Formosa Chemicals & Fiber takes SM plant off-stream

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Formosa Chemicals & Fiber Corp (FCFC) has shut its No.1 styrene monomer (SM) plant for maintenance turnaround, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Taiwan informed that the plant was shut over the weekend. It is likely to stay off-stream for over 40 days.

Located in Mailiao, Taiwan, the plant has a production capacity of 250,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed previously, Formosa Plastics Corp (FPC) is in plans to shut a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plant for maintenance turnaround. The plant is likely to be shut in September 2013 and expected to remain off-stream for around two weeks. Located in Mailiao, Taiwan, the plant has a production capacity of around 500,000 mt/year.

Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corporation (FCFC) is a subsidiary of Formosa Plastics Group, the largest private owned enterprise in Taiwan, with annual revenue of USD13.5 billion.

Formosa Plastics Corporation is a Taiwanese company based in Taiwan that primarily produces polyvinyl chloride (PVC) resins and other intermediate plastic products.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Evonik Industries, the German specialty chemicals company, has developed solutions for urban areas. The focus of the new products is on residential and urban construction, mobility, and lifestyle in conjunction with the megatrend of resource efficiency, reported the company on its site.

The customized electro-powered Rinspeed microMax concept car is built with the help of new Evonik's solutions. Thus, as all of the microMax’s glazing consists of PLEXIGLAS, making it 40-50% lighter than conventional glazing. Evonik also offers various PLEXIGLAS molding compounds for durable, energy-efficient solutions for interior vehicle lighting and LED headlights, while the TEGOMER Antiscratch additive prevents scratching in the interior.

Natural gas cables made of VESTAMID for pressures up to 18 bar can be installed directly next to or below roadways without the need for excavation, which ensures uninterrupted traffic flow. Further applications and products of Evonik range from SIPERNAT 820 A for the optimization of greenhouse films to the new, phthalate-free plasticizer ELATUR CH, which is particularly suitable for sensitive PVC applications such as everyday objects that come into direct contact with skin.

Evonik Industries is a worldwide manufacturer of PMMA products sold under the PLEXIGLAS trademark on the European, Asian, African and Australian continents and under the ACRYLITE trademark in the Americas.
About Evonik.

As MRC wrote previously, Evonik Industries has recently launched its Composites Project House, based primarily in Marl, with a branch in Darmstadt, to develop new materials and system solutions for the lightweight construction sector. In 2012, Evonik invested EUR393 million in research and development to be able to offer customers and partners innovative products, solutions, and methods.

Evonik, the industrial group from Germany, is one of the world leaders in specialty chemicals. Its activities focus on the key megatrends health, nutrition, resource efficiency and globalization. Evonik is active in over 100 countries around the world. In fiscal 2012 more than 33,000 employees generated sales of around EUR13.6 billion and an operating profit (adjusted EBITDA) of about EUR2.6 billion. The international rating agency Moody's has upgraded the credit rating of Evonik Industries AG from Baa3 with a positive outlook to Baa2 with a positive outlook. The rating agency quotes, among other things, the robust operational performance.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF has selected Apprion as the sole source provider of industrial wireless applications, systems and services for its North America manufacturing facilities, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing with reference to the company's statement.

BASF and Apprion have finalized an initial USD10 million purchase agreement for multiple application projects to be implemented over the next two years. These applications will enable BASF facilities to address their industrial safety, security, compliance and performance initiatives via Apprion's systems and services offering.

"We decided to pursue this extended relationship with Apprion because of the proven success with various Apprion implementations at our North American BASF facilities to date," said Chris Witte, site manager for BASF's Freeport facility in Texas.

Apprion, a leading provider of wireless application systems and services, offers a full suite of industrial applications to improve safety, security, compliance and performance at industrial facilities. Core to Apprion's offering is the ION System -- an open industrial wireless system that supports all devices, vendors and protocols and integrates all applications in a single platform.

The ION System includes ION services and Apprion's full suite of ION industrial applications: mustering; video; communications such as emergency notification; condition monitoring; mobility for operations and turnarounds; personnel tracking; access control; and many more.

The new contract also covers safety applications such as mustering, personnel location and emergency notification and future plans for monitoring and video at numerous BASF facilities in North America.

As MRC informed earlier, BASF aims to continue growing faster than the market with its downstream plastics, as well as large-volume monomers and commodity polymers. By bundling all specialty polymers in the newly created Performance Materials division, the company has further strengthened its focus on the needs of its customers. BASF is strengthening its specialty polymer business with a number of investments.

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.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chemical firm Synthos, one of the largest makers of chemical raw materials in Poland, has posted a net profit of PLN 88.9 mln in Q2 2013, roughly in line with expectations for PLN 90.5 mln profit in the period, and down by 24% y/y, PAP calculations against the firm's H1 financial report and Q1 numbers showed.

Group revenues of PLN 1.35 bln exceeded expectations by 3.3% while falling 17% from the year-prior period.

EBIT missed consensus by nearly 12% and came in at PLN 93.6 mln, as compared to PLN 106.1 mln in Q2 2012.

The costs side shrinked slightly, with overhead expenses down 6.6% y/y to PLN 37.9 mln in Q2, PAP calculations showed.

Cost of sales was down 9.9% to PLN 33.3 mln.

Speaking to H1 results, Synthos complained of low butadiene and synthetic rubber prices, which negatively affected the firm's margins in the period.

The firm fought off the effect of low prices with a record-high synthetic rubber sales volume, resulting from diversification of recipient-markets, management claimed.

Synthos called H1 a "tough period" with prevalence of negative factors. These negative factors included a several-day stoppage at the Czech unit Kralupy caused by a flood, which resulted in temporary difficulties in supplies of natural resources and shipment of company products.

Synthos also mentioned a weak situation in the global automotive industry, especially in China, as well as weak economic sentiment in the EU. That resulted in weak demand for tyres in Europe and developing countries.

As MRC reported earlier, since the beginning of the year, supplies of Synthos' EPS to Ukraine were reduced because of the general passivity of the Ukrainian market in January-April 2013. However, Ukrainian consumers bacame active in May and resumed purchases of Polish EPS, to which favorable prices of the producer contributed a great deal.

Synthos S.A. is one of the largest manufacturers of chemical raw materials in Poland, as well as being Europe’s No. 1 manufacturer of emulsion rubbers and third largest manufacturer of polystyrene for foaming applications.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- South Korea's HC Petrochem plans to further cut runs at its No 2 aromatics plant at Daesan to 70% from early next week, due to weak production margins for paraxylene, as per Plastemart.

"Operating at 70% capacity is the lowest level mechanically. We have no choice but to cut runs further as improvement of the PX-MX spread seems unlikely in short term," said a company official.

The No. 2 aromatics unit has been operating at 80% of capacity since August 12, following an initial cut from 100% to 90% on August 1.

The No. 2 aromatics plant, which began commercial operations January 8, is able to produce 800,000 tpa of PX and 120,000 tpa of benzene.

As MRC reported previously, South Korea's paraxylene exports for January-March totaled 806,657 mt, surging 60.5% from a year earlier and up 41.4% from the previous quarter. The sharp increase was due to the startup of a new PX plant there. South Korea's HC Petrochem, a 50:50 joint venture between Hyundai Oilbank and Japan's Cosmo Oil, started commercial operations at its new 800,000 tpa PX plant in Daesan on January 8. Most of the new output from the plant is shipped to China.

HC Petrochem manufactures and markets paraxylene. The company was founded in 2009 and is based in Seosan Si, South Korea. HC Petrochem is a joint venture between Cosmo Oil and Hyundai Oilbank.
MRC