The Urethane Blog
Everchem Updates
VOLUME XXI
September 14, 2023
Everchem’s exclusive Closers Only Club is reserved for only the highest caliber brass-baller salesmen in the chemical industry. Watch the hype video and be introduced to the top of the league: — read more
January 30, 2024
January settles at $0.495/lb
January 29, 2024
The old time way of rewarding years of service. This was from Dow . . . Probably worth $1,000 bucks on Antiques Roadshow!!!
January 29, 2024
Arsenal Capital Invests in Polycorp January 29, 2024. New York, NY and Elora, Ontario, Canada. Arsenal Capital Partners (“Arsenal”), a private equity firm that specializes in investments in industrial and healthcare companies, today announced that it has completed a majority investment in Polycorp Ltd. (“Polycorp”), a leading manufacturer of engineered elastomer solutions. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Polycorp is headquartered in Elora, Ontario, and employs approximately 250 full-time staff. The company serves its global customer base with rubber- and polyurethane- based elastomer solutions, that help reduce corrosion, abrasion, vibration, and noise. Polycorp’s leading engineering and design services, combined with its robust molding, calendering, and extrusion capabilities, underpin its success serving mission-critical, infrastructure and industrial focused applications for the mineral processing, rail, and protective linings industries.
“The transaction with Arsenal will accelerate Polycorp’s strategic growth initiatives and enable additional investment in our manufacturing and R&D capabilities, human capital, and strategic acquisitions,” said Peter Snucins, founder of Polycorp. “I am especially excited to partner with Arsenal given the firm’s established track record of building leading materials technology businesses in the elastomers sector.” Following the closing, Peter Snucins will remain as an investor and Board member of Polycorp.
Brett Schneider, an Operating Partner of Arsenal, commented, “The company’s portfolio of capabilities is a natural fit for Arsenal, given our previous successful experiences investing in elastomeric and polymeric technologies, such as rubber and polyurethanes.”
“We are excited to partner with Polycorp given the company’s best-in-class elastomeric technologies and customer service capabilities,” added Dan Bruck, a Principal of Arsenal. William Blair & Company, L.L.C. acted as exclusive financial advisor to Polycorp. Harris Williams served as a financial advisor to Arsenal.
About Polycorp Founded in 1996 and headquartered in Elora, Ontario, Polycorp is a leader in the design, manufacture, sale, and distribution of engineered elastomeric solutions. Polycorp serves critical, high cost of failure applications across infrastructure and industrial focused markets, globally across 35+ countries worldwide.
For more information, visit www.poly-corp.com.
About Arsenal Capital Partners Arsenal Capital Partners is a leading private equity firm that specializes in investments in industrial growth and healthcare companies. Since its inception in 2000, Arsenal has raised institutional equity investment funds totaling over $10 billion, completed more than 290 platform and add-on acquisitions, and achieved more than 35 realizations. The firm works with management teams to build strategically important companies with leading market positions, high growth, and high value-add.
For more information, visit www.arsenalcapital.com
January 29, 2024
Holcim jumps on $30bn plan to spin off North American unit
Holcim Ltd shares jumped after the Swiss cement maker said it will spin off its North American unit into a separate US-listed entity, a move that could unlock a higher valuation for the business.
This content was published on January 29, 2024 – 13:37 January 29, 2024 – 13:37
3 minutes
The US arm had about $11 billion in sales last year — about one-third of Holcim’s total — and could be valued at more than $30 billion, the company said. Holcim shares climbed as much as 14% in early trading, the most since March 2020, and were up 4% as of 12pm Zurich time, valuing the entire company at almost CHF39 billion ($45 billion).
US listings have become increasingly appealing to European companies as a wider investor base and bigger pool of capital offer the prospect of higher valuations. Holcim’s move for its US division follows the decision of fellow materials giant CRH Plc to shift from London to New York last year.
Reacting to the news, Citigroup Inc. analyst Ephrem Ravi noted that US-listed building-product companies trade at a significant premium to European-listed peers. Zuercher Kantonalbank analyst Martin Huesler calculated the US business’s fair value at around $35 billion to $40 billion.
