Honam completed its naphtha purchases for August

(Plastemart) -- South Korea's spot demand for naphtha stayed strong, with Honam Petrochemical having bought 50,000 tons on Thursday, taking its total purchases of August cargoes through tenders to around 200,000. Honam paid an average of USD12.50/ton premium for a 25,000 tonne open-spec cargo for H2- August arrival at Daesan and similar volumes for the same arrival period at Yeosu. South Korea's top ethylene maker operates a 1 mln tpa cracker in Daesan and another 1 mln tpa cracker in Yeosu.

Honam is focusing on its main aim to become a "top tier chemical company in Asia" and to achieve sales of USD10bn. It plans to do this by strengthening its existing businesses, extending its overseas business and developing new businesses.

Honam Petrochemical Corporation (HPC) is a petrochemical manufacturing company. It carries out the manufacture and sale of resin, basic petrochemicals and basic chemicals. The company's product portfolio includes low-density polyethylene, ethylene vinyl acetate co-polymer, mono ethylene glycol, ethylene oxide, mono ethylene glycol, benzene and toluene. These products find application in housewares, chemical containers, pipes, films, insulated cable, cork cigarette, emulsifier, glues, printing ink, chemicals, explosives and insecticides. It has manufacturing facilities in Daesan and Yeosu, South Korea.
MRC

(Plasticsengineering) -- Ticona, the engineering polymers business of Celanese Corporation, today announced it will discontinue the sale of the DURACON POM and DURANEX PBT brands from Polyplastics Co. Ltd. on September 1, 2012, in the Americas and November 15, 2012, in Europe.

Customers that intend to use DURACON POM and DURANEX PBT after these dates are advised to contact Polyplastics.

There is no change in the availability and service level for Ticona branded thermoplastics. These high performance engineering thermoplastics are produced in the United States, Germany and China, and available to Ticona customers throughout the world for use in existing and new applications.

DURACON and DURANEX registered trademarks are owned by Polyplastics.

Ticona, the engineering polymers business of Celanese Corporation, produces and markets a broad range of high performance products, and posted net sales of USD1,298 million in fiscal 2011.

Celanese Corporation is a global technology leader in the production of specialty materials and chemical products which are used in most major industries and consumer applications. The company is a leading producer of acetyl products, which are intermediate chemicals for nearly all major industries, and is the world's largest producer of vinyl acetate monomer.
MRC

(technip) -- Technip was awarded by the petrochemical company Al-Jubail Petrochemical Company (KEMYA)(1) - a joint venture between Sabic and Exxon Chemical Arabia, an affiliate of ExxonMobil Chemical Company - a contract for the engineering, procurement and construction of an Halobutyl(2) facility, located in Al-Jubail, Saudi Arabia.

This project is part of the Saudi Elastomers Program undertaken by KEMYA to set up a world-scale specialty elastomers facility to serve local markets, the Middle East and Asia.

This new facility will produce 110,000 tons per year of rubber using ExxonMobil licensed technology.

Technip's operating center in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, will execute the contract.

Arturo Grimaldi, Senior Vice President of Technip Middle East Region stated: ''We are glad to work on the implementation of this world-class facility, based on a state-of-art technology, in line with Saudi Arabia's strategic objectives. This contract reinforces Technip's leading position in the petrochemical business and in Saudi Arabia, where we have been present for more than 30 years.''

Technip is a world leader in project management, engineering and construction for the energy industry.
From the deepest Subsea oil & gas developments to the largest and most complex Offshore and Onshore infrastructures, our 30,000 people are constantly offering the best solutions and most innovative technologies to meet the world's energy challenges.

Present in 48 countries, Technip has state-of-the-art industrial assets on all continents and operates a fleet of specialized vessels for pipeline installation and subsea construction.
MRC

(m.caller) -- Officials with Valero Energy Corp. and LyondellBasell cited maintenance as the reasons for separate flaring events at their respective Coastal Bend facilities on Thursday.

Planned work on the light end unit at Valero’s West Plant sparked flaring, spokeswoman Lillian Riojas said.

The light end unit is the part of the refining process where propane and butane are distilled from crude oil. The work was expected to end Thursday evening, as was the flaring.

The Corpus Christi-Nueces County Local Emergency Planning Committee issued a statement about 1:15 p.m. Thursday stating the public did not need to take protective action.

In a separate incident, the committee issued a similar notice about LyondellBasell about 2:30 p.m. Thursday.

Routine maintenance caused the company’s facility to flare ethylene and propylene, two chemicals used in making plastics, LyondellBasell spokesman Scott Buchman said.

Off-site monitoring showed no dangerous substances in the air, and the work and flaring was expected to be done Thursday, Buchman said.

MRC