Finland’s Neste says to decide on new renewables plant in 2018
Sept 19 – Neste Oyj
* says it will finalize the feasibility studies for a new, up to 1 million ton/a renewables production capacity by the end of 2017
* says aims to make the final investment decision on a new production unit by the end of 2018 with a target to have it operational by 2022
* aims to increase its existing renewables capacity by debottlenecking to 3 million tons/a by 2020
* says company will distribute at least 50 pct of company’s comparable net profit for year in form of dividends; previous policy was to distribute at least 40 pct of theprofit
* company intends to distribute the annual dividend in two installments
* leverage target has been revised to below 40 pct from previous 25-50 pct, ROACE target remains at 15 pct
* Neste expects Oil Products’ reference refining margin to continue strong into the autumn and to average above the previous year’s level in 2017
* says global demand for oil products has continued healthy and a number of supply disruptions have recently occurred at refineries on both sides of the Atlantic
* says Porvoo refinery is expected to run at a high utilization rate, except for a scheduled four-week maintenance during Q4
* During second half of 2017, renewable products’ additional margin is expected to be higher than in first half of year
* Sales volumes of 100 pct renewable diesel delivered to end-users expected to grow from about 25 pct in 2017 to 50 pct of the total sales in 2020
* says aims to make the first commercial delivery of bio-based plastics during the first half of 2018; targets to have 20 pct of its renewable business sales volume from such new applications by 2020 Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage.
Source: Reuters
