Petrochemical Makers Research Articles

Borealis charters tanker for feedstocks

The petrochemical maker Borealis has signed a long-term charter agreement with IINO Kaiun Kaisha for the Oceanus Aurora , classified as a very large gas carrier vessel. The ship will carry propane and butane from North America to Borealis’s ethylene crackers and propane dehydrogenation plants in Kallo, Belgium; Stenungsund, Sweden; and Porvoo, Finland. The vessel will be powered by low sulfur fuels and liquefied petroleum gas. It will eventually also be equipped with rotor sails.

Control of Brazil’s Braskem may change

Novonor says it is evaluating a proposal from Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and the private equity firm Apollo Global Management to acquire its controlling stake in the Brazilian petrochemical maker Braskem. Novonor, a Brazilian engineering and construction conglomerate formerly known as Odebrecht, owns 38.3% of Braskem’s total shares and 50.1% of its voting stock. The offer would potentially value Novonor’s stake at approximately $2.9 billion. The Brazilian state oil company Petrobras owns 36.1% of Braskem’s shares and 47.0% of its voting stock. Braskem, Latin America’s largest petrochemical maker, generated sales of $18.7 billion last year. It operates four ethylene complexes in Brazil. It also has a polyethylene joint venture in Mexico and a large US polypropylene business. Novonor faces big fines, including $2.6 billion from the US Department of Justice, for its involvement in a Brazilian corruption scandal. It has been looking to sell its Braskem stake for

C&EN’s top 50 US chemical producers

Despite headwinds like the war in Europe, high inflation, and the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the US chemical industry made it out of 2022 in relatively good shape. That is one interpretation of the results of C&EN’s new survey of the top 50 US chemical producers, which is based on these firms’ financial results for 2022. These 50 chemical makers posted combined sales of $376.7 billion, an 11.4% increase from a year ago and a new record for the annual survey. Only six firms posted a sales decline. But for the 43 firms that disclose profit figures, combined chemical operating profits fell 4.8%, to $55.2 billion. Sixteen firms posted an earnings decline. One company, Trinseo, posted a loss. Many of those that reported reduced profits—Dow, ExxonMobil, LyondellBasell Industries, and Westlake—are large petrochemical makers. The petrochemical industry built a lot of capacity in recent years, and the sector is

Saudi Aramco plans oil-to-chemicals units

Two affiliates of the Saudi Arabian oil giant Saudi Aramco are planning crude oil-to-chemicals projects. The South Korean refiner and petrochemical maker S-Oil, majority owned by Aramco, will spend $7 billion on a complex in Ulsan, South Korea. It will use Aramco’s oil-to-chemicals technology and have the capacity to make 3.2 million metric tons per year of petrochemicals, plus polymer derivatives. Work is expected to be completed in 2026. The Saudi chemical maker Sabic, also majority owned by Aramco, says it will study building an oil-to-chemicals complex in Ras Al-Khair, Saudi Arabia.

The chemical industry’s new green deals

When the petrochemical maker LyondellBasell Industries announced in April that it would close its century-old refinery in Houston by the end of 2023, the news was hardly a surprise. The facility, which processes heavy imported crude oil to make fuels and aromatics, had lost money for the past 3 years. LyondellBasell had been looking to sell it since September to no avail. What was unusual about the announcement was then–interim CEO Ken Lane’s declaration in a press release that shutting the unit “advances the Company’s decarbonization goals.” The refinery accounts for nearly 15% of LyondellBasell’s emissions from industrial processes and purchased energy. In a conference call later that month, Lane added that the 300-hectare site would be ideal for Lyondell to repurpose for sustainability initiatives. The company has been piloting a pyrolysis process that breaks down postconsumer plastics into petrochemical feedstocks, and the Houston refinery has hydrotreaters that can aid

ExxonMobil plunges into plastics recycling

Chemical recycling of plastic is getting more support from a major petrochemical maker. ExxonMobil has announced that it will build a recycling plant at its complex at Baytown, Texas, and deploy the technology at its sites around the world over the next 5 years. The plant, scheduled to start up by the end of 2022, will use ExxonMobil technology to process 30,000 metric tons (t) of plastic waste per year into a feedstock that the firm can turn into chemicals again. Exxon isn’t disclosing technical details about its process, which it tested in Baytown earlier this year and has so far used to recycle 1,000 t of plastic waste. The technology involves “taking sorted plastic waste directly into our existing facilities and process units,” a spokesperson writes in an email. “By leveraging our integration, we can skip some of the steps of other advanced recycling processes.” Other plastics makers, including

Chemical earnings up sharply in second quarter

The second quarter was an enormous one for chemical producers, with the companies C&EN tracks posting double-digit gains in sales and in many cases triple-digit jumps in earnings versus a year earlier. Of course, the second quarter of 2020 was the period most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Governments in Asia, Europe, and the Americas instituted lockdowns in February and March last year to stem the spread of the virus. Stores closed, construction was halted, and automobile plants idled—all depressing demand for chemical products. For chemical companies, it was the worst quarter in decades . The industry appears to be putting those days behind it. For instance, sales doubled and profits rose eightfold in the second quarter at petrochemical maker LyondellBasell. The world’s largest chemical maker, BASF, saw its results rebound. “We achieved volumes growth and price increases across all regions and all segments compared with the second quarter of

