Invista acquired technologies from La Seda de Barcelona SA

(polyestertime) -- Invista Performance Technologies has acquired from La Seda de Barcelona SA intellectual property relating to its leading purified terephthalic acid (PTA), polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and related process technologies, including the full rights to exclusively license the technologies in the region comprising Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

In 2000, the ownership of intellectual property and licensing rights for this region transferred to a regional joint venture company established by Invista and La Seda predecessors. Until today, licensing has required collaboration between the two companies.

As a result of the acquisition, Invista Performance Technologies can now offer its customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa the same rapid, direct route to licensing that its customers in the rest of the world have always experienced.

INVISTA’s market-leading technologies are available as license packages from INVISTA Performance Technologies. Invista is one of the world’s largest integrated producers of polymers and fibers, primarily for nylon, spandex and polyester applications.
MRC

(news.szenergy) -- China’s petroleum and chemical industry is expected to grow at a slower pace this year, pulled down by the losses in oil refinery businesses and weakening raw material demand from export-oriented sectors, an industry federation said in GlobalTimes.

The industry’s total output is expected to reach 12.73 trillion yuan (USD2 trillion) in 2012, a 14.5% increase year-on-year, as per the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation (CPCIF). The sector saw growth of 31.5% year-on-year in 2011.

Profits are likely to rise to 860 billion yuan in 2012, up 5% from a year earlier. The industry is facing downward pressure, due to sluggish demand from export-oriented sectors such as textiles and toy manufacturing, as well as rising productioncosts, a growing tax burden and largescale losses in the refinery and natural gassectors, said Li Yongwu, chairman of CPCIF.

The refinery sector lost 16.6 billion yuan in the first five months of 2012, mainly due to high crude prices in the first quarter. However, Li said a recovery in the domestic economy will boost demand for petroleumand chemical products in the second half of this year. The sector is expected to have better performance in the third quarter, because of lower priced crude oil purchased in May and a potential rise in retail oil product prices," he said. Analysts expect China will raise fuel prices later this week following three consecutive cuts earlier this year.
MRC

(Plastemart) -- Buying activity in the Italian polymer markets has started to decline as players prepare to halt their operations for a summer holiday break. Many converters say that they will shut for at least two weeks starting from last Friday until the last week of August.

However, most PVC traders report good sales in August since buyers are forming stock inventories in anticipation of a hike in September prices.

PET producers are also satisfied with the current level of demand. Most converters are planning to shut only for a week, so demand is not expected to be entirely disrupted by the holidays.

In the PE market the situation is also stable with a keen demand for the material following good sales of July.

Meanwhile, PS and PP market players report an absence of demand in the market due to a surge in prices. Thus, distributors do not hope to get sales prior to mid August.
mrcplast.com

(Plastemart) -- In the first four months of 2012, US chemicals output grew just 0.5% year-on-year, with the three month moving average for March and April seeing declines of 0.4% and 0.3% respectively, according to figures provided by the American Chemistry Council (ACC).

Despite the slowdown in 2012, investment in capacity is accelerating as US natural gas prices have become affordable and relatively stable. Сhemicals output is now likely to rise by just 2.5%, according to market analysts.
The main concern will be the extent to which the eurozone crisis impacts on the US economy.

It is expected that by 2016, ethylene production capacity should have exceeded 30 mln tpa, an increase of around 12% over 2011 levels. Expansion is set to continue during the forecast period, particularly in downstream polymers and olefins. US ethylene production could therefore reach record highs in the coming years.
MRC

(Plastemart) -- Thailand's IRPC Pcl will shut a deep catalytic cracking unit at its 215,000 barrels per day (bpd) refinery for 10-15 days in late September or early October.

The cracker is used to produce propylene and ethylene which are used as feedstock for petrochemical derivative units. A shutdown was initially planned from July 20 to August 7, but was postponed to help avert supply shortages after a fire at Thailand's Bangchak Petroleum Pcl refinery forced it to shut a 80,000 bpd crude distillation unit (CDU).

The exact dates for IRPC's refinery maintenance will depend on when Bangchak is able to resume operations at the CDU, which is expected to be replaced by October.

IRPC and its subsidiaries are currently the first fully intergrated petrochemical complex in Southeast Asia. The complany produces the following petrochemical products: ethylene, propylene, butadiene, HDPE, PP, ABS/SAN, PS, EPS.
MRC