Lubrizol and Trexel enter partnership to promote foam technology

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Lubrizol Corporation, an innovative specialty chemical company, and Trexel have announced a new partnership for Lubrizol to be the preferred thermoplastic polyurethane supplier for Trexel’s MuCell microcellular foaming technology, reported GV.

Together with MuCell physical foaming technology, Lubrizol’s Estane TPU can provide cost-effective, highly elastic microcellular parts for energy absorption and cushioning applications. Beside superior compression properties and a fast moulding cycle, Estane microcellular foams can provide a high-quality, thin skin layer that adds aesthetic values, as well as the typical advantages of TPU such as outstanding abrasion and cut resistance.

According to the partners, by working together Lubrizol Engineered Polymers' sports and recreation segment and Trexel will be able to bring an encompassing value to processors from setting up a new MuCell moulding line, modifying an existing line or suggestions of which TPU grades to utilise for quality foam parts.

Gert-Jan Nijhuis, sports and recreation global business director for Lubrizol Engineered Polymers noted: "Our cooperation with Trexel is a direct result of Lubrizol’s strategy to be a solution provider to the sports and recreation industry. It allows us to combine our innovative TPU technologies, with the latest manufacturing technologies. This enables us to bring an encompassing value not only to processors, but also to Global OEMs and ultimately the consumer."

As MRC wrote previously, in March, Lubrizol unveiled its four-year plan (worth USD400 million) of global expansion of its chlorinated polyvinyl chloride (CPVC) resin and compounding manufacturing sites. With continued strong global demand for the company's CPVC compounds, Lubrizol's expansion efforts will be divided into two phases.

The Lubrizol Corporation, a Berkshire Hathaway company, is an innovative specialty chemical company that apart from its production develops and supplies technologies to customers in the global transportation, industrial and consumer markets. Lubrizol's advanced polymer technology delivers exceptional performance for the plumbing, fire sprinkler, industrial and other building and construction related applications. Lubrizol is providing innovative solutions for its customers' high-performance application needs and remains committed to ongoing investment in its CPVC capabilities that support future growth.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Solvay SA (SOLB), the chemical company created 150 years ago to produce soda ash, signaled that a lack of recovery in Europe will hurt earnings this year amid reduced demand for soda ash and plastics and lower sales of carbon credits, said Bloomberg.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortization and one-time items will surpass last year’s EUR1.88 billion (USD2.44 billion) which excludes a EUR190 million windfall from inflated guar prices and larger quantities of emission credits, the Brussels-based company said today in a statement. That compares with analyst projections of EUR2.01 billion, the average of 22 estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Solvay said it’s not seeing any significant improvement in European demand for the glass-making ingredient soda ash, for polyamide fibers or rare earths used in light bulbs after first-quarter Ebitda fell 12% to EUR454 million. Chief Executive Officer Jean-Pierre Clamadieu is making Solvay less cyclical and less reliant on Europe with an agreement to sell the company’s European vinyls and chlor chemicals businesses to Ineos Group Holdings within four to six years after the establishment of a joint venture planned later this year.

"Solvay is likely to have suffered from its exposure to European automotive and construction," Filip De Pauw, an analyst at ING Groep NV in Brussels, wrote in an investor note last week as he cut his projection for 2013 Ebitda by about 8% to EUR1.94 billion.

Net debt rose to EUR1.31 billion as of March 31, a 188 million-euro increase from the end of last year as inventories swelled because Solvay’s plants produced more vinyls in anticipation of scheduled maintenance at large sites later this year.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BP has reported emitting sulfur dioxide from its Cherry Point refinery in Blaine, Washington, after a heater tripped, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

According to a filing with the Northwest Clean Air Agency, the line heater at the 225 Mbpd refinery's sulfur plant's went down, leading to an "ongoing release."

"They have an overall reduced rate of emissions among a number of units," the filing states.

A BP spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

We remind that, as MRC informed previously, in late March, 2013, Total PetroChemicals and Refining USA reported emissions at its Port Arthur, Texas, refinery owing to leaking exchangers at an alkylation unit's cooling tower. The refinery's crude oil throughput capacity is 174,000 barrels a day.

Earlier, in January, Total Petrochemicals and Refining USA reported a malfunction in the sulfur recovery unit of its Port Arthur, Texas refinery. The malfunction resulted in increased emissions at the 225,500-barrel-a-day refinery.

Total, one of the world's leading petrochemicals companies with business in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia. Total has two main product groups: base chemicals and the consumer polymers (polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene) that are derived from them.

BP is one of the world's leading international oil and gas companies, providing its customers with fuel for transportation, energy for heat and light, retail services and petrochemicals products for everyday items.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Dow Chemical Company, the largest US chemical maker by sales, has announced that it completed final resolution of the K-Dow arbitration with Petrochemical Industries Company of Kuwait (PIC), according to the company's press-release.

Dow confirms that it has received a direct cash payment of USD2.2 billion from PIC. Payment reflects the full damages awarded by the International Chamber of Commerce, as well as recovery of Dow’s costs.

In March, 2013, the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce released the final award amount, representing interest and costs, in the arbitration case between Dow Chemical and Petrochemical Industries Company of Kuwait (PIC) related to the K-Dow transaction.

"Dow and Kuwait share a long history, and payment of this award brings final and appropriate resolution and closure to the issue," said Andrew N. Liveris, Dow’s chairman and chief executive officer. "Our partnership with Kuwait includes several industry-leading joint ventures, which are valuable assets in Dow’s portfolio and have consistently returned accretive equity earnings to Dow. We continue to look for ways to strengthen our relationships within the country for the benefit of our partners and Dow shareholders."

"Receipt of this award enables Dow to accelerate actions that are in line with our stated priorities for uses of cash – foremost of which is paying down debt and remunerating shareholders," Liveris added. "Our actions moving forward will be consistent with this approach."

As MRC reported earlier, Dow put together a USD17.4 billion joint venture with Petrochemical Industries Co. (PIC), a subsidiary of state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corp., to produce plastics for consumer products, automotive parts, and drug processing in 2008. But as commodity prices plunged and the global economy went into a recession, the so-called K-Dow Petrochemicals joint venture was scrapped just days before it was set to close. Two months after the deal collapsed, Dow posted losses of USD1.55 billion for the fourth-quarter of 2008 and cut about 11 per cent of its global work force. The International Court of Arbitration in Paris ruled that PIC will pay Dow for backing out of the deal. The court is part of the International Chamber of Commerce.

The Dow Chemical Company is an American multinational chemical corporation headquartered in Midland, Michigan, United States. Dow is a large producer of plastics, including polystyrene (PS), polyurethane, polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), and synthetic rubber.
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