MOSCOW (MRC) -- North American suppliers of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) have further reduced their prices for the CIS markerts. Offer prices for shipments in the second half of April dropped to USD1,000/tonne, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.
Lower PVC prices in Asia and a major drop in purchasing of many companies from the CIS markets were the main reasons for reductions in export prices in the United States. North American PVC suppliers announced their offer prices for shipments in the second half of April in the range of USD1,000-1,020/tonne CFR.
Last week's deals for shipments in the second half of the month were negotiated in the range of USD1,000-1,020/tonne CFR St Petersburg and Novorossiysk for Russian companies and USD1,010-1,030/tonne CIF Odessa Ukrainian companies, up by an average of USD40-50/tonne from March.
Many companies, particularly from Russia, said they were forced to refrain from purchasing resin in the United States, citing both lower prices in the domestic market and in China. Some market participants said companies would resume purchasing, if May export PVC prices in the US were reduced further by USD20-30/tonne.
MRC
MOSCOW (MRC) -- German specialty chemicals company Lanxess has expanded its Material Testing Center for high-tech thermoplastics in Dormagen with two sophisticated Kappa Multistation creep testing machines, engineered by Messphysik Materials Testing GmbH, the Zwick Roell Group’s competence center for creep testing, reported the company on its site.
These machines can be used to test how Durethan polyamides, Pocan polyesters and TEPEX continuous fiber-reinforced high-performance composites deform over time when exposed to constant mechanical load. The characteristic material data obtained from these tests is used in simulation tools to reliably predict the long-term behavior of corresponding components under continuous mechanical and thermal load.
The two machines can perform not only creep tests according to ISO 899-1, but also relaxation tests and tests with user-defined load profiles comprising several load sequences, and they can do so at temperatures of up to 200 °C.
The two new testing machines cover a load range of up to 10 kN per sample. Each one is equipped with five test axes installed in a temperature-controlled chamber. The test axes can be controlled individually.
"This way, we can perform five independent tests, such as creep and relaxation tests, right next to one another at identical temperatures, which saves space, money and time," Dr. Marcel Brandt, technical head of the Material Testing Center, said.
Elongation of the sample under load is measured optically (non-contact) by a high-resolution video extensometer mounted on each test axis.
Lanxess has steadily expanded its fully climate-controlled Material Testing Center in recent years.
As MRC reported earlier, last summer, Lanxess celebrated the opening of its first production facility in Russia. In the new plant at the Lipetsk site, Lanxess' subsidiary Rhein Chemie manufactures polymer-bound rubber additives for the markets in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), primarily for the automotive and tire industries. A production facility for the bladders used in tire production is to be added in 2016. The overall investment volume in euros amounts to a seven-digit figure and 40 new jobs will be created at the new plant in the medium term.
Lanxess is a leading specialty chemicals company with sales of EUR 8.3 billion in 2013. The company is currently represented at 50 production sites worldwide. The core business of Lanxess is the development, manufacturing and marketing of plastics, rubber, intermediates and specialty chemicals.
MRC
MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LP (Chevron Phillips Chemical) held a groundbreaking ceremony for its U.S. Gulf Coast (USGC) Petrochemicals Project at the Cedar Bayou plant in Baytown, Texas, said Reuters.
The groundbreaking ceremony signifies the start of construction for the USGC project sparked by shale resource development. The USGC project includes a 1.5 mln metric tpa (3.3 bln lbs/year) ethane cracker to be built at the Cedar Bayou facility in Baytown, and two 500,000 mln metric tpa (1.1 bln lbs/year) capacity polyethylene facilities to be built in Old Ocean, Texas.
The project will support 400 long-term direct jobs and 10,000 engineering and construction jobs. The estimated completion date for the USGC Petrochemicals Project is in 2017. The capacity expansion is targeting a 20% minimum increase in a phased approach.
Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LP is an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LLC, one of the world’s top producers of olefins and polyolefins and a leading supplier of aromatics, alpha olefins, styrenics, specialty chemicals, plastic piping and polymer resins. Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LLC is equally owned by Chevron U.S.A. Inc., an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Chevron Corporation, and by wholly-owned subsidiaries of Phillips 66, and is headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas.
MRC