PolyOne sells its vinyl resin business to Mexichem

MOSCOW (MRC) -- PolyOne, a premier provider of specialized polymer materials, services and solutions, has completed the previously-announced sale of its vinyl dispersion, blending and suspension resin assets to Mexichem for USD250 million in cash, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

PolyOne said it expects after-tax proceeds of approximately USD150 million and to recognize an after-tax gain on sale of approximately USD140 million.

The sale of PolyOne's last remaining resin production assets marks an important milestone in the company's ongoing specialty transformation that began in 2006, according to top officials.

"This was a natural next step in the evolution of our portfolio and ultimate vision for PolyOne," said Stephen D. Newlin, CEO of PolyOne. "Now more than ever, we are focused on our core business of specialty solutions and unique formulations where we believe we can generate the most value for our customers, associates and shareholders."

Assets transferred in the sale were strictly those related to resin production and included manufacturing plants in Pedricktown, New Jersey; Henry, Illinois; and a resin research facility in Avon Lake, Ohio.

PolyOne continues to own and operate its Geon performance materials and specialty coatings businesses, which produce vinyl-based formulations, plastisols and powder coatings marketed under the Geon brand name.

As MRC wrote earlier, in late 2012 PolyOne Corporation bought Glasforms, Inc., a leading manufacturer of glass and carbon fiber reinforced polymers and advanced composite products.

PolyOne Corporation is a global provider of specialized polymer materials, services, and solutions. PolyOne is a provider of specialized polymer materials, services and solutions with operations in specialty polymer formulations, color and additive systems, polymer distribution and specialty vinyl resins. The company's full-year revenues in 2012 increased 4.5% to USD3.0 billion, compared to USD2.9 billion in 2011.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF, the largest diversified chemical company in the world, has successfully completed the second phase of registration for REACH under EU chemical law, reported the company on its site.

REACH stands for the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals and represents a fundamental reorganization of chemical law in Europe.

The second phase of registration for chemicals with a production volume between 100 and 1,000 tonnes per year ends on May 31. In this phase, BASF submitted around 550 substance dossiers to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) - more than any other company.

BASF also topped the list of companies in the registration process with around 680 substance dossiers in phase 1. By the end of the final transition period in the year 2018, BASF is expecting a total of approximately 3,500 registrations. The total costs of REACH implementation for BASF by the year 2018 will be between EUR500 million and EUR550 million.

"Both the industry and the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), which was founded a few years ago, have to adapt to the new system. This has been a learning process which is not yet complete. There is still potential for improvements, especially in communication between the registrant and competent authorities - both ECHA and the authorities in the EU member states," says Dr. Karsten Muller, Head of the Chemical Regulations unit at BASF.

REACH applies to all substances currently produced in or imported to the EU. They are registered in three phases with data requirements depending on their production volume (substances above 1,000 tonnes per year; substances above 100 tonnes per year; substances above 1 tonne per year). The implementation of REACH is not limited to registration. The REACH requirements have to be implemented in the production and business processes. This is intended to ensure the safe handling of chemical substances in Europe.

While REACH only applies in Europe, BASF has also set a goal to review all risk assessments worldwide by the year 2020 for substances and mixtures which BASF sells in quantities of more than one ton.

As MRC reported previously, BASF had sales of approximately EUR8.5 billion in 2012 from new products that have been on the market for less than five years. Last year, BASF launched more than 250 new products onto the market.

BASF is the largest diversified chemical company in the world and is headquartered in Ludwigshafen, Germany. BASF produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries. BASF had sales of EUR72.1 billion in 2012.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- INEOS ChlorVinyls announced price increase for polyvinyl chloride (PVC) effective from 1 June 2013, said the Switzerland-based producer at its site.

The prices of pipe grade suspension PVC delivered in bulk in Europe is at EUR1,035/metric tonne; for pipe grade suspension PVC delivered in bulk in UK/Ireland - GBR935/metric tonne.

As MRC wrote earlier, Ineos and Solvay agreed to merge their chlorvinyls activities into a EUR 4.3 billion (USD5.6 billion) 50-50 joint venture. The combination would form a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) producer that will rank among the top three worldwide. The combined business would have around 5650 employees across nine countries and would pool each company's assets across the entire chlorvinyls chain. This includes PVC, which is the third most-used plastic in the world, caustic soda and chlorine derivatives.

INEOS ChlorVinyls is one of the major chlor-alkali producers in Europe, a global leader in chlorine derivatives and Europe's largest PVC manufacturer.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- ExxonMobil’s chemical plant in Singapore is now producing ethylene from the facility’s second world-scale steam cracker, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing with reference to the company's announcement.

As MRC informed previously, ExxonMobil started operations at this ethylene steam crackers in Singapore in early 2013.

The expansion is integrated with the existing petrochemical plant.

Over the next few weeks, the petrochemical complex, powered by a 375-megawatt cogeneration plant, will increase production at its three polyethylene plants, two polypropylene plants, a specialty metallocene elastomers unit and the expanded oxo-alcohol and aromatics units.

"This expansion gives ExxonMobil unparalleled feedstock flexibility in the industry and positions the Singapore petrochemical complex well to serve growth markets from China to the Indian sub-continent and beyond," said Matthew Aguiar, chairman and managing director of ExxonMobil Asia Pacific.

ExxonMobil completed construction of the expansion in December 2012 and is producing commercial grades of new products, such as specialty metallocene elastomers, for the first time in the Asia Pacific region.

"We successfully completed the commissioning of the steam cracker and we are now focused on ensuring that the plant operates safely and reliably," said Georges Grosliere, venture executive and manufacturing director of the Singapore plant for ExxonMobil Chemical.

ExxonMobil has operated in Singapore for 120 years and is one of Singapore’s largest foreign manufacturing investors. The company has expanded refining and petrochemical production in Singapore to meet expected demand for transportation fuels and the chemicals used for plastics and other manufacturing across the Asia Pacific region.

ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3 percent of the world"s oil and about 2 percent of the world's energy. Exxon Mobil's first quarter 2013 earnings were USD9.5 billion, up 1% from the first quarter of 2012.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Prices of Russian dioctylphthalate plasticiser (DOP) have not increased despite an emergency stop of Gazprom neftekhim Salavat, according to MRC analysts.

As MRC wrote earlier, on 28 May, there was a fire the facility of Monomer, subsidiary of Gazprom neftekhim Salavat , resulting in the outage of the production of alcohol and plasticiser DOP.

Gazprom neftekhim Salavat has started production of DOP plasticizer only in the beginning of last week after the scheduled maintenance, which had begun on 20, April. But because of the accident at the alcohols production the output of DOP plasticiser was halted again.

Market participants expect that the production of DOP plasticiser in Salavat to be resumed next week.

By early June, the price of Russian DOP remain at the level of the second half of May and is in the range of Rb79,000-80,000/tonne, including VAT and delivery.

Buying activity in the market is weak and buyers of DOP decided to postpone their purchases until the start of production at Salavat.

In addition, the growth of prices of Russian DOP is capped by sufficient supply of imported plasticiser. The plasticiser di-isononyl phthalate (DINP) from Turkey is available on average at Rb80,500/tonne, inclusive of VAT. The offers for European DOP are voiced at Rb79,500/tonne, inclusive of VAT.
MRC