Air Liquide plans new Turkey industrial gas plants

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Air Liquide, which is vying for the top spot in the industrial-gas market with Linde, plans to add more plants in Turkey as it seeks to outpace the country’s expected economic growth, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The company, which sells gases such as oxygen and nitrogen to clients in food to the steel industry, may consider building another plant in Iskenderun, on the eastern Mediterranean coast of Turkey, said Jerome Christin, general manager for Turkey, in an interview in Istanbul.

Such a project would take place after a USD93 million expansion at Air Liquide’s Aliaga plant, on the Aegean coast in western Turkey, is completed in 2015.

The company, operating in about 80 countries, is cutting jobs in France, Germany and Italy, and CEO Benoit Potier is poised to announce a strategy this month to deal with Europe’s economic woes, growing industrial capacity in emerging markets, cheaper United States gas, and rising demand for health-care services and electronic goods such as tablets. Turkey is budgeting for gross domestic product growth of 4 % for 2014 and 5 % for 2015 and 2016.

"Turkey is such a strategic country in the world because of its size and growth potential," Christin said. "Therefore there is a big room for growth as the trend in Turkish industrial companies is to outsource industrial gases." Air Liquide aims growth at around 10 % in Turkey, he said.

As MRC wrote before, Air Liquide signed an agreement with Russian producer RusVinyl to supply oxygen, nitrogen and compressed dry air to its new polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plant in Kstovo, Russia. Air Liquide would invest, build and operate a new air separation unit with a capacity of more than 350 tonnes/day of oxygen in Kstovo, in the region of Nizhegorodskaya oblast.

L'Air Liquide S.A., or Air Liquide, is a French multinational company which supplies industrial gases and services to various industries including medical, chemical and electronic manufacturers.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Oman Oil Company (OOC), a commercial company wholly owned by the Government of the Sultanate of Oman, has successfully concluded the acquisition of Oxea which was announced in October, said the Wall Street Journal.

The purchase price was not disclosed. Oxea is one of the largest global manufacturers of Oxo chemicals. With the acquisition, OOC aims to become a vertically integrated global chemical leader in the downstream industry.

"Oxea is an impressive company with a strong track record, highly diversified product portfolio and strong customer base. With its international presence in Europe and North America, leading technology, efficient platform and longstanding experience in the Oxo segment, Oxea will support our further expansion into the chemical sector," said H.E. Nasser bin Khamis Al Jashmi, Chairman of Oman Oil Company.

Philippe de Fitte, Vice President Downstream Strategic Business Unit of OOC, added: "There is a unique opportunity to build an integrated chemical platform in Oman from our current investment base. We see our acquisition of Oxea as the corner stone for this platform by bringing its technology and expertise to Oman and connecting it to feedstock from our investments in Duqm. This will also contribute to Oxea's expansion strategy, especially in the Asian growth markets while Oman Oil Company benefits from Oxea's reach into European and North American markets."

Martina Floel, spokeswoman for the executive board at Oxea on behalf of the management board, said: "Oxea is the number one Oxo merchant and holds a leading position as a manufacturer for Oxo products and derivatives. Since its foundation in 2007 we have successfully diversified the company's activities into derivatives and invested in expanding capacity and our presence in both mature and emerging markets. We look forward to working together with OOC which will provide additional access to growth markets in Asia and the Middle East."

Oman Oil Company S.A.O.C. (OOC) is a commercial company wholly owned by the Government established in 1996 to pursue investment opportunities in the wider energy sector both inside and outside Oman. The Company plays an important role in the Sultanate's efforts to diversify the economy and to promote domestic and foreign investments as well as fostering and building human capital.

Oxea is a global manufacturer of Oxo intermediates and Oxo derivatives, such as alcohols, polyols, carboxylic acids, specialty esters, and amines. These products are used for the production of high-quality coatings, lubricants, cosmetics and pharmaceutical products, flavorings and fragrances, printing inks and plastics. In 2012, Oxea generated revenue of about EUR 1.5 billion with its 1,406 employees in Europe, the Americas and Asia.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- German compounder and distributor Albis Plastic (Hamburg) is adding two new Purell PE grades from LyondellBasell (Rotterdam / the Netherlands) to its portfolio, said Plasteurope.

The low-density Purell PE 2220D for tube packaging has applications in the cosmetics and food sectors as well as pharmaceutical packaging, among others. The product, which Albis says is distinguished by its superior surface quality and flexibility, also satisfies the requirements of the European Pharmacopoeia (EP 3.1.4).

The second grade, hdPE Purell ACP 5531B, which is specifically used in extrusion blow-moulding applications, supplements Albis’ portfolio for industrial packaging in the pharmaceutical sector, for example for dialysis applications. According to Albis, the grade has an "excellent combination" of stress crack resistance and stiffness.

Albis, which reported sales of EUR 753m in 2012, manufactures plastic compounds and masterbatches in Germany, the UK and China.

As MRC wrote before, LyondellBasell permanently shuttered one of its HDPE production lines at its German site in Wesseling – a step it said it would achieve in Q3. The line, which had a capacity of 100,000 t/y, was the smallest and least efficient at the production site. Earlier in May, LBI had announced its plans to close the line and communicated to customers that nothing would change in terms of the supplying of HDPE.

LyondellBasell is the largest polyolefin producer in Europe with a total capacity of roughly 4.5m t/y. For HDPE in Wesseling the production capacity is at 770,000 t/y even after the shutdown of the small production facility.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Imports of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) into Ukraine fell in November to its lowest level over the last two years (since December 2011) and totalled 3,700 tonnes, according MRC DataScope.

As in October, November slump in imports was caused by a major drop in demand in the market of finished products this autumn. All major Ukrainian buyers of PET chips reduced their imports. Some converters postponed the previously scheduled shipments till a later period because of lower capacity utilisation at processing plants.

The overall PET imports into Ukraine totalled 149,000 tonnes in January- November 2013, which equals this figure over the same period of 2012. Chinese producers of PET chips accounted for the lion's share of shipments (Chinese PET imports totalled more than 100,000 tonnes in January-November 2013).

The most popular grade in the PET chips market has remained this year CR-8816 grade produced by the Chinese manufacturer China Resources Chemicals. The overall imports of this grade to Ukraine were 29,000 tonnes over the eleven months of the year.

MRC