2 coating resin firms change hands

Making resins for industrial coatings is a generally sleepy business, but two large acquisitions are livening the field up. PTT Global Chemical has agreed to purchase the industrial coating resin producer Allnex from the private equity firm Advent International for $4.8 billion. And the private equity firm Lone Star Funds will buy the resin producer AOC from fellow private equity firm CVC Capital Partners and minority owner DSM. Based in Frankfurt, Germany, Allnex has annual sales of about $2.4 billion, as well as 4,000 employees, 33 manufacturing sites, and 23 research and technology facilities. It makes a range of industrial coating polymers and additives, including powder resins, waterborne resins, energy-curable resins, cross-linking resins, and additives for use on substrates such as wood, metal, and plastic. PTT, a Thailand-based petrochemical maker, says it will invest in Allnex to develop novel resins, including those based on sustainable technologies. Under its new owners,

Brightmark will build second pyrolysis plant

Brightmark plans to spend $680 million on a plant in Macon-Bibb County, Georgia, that will convert waste plastic into waxes and liquid hydrocarbons. The plant, which Brightmark says will be the largest of its kind in the world, will use a pyrolysis process to break down 400,000 metric tons of waste plastic per year into 242 million L of low-sulfur diesel and naphtha and 75 million L of wax. It is four times the size of a similar plant the company will complete in Ashley, Indiana, later this year. The Georgia plant will process a range of plastics—including film and other products that aren’t recycled conventionally—from all over the Southeast. Brightmark CEO Bob Powell says much of the plant’s output will be sold to petrochemical makers that will process the feedstock into new plastics. “You’re going to find, if not all, a very high majority of the outputs being circular

Pipelines proposed for CO2 capture, transport

Some oil and gas firms are leveraging their expertise in handling CO 2 to create a new crop of customers based on carbon capture equipment and services. The pipeline company Kinder Morgan formed a New Energy Transition Ventures division in mid-March that will invest in carbon capture and sequestration as well as in hydrogen production and renewable energy. Kinder Morgan sells CO 2 on a billion-dollar scale annually, with almost all of it coming from underground deposits and being used for enhanced oil recovery . “Now we’re looking to invest upstream in the form of carbon capture,” group president Jesse Arenivas told Bloomberg . Separately, the fuel and petrochemical maker Valero is planning a 2,000 km network of liquid CO 2 pipelines in Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Illinois. The pipelines are intended to bring CO 2 from ethanol makers and other industrial sources in the Midwest to sequestration

Low-carbon processes advance in Europe

Three recent initiatives demonstrate the diverse methods chemical companies are exploring to reduce the carbon footprint of the products they make in Europe. DSM and Neste have formed a partnership to replace a “significant” portion of the fossil fuel used to make some of DSM’s polymers with feedstock Neste derives from waste plastics, oils, and fats. The partners aim to substitute several thousand metric tons (t) of feedstock with fossil-derived feedstock in the near term. The chemically recycled and biobased materials used will be certified by ISCC, an international sustainability certification system for feedstocks. The partners say the initiative is a response to consumer demand for more sustainable and circular products. DSM plans to offer versions of its full range of polymers made using sustainable feedstock by 2030. Separately, the catalyst firm Haldor Topsoe and the petrochemical maker Braskem say they have achieved demonstration-scale production of biobased ethylene glycol in

Hurricane Laura spares chemical industry

With one notable exception, the chemical industry escaped major damage from Hurricane Laura, which hit southwest Louisiana with 150-mile-per-hour winds Aug. 27. But analysts say the lack of power and raw materials will keep many facilities off-line for weeks to come. The exception is a BioLab chemical plant in Westlake, which caught fire the morning Laura hit. The facility manufactures trichloroisocyanuric acid, a pool-sanitizing chemical, using chlorine gas produced by a nearby firm. BioLab’s parent company says the fire was brought under control by the afternoon of the following day. The US Chemical Safety Board is investigating. In nearby Lake Charles, the petrochemical maker Sasol says process equipment at its facility was unharmed, but high winds damaged cooling towers and knocked out high-voltage lines. Restarting the complex will require resumed supply of electricity, industrial gases, and petrochemical feedstocks, according to the firm. W. R. Grace says its catalyst plant in

Void’s lighter plastics get funding

Void Technologies, a British spin-off from Kimberly-Clark, has raised more than $7 million in a financing round led by the venture capital arm of the Saudi petrochemical maker Sabic and Capricorn P...

Pandemic hits chemical earnings

The first quarter of earnings to be impacted by the novel coronavirus is on the books. A few US companies—petrochemical makers and others tied to heavy manufacturing—are already stinging from the s...

