rongsheng petrochemical bloomberg manufacturer

Rongsheng Petrochemical Co., Ltd. engages in the research, development, production, and sale of chemical, oil, and polyester products. It offers gasoline, diesel fuel, kerosene, paraxylene, ethylene glycol, styrene 156, m-xylene, polyethylene, polypropylene, EVA, polycarbonate, ABS, PTA, PIA, filament, bottle flakes, and film. The company also offers olefins and their downstream, aromatics and their downstream, oil products, etc., which are widely used in covering new energy, new materials, organic chemicals, synthetic fibers, synthetic resins, Synthetic rubber, oil products, and other fields. The company was founded in 1995 and is based in Hangzhou, China. Rongsheng Petrochemical Co., Ltd. is a subsidiary of Zhejiang Rongsheng Holding Group Co., Ltd.

Sidi Kerir Petrochemicals Co. S.A.E specializes in petrochemical products manufacturing and marketing. The group proposes essentially ethylene, high density polyethylene and linear low density polyethylene mainly used in plastic bags, agricultural plastic wraps, containers, pallets, boxes, dustbins and toys production.

Privately owned unaffiliated refineries, known as “teapots,”[3] mainly clustered in Shandong province, have been at the center of Beijing’s longtime struggle to rein in surplus refining capacity and, more recently, to cut carbon emissions. A year ago, Beijing launched its latest attempt to shutter outdated and inefficient teapots — an effort that coincides with the emergence of a new generation of independent players that are building and operating fully integrated mega-petrochemical complexes.[4]

The politics surrounding this new class of greenfield mega-refineries is important, as is their geographical distribution. Beijing’s reform strategy is focused on reducing the country’s petrochemical imports and growing its high value-added chemical business while capping crude processing capacity. The push by Beijing in this direction has been conducive to the development of privately-led mega refining and petrochemical projects, which local officials have welcomed and staunchly supported.[20]

Yet, of the three most recent major additions to China’s greenfield refinery landscape, none are in Shandong province, home to a little over half the country’s independent refining capacity. Hengli’s Changxing integrated petrochemical complex is situated in Liaoning, Zhejiang’s (ZPC) Zhoushan facility in Zhejiang, and Shenghong’s Lianyungang plant in Jiangsu.[21]

But with the start-up of advanced liquids-to-chemicals complexes in neighboring provinces, Shandong’s competitiveness has diminished.[23] And with pressure mounting to find new drivers for the provincial economy, Shandong officials have put in play a plan aimed at shuttering smaller capacity plants and thus clearing the way for a large-scale private sector-led refining and petrochemical complex on Yulong Island, whose construction is well underway.[24] They have also been developing compensation and worker relocation packages to cushion the impact of planned plant closures, while obtaining letters of guarantee from independent refiners pledging that they will neither resell their crude import quotas nor try to purchase such allocations.[25]

To be sure, the number of Shandong’s independent refiners is shrinking and their composition within the province and across the country is changing — with some smaller-scale units facing closure and others (e.g., Shandong Haike Group, Shandong Shouguang Luqing Petrochemical Corp, and Shandong Chambroad Group) pursuing efforts to diversify their sources of revenue by moving up the value chain. But make no mistake: China’s teapots still account for a third of China’s total refining capacity and a fifth of the country’s crude oil imports. They continue to employ creative defensive measures in the face of government and market pressures, have partnered with state-owned companies, and are deeply integrated with crucial industries downstream.[26] They are consummate survivors in a key sector that continues to evolve — and they remain too important to be driven out of the domestic market or allowed to fail.

In 2016, during the period of frenzied post-licensing crude oil importing by Chinese independents, Saudi Arabia began targeting teapots on the spot market, as did Kuwait. Iran also joined the fray, with the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) operating through an independent trader Trafigura to sell cargoes to Chinese independents.[27] Since then, the coming online of major new greenfield refineries such as Rongsheng ZPC and Hengli Changxing, and Shenghong, which are designed to operate using medium-sour crude, have led Middle East producers to pursue long-term supply contracts with private Chinese refiners. In 2021, the combined share of crude shipments from Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, and Kuwait to China’s independent refiners accounted for 32.5%, an increase of more than 8% over the previous year.[28] This is a trend that Beijing seems intent on supporting, as some bigger, more sophisticated private refiners whose business strategy aligns with President Xi’s vision have started to receive tax benefits or permissions to import larger volumes of crude directly from major producers such as Saudi Arabia.[29]

