Issue 18, 2022 - Global Chemicals Bulletin Overview

The supply of caustic soda in the European market is under pressure

Recently, Nobian, Europe's largest manufacturer of chlor-alkali products, announced that its caustic soda supply in Europe has force majeure due to equipment failure and raw material supply constraints caused by arid weather
.
At the same time, its plant in Rotterdam faced longer than expected shutdowns
.
The impact of this force majeure will limit its ability to
meet the demand for the intended product.
Nobian has a production capacity of 630,000 tons/year of chlorine, caustic soda and hydrogen at its facility in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and 200,000 tons/year of caustic soda and 250,000 tons/year of chlorine at its plant in Frankfurt, Germany
.
The latest data from Euro Chlor, the European chlor-alkali industry association, showed that caustic soda stocks in Europe fell by 0.
3% to 194998 tonnes in June; Average daily production of chlorine in Europe fell by 5.
7% to 22,759 tonnes, the lowest level this year
.

CEFIC called on the EU to limit gas prices

Recently, the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic), an EU trade organization, said that the EU must limit natural gas prices so that energy-intensive industries such as chemicals can cope with the energy crisis
.
CEFIC also called for measures to decouple electricity prices from gas costs and to adjust the Country Assistance Framework
for Temporary Crises.
Cefic and 11 other trade groups representing energy-intensive industrial sectors, including the European Fertilizer Association, said current gas prices in the EU are 15 times higher than pre-crisis levels, 10 times the domestic gas price in the United States and much higher than Asian gas prices, putting European producers under intense pressure
.
This has already led to production cuts or shutdowns for many industrial producers in the EU, with more expected in the coming weeks, jeopardizing investment and further development
.
This will lead Europe to rely on imports to strengthen supply chains and lead to an increase
in global carbon emissions.

BASF and others started construction of a demonstration plant for a large-scale electrically heated steam cracking furnace

BASF, Sabik and Linde today announced that they have started construction of the world's first large-scale electrically heated steam cracker demonstration plant to replace natural gas
with electricity from renewable sources.
The new technology has the potential to reduce CO2 emissions
from steam cracking production by at least 90% compared to commonly used technologies today.
Steam cracking is one of
the most energy-intensive processes in the chemical industry.
The demonstration plant will be fully integrated into
an existing steam cracker at BASF's Verbund plant in Ludwigshafen, Germany.
It will test two different heating concepts, processing about 4 tons of hydrocarbons per hour and consuming 6 megawatts of renewable energy
.
The commissioning of the demonstration plant is scheduled for
2023.
BASF and Sabik are jointly investing in the project, which will be operated
by BASF.
Linde is the engineering, procurement and construction partner for the project and will commercialize the technology in the
future.

Lubricant consumption in Japan fell sharply in July

According to the latest data released by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japan's consumption of finished lubricants in July fell 7% year-on-year to 124,000 tons, production (including exports) increased slightly by 3% year-on-year to 175,100 tons, and imports fell by more than 50%
year-on-year.
The Bank of Japan said in its July 22 economic activity and price outlook report that supply and demand conditions for some goods in Japan are extremely tight, partly due to the impact
of surging global demand and supply chain disruptions.
The Bank of Japan pointed out that many manufacturing companies pointed out that supply and demand conditions are tighter than before the pandemic, and such industries tend to raise sales prices
.
The Bank of Japan said that for commodities with significantly tight supply and demand conditions, cost transmission could rise
.