“It is a big advantage to have a customized capital structure for this business and to be in the US dollar,” Holcim Chief Executive Officer Jan Jenisch said in an interview on Monday with Bloomberg Television.
Jenisch is stepping down from his role as CEO, and will be replaced by Miljan Gutovic, currently the head of the European business. Jenisch will remain chairman and lead the planned US listing of the North American business. He said the company would consider buybacks to help smooth the transaction.
The US market is growing at a rapid pace as builders race to relieve a chronic lack of single-family homes and meet regulatory pressures for more energy-efficient buildings. The unit expanded through an acquisition spree that broadened its offering of building materials.
Holcim says the North American business is the No. 1 player in cement and No. 3 in roofing, and it aims to roughly double sales to about $20 billion by 2030.
Jenisch said the US housing market has great momentum, while downplaying risks of policy changes in case of a reelection of Donald Trump in the US presidential election in November. He said “economic policy is very consistent” and infrastructure and housing will remain a priority.
“We have a rockstar business in the US,” Jenisch said. “We will have a very strong capital structure for both companies so plenty of headroom to support the US listing.”
January 25, 2024
US propylene market surges during January amidst PDH outage
MRC — The US Propylene market experienced a turbulent January 2024, marked by relentless price hikes fueled by a confluence of factors, said Chemanalyst.
The trend, already bullish throughout December, gained further momentum due to a combination of limited supply and surging demand. While a scheduled maintenance shutdown at Enterprise Products Partners’ Mont Belvieu plant contributed to the tight supply, the adverse effect was the December 4th outage of their newest 750,000 mt/year PDH unit. This unexpected event, triggered by an operational issue, sent shockwaves through the Propylene landscape. The sudden removal of a major production artery from the equation drastically reduced readily available Propylene, sending scarcity levels soaring.
As per the recent assessment, the Propylene market in the USA keeps on rising with a hike of 10% at the beginning of January 2024 due to supply constraints. Therefore, Propylene Polymer Grade DEL US Gulf assessed at 1090 USD/tonne with a surge of 100 USD during the third week of January 2024. This bullish trend was attributed to an outage of the PDH plant in Texas whose immediate impact was a tightening of supply with a major production artery suddenly out of commission, and readily available propylene dwindling.
Adding fuel to the fire, US Propane and Propylene inventories dipped below more than 90 million barrels for the first time in three months, according to data from the US Energy Information Administration. This declining stockpile further exacerbated the scarcity, creating a perfect storm for price hikes. The affected PDH units have hampered the production of Propylene, leading to a decrease in the overall supply. The magnitude of the impact depends on the duration of an outage which keeps on affecting the margins. As supply falls, the price of the product has skyrocketed during this timeframe. This reflects the increased demand for the limited available product, which is a vital feedstock for many downstream industries, especially Polypropylene production. A shortage of the product can lead to production slowdowns or shutdowns in these industries, impacting sectors like packaging, textiles, and automotive components. The spot export US Polypropylene market, heavily reliant on readily available Propylene and the tightened conditions, slowed movement, and skyrocketing prices became the new reality. This domino effect also intensified inflationary pressures across the industry, as cost burdens stemming from increased supplier prices for metals and plastics, coupled with higher transportation charges, cascaded down the chain.
As per ChemAnalyst, the price of Propylene in the US market is expected to sustain its uptrend throughout January 2024. While the immediate shock of the Enterprise outage may have subsided, its long-term effects continue to ripple through the Propylene landscape. The spot exports US Propylene market, though recovering from the initial shock, still grapples with the consequences of the disrupted supply chain. The unexpected outage, coupled with pre-existing scarcity and inflationary pressures, created a complex landscape with a bullish future.
We remind, Pengerang Refining and Petrochemical (PRefChem), a collaborative venture between Malaysia’s major petrochemical entity Petronas and the state-owned Saudi oil company Saudi Aramco, recently announced a tender on January 19. The tender is for the sale of a spot shipment of propylene with the intention of swift shipment scheduled for the conclusion of January. Specifically, the batch, totalling 5 thousand tons, is slated to be shipped from PRefChem’s facility in Pengerang, located in Johor, Malaysia, on January 28-30.
https://www.mrchub.com/news/411204-us-propylene-market-surges-during-january-amidst-pdh-outage
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