Source: Haike News Weibo

According to the Chinese and foreign paint network, since the Russian-Ukrainian war, the actions of mutual restraint and sanctions by many parties have been escalating. According to incomplete statistics, issues such as the ban on the sale of crude oil, the permanent suspension of the supply of “Beixi-1” natural gas, and the missile attack on the Ukrainian nuclear power plant have all affected the development of the overseas chemical industry, especially in European countries that rely on supplies from Russia and Ukraine. forced to stop production.

According to data from the Nordic electricity market, the highest electricity price in European countries exceeded 600 euros in August, reaching a peak, a year-on-year increase of 500%.

The sharp increase in production costs has directly caused European factories to reduce production and increase product prices. Taking the global chemical giant BASF as an example, 60% of the natural gas it purchases is used as energy for production, and 40% is used as raw material for the production of chemicals. BASF, which has cut production and raised prices many times during the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, said in early September that it might cut production further if necessary after learning that the supply of Nord Stream 1 would be suspended indefinitely.

Covestro also admitted that its factories in Germany may face the risk of closing chemical production facilities or even the entire factory. Once the German production site is shut down, the company’s global capacity will be cut by a quarter. In addition, Dunkirk, Total Energy, Alcoa, CF Industries, Yara and other companies have also announced production cuts.

In the face of Russia’s energy supply cutoff, European politicians scolded Fang Qiu, and you sang and I came on stage; but European entrepreneurs suffered, faced with soaring costs, and they had no choice but to raise prices.

New energy giant Tesla recently sent an email to European car owners warning that another massive price hike is imminent for supercharging stations. In the email, Tesla blamed rising energy prices in Europe for the price hike. “Due to rising energy prices, we are adjusting prices for supercharging services across Europe,” the company said.

According to foreign media reports, Tesla operates a large number of charging stations in Europe. The charging price of super charging stations in Europe has increased by an average of 0.12 euros/kWh. obvious.

At the same time, due to the current increase in supply uncertainty, the production cost of chemical products in Europe has risen sharply, and local chemical plants have passively reduced the load, resulting in a large gap in the supply of chemical products, further promoting ethylene, urea, adipic acid, silica, resin and other chemical products prices rose sharply.

With the rising prices of energy and bulk raw materials, chemical companies such as Mitsubishi Chemical, QQ Chemical, Trinseo, and Sun-Tox have recently announced their price increases for October in advance.

Mitsubishi Chemical: On September 16, the company issued two price increase letters in succession to increase the price of transparent metallized PET film and resin modifier “METABLEN”.

Mitsubishi Chemical said it will increase the price of transparent metallized PET film from October 1. The increase is more than 300 yen/kg (approximately RMB 14,697/ton); from October 3, the price of all products of the resin modifier “METABLEN” will be raised, of which the domestic market will increase by 30 yen/kg (approximately 1,470 yuan/ton). RMB/ton), the overseas market rose by more than 0.2 US dollars/kg (about 1403 yuan/ton).

QQ Chemical: From October 1st, the price of n-octylamine will be increased if the contract allows, and the price of n-octylamine will increase by 980 euros / ton (about RMB 6,800 / ton) for Europe; for North America and Mexico, it will increase by 0.44 US dollars / pound (approximately RMB 6,750/ton); other regions rose by $980/ton (approximately RMB 6,820/ton).

Trinseo: issued a price increase notice saying that starting from October 3, the price of all grades of PMMA resin in North America will be increased by 0.12 US dollars / pound (about 1834 yuan / ton) in the case of the current contract.

Sun-Tox: The price of the company’s OPP film and CPP film products will be raised from October 21, with a specific increase of more than 200 yen/kg (about 9798 yuan/ton).

Denka Co., Ltd.: Since November 1, the price of styrene monomer has been raised by 4 yen/kg (about 200 yuan/ton).

Wang Dawei, a senior observer of the coatings industry, believes that in the current market environment, domestic products are expected to increase the competitiveness of overseas exports with relatively low raw material costs. Europe occupies an important position in the supply side of chemicals such as antioxidants, ethylene, acetic acid, MDI, TDI, and vitamins. The production reduction in Europe may push the corresponding sub-sectors into an upward cycle, and China’s ability to stably supply the world is expected to be highlighted again.

By using renewable energy to generate electricity instead of natural gas, the new technology has the potential to reduce CO2 emissions from energy-intensive production processes in the chemical industry by 90 percent compared to technologies commonly used today.

The demonstration plant will be fully integrated into one of the existing steam crackers at BASF’s integrated plant in Ludwigshafen, Germany. It will test two different heating concepts, processing around 4 tonnes of hydrocarbons per hour and consuming 6 MW of renewable electricity/electricity. The start-up time of the demonstration plant is
2023.

New technology

With the new technology, BASF, Sabic and Linde aim to develop fully commercial production plants that can significantly reduce CO2 emissions compared to today’s technology.

The investment costs for the pilot will be borne by BASF and Sabic, and the demonstration plant will be operated by BASF. Linde is the engineering, procurement and construction partner for the project and will commercialize the developed technology in the future.

Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action has allocated 14.8 million euros ($14.63 million) to the project under its “Decarbonization of Industry” funding program to help meet the challenges posed by current framework conditions and energy costs.

Electrification of Steam Crackers

Martin, Chairman of the Executive Board of BASF Europe
Dr. Brudermüller said: “BASF has the entrepreneurial drive to achieve the energy transition and the electrification of the steam cracker is very important for us. We are therefore delighted that BASF has received project funding from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, which demonstrates our approach There is also support from policymakers.”

Sabic Vice Chairman and CEO Yousef
Al-Benyan said: “Our vision is to transform our business and help solve pressing global challenges through efficient carbon management. This project has enormous implications for all petrochemical industries around the world as we drive low carbon emissions. Potential. As we jointly announce this milestone of commencement of construction, we hope that our tripartite collaboration will inspire more collaborations, ultimately enabling the world to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions through a circular carbon economy.”

Benefits of partnership

Jürgen, Executive Vice President of Linde AG and CEO of Linde
Nowicki said: “This project demonstrates how global companies can successfully collaborate by combining their expertise in technology development, EPC execution and operations. Timely delivery of the demonstration plant will be the first step in the path to delivering sustainable solutions to the petrochemical industry. Important milestone. We are proud to be a participant in this ground-breaking project.”