified in the agreement was also extended.

We remind, Orlen SA has terminated the implementation of its largest petrochemical project Olefin III. The decision was approved by the company's Supervisory Board on 11 December 2024. The project became unprofitable due to under-investment, under-estimated capital expenditure and incorrect assessment of infrastructure and costs, which increased its cost five to six times to 45-51 billion zlotys (USD11-12 billion).

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The U.S. recycling rate for polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles has increased sharply in 2023, leading to the highest rPET utilization rate in 30 years, according to a report from NAPCOR (National Association for PET Container Resources).

The 2023 PET Recycling Report released by NAPCOR (National Association for PET Container Resources) shows that one in three PET bottles (33%) were recycled in 2023, up 4% from 29% in 2022.

The study notes that the increase in collection to the highest level since 1996 was the result of a decrease in the number of PET bottles available for recycling, as well as an increase in the number of PET bottles actually recycled year on year.

A total of 890,000 tonnes (1.962 billion pounds) of PET bottles were collected for recycling in 2023, up 2.7% from 2022. However, the volume of PET bottles available for recycling in 2023 decreased to 2.7 million tonnes (5.95 billion pounds), down 9.8% from 2022 levels.

“NAPCOR’s 2023 PET Recycling Report shows that while fewer PET bottles were produced in the U.S., more were recycled in 2023, resulting in higher recovery rates. When manufacturers, consumers, retailers, and recyclers work together, it ensures that PET bottles are collected and recycled, and our planet benefits,” NAPCOR Executive Director Laura Stewart said in a statement.

According to NAPCOR, less PET was shipped to non-food bottle applications. Therefore, less rPET was shipped to non-food applications.

At the same time, imports of all virgin PET grades were down 12.1% compared to 2022. However, PET bottle-grade imports were down even more, at 14.5%.

It is noted that a combination of regulatory requirements and brands’ desire to use more recycled material has contributed to the increase in the use of rPET in new products.

In 2023, a total of 438,000 tonnes (966 million pounds) of rPET was recycled into new PET bottles, an increase of 11% over 2022. This represents 59% of the bottle-to-bottle PET use rate, a new record and higher than the previous high of 54% in 2022.

NAPCOR also noted in its annual review that 2023 was a record year for all of North America. The United States, Canada, and Mexico combined achieved a 41.3% recycling rate for PET bottles.

At the same time, the average recycled PET content in bottles produced in the United States in 2023 was 16.2%, up 3% from the 13.2% achieved in 2022.

It was previously reported that in Germany, the share of recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in beverage bottle blanks increased significantly, from 44.8% in 2021 to 51.2% in 2023. This means that the share of recycled raw materials exceeded the share of virgin material for the first time. Compared to 2012, this is an increase of 27%.

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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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