rongsheng refinery start up supplier

SINGAPORE, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Rongsheng Petrochemical, the trading arm of Chinese private refiner Zhejiang Petrochemical, has bought at least 5 million barrels of crude for delivery in December and January next year in preparation for starting a new crude unit by year-end, five trade sources said on Wednesday.

Rongsheng bought at least 3.5 million barrels of Upper Zakum crude from the United Arab Emirates and 1.5 million barrels of al-Shaheen crude from Qatar via a tender that closed on Tuesday, the sources said.

Rongsheng’s purchase helped absorbed some of the unsold supplies from last month as the company did not purchase any spot crude in past two months, the sources said.

Zhejiang Petrochemical plans to start trial runs at one of two new crude distillation units (CDUs) in the second phase of its refinery-petrochemical complex in east China’s Zhoushan by the end of this year, a company official told Reuters. Each CDU has a capacity of 200,000 barrels per day (bpd).

Zhejiang Petrochemical started up the first phase of its complex which includes a 400,000-bpd refinery and a 1.2 million tonne-per-year ethylene plant at the end of 2019. (Reporting by Florence Tan and Chen Aizhu, editing by Louise Heavens and Christian Schmollinger)

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The construction works started recently. The volumes from the additional capacity are expected to be available from the end of 2021 and are dedicated to mainly serve European customers as well as the rapidly growing Asian market.

"We want to meet our customers" growing demand for high-quality, sustainable and high-performance technologies in the best possible way now and in future. To achieve that, we continuously invest in expanding our capacities and production technologies. To this end, we acquired an innovative process approach for producing MSA from Grillo-Werke AG in mid 2019 to strengthen our own R&D activities and to accelerate the development of a new manufacturing process for methane sulfonic acid. In doing so, we support as reliable partner the growth of our customers across the world," said Ralph Schweens, President Care Chemicals, BASF.

As MRC wrote previously, BASF, the world"s petrochemical major, restarted its No. 1 steam cracker on September 30, 2019, following a maintenance turnaorund. The plant was shut for maintenance in mid-August, 2019. Located at Ludwigshafen in Germany, the No. 1 cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 235,000 mt/year and a propylene production capacity of 125,000 mt/year.

According toMRC"s ScanPlast report, Russia"s estimated PE consumption totalled 1,904,410 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments increased from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers. The PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,161,830 tonnes in January-November 2019, up by 7% year on year. Deliveries of all grades of propylene polymers increased, with the homopolymer PP segment accounting for the largest increase.

Meanwhile, feedstock consumption at China"s independent refineries in eastern Shandong province fell a marginal 0.4% year on year to 121.3 million mt in 2021, data from local information provider JLC showed. However, crude feedstock consumption fell 4.6% to 111.53 million mt over the same period as fewer crude import quotas were allocated to Shandong"s independent refineries in 2021, with four receiving no allocation in the last batch announced in mid-October. To address the feedstock shortage, fuel oil and bitumen blend were imported and cracked as supplement feedstocks in 2021, with 8.5 million mt cracked by Shandong independent refineries in the year, surging from a small volume the year before.

The integrated Zhejiang Petroleum & Chemical refinery continued to raise its crude throughput to around 2.84 million mt in December, up 7.2% from 1.72 million mt in November, which was up 54% from October, according to JLC data. The refinery ramped up throughput after it was allocated more quotas in late October.

The Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Refinery in Liaoning province also raised its throughput by 3.6% month on month to 1.7 million mt in December. This comes after the completion of the maintenance at its secondary units, according to refinery sources.

However, Shandong independent refineries have gradually started to cut crude throughput from around Jan. 22 in response to a directive to cap utilization below 70% during the Winter Olympics, as Beijing aims to ensure that emissions remain under control, refinery sources told S&P Global Platts. But some refinery sources believe the overall impact will not be much more than what occurs every year since the Winter Olympics will be held around the Lunar New Year holidays, when independent refineries are forced to cut crude throughput due to logistics and manpower constraints.

In other news, Sinopec"s Hainan Petrochemical refinery in southern China is expected to export about 50,000 mt of refined oil products in January 2022, according to a refinery source. This was down 55% from 110,000 mt planned for export in December 2021.

PetroChina"s West Pacific Petrochemical Corp. refinery will skip gasoil exports in January after skipping them in December and November due to good demand in the domestic market.

PetroChina"s flagship refinery Dalian Petrochemical in northeastern Liaoning province will raise its gasoline exports to 160,000 mt in January, according to sources with knowledge of the matter. This will be about 357% higher than its planned exports in December. Dalian will double jet fuel exports to 80,000 mt in January, from 40,000 mt last month. Dalian plans to process around 1.3 million mt of crudes in January, translating to 75% of its nameplate capacity, stable on the month.

** Sinochem has been in the process of starting up its 12 million mt/year CDU and related refining units at its Quanzhou Petrochemical facility in southern Fujian province, according to a source with knowledge of the matter Jan. 19. The refining and petrochemical units were shut at around Dec. 1, 2021 for maintenance, which lasted for about 40-50 days, according to the maintenance schedule. The refinery will likely process about 450,000 mt to 500,000 mt of crudes for the remainder of February, compared with around 1.2 million mt during normal months.

** Sinopec"s Guangzhou Petrochemical restarted its 8 million mt/year CDU on Dec. 21 following the completion of a scheduled maintenance which started late October, a company source said. With its resumption, the refiner lifted December throughput to 840,000 mt from 440,000 mt in November, the source said. Moreover, the S-zorb that caught fire Nov. 27 during maintenance was fixed and resumed operation, the source added.

** Sinopec"s Fujian Refining and Chemical Co. refinery in southeastern Fujian province has been in the process of restarting from a scheduled maintenance this week, according to a source with knowledge of the matter Jan. 19. The refinery was expected to return to normal operations around Jan. 20, about nine days behind schedule, mainly due to the slow progress in procuring some parts, the source added. The 4 million mt/year crude distillation unit, as well as some secondary units, including the aromatics units, were to be restarted along the way. Following the restart of the CDU, the crude throughput at the refinery will likely increase to around 750,000 mt in January, or 63% of its nameplate capacity. This compares with a run rate of 56%, or 660,000 mt, in December 2021.

** Japan"s ENEOS said Dec. 28 it plans to shut the sole crude distillation unit at its Marifu refinery in the west in late January for scheduled maintenance until early March 2022.

