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Friday, 2 June 2017

PPG withdraws proposal in combining with AkzoNobel

PITTSBURGH, US: PPG Industries Inc said that it has withdrawn its proposal to combine with AkzoNobel NV and will not pursue a public offer for all the issued and outstanding shares of AkzoNobel.

PPG made the final decision after careful consideration, including the stakeholder interests of both companies.

“We were hopeful throughout this process that AkzoNobel’s boards would see the merits of our compelling proposal to combine our two great companies and create significant shareholder value and a more sustainable business for the future. We strongly believe a combined company would create more opportunities and provide more benefits for our collective customers, employees, shareholders and society in general,” said Michael McGarry, CEO and chairman, PPG.

BASF increases pigment prices globally

LUDWIGSHAFEN, GERMANY: BASF SE said that it will increase prices for numerous pigments by up to 15 percent worldwide.

The price increase predominantly affects phthalocyanine and inorganic pigments used in the coatings, plastics and printing industries.

The price adjustments are necessary due to higher raw materials costs eg- copper, titanium dioxide (TiO2) or cobalt, as well as further challenging environmental, health and safety costs.

Honeywell introduces digital solutions for connected plant in India

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Honeywell (HON) has launched its set of solutions under the Honeywell Connected Plant (HCP), recently at the first India Technology Summit (ITS), held in New Delhi, India.

This enables the company to promote digitisation in industries in support of the government’s Digital India effort.

HCP’s transformative solutions enable manufacturers and process industries leverage data and insights to improve the efficiency and profitability of their operations.

HCP combines the company’s unmatched industrial expertise, software and cloud technologies to make its customers’ operations more reliable, profitable and secure than ever before. HCP technologies enhance decision making, increase security and productivity, and improve collaboration across the enterprise by providing the right information at the right time. These solutions cater to energy, manufacturing, infrastructure and other industries.

The summit was inaugurated by Ashish Gaikwad, managing director, Honeywell Automation India Limited and country leader, Honeywell Process Solutions; attended by Ajay Prakash Sawhney, additional joint secretary, ministry of petroleum and natural gas (MoPNG), Government of India; also, stakeholders from across the hydrocarbon sector.

“India is at the cusp of a digital revolution, driven by the government’s vision to digitise the economy, citizens, and infrastructure. It is essential for the industry to adopt world-class technologies that improve safety, reliability, and efficiency in an increasingly competitive global environment, and our HCP proposition is uniquely positioned to achieve this industrial evolution,” said Ashish Gaikwad.

“IIoT is the industrial revolution of the 21st century and Make in India is at the heart of Honeywell’s business strategy here. The HCP proposition focuses on technologies and industrial solutions to help organisations harness the power of IIoT”, said Steve Gimre, managing director, Honeywell UOP India.

Attendees had an opportunity to experience firsthand many of Honeywell’s solutions under the HCP portfolio:

Industrial cyber security: Honeywell showcased its Industrial Cyber Security Risk Manager: a solution that provides a single view for operations, IT and leadership teams to monitor, measure and manage cyber security across the enterprise. The team also demonstrated its new Secure Media Exchange (SMX), which gives operators unprecedented control and visibility into the secure use of USB and removable storage by personnel and contractors alike, reducing cyber risk to process control networks globally.

Automated change management software: A powerful documentation and change management software that helps customers’ industrial control system integrity, Honeywell Trace replaces paper-based records and spreadsheets with an automated solution. This helps minimise errors due to changes in configurations, improve worker productivity, and simplify automation asset management by providing a single integrated view of complex system interactions.

Data acquisition and analytics: The expanded Uniformance Suite software provides real-time digital intelligence through advanced process and event data collection, asset-centric analytics and powerful visualisation technology, turning plant data into actionable information to enable smart operations.

Plant performance: Honeywell Connected Plant applications that leverage the IIoT to tap Honeywell's deep process knowledge, design expertise and understanding of catalysis with next-generation software platforms from Honeywell Process Solutions. The software-based service enables refiners and petrochemical and gas processing plants to improve their performance.

AkzoNobel reaffirms commitment to accelerate growth, profitability

AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS: AkzoNobel NV (AKZOY) has noted the recent announcement from PPG Industries Inc (PPG) that it has withdrawn its proposal and will not pursue an offer for AkzoNobel.

“We continue to focus on our business, pursuing our strategy of accelerating sustainable growth and profitability and creating two focused, high-performing businesses – paints and coatings and speciality chemicals. We believe this will lead to a step change in growth and long-term value creation for our shareholders and all other stakeholders,” commented Ton Buchner, CEO of AkzoNobel, following the announcement.

“Our talented teams around the world continue to develop, produce and deliver the most innovative and sustainable products and services for our customers, and I would like to thank all colleagues for their ongoing commitment. We reiterate our commitment to maintaining an open and constructive dialogue with our shareholders and all other stakeholders,” added Buchner.

