Celanese increases vinyl acetate-based emulsions prices in Asia

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Celanese Corporation, a global technology and specialty materials company and a global leader in VAE emulsions, has announced it will increase the price of vinyl acetate-based emulsions sold in Asia, reported the company on its site.

PVAc homopolymer and vinyl acetate ethylene (EVA) emulsions will increase by Yuan 240/tonne for China and USD40/tonne for Asia outside of China effective April 1, 2014, or as contracts allow.

This price increase affects all applications including, but not limited to, adhesives, paints and coatings, building and construction, glass fiber, carpet and paper.

As MRC informed before, Celanese Corporation has recently announced an increase in its prices of vinyl acetate-based emulsions sold in the Americas. PVAc homopolymer, EVA and vinyl acrylic emulsions will increase by up to USD0.03/wet pound effective April 1, 2014. Besides, earlier, the company announced that due to market conditions, including the global supply unavailability of vinyl acetate monomer, it would increase the price of Ateva EVA by USD0.06/pound, effective April 1, 2014.

Celanese Corporation is a global technology leader in the production of differentiated chemistry solutions and specialty materials used in most major industries and consumer applications. Based in Dallas, Texas, Celanese employs approximately 7,400 employees worldwide and had 2013 net sales of USD6.5 billion.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Octal will commence commercial operations in the United States in the later half of 2014 with a new extrusion facility in Cincinnati focused primarily on recycling PET sheet flake from its customers and other manufacturers. Octal's product line will include products with both post-industrial and post-consumer flake content, said Plastech.

Octal ships significant volumes of its world leading DPET sheet to North America. Keeping the DPET flake stream pure for reprocessing into an ultra high quality domestically available product is the natural next step in developing the our business here," stated William J. Barenberg, Jr COO, Octal. "And the Cincinnati site will give us this capability along with the flexibility to supply post-consumer content options as well.

"The Cincinnati plant site was selected based on a rigorous 'Site Screening Study' that determined this location to be optimal based on its centralized location in relation to the raw material inflows and customer destinations. Additionally, the practical aspect of logistics into and out of the site are excellent," stated Barenberg. "This new plant is our proactive response to our customers' stated need for flake reprocessing and quick turnaround delivery options in North America."

The new plant will provide an additional manufacturing base for Octal products and a platform for developing the next packaging technologies thermoformers and food processors and retailers are demanding. The plant is sized for future capacity enhancement as well, and Octal expects to double its output 18 months after startup.

As MRC wrote before, Octal Petrochemicals is setting up a project in Saudi Arabia to manufacture polyethylene terephthalate (PET) dairy cups and trays for dairy and poultry industries. Octal Petrochemicals will be investing USD20 million for the downstream project, which will generate USD70 million revenue per annum, once it goes on stream.

Octal Petrochemicals last year said that the value of the company's exports stands at USD100 million per month or about 2% of the gross domestic products of the Sultanate and 15% of the non-oil exports. The company has achieved remarkable revenue growth — from USD500 million to USD1.5 billion over a six-year period only after being rated as one of the biggest four producers of PET resin and PET sheets.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- South Korea's Samsung Total is considering reducing operating rates at its two paraxylene plants in Daesan by 20% and will make a final decision on the matter next week, reported Apic-online with referrence to a source's statement.

The two plants have a total production capacity of 1.61 million mt/year and are currently operating at 100% of capacity.

Japan's JX Nippon Oil and Energy in early March announced it would cut its PX production by 20% over March-April and by 40-50% over May-June. The refiner has a total PX production capacity of 2.7 million mt/year across plants in Kashima, Kawasaki, Mizushima and Oita.

As MRC wrote previously, Samsung Total Petrochemicals is set to expand oil product sales to the domestic and export markets once it starts production of gasoil and jet fuel from its new Daesan aromatics plant later this year. The new plant will enable the petrochemical firm to produce gasoil for the very first time, from a 150,000 bpd condensate splitter primarily designed to supply feedstock for aromatics production. Capacity at the Samsung Total plant will comprise 1.05 mln mt of gasoil and 1.45 mln mt of jet fuel annually from its new aromatics plant that will start production as early as July this year.

Samsung Total is a 50-50 joint venture between South Korea's Samsung Group and the French chemical group Total.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Evonik, the German specialty chemicals company, has opened its expanded production for precipitated silica in Rayong, Thailand. With this investment, Evonik increased its capacity for precipitated silica for the automotive industry, food and animal feed industry as well as the paints and coatings industry, as per the company's statement.

"Expanding our manufacturing footprint in South East Asia, Australia & New Zealand highlights our commitment to this region and allows us to better serve regional markets with state-of-the-art products and optimum solutions," described Peter Meinshausen, Regional President South East Asia, Australia & New Zealand.

Used in the tire and rubber industry, the combination of silica with silanes enables tire manufacturers to produce tires of much lower rolling resistance, thus reducing the overall fuel consumption by up to 8% compared to traditional tires.

"With this expansion, we are strengthening our operations in Thailand," explained Dr Florian Kirschner, Managing Director and Country Head Thailand. "This allows us to respond more quickly to changes in market demand and supply high quality products to our customers."

As MRC wrote earlier, Evonik Industries is significantly expanding its global isophorone (IP) and isophorone diamine (IPD) capacities by funding an investment of more than EUR100 million in Shanghai, China. The new production plants will be completed in the first quarter of 2014 and will increase the total capacities of IP and IPD significantly.

Evonik is one of the leading manufacturers of silica. In addition to precipitated silica, Evonik also produces AEROSIL fumed silica and silica-based matting agents under the ACEMATT brand. These are used in tires with low rolling resistance as well as in the paints and coatings industry, as flow additives and carriers in food, cosmetics and drug production, or in manufacturing silicon applications, among others. Overall, Evonik has a global capacity of around 500,000 metric tons per annum for precipitated, fumed silica, and matting agents.

Evonik, the industrial group from Germany, is one of the world leaders in specialty chemicals. Evonik is active in over 100 countries around the world. In fiscal 2013 more than 33,500 employees generated sales of around EUR12.9 billion and an operating profit (adjusted EBITDA) of about EUR2.0 billion.
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