Petrochemical makers look ahead to an uncertain decade

The US petrochemical industry’s gilded decade is drawing to a close. Ten years ago, cheap natural gas–derived ethane started to flow to chemical makers from hydraulically fractured shale formations...

Business Roundup

BUSINESS Business Roundup ShareShare onFacebookTwitterWechatLinked InRedditEmail C&EN, 2020, 98 (9), p 25March 9, 2020Cite this:C&EN 98, 9, 25AbstractSabic is increasing its stake in the Swiss specialty chemical company Clariant to 31.5% from nearly 25%, pending regulatory approval. The Saudi petrochemical maker says the purchase is meant to boost its position in specialties. Inpria has raised $31 million in series C funding from investors including JSR, Air Liquide, and TSMC Partners. The Oregon-based firm is developing tin oxide photoresists intended to enable extreme-ultraviolet-light lithography for semiconductor manufacturing. Advion, a maker of mass spectrometry and chromatography devices, will merge with Interchim, a maker of chromatography instruments and consumables. The two firms had worked together on a system that combines an Advion mass spec with an Interchim flash chromatograph. Boost Biomes, a San Francisco–based start-up developing a microbiome discovery platform, has received undisclosed seed funding from the US arm of Japan’s Kureha. Boost’s platform identifies interactions between microbes and screens microbial combinations for use in fungicides or food preservatives. SolenisView: PDF | Full Text HTML

Ethylene hitting the market

US petrochemical makers are bringing a large slug of ethylene capacity online. Indorama Ventures has started up an ethylene cracker in Westlake, Louisiana, with capacity of 440,000 metric tons (t) per year. The facility had been closed since 2001, and Indorama revamped it to bring it back online. The output will back integrate Indorama’s ethylene oxide and glycol plant in Clear Lake, Texas, and the ethylene oxide–propylene oxide plant in Port Neches, Texas, that it recently acquired from Huntsman. Work on the cracker was completed last May, but Indorama didn’t start it immediately because of the availability of cheap ethylene. In another back integration, Shintech is starting up a 500,000 t ethylene cracker in Plaquemine, Louisiana. The plant will supply raw materials for its polyvinyl chloride business. Another vinyls producer, Formosa Plastics, is opening a cracker in Point Comfort, Texas, where it will bring a low-density polyethylene unit online in

After buildup, US basic chemical sector to hit pause

Over the past 3 years, petrochemical makers started up nine new ethylene crackers in the US with a combined annual capacity of nearly 10 million metric tons. The projects, meant to take advantage of cheap and plentiful ethane derived from shale gas, have expanded US capacity for the basic chemical by about 30%. Five of the projects started up in the past year and are currently ramping up production. The biggest is Sasol’s complex in Lake Charles, Louisiana, which includes ethylene, polyethylene, α-olefin, and alcohol plants. The project ended up costing $12.9 billion, about $4 billion over budget, and led to the ouster of the company’s co-CEOs. Two more projects—a modest Dow expansion and a joint venture among Total, Nova Chemicals, and Borealis—are scheduled to begin operations this year. With all the new capacity for ethylene and derivatives coming on line, petrochemical makers report slimming profits. Dow’s packaging and specialty

Business Roundup

BUSINESS Business Roundup ShareShare onFacebookTwitterWechatLinked InRedditEmail C&EN, 2019, 97 (25), p 17June 24, 2019Cite this:C&EN 97, 25, 17AbstractEastman Chemical will acquire Inacsa, a Spanish producer of cellulosic yarn. Eastman says the purchase will give it a European site to produce its Naia cellulosic yarn for the apparel market. BASF and the Russian petrochemical maker Sibur have signed an agreement to jointly develop polymer technologies at Sibur’s new R&D center in Moscow. The partners will use BASF’s plastic additives and focus on designing plastics that are durable and recyclable. OrionEngineeredCarbonsis expanding capacity for gas-based carbon blacks at its plant in Cologne, Germany. Whereas most carbon black is made from oil, gas blacks are made from natural gas. They have a narrow particle distribution and are used in paints and coatings. AscendPerformance Materials has expanded its capacity for the chelating agent nitrilotriacetic acid by more than 10%. The firm says the project in Alvin, Texas, is a response to growing demand from industrial cleaning and oil and gas applications.View: PDF | Full Text HTML

LyondellBasell/Braskem talks are off

LyondellBasell has ended acquisition talks with Odebrecht, the owner of a majority share of Braskem. An acquisition would have combined two of the world’s largest petrochemical makers. Lyondell had $39 billion in revenues in 2018, while Braskem had nearly $16 billion in sales. Moreover, with the purchase, Lyondell would have added Latin America’s largest polyolefins business to its own strong business in North America and Europe. The companies first announced merger talks nearly a year ago. Rumors of negotiations between the companies stretch back to 2017. “The combination of LyondellBasell and Braskem is compelling because of the companies’ complementary strengths,” Lyondell CEO Bob Patel says. However, he didn’t say what dragged out and ultimately scuttled the talks.