** Idemitsu Kosan restarted the sole 160,000 b/d crude distillation unit at its Aichi refinery in central Japan on Dec. 5 after completing planned maintenance, a spokesperson said Dec. 20.

** PetroChina"s Yunnan Petrochemical refinery in southwestern Yunnan province, has shut its 4 million mt/year residual hydrogenation unit and some of its relative downstream facilities due to a blast. The blast hit the residual hydrogenation unit Dec. 13 morning, according to a press release issued by the Anning city local government in Yuannan. A refining engineer said the closure of residual hydrogenation unit would cut about 30% of the refinery"s daily production.

** Sinopec"s Hainan Petrochemical refinery in southern China plans to completely shut for scheduled maintenance over March-April 2022, a source with the refinery said. This is a routine maintenance that is normally carried out by Chinese refineries every three to four years, according to the source. Sinopec Hainan refinery last carried out complete maintenance over November 2017-January 2018.

** Japan"s ENEOS said it will decommission the 120,000 b/d No. 1 CDU at its 270,000 b/d Negishi refinery in Tokyo Bay in October 2022. It will also decommission secondary units attached to the No. 1 CDU, including a vacuum distillation unit and fluid catalytic cracker. ENEOS will also decommission a 270,000 mt/year lubricant output unit at the Negishi refinery.

** Sinopec is looking to launch its 2 million mt/year crude distillation unit expansion at Luoyang Petrochemical in central China in January, with a new crude pipeline able to supply sufficient feedstock, a refinery source said late December. "We have reconfigured an existing crude pre-treater into a 2 million mt/year CDU to increase the primary capacity to 10 million mt/year. The start-up will be in the next month with the crude pipeline having been put into use in November," the refinery source said. The expansion was initially set to be put into use in H2 2020, but was delayed to H1 2021 due to construction of the 10 million mt/year Rizhao-Puyang-Luoyang crude pipeline and weak demand in oil product market, Platts reported. The source said the expansion needs more crude supplies discharged from Rizhao port in Shandong province and transmitted through the Rizhao-Puyang-Luoyang crude pipeline.

** Chinese Sinopec"s refinery Zhenhai Refining and Chemical currently has a 27 million mt/year refining capacity and a 2.2 million mt/year ethylene plant, after its phase 1 expansion project of 4 million mt/year crude distillation unit and a 1.2 million mt/year ethylene unit was delivered end-June.

** PetroChina"s Guangxi Petrochemical in southern Guangxi province plans to start construction at its upgrading projects at the end of 2021, with the works set to take 36 months. The projects include upgrading the existing refining units as well as setting up new petrochemical facilities, which will turn the refinery into a refining and petrochemical complex. The project will focus on upgrading two existing units: the 2.2 million mt/year wax oil hydrocracker and the 2.4 million mt/year gasoil hydrogenation refining unit. For the petrochemicals part, around 11 main units will be constructed, which include a 1.2 million mt/year ethylene cracker.

** Sinopec"s Changling Petrochemical in central Hunan province plans to start construction for its newly approved 1 million mt/year reformer in 2021 and to bring its port upgrading project online by end-December.

** China"s privately held refining complex, Shenghong Petrochemical, is likely to start feeding crudes into its newly built 16 million mt/year crude distillation unit, according to a company source in early January. The refinery initially planned to start up at the end of August, but this was postponed to the end of December due to slower-than-expected construction work, and then again to around the Lunar New Year. The construction of the complex started in December 2018. Located in the coastal city of Lianyungang in Jiangsu province, the company"s 16 million mt/year CDU is the country"s single biggest by capacity.

** Chinese privately owned refining and petrochemical complex Zhejiang Petroleum & Chemical has fully started up commercial operation at it 400,000 b/d Phase 2 refining and petrochemical project, parent company Rongsheng Petrochemical said in a document Jan. 12. There are two crude distillation units in the Phase 2 project, each with a capacity of 200,000 b/d. ZPC started trial run at one of the CDUs in November 2020. Due to tight feedstock supplies, the refiner could not feed the other CDU until the end of November 2021, when it gained crude import quota for the project. The nameplate capacity of the company doubled to 800,000 b/d in Phase 2. It will run four CDUs at about 82% of nameplate capacity in January. Rongsheng said Phase 2 adds 6.6 million mt/year aromatics and 1.4 million mt/year ethylene production capacity.

** Saudi Aramco continues to pursue and develop the integrated refining and petrochemical complex in China with Norinco Group and Panjin Sinchen. The joint venture plans to build an integrated refining and petrochemical complex in northeast China"s Liaoning province Panjin city with a 300,000 b/d refinery, 1.5 million mt/year ethylene cracker and a 1.3 million mt/year PX unit.

** Honeywell said China"s Shandong Yulong Petrochemical will use "advanced platforming and aromatics technologies" from Honeywell UOP at its integrated petrochemical complex. The complex will include a UOP naphtha Unionfining unit, CCR Platforming technology to convert naphtha into high-octane gasoline and aromatics, Isomar isomerization technology. When completed Yulong plans to produce 3 million mt/yr of mixed aromatics. Shandong"s independent greenfield refining complex, Yulong Petrochemical announced the start of construction work at Yulong Island in Yantai city at the end of October 2020.

Construction work is expected to be completed in 24 months. The complex has been set up with the aim of consolidating the outdated capacities in Shandong province. A total of 10 independent refineries, with a total capacity of 27.5 million mt/year, will be mothballed over the next three years. Jinshi Petrochemical, Yuhuang Petrochemical and Zhonghai Fine Chemical, Yuhuang Petrochemical and Zhonghai Fine Chemical will be dismantled, while Jinshi Asphalt has already finished dismantling.

** PetroChina officially started construction works at its greenfield 20 million mt/year Guangdong petrochemical refinery in the southern Guangdong province on Dec. 5, 2018.

** China"s coal chemical producer Xuyang Group has announced plans to build a greenfield 15 million mt/year refining and petrochemical complex in Tangshang in central Hebei province.

Rongsheng Petrochemical (brand value up 43% to US$2.3 billion) achieved very strong growth this year, rising two places in the chemicals ranking and jumpingfrom 10th to 8th place amongst global chemicals brands. The Chinese brand owns various globally significant facilities, including an integrated refining-petrochemical complex with the refining capacity of 40 million tons per annum.

More broadly, the brand is likely to become the largest polycarbonates producer in China this year, and the brand is also the largest supplier of solar-grade EVA for the photovoltaic industry. This creates further opportunities to grow and develop its brand in coming years as demand for such products increases.

