Orion lowers guidance in preliminary results

Orion SA (Houston) has announced its third-quarter preliminary results and lowered its full-year 2025 adjusted EBITDA guidance. This is the third time this year Orion has lowered its adjusted EBITDA guidance, as per Chemweek.

Orion expects its third-quarter 2025 adjusted EBITDA will be about $55 million, pending any late accounting adjustments, and its full-year 2025 adjusted EBITDA is now expected to be in the $220 million-$235 million range, down from $270 million-$290 million. The lowering was due to weaker rubber volumes, inventory drawdown and an adverse specialty mix.

“Reflecting the continued weakness in Western tire industry manufacturing rates due to elevated imports, we have tactically opted to reduce our production levels, reflecting our intensified focus on free cash flow generation,” Orion CEO Corning Painter said. “We continue to believe the evolving global trade paradigm, including US tariff policy, will ultimately be a positive for our business with its inherently more regional footprint, but this has not been the case for 2025.”

“Considering the macroeconomic uncertainty, our strategic focus has shifted to navigating what many executives across the chemical industry expect could be a lower-for-longer industrial manufacturing backdrop,” Painter said.

The company will report its third-quarter results after market close Nov. 4.

mrchub.com

China's Xin Feng Ming will start operations at its new 3 million metric tons per year (MMt/y) purified terephthalic acid (PTA) line at Dushan, China, in the week of Oct. 20, as per Chemweek.

The company has yet to reply to a query sent by Platts, on Oct. 13, seeking confirmation for the information reported by the market participants.

Xin Feng Min had earlier delayed the startup of its new 3 MMt/y No. 4 PTA line at Dushan due to weak PTA margins.

The plant at Dushan has two older lines with a total production capacity of 5 MMt/y. The third PTA production line with a 3 MMt/y capacity began operations in December 2024.

mrchub.com

Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller and Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar held a working meeting on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Gas Forum, as per Interfax.

They "discussed current and emerging issues of cooperation in the gas sector," the Russian gas giant reported. "It was noted that reliable supplies of Russian gas to Turkish consumers make a substantial contribution to supporting the country's energy security," Gazprom said.

The company supplies gas to Turkey through the underwater Blue Stream and TurkStream pipelines across the Black Sea.

The contracts with state company Botas for the delivery of 16 billion cubic meters of gas per year through Blue Stream and 5.75 bcm through TurkStream expire in 2025. Agreements with some private Turkish importers also expire at the end of 2025 or beginning of 2026.

Speaking at the plenary meeting at the forum on Thursday, Bayraktar noted Turkey's investments in renewable energy and stressed the potential of wind, solar and nuclear energy.

Speaking about gas, Bayraktar noted the long-time reliable supplies from Russia, but said supply on the liquefied natural gas (LNG) market has been growing since 2016 and Turkey has started investing in LNG regasification infrastructure. The country has now quintupled its regasification capacity to 161 mcm per day.

The minister said earlier that gas from the United States is the second most attractive for Turkey in terms of price after gas from Turkmenistan.

mrchub.com

Gazprom and the government of Belarus signed a roadmap for cooperation in the period 2025-2030 on the sidelines of the Petersburg International Gas Forum, the Russian gas giant's press office said, as per Interfax.

Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller and Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Karankevich signed the document.

"The roadmap's purpose is to develop cooperation in the fuel, energy and industrial sectors, broadening the use of Belarusian manufactured products at Gazprom enterprises, promoting the production of modern machinery and equipment for the energy industry and increasing the level of technological cooperation," the company said.

Karankevich said earlier during a panel session at the forum that Belarus had forged close and constructive relations with Gazprom in various fields, from the development of the gas sector to manufacturing innovative import-substitution products. "Belarusian-Russian relations in the gas sector are key to strengthening the Union State's energy security," he said.

"Gazprom, with which we have a long-standing partnership of trust, provides reliable and uninterrupted supplies of natural gas to Belarus in the necessary volumes. Belarus, as a reliable partner, ensures the timely and complete fulfilment of obligations to supply this gas," Karankevich said.

mrchub.com

The Taiwan government has stated that private refineries are ready to stop purchasing Russian naphtha if the EU requests it, Reuters reports.

Taiwan's National Development Council Minister Gong Ming-hsin made this statement in an interview with Reuters.

The statement came after a group of non-governmental organizations, including the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), criticized the island's continued business relations with Russia. Despite Taiwan joining the United States and major Western allies in imposing sweeping sanctions against Russia in 2022, the country has not explicitly banned energy imports.

Therefore, although Taiwan's state-owned companies stopped importing Russian oil in 2023, there are no restrictions on private companies continuing to do so.

Specifically, the country's government, led by Minister of Economy Gong Ming-hsin, held discussions with Formosa Petrochemical, which continues to purchase Russian naphtha, as well as with representatives of the European Union, to gather their opinions.

"We can only discuss this with our private companies, and they are ready to comply. If the EU says there will be no more purchases next year, then our companies will no longer purchase them either," Gong Ming-hsin responded when asked whether Taiwan would stop purchasing naphtha from Russia.

Russian naphtha remains the cheapest feedstock for Formosa at a time when petrochemical producers are struggling with losses, but continued imports are drawing close attention from Ukraine's supporters.

"Formosa holds open bids for naphtha purchases through our tenders. Therefore, we don't buy it directly from Russia, but we select the lowest-priced offers on the open market, and Russian naphtha has always been competitive. Russian naphtha is cheaper than most naphthas, say, in the Middle East or India. However, for the October delivery, we didn't buy anything Russian because there were no offers," Formosa spokesman K. Yu. Lin told Reuters.

In the first nine months of 2025, Taiwan imported 75,000 barrels per day of Russian naphtha, compared to 71,000 barrels per day in 2024, according to shipping company Kpler. According to the calculations presented, Russia supplied Taiwan with USD 1.3 billion worth of oil over the past six months.

As previously reported, Formosa Plastics (USA) announced the commissioning of North America's largest horizontal polypropylene reactor at its Point Comfort, Texas, plant. The facility has an annual capacity of 550 million pounds (approximately 249,000 tons). The new unit is based on Japan Polypropylene (JPP) technology and can produce a wide range of resins, including homopolymers, random copolymers, and high-impact copolymers.

mrchub.com