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VOLUME XXI
September 14, 2023
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January 22, 2021
BASF plans early-March maintenance at Ludwigshafen TDI plant January 22/2021 MOSCOW (MRC) — BASF is planning to carry out maintenance work early in March at its 300,000-metric tons/year toluene diisocyanate (TDI) plant at Ludwigshafen, Germany, market sources have told OPIS, said Chemweek.
“The facility is expected to be in planned turnaround from early March until the end of May, but we don’t know the exact dates of the turnaround,” a source said. BASF declined to comment. “We do not comment on plant maintenance or run rates,” a company spokesperson said.
Another source speculated that TDI production might start to slow from the site from the end of February in preparation for the turnaround. This will result in lower toluene consumption than in recent months, according to Eleanor Dann, principal toluene analyst at IHS Markit.
“Whilst the turnaround for TDI production will reduce consumption of TDI-grade toluene, this will not necessarily result in an additional 10,000-15,000 metric tons of length for the toluene market as supply is likely to be adjusted in knowledge of the outage,” said Dann.
BASF had declared force majeure on 31 August 2020 after experiencing technical problems. After several attempted restarts, it lifted the force majeure at its TDI plant on 30 November, a company spokesperson confirmed.
As MRC informed earlier, BASF says its 420,000-metric ton/year steam cracker in Ludwigshafen, Germany is continuously running and has not caused any interruption of supply to its customers. Earlier, several media outlets reported that unscheduled flaring started on 13 January at the northern part of the Ludwigshafen site and was expected to last until 17 January and that an unspecified unit was shut, which “was not the case”, as per the company’s letter received by MRC.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
BASF is the leading chemical company. It produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries. 
mrcplast.comAuthor:Anna Larionova
January 22, 2021
BASF plans early-March maintenance at Ludwigshafen TDI plant January 22/2021 MOSCOW (MRC) — BASF is planning to carry out maintenance work early in March at its 300,000-metric tons/year toluene diisocyanate (TDI) plant at Ludwigshafen, Germany, market sources have told OPIS, said Chemweek.
“The facility is expected to be in planned turnaround from early March until the end of May, but we don’t know the exact dates of the turnaround,” a source said. BASF declined to comment. “We do not comment on plant maintenance or run rates,” a company spokesperson said.
Another source speculated that TDI production might start to slow from the site from the end of February in preparation for the turnaround. This will result in lower toluene consumption than in recent months, according to Eleanor Dann, principal toluene analyst at IHS Markit.
“Whilst the turnaround for TDI production will reduce consumption of TDI-grade toluene, this will not necessarily result in an additional 10,000-15,000 metric tons of length for the toluene market as supply is likely to be adjusted in knowledge of the outage,” said Dann.
BASF had declared force majeure on 31 August 2020 after experiencing technical problems. After several attempted restarts, it lifted the force majeure at its TDI plant on 30 November, a company spokesperson confirmed.
As MRC informed earlier, BASF says its 420,000-metric ton/year steam cracker in Ludwigshafen, Germany is continuously running and has not caused any interruption of supply to its customers. Earlier, several media outlets reported that unscheduled flaring started on 13 January at the northern part of the Ludwigshafen site and was expected to last until 17 January and that an unspecified unit was shut, which “was not the case”, as per the company’s letter received by MRC.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
BASF is the leading chemical company. It produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries.
mrcplast.comAuthor:Anna Larionova
January 21, 2021
Aurora And PACCAR Team Up In Autonomous Truck Push
by Tyler DurdenThursday, Jan 21, 2021 – 14:30
Submitted by Market Crumbs,
Just last month Uber unloaded its self-driving unit, Advanced Technologies Group, to Aurora to accelerate the development of the Aurora Driver, which is hoping to become the autonomous driving platform powering everything from passenger vehicles to heavy-duty trucks.
Aurora is backed by names such as Amazon and Sequoia with Uber now reportedly holding a more than 25% stake in the company following last month’s deal. Aurora was co-founded by Chris Urmson, who headed Google’s self-driving division for nearly eight years and is one of the most widely regarded names in the self-driving vehicle space.
Aurora didn’t take long to announce its next move following the acquisition of ATG as the company signed a global strategic partnership with trucking giant PACCAR to bring a self-driving trucks powered by the Aurora Driver to market in the coming years.
The partnership will see the two companies develop, test and commercialize autonomous Peterbilt and Kenworth trucks. Kenworth T680 and Peterbilt 579 trucks running on the Aurora Driver are expected to be deployed in North America over the next few years.
“PACCAR looks forward to partnering with Aurora because of their industry-leading autonomous driving technology and impressive team,” PACCAR CEO Preston Feight said. “This strategic partnership complements PACCAR’s best-in-class commercial vehicle quality, technology and innovation.”
The partnership is a win for Aurora, which says it has already been using PACCAR trucks for many of its test vehicles. Aurora will provide self-driving technology such as hardware, software and operational services, while PACCAR will use its more than 100 years of experience in the trucking sector to contribute autonomous-enabled vehicles and aftermarket parts distribution, finance and other transportation solutions.
“Working together, we’ve been impressed with PACCAR’s product engineering, manufacturing capabilities, and commitment to enhancing its customers’ operational safety and efficiency,” Urmson said. “This partnership brings us one step closer to unlocking the autonomous freight market and delivering goods to those who need them.”
If successful, the partnership could be further applied to other models under the Peterbilt and Kenworth brands, while also expanding outside of the U.S. through PACCAR’s other brands such as Dutch truck manufacturer DAF Trucks.