China"s largest privately owned 800,000 barrel per day refining and petrochemicals complex is on schedule to start coming on line in the fourth quarter at the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang, according to a company official. The project led by Zhejiang Petrochemical is the most ambitious of at least four large private downstream developments that will not only compete with China"s dominant state majors, but also with its small independent refiners, known as teapots, and further worsen China"s refining overcapacity (IOD Jan.19"18). "The crude distillation unit (CDU) is expected on stream in the fourth quarter. Petrochemicals units will start up soon after," Wu Jian, senior manager petrochemicals for Rongsheng Petrochemical, which owns a majority stake in the project, told International Oil Daily on the sidelines of the recent Platts 5th Annual Asian Refining Summit in Singapore. Rongsheng Petrochemical is a subsidiary of textile maker Zhejiang Rongsheng Holding Group, which holds a 51% stake in Zhejiang Petrochemical, with private Juhua and Tongkun firms, each with 20%, and a local Zhoushan government-run company holding the remaining 9%. The refinery project will allow Rongsheng to back integrate, and produce its own, petrochemical feedstocks. The plans call for the complex to be built in two phases, each comprising 400,000 b/d of crude processing capacity and petrochemical facilities, and including 1.4 million tons per year of ethylene production capacity and 4 million tons/yr of paraxylene production capacity. The first phase is planned on stream this year, and the second in 2020. But despite Rongsheng"s repeated reassurances that the project is on target, analysts remain skeptical. "They may have some basic units on line this year. But the complex cannot produce on-spec products until 2020," said Wood Mackenzie"s Beijing-based refining analyst Ray Hou. A Beijing-based analyst with a trading company similarly does not expect the project to be ready this year. The complex only received government approval last May and it would be a remarkable feat to build 400,000 b/d of refining capacity and associated petrochemicals units in 19 months or less, observers have said, although one noted that it might be possible (IOD May8"17). "We expect Zhejiang Petrochemical will come on line in 2020, as they may have difficulties with securing heavy crude supplies and there is a glut of refined products in China," said Woodmac"s Hou. The company will first have to be granted a crude import quota, but that should not be a problem, sources said, as the complex is located on the island of Zhoushan which, as a free trade zone, benefits from much less stringent qualifying criteria for crude import quotas than those imposed on teapots (IOD Jan.22"18). Zhejiang Petrochemical is planning to process Saudi crudes, two sources told IOD, although the refinery will also have been designed to run other crudes with similar characteristics. Wu said the company would first buy crude on the spot market, when the CDU comes on stream. This may involve small volumes for conducting trial runs. Longer term, the company is expected to sign term contracts for its first and second phases. "Almost all oil majors have approached us," Wu said. Selling the refined products might prove more challenging. While the complex will focus on petrochemicals, its first 400,000 b/d phase will produce annually 3.7 million tons (85,000 b/d) of gasoline, 2.97 million tons (65,000 b/d) of kerosene and 1.8 million tons (37,000 b/d) of diesel, volumes that will be roughly doubled once the second phase comes on line. For the time being, only state companies are allowed to export products, while the teapots" growing output has led to oversupply in the domestic market. "China will either need to relax exports or create more domestic demand," a Singapore-based analyst with a trading company said. Maryelle Demongeot, Singapore

Saudi Aramco today signed three Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) aimed at expanding its downstream presence in the Zhejiang province, one of the most developed regions in China. The company aims to acquire a 9% stake in Zhejiang Petrochemical’s 800,000 barrels per day integrated refinery and petrochemical complex, located in the city of Zhoushan.

The first agreement was signed with the Zhoushan government to acquire its 9% stake in the project. The second agreement was signed with Rongsheng Petrochemical, Juhua Group, and Tongkun Group, who are the other shareholders of Zhejiang Petrochemical. Saudi Aramco’s involvement in the project will come with a long-term crude supply agreement and the ability to utilize Zhejiang Petrochemical’s large crude oil storage facility to serve its customers in the Asian region.

Phase I of the project will include a newly built 400,000 barrels per day refinery with a 1.4 mmtpa ethylene cracker unit, and a 5.2 mmtpa Aromatics unit. Phase II will see a 400,000 barrels per day refinery expansion, which will include deeper chemical integration than Phase I.

The startup took only about three days to complete. The liquids ethylene cracker is part of ZPC’s grassroots integrated refining and petrochemical complex which broke ground in 2016.

Stan Knez, President of TechnipFMC Process Technology, commented: “We are very pleased with the successful startup of the ZPC cracker. This is a great milestone for the complex and another example of our proven ethylene technology”.

(1) ZPC: Zhejiang Petroleum & Chemical Co., Ltd, established in Zhoushan, Zhejiang on June 18, 2015, is a mixed-ownership enterprise jointly formed by the private enterprise Rongsheng Petrochemical Co., Ltd.（holding 51% of shares）， provincial state-owned enterprise Zhejiang Juhua Investment Co., Ltd.（holding 20% of shares）, the private enterprises Zhejiang Tongkun Investment Co., Ltd.（holding 20% of shares） and Zhoushan Marine Comprehensive Development and Investment Co., Ltd.(holding 9% of shares), which will be the first kind of mixing economy enterprise in China in the Refinery and Petrochemical Industry. ZPC’s first phase project includes 20 million tons per year refinery and 1400 KTA Ethylene Complex.

Abu Dhabi, UAE – November 12, 2019: The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) announced, today, it has signed a broad Framework Agreement with China’s Rongsheng Petrochemical Co., Ltd. (Rongsheng) to explore domestic and international growth opportunities which will support the delivery of its 2030 smart growth strategy.

The agreement will see both companies explore opportunities in the sale of refined products from ADNOC to Rongsheng, downstream investment opportunities in both China and the United Arab Emirates, and the supply and delivery of liquified natural gas (LNG) to Rongsheng.

The agreement was signed by His Excellency Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, UAE Minister of State and ADNOC Group CEO, and Li Shuirong, Chairman of Rongsheng Group.

H.E. Dr. Al Jaber said: “This Framework Agreement builds on the existing crude oil supply relationship between ADNOC and Rongsheng, which we are keen to enhance. The agreement covers domestic and international growth opportunities across a range of sectors, which have the potential to open new markets for our growing portfolio of products and attract investment to support our downstream and gas expansion plans.

