ChemAnalyst

  Houston headquartered chemicals major and technology licensor, LyondellBasell in a recent announcement has revealed its intentions of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. For the execution of its devised targets, the company will first be focusing on strategies that could enable a reduction of 30% in scope 1 and scope 2 greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions by 2030. The target has been undertaken to comply with the goal of the Paris Agreement which has been devised to tackle climate change by completely eliminating GHG emissions by mid-centur The company’s action plans further constitute expanding its existing manufacturing footprint by exploiting hydrogen energy, carbon capture technology and storage, and electrification of feed crackers. The company is also looking for collaboration opportunities to develop cutting-edge technologies that could help establish decarbonized plant operations. Scope 1 emissions are sourced from company-owned and controlled resources and are re...

In a recent announcement made by the Biden administration in the US a new strategy was laid down for grappling with the widespread contamination from the toxic “forever chemicals”. The strategy aims to stop future contamination at its source. The plan for dealing with the chemicals known as Per and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) represents a stark contrast from the strategy which the Trump administration was following to deal with harmful chemicals. The Trump strategy struggled to reassure communities and legislators that it was proactively dealing with the problem. In the previous strategy chemical industry officials were placed in key regulatory positions and they were leaning more towards the industry requests. Most notably, there has been shift in the new plan as it makes aggressive use of powerful new authorities which the congress granted in 2016 for regulation of chemical manufacturers. Previously when the industry officials took office in key regulatory bodies, the admi...

The UK’s major oil refiner, Essar Oil, has planned to invest around USD 1 billion in building two new blue hydrogen production facilities at Standlow refinery in England. The company seeks approval for the same from Cheshire West and Chester council where the project’s planning application has been submitted. Post-approval, the company is targeting to initiate the construction of the two blue hydrogen plants by 2022 end and commence plant operations by the mid-2020s. This project is set to empower the UK’s low-carbon energy project ‘Hy-Net North West’ which will mark the country’s unique transition to net-zero. Blue hydrogen is produced from natural gas feedstocks through steam methane reforming or auto thermal reforming process that releases high amounts of carbon dioxide along with hydrogen gas. The emitted carbon dioxide is captured and stored underground thus eliminating the chances of the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Blue hydrogen has, therefore, gained the ti...

Spain-based energy and petrochemicals major Repsol S.A. and Portugal-based energy company, EDP Renewables (EDPR), have entered into a strategic partnership for driving the projects on renewable hydrogen energy in their respective countries. The companies have signed an agreement to develop hydrogen production facilities at Asturias and Basque in Spain, and Sines in Portugal. The Abono project in Spain, dedicated to developing a hydrogen valley in Asturias, will be headed by EDPR while Repsol will be supervising the Basque Hydrogen Corridor project in Spain that will require the installation of an industry-scale electrolyzer for hydrogen generation. In Sines, Portugal, the produced green hydrogen will be utilized by Repsol’s facilities operating in the same location, and EDPR will be taking care of energy supplies. The partnership lays the foundation for Repsol’s ambition to lead the green energy production in Europe by achieving a capacity of 552 MW by 2025 and 1.9 GW by 2030. Re...

  USA’s green hydrogen and carbon black producer, Monolith Materials, has signed a memorandum of understanding with the South Korean conglomerate company, SK Inc., on a joint venture to produce green hydrogen and carbon black in South Korea. Monolith Materials will provide its technological expertise in building the project and SK Inc. will look after the production, distribution, and sales.    Carbon black is produced as a side product from the turquoise hydrogen production technique which is a green production process involving pyrolysis of natural gas to produce hydrogen and solid-state carbon without releasing out gaseous greenhouse gases. The obtained solid carbon is processed into carbon-black that is widely used in the manufacturing of tyres ad mechanical rubber-based goods. SK Inc. is planning to establish a carbon-neutral economy at its production base under which it has further planned for utilizing carbon black in electric vehicles by first establishing the ...

North America’s leading manufacturer of expanded polystyrene, Epsilyte LLC, has raised the October prices of its expanded polystyrene grades by USD 110 per ton right after increasing the prices by the same amount in September. The company justifies its decision as a move to keep pace with the high supply chain costs and operational challenges arising from tight feedstock supply in the country. Polystyrene is a transparent thermoplastic formed from the polymerization of styrene monomers which is the downstream product of benzene. Expanded polystyrene conforms to the lightweight, rigid, white coloured solid foam product formed from the solid polystyrene beads through a suspension process performed in presence of a blowing agent. Expanded polystyrene is primarily used in food packaging, lightweight protective packaging, building insulations, toys, automotive and road safety applications. The USA has been witnessing a subdued supply of styrene and benzene feedstocks owing to the heavy d...

