Assam Petrochemicals to construct methanol and acetic acid plants

(chemicals-technology) -- India's Assam Petrochemicals is planning to build methanol and downstream acetic acid (AA) plants in Namrup, Assam.
The plants, which are expected to be completed by the end of 2014, will produce methanol of 500,000tpa and acetic acid of 200,000tpa.

Assam's natural gas will be used as feedstock to complete the construction of the methanol plant. Although concrete plans had not been finalised yet, in the long term, the company plans to build further downstream plants at the site.
As part of the plan, Assam Petrochemicals is considering dimethyl ether and biodiesel plants to use the methanol.

The company is also planning to build downstream vinyl acetate monomer (VAM), polyvinyl acetate (PVA) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH) plants to use the AA. Starting in September 2012, the company is planning to import acetic acid from Middle Eastern sources on contractual terms.

Major acetic acid producers in Asia and the Middle East include China's Jiangsu Sopo Chemical, Shanghai Wujing Chemical, Yankuang Cathay Coal Chemicals, Henan Shunda Chemical and Hebei Yingdu Gasification.
Assam Petrochemical, which is predominantly owned by the Assam state government, is involved in the manufacture of petrochemicals using natural gas as feedstock.

The company also has a small methanol plant and a downstream formaldehyde plant in Namrup, with both having a capacity of 33,000tpa.

MRC

(chemicals-technology) --Saudi Aramco Asia Company (SAAC) has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with PT Pertamina to assess the economic feasibility to build an integrated refining and petrochemical project at Tuban, East Java, Indonesia.

The proposed refinery and petrochemicals project is designed to produce 300,000 barrels per day of crude oil, of which the majority will be supplied by Aramco under a long-term contract.
The proposed plant will also produce refined petroleum and petrochemicals products to meet rising demand in Indonesia and other countries in South-East Asia.

SAAC, a subsidiary of Saudi Aramco, has various business and support services for many of the latter's business operations in the Asian region, while PT Pertamina is involved in exploration and production of oil and gas; the refining, manufacturing and marketing of oil products and petrochemicals; and the development of biofuels, geothermal power and other sustainable alternative energy sources.

MRC

(ei.wtin) -- Polyester producer Indorama Venture Limited (IVL) recorded consolidated sales revenue of USD6bn last year, approximately double the figure it achieved in 2010 (USD3bn).

The company's net profit also rose to USD510m, this was 55% above the $328m achieved in 2010, and after excluding extraordinary items IVL's profits were still 38% higher when compared to the same period.

Despite the natural disasters that occurred in Thailand and Alabama, US, IVL's annual volume growth increased by nearly two-fifths.

In 2011, its reported Consolidated EBITDA was USD558m, reflecting growth of 28% over the previous year, while Core EBITDA was USD552 million, or growth of 38%.

The end consumer demand growth for PET and Polyester was in line with forecasts at 7% globally, however industrial sentiments in the fourth quarter in 2011 turned bearish leading to de-stocking and a reduction in inventory similar to sentiments observed in Q4 2008 at the height of the financial crisis.

According to IVL, Q4 2011 was significantly impacted by both short term de-stocking of inventories globally due to falling commodities prices, which resulted in lower production volumes, and the loss in production of plants in Thailand due to the floods.

However, after a slow fourth quarter all of its business segments are seeing resilient consumer demand in all markets, leading to high manufacturing utilisation rates and lower operating costs due to scale.

Recently the company has made a number of acquisitions including the buyout of FiberVisions, Old World and Wellman International. The FiberVision deal not only adds specialty mono/bi- component fibres in high value consumer applications, but also makes IVL the largest producer of polypropylene fibre.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- In January, the imports of PET to the Russian market fell more than by twice and made about 6,000 tons against 13,000 tons in December 2011, according to MRC Datascope.


The import in January was traditionally less than in December. At the same time, the decrease in the supply year on year made about 60% in the relative value and made 9,000 tons.

The decline in shipments was observed in almost all countries of the suppliers. However, the structure of importers remained the same. South Korea was the leader in sales of the Asian feedstock to Russia. In January, the Korean PET imports made about 3,000 tons (the grades: PapetCool, TexPet, Skypet BL 8050).

The first month of the year traditionally showed the lowest demand for chips. In this regard, the converters did not plan main deliveries for this time. The stock residuals of PET also had its negative influence. According to converters, another reason for holding back from the Korean and Chinese PET chips was a competitive price from the Russian producers.

With switching to the domestic material, the logistic distribution will be shortened, and currency risks will also be excluded. One of the largest producers of PET preforms completely stopped the purchases of imported chips in January. As per the market participants, it resulted from a contract with the Russian plant - Polief.


The imports deliveries are not expected to soar in February as well. According to the Russian converters, the preference in February advanced procurement was also given to the Russian chips, and the purchases of feedstock in Asia were at minimum.


MRC

(greentechlead) -- The ExxonMobil oil company has been fined GBR2.8 million for failing to report greenhouse gas emissions from its chemical plant in Scotland. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency fined the company in 2010-11 for not reporting 33,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions from its Mossmorran ethylene plant in Fife.

It is the largest fine for an environmental offence in British history, according to a media report.
EU laws place strict rules on companies for accurately reporting emissions, with EUR100 fines (83 pound) for every ton they miss.

The money from the fine has been passed to the Scottish Government to fund environmental projects.
Four other companies have also been penalized for underestimating greenhouse gas emissions from plants in Scotland: Dow Chemical Company (Grangemouth), Tennent Caledonian (Glasgow), Pernod Ricard (Glasgow) and FMC BioPolymer (Girvan).

MRC