Under the terms of the Framework Agreement, ADNOC and Rongsheng will explore opportunities for increasing the volume and variety of refined products sales to Rongsheng as well as ADNOC’s active participation as Rongsheng’s strategic partner in refinery and petrochemical opportunities, including an investment in Rongsheng’s downstream complex. In return Rongsheng will also explore potential investments in ADNOC’s downstream industrial ecosystem in Ruwais, including the proposed Gasoline Aromatics Plant (GAP) and the potential for ADNOC to supply and deliver liquified natural gas (LNG) for utilization by Rongsheng within its production complexes in China.

Shuirong said: “This Framework Agreement is a key milestone in Rongsheng Petrochemical’s strategic international expansion. ADNOC is an important trading partner, and we are confident of the win-win benefits of this partnership, particularly in realizing opportunities in the downstream space in Asia.

“The strategic cooperation with ADNOC will ensure that our ZPC project, which will have a refining capacity of up to 1 million barrels per day (mbpd) of crude, has adequate supplies of feedstock. Our valued partnership will enable Rongsheng Petrochemical to continue its expansion into the international oil market and we are confident Rongsheng Petrochemical will achieve enhanced market share and recognition in the global marketplace.”

The framework agreement supports ADNOC’s downstream expansion plans, which will see it create a world scale integrated refining and petrochemicals complex in Ruwais while pursuing integrated margins for its own hydrocarbons with in-market investments.

Rongsheng Petrochemical Co., Ltd. is one of the leading companies in China’s petrochemical and textile industry. In recent years, Rongsheng has been committed to developing both vertically and horizontally across the value chain, investing massively in multiple high-value oil and gas projects. Amongst them, Zhejiang Petroleum & Chemical Co., Ltd. (ZPC), in which Rongsheng has a controlling interest, is a 40 million tons per annum mega integrated refining and chemical project. Once operational, ZPC will be one of the largest-scale plants in the world.

China is the world"s second-largest oil consumer, and Chinese energy companies have steadily increased their participation in ADNOC’s Upstream and Downstream operations. At the same time, ADNOC has identified China as an important growth market for its crude oil and petrochemical products, as it moves towards boosting its oil production capacity to 4 million barrels per day (mbpd) by the end of 2020 and 5mbpd in 2030 and accelerates the implementation of its downstream expansion and international investment strategies.

China’s seaborne crude imports in August (days representing 1-18) have breached the 8mbd mark, up marginally from the 7.9mbd average seen in the past two months but remains 10% below last year’s volumes. The country’s crude import recovery has been slower than anticipated as oil prices remain high despite cooling recently, whilst domestic refining margins have been lacklustre with strict Covid policies denting domestic fuel demand.

Despite the stubbornly weak demand, several Chinese state-run refiners may look to restock crude in anticipation of autumn demand recovery and a narrowing oil price backwardation. Crude stocks held by Sinopec have picked up since July 21, after a steep 800kbd draw for three consecutive weeks, according to Vortexa’s onshore crude inventory data.

Looking at imports by origin, seaborne imports of Middle Eastern crudes have extended gains for a third consecutive month over 1-18 Aug, with volumes from Saudi Arabia rising over 10% month-on-month to 1.8mbd, exceeding the 1.4mbd from Russia, as Saudi Aramco managed to retain its top customer by maintaining steady supplies, despite growing demand from Europe.

In contrast to India’s state-run refiner Indian Oil (IOC), Chinese state-run refiners have been more conservative in increasing their uptake of Russian crude after the Russia-Ukraine invasion. In fact, Sinopec lifted more US crude in July with a total of five VLCCs (or 320kbd), compared to only one each month in the last two months, at the expense of Russian ESPO Blend cargos, likely signalling a rebalancing of its purchases to its regular suppliers, included those in the Atlantic Basin.

(Reuters) Chinese conglomerate Zhejiang Rongsheng Holding Group plans to double capacity of a joint venture refining project to 800 Mbpd in 2020, two years after the first phase starts up, senior company officials said Thursday.

The project, a venture among private companies led by Rongsheng, is planning to start up the 400 Mbpd first phase in 2018, aiming to meet the group"s requirements for petrochemical feedstocks.

More details have been released about Shandong province’s plan to dismantle several low-profit oil refineries and establish a new refining giant to tackle oversupply and improve dwindling profit margins. However experts suggest that intense competition in China’s petrochemical market may make finding customers difficult.

A refinery’s success relies on stable downstream demand, which for Chinese refineries usually comes from their shareholders. Hengli Petrochemical, which has 20 million tons of annual capacity, is majority owned by Hengli Group Co. Ltd., which specializes in producing chemical fibers for which refined oil is a key ingredient. Zhejiang Rongsheng Holding Group, which invests in petrochemical, logistics and real estate businesses, holds a 51% stake in Zhejiang Petrochemical, a refinery with 40 million tons of capacity.

However, the biggest shareholder of Yulong Petrochemical is metal manufacturer Nanshan Group Co. Ltd., with a 71% stake. It produces aluminum products and operates wool textile and travel businesses, none of which generated petrochemical demand. Wanhua Chemical Group, which has a 20% stake, does however have some petrochemical interests.