Fresh off its deal to acquire Uber’s self-driving unit, Aurora now has the perfect partner in PACCAR to help accelerate the development and commercialization of autonomous trucks globally.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/aurora-and-paccar-team-autonomous-truck-push
January 21, 2021
Aurora And PACCAR Team Up In Autonomous Truck Push
by Tyler DurdenThursday, Jan 21, 2021 – 14:30
Submitted by Market Crumbs,
Just last month Uber unloaded its self-driving unit, Advanced Technologies Group, to Aurora to accelerate the development of the Aurora Driver, which is hoping to become the autonomous driving platform powering everything from passenger vehicles to heavy-duty trucks.
Aurora is backed by names such as Amazon and Sequoia with Uber now reportedly holding a more than 25% stake in the company following last month’s deal. Aurora was co-founded by Chris Urmson, who headed Google’s self-driving division for nearly eight years and is one of the most widely regarded names in the self-driving vehicle space.
Aurora didn’t take long to announce its next move following the acquisition of ATG as the company signed a global strategic partnership with trucking giant PACCAR to bring a self-driving trucks powered by the Aurora Driver to market in the coming years.
The partnership will see the two companies develop, test and commercialize autonomous Peterbilt and Kenworth trucks. Kenworth T680 and Peterbilt 579 trucks running on the Aurora Driver are expected to be deployed in North America over the next few years.
“PACCAR looks forward to partnering with Aurora because of their industry-leading autonomous driving technology and impressive team,” PACCAR CEO Preston Feight said. “This strategic partnership complements PACCAR’s best-in-class commercial vehicle quality, technology and innovation.”
The partnership is a win for Aurora, which says it has already been using PACCAR trucks for many of its test vehicles. Aurora will provide self-driving technology such as hardware, software and operational services, while PACCAR will use its more than 100 years of experience in the trucking sector to contribute autonomous-enabled vehicles and aftermarket parts distribution, finance and other transportation solutions.
“Working together, we’ve been impressed with PACCAR’s product engineering, manufacturing capabilities, and commitment to enhancing its customers’ operational safety and efficiency,” Urmson said. “This partnership brings us one step closer to unlocking the autonomous freight market and delivering goods to those who need them.”
If successful, the partnership could be further applied to other models under the Peterbilt and Kenworth brands, while also expanding outside of the U.S. through PACCAR’s other brands such as Dutch truck manufacturer DAF Trucks.
Fresh off its deal to acquire Uber’s self-driving unit, Aurora now has the perfect partner in PACCAR to help accelerate the development and commercialization of autonomous trucks globally.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/aurora-and-paccar-team-autonomous-truck-push
January 21, 2021
Mideast chemical supply tight on container shortages, Asian plant shutdowns
Author: Felicia Loo
2021/01/21
SINGAPORE (ICIS)–Middle East’s petrochemical markets are facing tight supply, mainly due to shortage of containers, with shipment difficulties to last until March.
Plant shutdowns in Asia exacerbated the tight supply conditions, overshadowing demand from strong to stable in certain sectors in the Middle East.
Base oils supply are critically short because crude runs have been reduced.
Many producers are trying to keep up with a backlog of contract requirements, hence they are not allocating anything for spot market.
Iran is one of the biggest suppliers in the region and their shipping lines are under US sanctions.
In polyethylene, supply in the Middle East remains limited on strong demand for regional cargoes in major export markets, in the absence of export availability from US, leading to major regional producers selling out their allocations for key grades.
On polypropylene (PP), curtailed spot availability for the month has meant that most suppliers have sold out allocations and are poised to announce February prices later this month.
Market players in Jordan look forward to better demand emerging in February, as the government announces the lifting of pandemic restrictions in phases and the weekly Friday curfew was also ended.
The supply conditions were more critical in the case of Middle Eastern bases oil, with a sharp shortfall reverberating in the region.
Spot availability from any of the main producers either in the Middle East or Asia continued to face extreme shortages.
In fact, there was a higher incentive for Iranian refiners to export base oil cargoes to India instead of the UAE, compounding the thin supply situation.
Meanwhile, on crude oil outlook, demand may face some negative pressure once again in the near term as new highly-transmissible coronavirus strains spread rapidly across the globe.
Many countries, including the UK, Germany and Japan, have already re-introduced or extended restrictions, with many more countries likely to follow their lead if the number of cases continues to rise.
However, the market will see significant support from Saudi Arabia’s plan to cut production by 1m bbl/day in February and March.
In other chemicals, weak spot consumption for polymeric methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (PMDI) persists in the Middle East.
Demand from the construction sector in the GCC did not pick up and remained on the downtrend, overshadowing prospects of container shortfall in coming weeks.
But, on the other hand, toluene diisocyanate (TDI) in the Middle East was underpinned by improving downstream polyurethane (PU) foam demand.
Supply of 10-13.5% polyether polyol (POP) was tight in the Middle East, while demand remained stable.
Korean producers had mostly sold out their cargoes for January and February thus keeping conditions tight, with the ongoing container shortages worsening the situation.
Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) buyers in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region have seen a delay of about one to two weeks in receiving their previously booked Asian cargoes that has become common given the recent tightness in container and shipping availability.
A slew of turnarounds in Asia meant less sales pressure from Asian suppliers to sell to the Middle East that sits in well with buyers preferring to buy regional cargo for better security in cargo delivery.
In China, Zhejiang Wankai New Materials shut its 400,000 tonne/year plant for maintenance in November last year, with the shutdown to last more than a few months and no restart date in sight.
China Resources Chemical shut its 400,000 tonne/year plant for a month-long maintenance that started in end-December.
A plant in Taiwan was planned to have maintenance around mid-January that may stretch longer than one month.
India’s IVL Dhunseri started maintenance for one PET line in early December last year and postponed the estimated restart date to end-January.
Additional reporting by Veena Pathare, Izham Ahmad, Prateek Pillai and Hazel Goh
Focus story by Felicia Loo
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