ChemAnalyst

Bisphenol A prices in China fell the past week with the prices falling to a low of $3617 per ton which is a $433 down from the levels before September. The declining trend is mainly triggered by two reasons that include bearish demand and low downstream market sentiment. The demand for Bisphenol A has been weak in Asia because of increasing environmental regulations regarding the consumption limits of Bisphenol A and usage of substitute materials such as Bisphenol S and Bisphenol F. The overall demand has also been weak from Europe where Bisphenol A is expected to be completely replaced by Bisphenol S. The demand from the downstream Polycarbonate (PC) has also been less due to low market sentiment. Most of the merchants in the PC market are in a wait and see mode. Bisphenol A is a colorless crystalline solid belonging to the family of organic compounds. It is used primarily as a strengthener in polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins. The major applications of Bisphenol A inclu...

Hengli Petrochemical Co. Ltd. and Asia’s largest oil and natural gas producer as well as the subsidiary of China’s state-owned CNPC, PetroChina Co. Ltd. get possession of 60% of the total reserve oil offered in the first state auction held on September 24. A total of 4.43 million barrels of crude oil were sold to these two petrochemical majors in the first phase of the auction conducted by the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration, which lasted only an hour. PetroChina bought a cargo each of 951,137 barrels of Qatar Marine and 1.1 million barrels of U.K. Forties crude that was priced at USD 65 per barrel. On the other hand, Hengli procured a cargo of 1.79 million barrels of Oman at USD 65 per barrel and another cargo of 592,031 barrels of Upper Zakum crude at a price of USD 70.50 per barrel. However, no bids were received for the sale of 2.95 million barrels of Murban crude, which is the largest chunk of the offered reserves. Crude oil Pricing is an unrefined petroleum...

ndian government premier research institute, CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory , has joined hands with India’s multinational conglomerate company Reliance Industries and other Indian companies to recycle Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) wastes generated during the COVID19 phase. The adjoining parties have obtained breakthrough results in the pilot-scale project that shows the capability of transforming PPE suits to easily processable granules and pellets form. These recycled pellets are capable of exploitation in high-performance automotive parts and non-food packaging. PPE that includes bodysuits, gloves, face shields, masks, shoe covers, and headcovers, are largely produced from polypropylene plastic and have the capability to protect a person wearing them from the risk of contracting an infection. India has witnessed a significant rise in the demand for polypropylene single-use plastics for making PPE used by health professionals, and by most of the population in offices and hous...

Vitamin C prices in India take a steep rise in the second week of September after showing a gradual rising trend throughout the year. India has been witnessing an unrelenting growth in Vitamin C prices that rose from USD 6.88/kg in May to USD 7.02/kg in June, USD 7.11/kg in July, and USD 7.14/kg in August. In September, the prices showed an abrupt change that mounted to USD 8.02/kg.   The prolonged surging costs of Vitamin C have been impelled by the crunch of shipment containers at the ports resulting in severe freight congestion issues. The resulting freight charges have gone up at double and triple rates over the last few weeks which has created havoc among the domestic traders who are turning their heads to the government in the hope to see some respite. Vitamin C (also known as ascorbic acid) is a vital nutrient with antioxidant properties. It is required in human diets to fulfil the absorption of iron, boost immunity and aid in the healing process. Its end-user industri...

Yara International, the world’s largest fertilizer producer, has stepped forward to the farmers’ aid amid low supplies of fertilizers (such as ammonium nitrate and calcium ammonium nitrate) in the UK and the rest of Europe following major plant shutdowns and curtailed plant operations. As per the statement issued by the company’s officials, Yara will be trading an adequate amount of ammonia from its production plants at Trinidad, United States and Australia to the UK in order to maintain the undisrupted availability of Ammonia feedstocks to the fertilizer production facilities in the country. This decision has been taken when fears spread in the fertilizer market and agricultural sector after CF Industries, another fertilizer giant with accountability of 40% of UK’s fertilizer production had to shut down its plant operations at Billingham and Ince facilities due to scanty natural gas supplies. UK has been going through natural gas crises owing to its spiralling rates resulting fro...

Shell Canada has signed an MoU with Mitsubishi Corporation to build a low-carbon hydrogen (called the blue hydrogen) production unit near Edmonton, Canada. As per the agreement, Mitsubishi will be building a world-class blue Hydrogen Prices facility that will house Shell’s carbon capture and storage technology from the proposed Polaris CCS project. The facility will use natural gas feedstocks abundantly available in Edmonton region in assistance with carbon capture and storage technology to produce blue hydrogen. The facility, in the first phase of its functioning, will exhibit a capacity of 165 KTPA of hydrogen, that will be upgraded in the proceeding phases. Mitsubishi plans to export the produced hydrogen to the Japanese market to enable the production of clean energy in that region. Hydrogen with its potential for zero-emission of greenhouse gases is viewed as the future fuel for the automobile sector. As per ChemAnalyst , hydrogen demand has witnessed an exponential rise in t...