By Florence Tan, Chen Aizhu and Rania El Gamal SINGAPORE/BEIJING/DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia is set to expand its market share in China this year for the first time since 2012, with demand stirred up by new Chinese refiners pushing the kingdom back into contention with Russia as top supplier to the world"s largest oil buyer. Saudi Arabia, the biggest global oil exporter, has been surpassed by Russia as top crude supplier to China the past two years as private "teapot" refiners and a new pipeline drove up demand for Russian oil. Now fresh demand from new refineries starting up in 2019 could increase China"s Saudi oil imports by between 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) and 700,000 bpd, nudging the OPEC kingpin back towards the top, analysts say. Saudi Aramco said last week it will sign five crude supply agreements that will take its 2019 contract totals with Chinese buyers to 1.67 million bpd. "With the recent crude oil supply agreements and potential increase of refinery capacity, the Saudis could overtake the Russians and reclaim (the) crown as the biggest crude exporter to China," Rystad Energy analyst Paola Rodriguez-Masiu said. Saudi Arabia has already gained ground this year. China imported 1.04 million bpd of Saudi crude in the first 10 months of 2018, China customs data showed. This is equivalent to 11.5 percent of total Chinese imports, up from 11 percent in 2017, Reuters calculations showed. Saudi"s market share in China could jump to nearly 17 percent next year, if buyers requested full contractual volumes, analysts from Rystad Energy and Refinitiv said, while growth in Russian oil supply to China could slow. China imported 1.39 million bpd of Russian crude in January-October this year, about 15 percent of total Chinese imports, customs data showed. Russia had a 14 percent share at 1.2 million bpd in 2017. "We expect Chinese imports of Russian crude to remain at a similar rate in 2019 as a large share of these Russian barrels are imported via pipeline," Refinitiv analyst Mark Tay said. Graphic: China"s top crude oil suppliers by market share - https://tmsnrt.rs/2PKcVZF NEW CUSTOMERS The biggest boost to Saudi exports to China comes from contracts inked with new refineries starting up this year and next, owned by companies other than state oil giants Sinopec or PetroChina. The contracts include 130,000 bpd to Dalian Hengli Petrochemical and up to 170,000 bpd to Zhejiang Petrochemical Corp, each of which has a 400,000-bpd refinery. Saudi Aramco has also agreed to increase Sinochem Corp"s supplies, which will be processed at its Quanzhou and Hongrun refineries. Sinopec, PetroChina and China National Offshore Oil Corp have all kept their term Saudi volumes for next year unchanged. Beijing-based consultancy SIA Energy expects Saudi crude imports to rise by just 300,000 bpd in 2019, raising its market share to 13.7 percent, but leaving it behind Russia. "We expect lower Saudi crude demand from Hengli and Rongsheng as it is unlikely for them to run their refineries at full rate in 2019," analyst Seng Yick Tee said. Zhejiang Petrochemical is majority-owned by Rongsheng Holdings. Still, a source familiar with Aramco"s export plans said there is tremendous appetite from China"s independents, and that it needed to be more aggressive in its marketing strategy. The state oil company did move more swiftly to seal the most recent deals than it used to in the past, industry sources said. Aramco"s first deal with Hengli was to supply 20 million barrels of crude, about 55,000 bpd, in 2018, said a senior source with direct knowledge of the deal. "Hengli executed the 2018 deal nicely, which helped build trust," he said. Hengli is designed to process 90 percent Saudi crude, a mix of Arab Medium and Arab Heavy, while the remaining 10 percent is Brazilian Marlim crude. Rongsheng"s plant is identical to Hengli, the industry sources said. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity. Aramco is also supplying PetroChina"s refinery in China"s southwestern Yunnan province with about 4 million barrels a month of crude via a pipeline from Myanmar between July and November, Eikon data showed, although sources said talks for Saudi Arabia to acquire a stake in the refinery have stalled. Saudi Aramco"s Chief Executive Amin Nasser said on Monday the company will push to expand its market share in China and is still looking for new refining deals there despite OPEC"s likely limits on output next year. Graphic: China crude oil imports by country - https://tmsnrt.rs/2PPwEaA MAY CUT OIL EXPORTS TO U.S. Saudi Aramco will supply up to 70 percent of the oil required at its 300,000-bpd joint venture refinery in Malaysia with Petronas. Between China and Malaysia alone, Saudi Arabia will have to increase exports to Asia by more than 500,000 bpd next year. This comes as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is discussing production cuts of as much as 1.4 million bpd for next year to prop up oil prices. Between balancing global supplies and increasing market in Asia, Aramco may decide to "forgo market share in other markets like the United States, where the surge in domestic production will make it difficult for the Saudis to retain market share anyway," Rystad"s Rodriguez-Masiu said. Saudi"s oil shipments to the United States have risen recently to above 1 mln bpd, but U.S. output is also increasing, said the source familiar with Saudi Aramco"s export plans. "You need to lessen the inventories in the U.S.," the source said, adding that Aramco will likely divert oil supply from the United States to Asia to meet rising demand there. A Chinese oil executive said: "China is where the demand growth is. The Saudis are very wise to capture this market." Graphic: U.S. crude oil imports from Saudi Arabia - https://tmsnrt.rs/2PNG723 (Reporting by Florence Tan in SINGAPORE, Chen Aizhu in BEIJING and Rania El Gamal in DUBAI; Editing by Tom Hogue)

As oil refiners from India to South Korea scramble to find alternative supplies to Iranian crude, they are pushing up the prices of crudes that can substitute for lost shipments

Joining the ranking for the first time is EuroChem Group, one of the fertilizer makers that got a lift from higher commodity prices. It debuts at number 44. Thailand’s PTT Global Chemical returns at 46 after a 1-year hiatus.

Two Chinese newcomers make the ranking: TongKun Group at 48 and Hengyi Petrochemical at 50. Both are polyester producers that make their own raw materials. Hengyi also has a large, integrated nylon 6 business. Both companies join similar Chinese firms, like Hengli Petrochemical and Rongsheng Petrochemical. All these companies have been building massive complexes for aromatics and derivatives, in many cases swamping entire segments of the chemical industry—such as purified terephthalic acid—with new capacity that is well beyond the scale of players outside China.

For the third consecutive year, BASF heads the Global Top 50. Because it has a home base in Germany, the company was strongly impacted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. BASF pledged in April to wind down operations in Russia and Belarus, which represent about 1% of its sales. The company says it will continue supplying agrochemicals to these countries to avoid disrupting the world’s delicate food supply chain. BASF has also been affected by the severe increase in European natural gas prices that the war has exacerbated. In March, BASF chairman Martin Brudermüller told a Houston audience at the IHS Markit World Petrochemical Conference that “European industry really has to rethink” its strategy, given its dependence on natural gas from Russia. The war has also affected the company’s Wintershall Dea energy joint venture, which has extensive operations in Russia. During the first quarter, BASF took a $1.2 billion write-off related to the cancellation of Nord Stream 2, a natural gas pipeline between Germany and Russia that Wintershall helped finance. BASF is also anticipating the coming energy transition. The company is carving out its emission catalyst business, which it acquired with its 2006 purchase of Engelhard. The move is a response to the dim outlook for internal combustion engine vehicles and could be a prelude to a sale. BASF has simultaneously been trying to grow as a producer of materials for electric vehicle batteries and aims to spend $5 billion on production capacity outside Europe.

Once again, the blue-chip Chinese firm Sinopec is the second-largest chemical company in the world. Sinopec is working on an enormous lineup of capital expansions in China. Last year in Zhenhai, it started up an ethylene cracker project and began work on a propane dehydrogenation plant that it hopes to finish in 2024. The firm is building a cracker and derivatives project in Tianjin that it expects to complete next year and is bringing another one to completion in Hainan this year. Sinopec is also constructing a massive purified terephthalic acid complex in Yizheng. Like many energy and chemical firms, Sinopec has gotten into the act of carbon abatement. In Zibo earlier this year, it started up a carbon-capture-and-storage project that will handle 1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually.