The US Department of Energy has chosen the Shell-led consortium to showcase the feasibility of a large-scale tank for the storage of liquid hydrogen at the export and import terminals. The Shell consortium will be investigating the storage capability and the cost competitiveness of the 20,000-100,000 cubic metres storage tanks at the international trading terminals. The project will receive a total of USD 12 million in funding, with the US Department of Energy investing USD 6 million and Shell and McDermott each contributing USD 3 million. USA-based Royal Dutch Shell, which is going to lead the project, is the world’s leading multinational oil and gas conglomerate that is actively investing in world-class green technologies and transforming its business to achieve sustainable production processes. The other consortium members include McDermott International, the University of Houston, NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre and the Florida-based GenH2. Each member of the consortium will be playin...

The EEC has proposed corrective measures against HDPE imports from Uzbekistan in the form of anti-dumping duty. The duty levied will be to the tune of 20.3% of the customs value for a period of five years. The investigations regarding HDPE dumping from Uzbekistan were initiated in July 2020. The investigations were initiated after an application was filed by TIAF and SIBUR holdings. As explained by the applicants, there was presence of dumped imports, and it was resulting in the damage to Eurasian Economic Union’s (EAEU) economy and that the HDPE was supplied to the EAEU territory by Uzbekistan at dumping prices that is the prices which were below the normal domestic costs in the republic of Uzbekistan. The major company producing HDPE in Uzbekistan is the Ustyurt Gas Chemical Complex (UGCC) with the annual production capacity of 386 Kilotons. The company produces High Density Polyethylene price under the license from Lotte chemical South Korea. EAEU is a free trade agreement tha...

Japan-based performance products major, Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, on October 1, announced its future investment rounding to USD 127 million on the expansion of the production capacity of polyester at its German conglomerate Mitsubishi Polyester Film Co., Ltd. (MFE) in Wiesbaden. The new polyester unit, which is set to reach completion towards the 2024 end, will be exhibiting an annual production capacity of 27,000 tons of polyester film. The new project follows the commissioning of a new production line of polyester in South Carolina, USA in 2018 and the latest venture in Jakarta, Indonesia, that is scheduled to start operating in 2022. The company enjoys a strong geographical positioning with production facilities installed in major countries that include Japan, China, Germany, and the United States. Polyester films, also known as Polyethylene Terephthalate films , are durable, lightweight, chemically resistant and thermally stable plastic films that serve many end-user appli...

Meghmani Finechem Limited has planned to set up its own Epichlorohydrin plant at the Chlor Alkali and Derivatives Complex, Dahej. The capacity of the plant is 50000 MT per annum which will operate by using TechnipFMC EPICEROL Technology.  This technology uses glycerin as a feedstock and is of great interest to downstream users for cost-effective production. The project is expected to generate a revenue of approximately INR 4.6 Billion per annum while investing a capital expenditure of INR 2.75 Billion. Meghmani Finechem will be the first to manufacture Epichlorohydrin in India and is expected to meet the growing demand of Epichlorohydrin in the market from the second quarter of 2021.  Epichlorohydrin Prices is an essential feedstock to produce epoxy resins, which is increasingly used in various applications including corrosion protection coatings in Industrial, automotive, packaging. It is also used in adhesives, elastomers, paper, and textile industry as sizing agents and ...

Toray group announced on Tuesday that the group had raised the production capacity of its renowned TOYOLAC Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) by setting up a new production facility in Prai Industrial Park, Penang, Malaysia. The new Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene plant in Malaysia has increased the Toray’s production capacity of ABS by 75,000 tonnes per year to 4,97,000 tonnes per year. The TOYOLAC product has diverse range of ABS products including transparent grades which offers anti-static, scratch and chemical prices resistance properties. In order to boost its sales in the key Chinese and Southeast Asia markets and in anticipation of the rising demand from Europe, US and India, Toray is looking forward towards raising its ABS production capacity further at Toray Plastics Malaysia. Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) is a thermoplastic copolymer containing Styrene, Butadiene, and Acrylonitrile. Products manufactured from ABS resin have properties such as colourabi...

France’s Arkema is set to build a polyamide 11 (PA11) plant at its site in Changshu, China in order to fulfil the growing demand for advanced bio-circular materials in Asia. The plant will be starting in the first quarter of 2023. Arkema revealed that the company will be producing Rislan polyamide 11 powders which are made from renewable castor beans. The polyamide 11 powder is used in engineering plastics which have applications in consumer goods, industrial, and aerospace industries. The location of the plant will be between the industrial cities of Shanghai and Nanjing. The overall cost of the plant will be around euros 450 million. This investment of Arkema is aimed at expanding polyamide 11 production in Asia. The current plant goes parallelly to another project of Arkema which includes a Polyamide 11 plant in Singapore which will be commencing production in 2022. The proposed expansions will increase the production capacity of Arkema’s PA 11 product by 50% which is centred...

The prices of Chlor Alkali products including Caustic Soda, Soda Ash, and Chlorine have been experiencing high price rise this year. The prices of Caustic Soda in October have reached $210 per tonne in the Asian markets which is almost 160% high as compared to prices in the mid of the year. Similarly, the prices of light Soda Ash have reached an alarming of $489 per tonne which is almost $198 higher than prices in the mid of the year. The reasons for high prices is tight supply and firm demand. The supply has been tight in China due to the impact of the control policy. The companies have been stopping production or are working at lower operating rates. Additionally, the operating rates have been affected by the environmental protection inspections, and recent power outages in several factories. The demand has been bullish from various sectors in such as construction and cleaning both of which are reviving from the shock of coronavirus pandemic. The demand is particularly high in c...