Clariant appoints BP supply chain director as president, India

MUMBAI, INDIA: Clariant has appointed Adnan Ahmad as region president, India. He succeeds Deepak Parikh who had been leading Clariant's growth strategy in India for the past 4 years.

Deepak Parikh will now serve as the region president for Clariant in North America as well as chief executive officer (CEO) of both Clariant Corporation and Clariant Canada Inc.

Effective 1 June 2017, Adnan Ahmad assumes the role of region president for Clariant in India and also the vice-chairman & managing director of Clariant Chemicals (India) Limited. Adnan joins Clariant from BP where he held various global and leadership roles with demonstrated success in transformational leadership and currently regional supply chain director.

Adnan began his career with Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) where he worked in a variety of manufacturing, supply chain and business roles across India. He also served on the board of Castrol India Limited.

Covestro receives DNV GL certification for newly developed PU resin

LEVERKUSEN, GERMANY: Covestro AG said that it has received an important DNV GL certification for its newly developed resin system in China.

DNV GL is a leading international industry standard for the safety, reliability and performance of wind turbines, and is also the market entry permit to the wind energy industry in China. Covestro is the world’s first company that received the polyurethane DNV GL certification in 2016.

Cost competitive solution for the wind industry

Taking advantage of the excellent mechanical properties of the polyurethane (PU) resin system, wind blades may become lighter and longer through optimised blade design. With faster curing processes and improved processing properties compared to epoxy resins, productivity can be significantly increased. All these benefits will provide a cost competitive solution for the wind industry.

The application of PU resin in the wind energy industry opens up a new realm of possibilities for this high-performance resin. Covestro is the inventor of polyurethane chemistry, celebrating the 80th anniversary since the patent registration of this truly versatile polymer, and continues to be a global leader in the field of polyurethanes.

Largest wind power capacity worldwide

As the Chinese government’s Strategic Energy Action Plan (2014-2020) and the National Energy 13th Five Year Plan indicated, the cumulative integrated capacity of wind energy will achieve 210 Gigawatts by 2020. With the highest total capacity installed worldwide, China represents around 43 percent of new installations in the global wind energy industry in 2016.

The limitation of current materials and technologies makes it very challenging for the industry to improve production efficiency and to produce lighter and longer wind blades. With its polyurethane solutions, Covestro continuously pushes boundaries of what is possible.

The company collaborates with partners along the value chain to offer a high-performance resin which gives wind blade and wind turbine manufacturers the competitive edge. With strong R&D investments, a global production network and this newly acquired DNV GL certification, Covestro is the frontrunner in addressing the wind energy industry with PU solutions.

“Now we obtained the second certification for serving Chinese wind blade manufacturers. This brings us a big step closer to our goal of increasing the efficiency of wind power generation,” said Kim Klausen, global head of Covestro´s wind energy program.

Shell completes sale of oil sands interests in Canada

THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS: Royal Dutch Shell plc has completed two previously announced agreements by Shell Canada Energy, Shell Canada Limited and Shell Canada Resources (Shell), that will see Shell sell all its in-situ and undeveloped oil sands interests in Canada and reduce its share in the Athabasca Oil Sands Project (AOSP) from 60 percent to 10 percent.

Under the first agreement, Shell has completed the sale to a subsidiary of Canadian Natural Resources Limited (Canadian Natural) its entire 60 percent interest in AOSP, its 100 percent interest in the Peace River Complex in-situ assets, including Carmon Creek, and a number of undeveloped oil sands leases in Alberta, Canada.

The consideration to Shell from Canadian Natural is approximately $8.2 billion (C$10.9 billion), comprised of $5.3 billion in cash plus around 98 million Canadian Natural shares currently valued at $2.9 billion. Shell’s share position in Canadian Natural will be managed for value realisation over time.

Separately and under the second agreement, Shell and Canadian Natural have completed the joint acquisition and now own equally Marathon Oil Canada Corporation (MOCC), which holds a 20 percent interest in AOSP, from an affiliate of Marathon Oil Corporation for $1.25 billion each.

As previously announced, the transactions were estimated to result in a post-tax impairment of $1.3 to $1.5 billion of which $1.1 billion was taken in Q1, 2017 with a further $0.4 billion expected in Q2, 2017 based on final closing adjustments.

Effective 1 June 2017, Canadian Natural will operate the AOSP upstream mining assets, while Shell will continue as operator of the Scotford upgrader and Quest carbon capture and storage (CCS) project, located next to the 100 percent Shell-affiliate-owned Scotford refinery and chemicals plants.

Shell retains significant operations in Canada that are not affected by these transactions, including, in Upstream shales, with large acreage positions in the Duvernay and Montney formations; Downstream through chemicals, refining and marketing; and in Integrated Gas with the proposed LNG Canada project.