The Saudi giant Sabic has a large presence in Europe owing to its acquisition of petrochemical businesses from DSM and Huntsman more than a decade ago. And while the company gained a North American engineering polymer business in 2007 with the purchase of GE Plastics, a US toehold in petrochemicals has been more elusive. Sabic finally accomplished this long-term objective in January when its $10 billion joint venture with ExxonMobil Chemical, Gulf Coast Growth Ventures, started up near Corpus Christi, Texas. The venture produces ethylene and the derivatives polyethylene and ethylene glycol. The project is noteworthy because of how quickly it was erected: in just over 2 years. Some recent US petrochemical projects have experienced delays longer than that.

PetroChina heaped on the growth in 2021, expanding by 42% from 2020 as China’s economy recovered from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. New projects in China will only further the company’s expansion. This year, it is due to complete the $10 billion Guangdong Petrochemical project. The massive effort includes a refinery, an aromatics unit, and an ethylene cracker. PetroChina has also finished work on an ethylene project in Tarim that will use domestically produced ethane as its feedstock. In Jieyang, an enormous $1 billion acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene plant with 600,000 metric tons per year of capacity is in the works.

Some chemical companies have been ditching commodities to focus on specialties. LyondellBasell Industries is exiting refining so it can better home in on commodities. In April, the company said it would shutter its 100-year-old Houston refinery by the end of 2023. The refinery, part of LyondellBasell Industries since it spun off from Atlantic Richfield in 1989, has long been an issue for the company. It was a joint venture with the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA for more than a decade before Lyondell bought out its partner for $2.1 billion in 2006. Company officials say they may repurpose the property for sustainability projects such as a plastics pyrolysis plant. Meanwhile, LyondellBasell has been steadily growing its commodity chemical business. It bought 50% stakes in ethylene complexes in the US and China. And according to newly surfaced government documents, it is considering building a high-density polyethylene plant in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Within a year of taking over the helm of Japan’s largest chemical maker, CEO Jean-Marc Gilson, a veteran of Dow Corning and Roquette, launched a major restructuring initiative. Mitsubishi Chemical Group plans to carve out its petrochemical and coal-based chemical businesses as a separate company and then exit them by the end of its 2023 fiscal year. The units, which make olefins, polyolefins, and other bulk petrochemicals, generate about 20% of the company’s sales. Mitsubishi Chemical Group wants to focus on more specialized areas, such as electronic materials and the life sciences.

Like its industrial gas rivals Air Liquide and Air Products, Linde is focused on carbon reduction. In May, the German firm and BP announced that they would collaborate on a large carbon-capture-and-storage project on the Texas Gulf Coast. The firms aim to make blue hydrogen, produced by reforming natural gas and storing the by-product carbon dioxide. Linde will distribute this hydrogen to customers via its regional pipeline network. The firms aim to store some 15 million metric tons of CO2 annually in underground formations. In Austria, Linde is building a plant to make green hydrogen—derived from water electrolysis powered by renewable energy—for sale to the semiconductor maker Infineon Technologies. To help shore up helium supply, Linde is adding an extraction unit at a natural gas liquefaction plant in Texas. The project will increase the world’s supply of helium by more than 3%.

The Chinese conglomerate ChemChina bought the Swiss agrochemical maker Syngenta in 2017 and later pursued a merger with another big Chinese industrial giant, Sinochem. Now Syngenta Group operates under the Sinochem umbrella. As it did when it was independent, Syngenta emphasizes technology. It is collaborating with Enko Chem, a start-up that applies drug discovery methods to agricultural applications. For instance, the partners will screen molecular libraries for compounds that act against specific enzymes in pests. They hope to halve the time to bring new molecules to market—which can now take a decade. Syngenta also recently bought two biopesticides from the Welsh firm Bionema. In the deal, it acquired nematodes that kill leatherjackets and a pathogenic fungus that kills vine weevils.

The Indian conglomerate has abandoned plans to put its refining and chemical operations—which it calls Oil to Chemicals—into a stand-alone business. It also walked away from negotiations with Saudi Aramco to sell a 20% stake in the business for $15 billion. Instead, Reliance Industries is undertaking what may turn out to be an even bigger change in direction. Last year, it announced an ambitious goal to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2035. Reliance is setting aside 2,000 hectares of land at its massive Jamnagar refinery and petrochemical complex for factories that would make photovoltaic modules, batteries, electrolyzers, and fuel cells. Along these lines, Reliance bought Faradion, a British sodium-ion battery start-up, for $135 million. It will spend another $35 million to bring the new battery chemistry to market. It also purchased the Norwegian solar cell maker REC Group for $771 million.

The Chinese polyurethane and petrochemical maker has been rocketing up the Global Top 50 because of its prodigious growth in recent years. And 2021 was another enormous year for Wanhua Chemical—its revenues nearly doubled from 2020. Ambitious capital expansion projects have helped fuel the growth. In Yantai, China, it opened an ethylene cracker and derivatives plants and revamped methylene diphenyl diisocyanate production. In April, the company announced it would spend $3.6 billion to build a chemical complex in Penglai, China. The project, to be completed in 2024, will feature a propane dehydrogenation unit as well as downstream plants for polypropylene, propylene oxide, and other chemicals. The company also started producing cathode materials and the biodegradable polymer poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate).

It is possible that Braskem could change hands in the near future. Novonor, the Brazilian conglomerate formerly known as Odebrecht, is facing hefty fines because of a Brazilian corruption scandal. The US Department of Justice alone is demanding $2.6 billion from the company. As a consequence, Novonor has been looking to sell its 38% interest in Braskem, which includes control of more than 50% of Braskem’s common stock. Sale talks are nothing new for Braskem. The company discussed a sale to LyondellBasell Industries in 2018 and 2019, but nothing came of the negotiations. In 2020, Novonor and Braskem’s other major shareholder, the Brazilian state oil company Petrobras, planned to float Braskem shares on public markets. That plan was shelved earlier this year because of financial market volatility. And in April, the private equity firm Apollo Capital was rumored to be bidding for Novonor’s stake.

The polyurethane specialist Covestro unveiled a plan late last year to cut up to 1,700 jobs—about 10% of its workforce—by the end of 2023. Most of the cuts will be in Germany. At the same time, the company is resuscitating a plan to build a world-scale methylene diphenyl diisocyanate plant by 2026. While the previous plan pinpointed Texas as the site of the complex, Covestro now says it may build it in either the US or China. The company is also increasing capacity for another polyurethane raw material, toluene diisocyanate, in Dormagen, Germany. And with the biotechnology firm Genomatica, Covestro plans to make biobased hexamethylenediamine, used in the manufacture of polyurethanes and nylon 6,6.