The policymakers in India are strategizing to uphold clean fuel alternatives by tightening laws on carbon emissions in view to achieve 30-35% declined emissions by 2030, that complies with India’s target conceived under the Paris Climate Agreement. The transport minister, Nitin Gadkari confirmed the government’s intent to stick to its 2022 mark for implementing Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (CAFÉ) regulations that would serve as an impetus for the automobile sector to embrace clean fuel technologies . Under the devised strategies, India will be gradually reducing its heavy dependency (almost 70%) on imported fossil fuels and fulfilling its fuel requirements through indigenous, economical, and clean fuels like biofuels, hydrogen fuel cells, ethanol blends and hybrid electric vehicles. As a first step towards its plan, India is soon to bring into effect a mandatory rule for cars to bear flexible-fuel engines for enabling compatibility to run on ethanol blends. Elaborating on the to...

  Isopropyl Alcohol Prices (IPA) is experiencing an oversupply situation in the global markets, the supply is particularly high in the Asian markets with the imports rising exponentially in countries including India which has also initiated anti-dumping duty probe against several Asian countries for surge in IPA imports. IPA is produced via two methods which include the Acetone route and the Propylene route. The demand of Phenol has been increasing for the past couple of months due to the reviving construction sector globally. As Acetone is obtained as a by product during the production of Phenol, the supply of Acetone also increased in the market which has caused the prices of Acetone to fall sharply for the last couple of months. The lower prices for Acetone has given a boost to the Acetone based IPA production and countries which have more Propylene based IPA production domestically have been facing reduced margins for IPA producers. In this regard India has initiated anti-d...

 A major disruption in China’s power supply has led to a sharp increase in the prices of chemicals in Asia as the power outage in the chemical major has affected 25% of chemical production in Asia. The plants of chemicals like Chlor Alkali, Fumaric Acid Prices etc. have been impacted following which there has been a price hike of almost 5-40% in several basic chemicals in the last 15 days. The power outages in the provinces of Jilin, Liaoning and Heilongjiang were caused by power rationing during peak hours. The rationing began on Thursday amid coal shortages and took place without advanced warning. Major factories including United Phosphorus Limited (UPL) have shut down production because of the outage problem. This has led the prices of yellow phosphorous soaring and caused severe shortage of raw materials for products like glyphosate, glufosinate and oyrethroids. These products are produced by companies including UPL, Bayer CropScience, and Heranba Industries. China is the...

  Epichlorohydrin prices rose to around $3261 per tonne in September end which were a 45% increase from the price levels of September starting. The prices have again started to fall in the first week of October with the prices reaching to around $3250 per tonne on September 4. The reason for price fluctuation has been prices of the raw materials and fluctuating downstream demand. The prices of raw glycerin were high in the beginning of September with some of the plants shutting down for maintenance tightening the spot supply. The prices of Propylene, another raw material have also been fluctuating. The prices of Propylene experienced rise in September end which caused the prices of Epichlorohydrin to skyrocket as compared to September beginning. The prices of Propylene were at around $1231 per tonne in September end which was a 3.6% increase as compared to prices on September 1. The price fluctuation in Epichlorohydrin has also affected to prices of the downstream Epoxy Resin ...

The outflow of naphtha from Europe to Asia has tumbled continuously for the third month with September loadings reaching 11-months low. The shipment loadings of 1.215 metric tonnes naphtha for the September month was lower than the August loadings of 1.525 metric tonnes, which was again down from the July loadings that stood at 1.64 million tonnes. On the contrary, the June loadings of 1.8 million tonnes had been a two-year high. The month-on-month reduction of 20% in the loadings have primarily been due to the tight naphtha supplies in the European region owing to very low domestic production and limited influx from the USA amidst the firm demand from the region’s petrochemical downstream. Additionally, the USA, which is the major source of naphtha feedstock provider to Europe, has increased its arbitrage with Asia on the prospects of better netbacks. Meanwhile, the demand for naphtha in Asia has grown weak since August owing to the scheduled turnaround of the Asian petrochemical c...

China government’s new directive towards slashing down energy consumption is giving a tough time to its chemical manufacturers and suppliers. The Chinese government has recently imposed orders to reduce energy consumption in some of its provinces (including Jiangsu, Yunnan and Guangxi) holding a large chunk of the petrochemical production units that overshot their energy limit in the first half of 2021. Yunnan province that accounts for 40-45% of total domestic production has closed its 10% of the production facilities till December. China’s dual-energy control target that includes reaching carbon peaking by 2030 and attaining carbon neutralization by 2060, along with its current state of turmoil arising from the country’s unmet energy demand due to soaring natural gas prices and depleting domestic coal reserves, have resulted in the government’s action for saving energy. The government has plans to extend the forced cut down of energy consumption to other regions as well. However, ...