The supply of Epichlorohydrin Prices in Asia has been tight since the suspected suspension of Jiangsu Haixing due to carbon emissions on the back of ongoing environmental protection inspections in China. This has led to a sharp drop in market supply in Asia as China manufactures almost 30% of world’s Epichlorohydrin. The demand from the downstream epoxy resin has been firm in Asia which has led to a price rise of almost 60% in mid-September from the start of the year with the prices at around $3086 per tonne in China. The demand from India has also been high owing to the reviving construction sector which is also further exacerbated the prices. The ongoing environmental inspections in the five provinces of China including Jilin, Shandong, Hubei, Guangdong, Sichuan have resulted in companies lowering their operating rates and shutting down operations. Several independent refineries in Shandong have reduced their operating rates by as much as 40%. Two of the refineries having combin...

Uzbekistan’s Uz-Kor Gas Chemical declared a temporary shutdown of its High Density Polyethene price (HDPE) and Polypropylene Pricing (PP) facilities on September 6. The shutdown planned for maintenance purposes will stretch for three weeks. The facilities exhibit the production capacities of 386 KTPA and 80 KTPA for HDPE and PP, respectively. Uz-Kor is a USD 4 billion valued collaborative venture between National Holding Company Uzbekneftegaz and the consortium of Korean companies - Kogaz, Lotte Group and STX Energy, dedicated to the manufacturing and supply of HDPE and PP. PP is a thermoplastic polymer that has wide applications in the packaging, construction, electronics and automotive sectors. HDPE is also a form of thermoplastic polymer (composed of ethylene monomeric units) produced from petroleum through the cracking process. HDPE is typically translucent, UV-resistant, and easily processable that warrants its extensive applications in making plastic bottles, toys, chemical...

Polyamide 66 (PA 66) prices reached nearly two-year high in May 2021 with the prices at $4371 per tonne due to the deep freeze in the USA which curtailed feedstock supplies. The prices since then have been declining gradually. The prices were $4062 per tonne in July which further declined to $3753 per tonne in August and the prices have further reduced to $3642 per tonne in mid-September. Moreover, the spread between the Polyamide 66 and feedstock Adipic Acid prices has been narrowing down with the prices of Adipic Acid rising gradually in July-September due to supply shortages. As the spread further narrows down in the upcoming months, the Prices of Polyamide 66 are expected to stabilize, settling down to price levels before May which stood at $3276 per tonne. PA 66 is a product of polycondensation of Adipic Acid and Hexamethylenediamine. It has high mechanical strength, high hardness, deformation stability, and heat resistance. It also possesses high climate and chemical resis...

Orlando headquartered PureCycle Technologies Inc. has been aggressively investing to set up its plastic recycling plants at different geographical locations. PureCycle Technologies is a start-up company that aims to contribute to a sustainable future through its cutting-edge waste-to-Polypropylene technology that uses feedstocks in the form of plastic wastes which are otherwise dumped into landfills. PureCycle’s patented recycling process, developed by the renowned company Proctor & Gamble, is a competent technology that produces high purity recycled Polypropylene pricing by successfully removing all the traces of colour, odour and any kind of contaminants from the raw materials. The company, on its mission to establish 50 recycling plants in a decade (about which it had announced in June, this year), has already built its flagship Polypropylene recycling plant at Ironton, Ohio. This plant which is set to commence in late 2022 will be operating to yield Polypropylene pellets fr...

China announced to emancipate crude oil from its strategic reserves with the intention to limit the inflating oil prices in the country. The decision comes as a relief amidst the incessantly rising energy costs that covers crude oil, natural gas, and coal. The repercussions of rising energy prices have hit some Chinese provinces where factories have reduced their plant operations due to electricity supply outages. The National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration confirmed to make state oil reserves available to select chemicals and refinery companies through its first-ever public auction that will be conducted phase-wise. Crude Oil Price is a naturally occurring hydrocarbon rich fuel that is present in underground reservoirs and extracted through the drilling process. CrudeOil Pricing is an extremely important fuel source that underpins industrial growth and modern living by providing fuel to the transportation sector, supplying energy for electricity generation, and providing...