The past year has seen a number of sustainable business initiatives at Toray Industries. The company has launched nylon 5,10 fibers, made from castor oil–derived sebacic acid and corn-based pentamethylenediamine. It hopes to start selling the biobased fibers into textile markets next year. In a recycling push, Toray and the engineering firm Axens are studying a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) depolymerization plant for France. The plant would break down 80,000 metric tons per year of PET into the precursor bis(2-hydroxyethyl) terephthalate. Toray also established a joint venture for lithium-ion battery separator films in Hungary with LG Chem.

Evonik Industries is yet another major chemical maker planning a portfolio transformation. The German company intends to divest its performance material businesses by the end of 2023. These commodities, such as C4 chemicals, isononyl alcohol, and superabsorbent polymers, generate about 20% of the firm’s sales. Evonik had been considering a sale of superabsorbents—used in diapers and similar applications—since late 2020. At the same time, the firm plans to invest $3.2 billion in sustainable businesses. Separately, in June, Evonik announced it would build a $220 million plant in Lafayette, Indiana, for lipids used in messenger RNA applications like COVID-19 vaccines. The company has been supplying this burgeoning market from facilities in Germany. Evonik is also building a plant to make rhamnolipids, a class of biobased surfactants, in Slovakia.

Later this year, Shell will open an ethylene and polyethylene complex in Monaca, Pennsylvania. The facility was the only one among a wave of new US ethylene crackers to be situated far from the Gulf Coast. The project took a long time. It was announced a decade ago, and construction began in 2017. It may be Shell’s last conventional ethylene project for a while. The company is collaborating with Dow to electrify the steam cracking process. The partners recently started an experimental unit in Amsterdam to test designs that could replace current natural gas–fired cracker furnaces. They want to build a large pilot plant by 2025. And at a recent conference, Shell officials said the company is running feedstocks based on biomass and plastic pyrolysis oil through its ethylene complex in Norco, Louisiana. The company intends to process 180,000 metric tons (t) of the alternative feedstocks by 2023 and to ramp up use to 600,000 t in 3–5 years.

Edward D. Breen took over as DuPont’s CEO in October 2015, and since then the company has seen relentless portfolio restructuring. After only a few months on the job, Breen announced a merger with Dow. The resulting company split into the three firms—DuPont, Dow, and Corteva Agriscience—in 2019. Breen wasn’t finished, though. Last year, DuPont merged its nutrition and biosciences business with International Flavors & Fragrances. In another big transaction, it agreed in February to sell its engineering polymer business to Celanese for $11 billion. Meanwhile, DuPont has been bulking up in electronic materials, a business that Breen had previously been on the fence about. Late last year, DuPont agreed to purchase Rogers, a firm that makes laminates for circuit boards, for $5.2 billion. In July 2021, DuPont bought Laird Performance Materials, which makes heat and electric shielding.

A Rongsheng Petrochemical subsidiary, Zhejiang Petroleum & Chemical, started up the second phase of its massive refining and petrochemical complex in Zhejiang, China, in 2021. With capacity now doubled, the facility can process 40 million metric tons (t) of oil per year. The facility has a large petrochemical output: up to 6.6 million t of aromatics and 1.4 million t of ethylene per year. The expansion allowed the company to start making specialized polymers, such as acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene and polycarbonate.

The South Korean chemical maker Lotte Chemical has been beefing up its battery material business. In June, Lotte and Sasol began studying the construction of a plant for battery electrolyte solvents in the US or Germany. Lotte already makes ethylene carbonate and dimethyl carbonate electrolyte solvents in Daesan, South Korea, and in February, it launched a $500 million program to expand output. As part of this project, Lotte is building a carbon-capture-and-liquefaction facility at the site that will provide captured carbon dioxide for electrolyte production. Separately, Lotte and the battery technology start-up Soelect are planning a joint venture for anode materials and solid electrolytes for electric vehicle batteries. The project would include a $200 million lithium-metal anode plant.

The Thai polyester maker Indorama Ventures made another big acquisition to diversify its business earlier this year when it bought the ethoxylated surfactant maker Oxiteno from the Brazilian conglomerate Ultrapar Participações for $1.3 billion. Oxiteno has about $1 billion in annual sales. In 2020, Indorama bought Huntsman’s US-based surfactant unit, its first big move into surfactants. Indorama, already a big mechanical recycler of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), is plunging into the chemical recycling of plastics. It plans to build a plant in Longlaville, France, that will depolymerize PET using an enzymatic process from the start-up Carbios. The facility will be close to an Indorama PET plant.

Chevron Phillips Chemical is making a big push into sustainable plastics. The company recently recorded its first commercial sales of Marlex Anew circular polyethylene, made from pyrolysis oil derived from waste plastics. It aims to sell about 450,000 metric tons per year of the material by 2030. It has also invested in two firms that chemically recycle plastics, Nexus Circular and Mura Technology. Atlanta-based Nexus already supplies pyrolysis oil to Chevron Phillips. Mura is a British firm developing a supercritical steam based process to treat postconsumer plastics. Separately, Chevron Phillips recently announced it would double capacity for poly(α-olefins), which are used in lubricants, at its plant in Belgium.

Solvay, one of Europe’s oldest chemical companies, plans to split in two. The larger of the two resulting firms would house its specialty polymers, aerospace composites, consumer ingredients, and aroma chemical businesses and have $6.6 billion in annual sales. The other would have $4.5 billion in sales and make commodity chemicals such as soda ash and peroxides. The move builds on a company plan announced in 2021 to carve out and possibly sell its soda ash business. The bigger split-up scheme got pushback from financial analysts, who questioned the advantages of combining businesses as varied as aerospace materials and consumer product ingredients. Solvay executives responded that specialty chemical businesses bear similarities, such as their appetite for capital allocation.

To limit liability from litigation, Bayer said last year that it would stop using glyphosate in its residential Roundup herbicide products in 2023. The company has reached a $10 billion settlement with thousands of plaintiffs who claim glyphosate contributed to their non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. But more suits, not subject to the settlement, remain, and more could be filed. In May, Bayer caught a break when the a European Union panel ruled that glyphosate does not pose a cancer risk. However, in the US, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to reevaluate glyphosate. It found that a previous EPA review exonerating the chemical didn’t follow the agency’s own guidelines for evaluating cancer risk.