The shift in Saudi Aramco’s market strategy to focus on customer diversification has paid off in the form of valuable supply relationships with Chinese independents. And Aramco’s efforts to expand its presence in the Chinese refining market and lock in demand have dovetailed neatly with the development of China’s new greenfield refineries.[30] Over the past several years, Aramco has collaborated with both state-owned and independent refiners to develop integrated liquids-to-chemicals complexes in China. In 2018, following on the heels of an oil supply agreement, Aramco purchased a 9% stake in ZPC’s Zhoushan integrated refinery. In March of this year, Saudi Aramco and its joint venture partners, NORINCO Group and Panjin Sincen, made a final investment decision (FID) to develop a major liquids-to-chemicals facility in northeast China.[31] Also in March, Aramco and state-owned Sinopec agreed to conduct a feasibility study aimed at assessing capacity expansion of the Fujian Refining and Petrochemical Co. Ltd.’s integrated refining and chemical production complex.[32]

Commenting on the rationale for these undertakings, Mohammed Al Qahtani, Aramco’s Senior Vice-President of Downstream, stated: “China is a cornerstone of our downstream expansion strategy in Asia and an increasingly significant driver of global chemical demand.”[33] But what Al Qahtani did notsay is that the ties forged between Aramco and Chinese leading teapots (e.g., Shandong Chambroad Petrochemicals) and new liquids-to-chemicals complexes have been instrumental in Saudi Arabia regaining its position as China’s top crude oil supplier in the battle for market share with Russia.[34] Just a few short years ago, independents’ crude purchases had helped Russia gain market share at the expense of Saudi Arabia, accelerating the two exporters’ diverging fortunes in China. In fact, between 2010 and 2015, independent refiners’ imports of Eastern Siberia Pacific Ocean (ESPO) blend accounted for 92% of the growth in Russian crude deliveries to China.[35] But since then, China’s new generation of independents have played a significant role in Saudi Arabia clawing back market share and, with Beijing’s assent, have fortified their supply relationship with the Kingdom.

Vertical integration along the value chain has become a global trend in the petrochemical industry, specifically in refining and chemical operations. China’s drive to self-sufficiency in chemicals is a key factor powering this worldwide trend.[42] And it is the emergent “second generation” of independent refiners that it is helping make China the frontrunner in developing massive liquids-to-chemicals complexes. Following Beijing’s lead, Shandong officials appear determined to follow this trend rather than risk being left in its wake.

As Chinese private refiners’ number, size, and level of sophistication has changed, so too have their roles not just in the domestic petroleum market but in their relations with Middle East suppliers. Beijing’s import licensing and quota policies have enabled some teapot refiners to maintain profitability and others to thrive by sourcing crude oil from the Middle East. For their part, Gulf producers have found Chinese teapots to be valuable customers in the spot market in the battle for market share and, especially in the case of Aramco, in the effort to capture the growth of the Chinese domestic petrochemicals market as it expands.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Saudi crude oil supplies for China’s privately-run Zhejiang Petrochemical Corp will return to normal in October after a slight disruption last month following the attacks on Saudi Aramco’s facilities, two company officials said.

“There was an adjustment in September but operations are back to normal in October,” Meng Fanqiu who heads Rongsheng International Trading Co in Singapore told Reuters. The trading unit procures crude for the refinery.

Zhejiang Petrochemical, 51% owned by Rongsheng Holdings, operates a 400,000 barrels per day refinery, built on an island off the archipelago city of Zhoushan in east China. The refinery is integrated with a petrochemical complex led by a 1.2 million-tonne per year ethylene facility.

Rongsheng Petro Chemical Company Limited manufactures and sales purified terephthalic acid (PTA) and polyester drawn yarn related products. The Company"s main products are PTA and polyester full drawn yarn (FDY), polyester pre-oriented yarn (POY), polyester drawn textured yarn (DTY), various polyester filament and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) slices.

Aramco is in talks with Chinese petrochemical producers that are building new plants to supply them with crude, a company vice-president toldBloomberg. The talks are part of Saudi Arabia’s efforts to gain more exposure to refining and petrochemicals and reduce its dependence on crude oil production and sales.

The new market niche was opened by new energy players in China that have the support of the government even though they are not stated-owned. Unlike the so-called teapots that focus on fuels almost exclusively, these new companies, such as Rongsheng Petrochemical Co. and Hengli Group, are investing billions in petrochemical complexes, with the first of these new facilities to come online next year.

This would be Rongsheng Petrochemical’s US$24-billion planton Zhoushan Island, which will have an initial processing capacity of 400,000 bpd, to be increased to 800,000 bpd by 2020. Rongsheng is understandably one of the companies that Aramco is talking to about future oil supplies.

All major commodity traders and oil producers are watching these new players closely, just like they used to watch the teapots when they began to emerge onto the hot Chinese oil scene. The new petrochemical producers may even get to have a more dramatic effect on oil prices than teapots simply because of their access to deeper-water ports, one analyst told Bloomberg.

“The market is closely watching Rongsheng and Hengli as they’re able to accommodate larger vessels, which means it could be more viable to supply long-haul crudes in addition to regional barrels,” said Energy Aspects analyst Nevyn Nah.