South Korea’s leading petrochemicals manufacturer, SK Global Chemical has rebranded itself as SK Geo Centric with effect from September 01, 2021, in an attempt to highlight its strategical inclination towards plastic recycling and production of eco-friendly chemicals. The company revealed its vision of developing into the world’s leading oilfield corporation backed by the establishment to transform plastic back into oil. For implementing its goals, the company has strategized to revamp its existing businesses and become a completely Green Petrochemical Manufacturer in the future. SK Geo Centric has planned an investment of around USD 4.3 billion in the domestic and international markets towards its plastic recycling facilities and expansion of its green materials segment. The company’s initial plan constitutes the commissioning of a waste plastic processing unit with a capacity of 900 KTPA, that matches the company’s annual plastic production volume. The proposed timeline for the i...

Johnson Matthey, a globally acknowledged name for providing cutting-edge technological solutions, and NextChem’s subsidiary unit MyRechemical, allocated to carry on operations in the field of waste-to chemicals technologies, have teamed up together for commercially developing a novel ‘waste-to-methanol’ technology. As the name suggests, this technology will make use of dry non-recyclable wastes, that are usually subjected to incineration or dumped into landfills, to undergo chemical transformation into syngas that will be used as raw material to produce methanol. Methanol Prices is a versatile organic solvent that has multitudinous applications in consumer products like cosmetics, furniture, carpeting, etc., and industries like paints and coatings, construction, automotive. Methanol generated from this technology can typically be used to produce low carbon additives for blending of fuels in automotive, and as an intermediate for the production of chemicals like formaldehyde, adhesiv...

Dushanzi Petrochemical Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of China’s oil and gas producing company, Petro China has started operation at its newly commissioned Ethylene plant in Korla , Xinjiang. The ethylene facility is a USD 1.24 billion capital project that began construction in April 2019. The plant, exhibiting the total installed capacity of 600 KTPA ethylene, is said to be outfitted with cutting-edge process technology that is capable of emitting oxynitrides sufficiently lower than the permissible limit and facilitates recycling of wastewater to up to 95% efficiency. Ethylene, obtained from the thermal cracking of oil and natural gas feedstocks, is the most vital petrochemical that acts as a building block for the burgeoning of the plastics industry. Ethylene is widely used as a raw material to produce industrially important chemicals, the most notable being Polyethene and Polyethene Terephthalate majorly used in the production of household commodities and in the packaging industry. Ethylen...

Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) has signed a USD 6 billion investment pact with the Chinese company Fujian Petrochemical Industrial Group Company (FJPEC) for building a major petrochemical facility at Gulei Industrial Park in Zhangzhou. The plan came into effect after SABIC signed an MOU with the Fujian provincial government in September 2018 to construct a petrochemical complex in south-eastern China. The Zhangzhou petrochemical complex is proposed to be equipped with the state-of-the-art mixed feed steam cracker designed to render ethylene production of 1500 KTPA. The complex will also boast key downstream process technologies comprising of one Mono Ethylene glycol price (MEG) production unit, two polypropylene units, two polyethylene units, and one polycarbonate unit. SABIC is a subsidiary company of the state-owned Saudi Aramco that is focussed on the manufacture of polymers, petrochemicals , fertilizers and speciality chemicals. Ranking among the largest producers ...

The supply of Chlor Alkali products is short in South America which is has caused subsequent price rise for Caustic Soda price and Chlorine in countries like Argentina, Brazil, and Columbia. Chlorine Prices have risen to almost 20% in South America in the past month. With most of the demand met through the imports from North America, the supply crunch in USA has triggered the present situation. OxyChem, the chemical division of Occidental Petroleum has declared force majeure on Chlorine and Caustic Soda in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida’s impact on Louisiana. This had an impact on the supply of Chlorine and Caustic Soda in the USA. Apart from companies like OxyChem, several other companies have closed down operations post-Ida. Chlorine is a product of the chlor alkali process and the demand for chlorine has been rising at a healthy rate due to increase in the demand of water treatment, and Poly vinyl Chloride pricing (PVC) and Ethylene Di Chloride (EDC). The global demand for c...

Asia’s oil demand is expected to increase on the back of growing population and rising income levels. But as most of the oil supply is met through imports and with fossil fuel related global problems arising including climate change, countries in Asia are looking towards diversifying their fuel resources to greater use of Biofuel. According to report by Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), the demand for Bioethanol in Asia and East Asia will reach nearly 36 million tonnes by 2035. This demand will come from both the energy as well as automobile sector. In order to increase the usage of Bioethanol various countries are looking forwards towards increasing the consumption of Bioethanol both in the energy as well as the automotive sector. Recently, India’s Union minister Nitin Gadkari said that the government will make it mandatory for auto manufacturers to offer vehicles running 100% on Biofuels in the next six months. In a similar move, China had earlier rele...