Potash and phosphate prices have been high, and so have profits at the leading US fertilizer producer: Mosaic enjoyed a 22% operating profit margin in 2021. The company aims to increase potash production by 2 million metric tons per year this year versus 2020 levels. It has reopened its Colonsay, Saskatchewan, plant, which had been idle for 2 years because of poor market conditions. Additionally, Mosaic has started up a new potash mine shaft in Esterhazy, Saskatchewan, while closing two older shafts at that location.

Nutrien is giving serious backing to low-carbon ammonia. The fertilizer company is contemplating spending $2 billion to build what it says would be the world’s largest clean ammonia plant. The unit, in Geismar, Louisiana, would make up to 1.2 million metric tons per year of ammonia from natural gas and capture 90% of the production’s carbon dioxide emissions, which it would sequester underground. Nutrien already captures CO2 at plants in Louisiana and Alberta for use in enhanced oil recovery. Separately, in the face of tight potash supplies, due in part to the war in Ukraine, Nutrien aims to increase potash production 40% by 2025.

In June, Hanwha Solutions detailed plans to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Some 70% of the carbon reduction at the South Korean chemical and solar material maker will come from using renewable energy. Replacing fossil fuels in its manufacturing processes with hydrogen will yield another 15%. The balance of cuts will come from better efficiency and carbon capture. The company is also making investments in sustainability. It helped lead a $21 million venture capital investment in Novoloop, a California-based start-up that is developing a technology to convert postconsumer polyethylene into thermoplastic polyurethanes and other chemicals.

Eastman Chemical is taking another swing at making acetylated wood. It attempted to build a business in the moisture-resistant lumber, made by treating wood with acetic anhydride, about a decade ago but ran into trouble ramping it up. Now Eastman and the acetylated wood producer Accsys Technologies plan to build an acetylated wood plant at Eastman’s Kingsport, Tennessee, complex. The plant will cost $136 million and be completed in 2024. Eastman is also accelerating the rollout of its polyethylene terephthalate depolymerization process. Earlier this year, the company unveiled plans to build a plant using the methanolysis technology in France. It will be 45% bigger than one it aims to complete in Kingsport, Tennessee, by the end of this year. Eastman plans to use dimethyl terephthalate from the plant to make its own specialty polyesters.

Johnson Matthey (JM) is trying to find its footing. The British firm makes precious-metal catalysts for catalytic converters and is thus heavily reliant on internal combustion automotive engines, which face a bleak long-term outlook. The company has also been exiting noncore businesses. In June, it closed a deal to sell its pharmaceutical chemical business to the private equity firm Altaris Capital Partners for $430 million. The firm is retaining a 30% stake in the business, which generates more than $300 million in sales annually. Additionally, JM is selling its European battery material operations to Australia’s EV Metals Group and a battery material plant in Canada to Nano One Materials. But a possibility remains that JM itself will change hands. In April, US industrial firm Standard Industries revealed purchased a 5% stake in the company. Machinations like this often foretell a takeover. Standard bought another catalyst firm, W. R. Grace, in 2021.

The fertilizer maker EuroChem Group makes C&EN’s global ranking for the first time this year. The company is headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, but originated in Russia, where it has most of its operations. EuroChem has been caught up in the war in Ukraine more than any other chemical producer in the Global Top 50. The European Union slapped sanctions on Andrey Melnichenko, EuroChem’s founder and then owner of 90% of its stock. He tried to transfer the shares to his wife, but the EU hit her with sanctions, too. EuroChem also had a deal on the table to buy Borealis’s fertilizer business for $520 million, but the Russian invasion scuttled it.

In a transaction that will allow it to focus strictly on petrochemicals and polymers, Borealis received an $870 million offer in June for its nitrogen fertilizer business from the Czech agricultural conglomerate Agrofert. The business had sales of about $1.5 billion in 2021. The deal works out nicely for Borealis, which had an earlier overture of $520 million from EuroChem Group. Borealis walked away from that deal because of the war in Ukraine and EuroChem’s Russian connections. Borealis might have missed an opportunity to be affiliated with a high-end polymer business. OMV, the Austrian refiner that owns 75% of Borealis, put in a bid to purchase DSM’s engineering polymer business. But OMV lost out to a partnership between Advent International and Lanxess.

The main issue at Sasol for several years was a petrochemical complex in Lake Charles, Louisiana, that went $4 billion over budget and led to a major management shake-up. Another recent setback for the firm came in November, when South African regulators blocked the sale of its business in sodium cyanide to Draslovka, already a strong player in that field. Now there are signs of green shoots at the South African firm. Sasol and South Korea’s Lotte Chemical are studying the construction of a plant to make battery electrolyte solvents in Lake Charles or at Sasol’s complex in Marl, Germany. Sasol would provide the raw materials.

TongKun Group is one of a handful of integrated Chinese polyester producers that have grown so big in recent years that they are now finding their way into the Global Top 50. The company is based in Tongxiang, in the coastal Chinese province of Zhejiang. It was founded in 1981 with the name Tongxiang County Chemical Fiber Factory. TongKun now has more than 30,000 employees as well as 8.6 million metric tons (t) per year of polyester filament production capacity and 4.2 million t of capacity for the polyester raw material purified terephthalic acid.

Lanxess is planning a likely exit from the polymer business. The German company and the private equity firm Advent International formed a joint venture to buy DSM’s engineering polymer business—a producer of high-end nylon resins—for $4.1 billion. Lanxess is contributing its own business, which makes polybutylene terephthalate and nylon 6, to the partnership. It will own an up to 40% stake in the joint venture for 3 years, after which it will have an option to sell. At the same time, Lanxess is growing in specialty chemicals. Earlier this month, it completed the purchase of International Flavors & Fragrances’ microbial control business for about $1.3 billion. The business, which once belonged to Dow, makes glutaraldehyde biocides and isothiazolinone-based antimicrobials and has $450 million in annual sales.

This is the first year in the Global Top 50 for Hengyi Petrochemical, a Chinese firm that primarily makes polyester and nylon 6. Hengyi affiliates recently started a massive refining and petrochemical complex in Brunei. The 2.1 million metric tons per year of p-xylene and benzene made in this new complex is being sent to China for conversion into the polyester raw material purified terephthalic acid and the nylon precursor caprolactam. The company is planning a second phase of the Brunei project, which will include an ethylene cracker and derivatives units.