PPG acquires US industrial coatings company Spraylat

(hydrocarbonprocessing) -- PPG Industries on Wednesday completed its previously-announced agreement to buy Spraylat Corp.,a privately-owned industrial coatings company based in Pelham, New York.

Financial terms were not disclosed. The acquisition was first announced in October.

The acquisition furthers the capabilities of PPG’s industrial coatings business for both liquid and powder coatings, according to the company.

Spraylat coatings products are used in industrial markets such as automotive parts, architectural powder coatings, transportation, and general industrial niches such as electronic device, metal office furniture and storage, and sign coatings. The company had annual sales of approximately USD125 million in 2011.

As MRC reported earlier, in early December PPG Industries had entered into a technology license agreement with China-based Henan Billions Chemicals Joint Stock Co Ltd that will provide Henan Billions the right to use PPG's technology for the manufacture of chloride-grade titanium dioxide (TiO2) on a worldwide basis. Besides, Akzo Nobel, the Dutch paints and coatings supplier struggling with tough trading conditions in Europe, on Friday said it would sell its North American paints business to US rival PPG Industries for USD1.05 billion.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The petrochemical major, JSC Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat (GNS) of the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russian Federation, along with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) and Japan's Sojitz Corporation and Renaissance Construction (RC), have signed an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) agreement on a project to construct a new acrylic acid plant capable of producing acrylic acid, butyl acrylate, and glacial acrylic acid concurrently, said GNS in its press release.

This is the first EPC petrochemical project in the Republic of Bashkortostan. The technology to be used at the new facility is licensed by Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (MCC).

General Director of JSC "Gazprom neftekhim Salavat" Damir Shavaleev said that the project will reposition the company in the petrochemical industry. "The embodiment of the most advanced technological solutions has always been a tradition of our company, and we are not going to back down from it today. Serious project, but we are ready to implement responsible and large problems," - he said.

The plant is planned to annually produce 80,000 metric tonnes of acrylic acid, 80,000 metric tonnes of butyl acrylate and 35,000 metric tonnes of glacial acrylic acid. The unit is expected to reach its projected capacity in 2015.

JSC Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat (GNS) is a subsidiary company of Gazprom group, which has facilities of oil refining and gas chemical products. Recently GNS has steadily implemented their investment plans for its higher efficiency, including the rehabilitation of their refineries and ethylene plants. This new plant for acrylic acid, butyl acrylate, and glacial acrylic acid is for GNS to expand the chemical product production in Russian and CIS market.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - In November, imports of PVC to Ukraine decreased by 58%, from October and made 7,000 tonnes. The eleven months’ imports of PVC into Ukrainian market reached 87,000 tonnes, according to MRC DataScope.

As MRC analysts expected, due to seasonal decline in demand November imports of PVC to the Ukrainian market declined by 58% compared with October and reached 7,000 tonnes. External supplies of resins on seasonal decline in demand declined by all grades.

Imports of North American PVC in November made 2,400 tonnes, from 8,900 tonnes in October. Imports of PVC from the U.S. are expected to be cut in December.

In January-February, 2013, supply of North American PVC by contrast, is expected to grow, on the back of stoppage of domestic producers Karpatneftehim (Lukoil Group) and fall in export prices in the U.S. in the first half of November.

Imports of PVC from Europe in November fell less sharply and amounted to about 4,500 tonnes, while in October the figure was 7,750 tonnes. Large amounts of PVC imports from Europe last month was provided due to the high demand from makers of cable compounds.

In January-November 2012, the total volume of imports of PVC to Ukraine amounted to 87,000 tonnes, down 22% year on year. Decline in imports of resin this year to a greater extent was achieved by stable operation of Karpatneftehim. However, for economic reasons, Lukoil decided to suspend the work of the complex in September.



MRC

(plastemart) -- The West Bengal government is keen on completing transfer of its shares in Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL), which is facing funds crunch, before March 31 next year, as per Press Trust of India.

One of the major promoters of HPL with around 39% equity, the state is keen to exit after evaluation of its shares, of which MRC reported earlier. An auction would then be held and the highest price fetched would be offered to the other principal promoter, Purnendu Chatterjee's TCG, as first right of refusal.TCG owns around 36% stake in HPL.

A decision on whether the battle for shareholding in Haldia Petrochemicals (HPL) would be dragged to the International Court of Arbitration (ICA) is to be be taken this month, following a Supreme Court order directing the high court to dispose the case in December.

As MRC wrote previosly, West Bengal government has decided to make an urgent pitch to the State Bank of India to save Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd.

Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd is a modern naphtha based petrochemical complex at Haldia, West Bengal, India. Haldia has played the role of a catalyst in emergence of more than 500 downstream processing industries in West Bengal with a capacity to process more than 3,50,000 TPA of polymers, among which are polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
MRC

(apic-online) -- Local PVC prices in Italy have sustained their softening trend in December, although other products, namely PP and PE, have shrugged off the bearish trend regardless of the lower monomer costs in the region. The ongoing weakness of the PVC market in Italy is also defying the global upturn, which has been in place since mid November in the nearby Turkish market.

This situation caused Italy’s local PVC market to lose its traditional premium over the rest of the globe. Comparing Turkey’s average import PVC k67 range for European and US origins (including customs duties if applicable) on CFR basis with Italy’s average local k67 range, the premium has neared zero as of this week. A similar situation was in place the last time in July and early August, when Italy was trading at a discount when compared to Turkey and this was followed by higher prices in September after players returned from summer holidays.

A pipe manufacturer also commented, “We feel that firmer prices are on the horizon as was the case in January 2012, even though there are some opposing views in the market.” He also highlighted that the construction sector has been showing a really bad performance, which results in consistently low demand. “We hope to see a pick-up in the months ahead,” he commented.

Indeed, the weak stance of the PVC market may really be attributed to the poor economic conditions of the country as PVC is the most sensitive to economic developments. The Italian economy shrank by 0.2% in the third quarter from the second quarter, when it decreased a revised 0.7%, according to the announcement of the National Statistics Institute Istat in November. Another economic indicator, the industrial output index, was revealed early this week showing a decrease of 1.1% in October when compared to September while the confidence index for November in the Italian construction sector declined 1.72% month over month after a stronger month on month fall of 5.45% in October.

According to ICIS-MRC Price Report, the demand for PVC in Russia's market continues to decline gradually. In anticipation of long New Year holidays, Russian converters are trying to sell out their stock inventories of PVC. At the same time, some large converters, on contrary, want to buy large amounts of PVC from Russian producers at fairly low prices in December and January on the back low demand.
Contract prices of Russian PVC last week remained unchanged and were at roubles (Rb)44,000-46,000/tonne, CPT Moscow, including VAT.
MRC