Plastics industry chain news of the week

North American Petroleum projects have been stalled in the recent few weeks due to the coronavirus. However some of the projects have already resumed after the pause because of the pandemic, some other ones are progressing at a very slow pace.

Recently Exxonmobil announced that Gulf Coast Growth Ventures (GCGV) have grown at a considerable pace, however the projects with downstream have been pushed back from 1 to 3 years. It includes an annual production of 1.8 million ton production of polyamide cracking unit and downstream polyethylene and graphite unit. The project completion rate is around 80%, and is planned to be operational by the fourth quarter of 2021. ExxonMobile senior vice president stated that other projects will be put on halt but will not be canceled. Other projects have been pushed back to 2022 such as the Polypropylene project in Louisiana.

Shell have suspended the chemical factory project in March of this year, after establishing a local laboratory the construction project have resumed, and it’s completed around 70% of all construction. However the planned date of the site becoming operational is still after 2024.  Borealis chemical have confirmed that the Texas Bayport joint venture Baystar will be pushed back as well. Nova chemicals pushed back two projects in Canada as well.

Formosa chemicals have also delayed their project in Lousiana St James project of 9.4 billion USD to 2021. Due to the Coronavirus.

PTTGC stated in November that although their partnership with Daelim from South Korea have been terminated, they are actively seeking new partners to complete the project of 1.5 million tons of ethylene cracking project. This is projected to be completed from 2027 to 2028. Inter pipeline showed that the project in Alberta is going as planned. And is stated to be operational in 2022. However the Kuwati Canadian Joint venture stated by Pembina pipeline is still being paused after the fall of oil and gas prices.

Lyondellbasell have resumed their project in Channelview, Texas. The project, for PO/TBA, have already paused in March of 2020. The CEO stated that the project will be completed by Q4 of 2022. The cost of the project is stated to incrase by 30% and the revenue will fall by approximately 10%.

CC polymers project of PTA/PET is being pushed back. Due to the fact that M&G’s bankruptcy had severe adverse effect on the project. The completion of the project is being pushed back indefinitely. Alpek CFO stated that the cooperation will continue until 2020 and in 2021 will discuss terms of cooperation yet again.