Phelan Green Group's USD2.6-B eMethanol project remains on schedule

Blair Phelan, Director of Development at Phelan Green Group, one of South Africa’s leading renewable energy developers, confirmed at a keynote address at the African Green H2 Summit in Cape Town, that the group’s landmark Saldanha H2 Project remains on schedule, on budget, and on target to meet its export objectives for this $2.6-B development, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

In a key development, Phelan announced that the primary export product will now be eMethanol, a derivative of H2, to meet immediate global demand from the maritime, and aviation sectors.

“This is about delivering what the market wants, now, and we have secured offtake agreements in Europe, for our exports,” said Phelan. After its three phase build up, the project will export 400,000 tpy of eMethanol to Europe, for a value of over €500m p.a., positioning South Africa as a key player in the global green fuels market.

Beyond its export value, the project will deliver significant socio-economic benefits for the region, with over 3,000 direct jobs to be created. This will provide a lasting benefit to the local economy and boost employment and skills development.

“This isn’t just a clean energy project - it’s a vital national economic development platform for South Africa,” said Blair Phelan.

With offtake agreements secured and the project on track, Phelan Green Group is now focused on moving into final construction and delivery mode. Mr. Phelan praised the outstanding South African Government program clarity and support for this project.

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China has approved a certain number of compliant rare earth export applications and will continue to strengthen the approval process for compliant requests, the spokesperson for the country’s Ministry of Commerce, He Yadong, said June 12.

Speaking at a regular press conference, he said that as a “responsible major country,” China had fully taken into account the legitimate needs and concerns of all countries in the civilian sector while carrying out reviews of export license applications for rare earth-related items in accordance with laws and regulations.

China imposed export controls on seven medium and heavy rare earth elements including samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutecium, scandium and yttrium in April.

This move has affected the global supply chain to some extent and led to price volatility, because it was challenging for other countries to form viable alternative supply chains within a short timeframe, industry watchers said.

China leads the world’s rare earth sector in terms of production and refining technologies and controls its rare earth supply through a quota system introduced in 2007.

The total mining and smelting output quota in 2024 hit 270,000 metric tons and 254,000 metric tons, up 5.9% and 4.2%, respectively.

China’s rare earth output accounted for about 69% of the world’s total in 2024, according to data released by the US Geological Survey.

China is also the largest exporter of rare earths across the world. In 2024, China exported about 8,900 metric tons of rare earth metals, 23,000 metric tons of rare earth oxide and 23,000 metric tons of rare earth compounds, according to statistics released by state-owned research agency Antaike.

Rare earths are a relatively abundant group of 17 elements, several of which are critical for the energy transition. Neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium are key to the production of the permanent magnets used in electric vehicles and wind turbines.

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Lotte Chemical and HD Hyundai Group are considering integrating some naphtha cracking facilities (NCC) in Daesan Petrochemical Complex in Chungnam, as per Chemweek.

Analysts say that restructuring at the level of the domestic petrochemical industry will begin in earnest to cope with the low-cost petrochemical offensive and global oversupply from China.

According to the investment bank (IB) and the business community on the 11th, Lotte Chemical and HD Hyundai Group are negotiating the integration of petrochemical facilities in Daesan, which each company owns. Currently, it is known that it has requested a large domestic accounting firm to set the corporate value of the joint venture with the petrochemical facility assets in Daesan Petrochemical Complex owned by each of the two companies. An official at the accounting firm said, "We will continue to work on asset efficiency, such as gradually closing some facilities and reducing production after the asset and corporate valuation." During the negotiations, a plan is being discussed to hand over the facilities owned by Lotte Chemical to HD Hyundai Chemical, and to integrate the facilities into a single corporation by investing additionally by HD Hyundai Group.

Currently, there are a total of four NCCs in operation at the Daesan Industrial Complex, including LG Chemical, Lotte Chemical, Hanwha Total Energy, and HD Hyundai Chemical.

The review of the restructuring is interpreted to reduce inventory losses and streamline operations amid the recent prolonged petrochemical recession, which has increased the risk of oversupply by NCC.

In particular, it is evaluated that the government-led restructuring of petrochemicals was delayed due to political risks, which eventually led to negotiations between individual companies. As various restructuring discussions are taking place inside and outside the national industrial complex, where petrochemical companies such as Daesan, Ulsan, and Yeosu are concentrated, it is expected that restructuring and consolidation between companies could accelerate in the future. A Lotte Chemical official said, "Nothing has been confirmed internally."

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BASF SE has started operations at its new hexamethylenediamine (HMD) plant in Chalampe, France, with the facility’s output to boost the company’s overall production capacity for the nylon feedstock to 260,000 metric tons per year, as per company.

The investment value of the project was not given. BASF is also in the “final stage” of expanding its polyamide 6.6 (nylon 6.6) production at Freiburg, Germany, it said on June 12. HMD is a precursor used in the production of nylon 6.6 polymers and coatings raw materials. Adiponitrile is a key raw material for the production of HMD.

The investment at Chalampe “underlines BASF’s strong commitment to chemical production in Europe and our determination to support regional growth,” said Stephan Kothrade, a member of BASF’s board of executive directors.

BASF announced in May it had signed an agreement with Domo Chemicals NV to become the sole owner of the companies’ Alsachimie nylon intermediates joint venture at Chalampe.

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Trade association Society of Chemical Manufacturers & Affiliates (SOCMA) said two specialty chemical producers, Omega Chemicals, Inc. and RBP Chemical Technology, have joined the group, as per Chemweek.

Omega is a custom manufacturer of textile, paper and personal care chemicals, while RBP provides chemicals for the printing, medical device and electronics markets.

Solvent recycler CleanPlanet Chemical has also joined SOCMA as a service provider.
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