PolyOne launches authentication technologies in Asia

MOSCOW (MRC) -- PolyOne Corporation, a premier provider of specialized polymer materials, services and solutions, has introduced its Percept Authentication Technologies in Asia, as per the company's press release.

This full-spectrum portfolio of brand protection solutions, launched initially in North America and Europe late last year, is now available in the Asia Pacific region.

Consisting of a highly customizable set of technologies, Percept solutions were developed to help customers positively authenticate their products, thereby maintaining brand integrity and reducing risks associated with fraudulent goods.

"As companies continue to widen their global manufacturing footprints, the demand for authentication technologies, especially in healthcare packaging, premium food packaging and consumer electronics is increasing," said Say Eng Lee, general manager, PolyOne Color and Additives Asia. "Our advanced solutions can help these companies to protect brand integrity while minimizing revenue loss or claims resulting from inferior counterfeit goods."

Percept technologies include formulation and consultative services to assist manufacturers and brand owners in confidently detecting whether their goods are authentic or are being counterfeited.

As MRC wrote previously, PolyOne Corporation, is establishing a new Innovation Center in Shanghai, China. The new facility will facilitate collaboration, accelerate application development and increase speed-to-market for customers in the Asia Pacific region.

PolyOne Corporation, with 2013 revenues of USD3.8 billion, is a premier 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.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- CEO Andrew Liveris said there’s a risk that tighter natural gas markets will hurt the economic assumptions behind Enterprise Products' plan to export US ethane, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Global oil prices will drop and US gas prices will rise during the next five to 10 years, reducing the advantage of producing ethylene and plastics from US ethane, a natural gas liquid, Liveris said in a phone interview. After adding costs for export and import facilities, chemical makers in places such as Europe may have little incentive to buy US ethane, he said.

"It’s a high risk, because the oil-gas arbitrage that we have baked into our assumptions for our investments is half what it is today," Liveris said in the interview. "When you put that arbitrage in place and then put the cost of freight and a receiving facility, that’s a high-risk contract."

Increased production from US shale formations has created a glut of ethane, benefiting chemical makers such as Dow who turn it into ethylene and plastics, while hurting ethane producers. Enterprise said it plans to eliminate much of the estimated 300,000 bpd of excess ethane production with an export facility on the Texas coast.

"There is nothing that we see as concerning about that announcement," Liveris, who is also Dow chairman, said from company headquarters in Midland, Michigan. "The chances this will get built on schedule and impact supply is very low for us."

If Enterprise can fill its export facility, US ethane markets may balance by 2018 when new ethylene plants start production in 2018, followed by more surplus through at least 2020, Bradley Olsen, a midstream analyst at Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. in Houston, said in a report.

Dow is investing USD4 billion in Texas and Louisiana to expand production of ethylene and propylene using low-cost natural gas liquids such as ethane and propane. Companies such Chevron Phillips Chemical and ExxonMobil also are expanding ethylene production in the US because of the cost advantage.

Enterprise plans on starting ethane exports in the third quarter of 2016 at a refrigerated facility that will have the capacity to load 240,000 bpd, making it the largest such facility in the world. The Houston-based company said it has executed long-term contracts to support the facility and continues to discuss supplying potential customers.

Oneok, which has been rejecting about 90,000 bpd of ethane at its processing units, stands to benefit from the start of ethane exports, Christopher Sighinolfi, a New York- based analyst at Jefferies, said in a report.

Ineos Group previously announced agreements to import US ethane for European ethylene production.

As MRC reported earlier, Dow Elastomers, a business unit of The Dow Chemical Company, will soon break ground on its planned world-scale NORDEL EPDM (ethylene propylene-diene terpolymer) facility in Plaquemine, La., which will utilize the company’s newest proprietary catalyst technology to enable products with high Mooney viscosity. The facility, which will service customers globally, is expected to come online in 2016 and will leverage Dow’s comprehensive investment plan to serve its downstream businesses through increased ethylene and propylene production in the US Gulf Coast and to connect the company's US operations into feedstock opportunities from increasing supplies of shale gas. Dow is the only EPDM producer globally that has announced expansion in the highly advantaged region.

The Dow Chemical Company is an American multinational chemical corporation. As of 2007, it is the second-largest chemical manufacturer in the world by revenue (after BASF) and as of February 2009, the third-largest chemical company in the world by market capitalization (after BASF and DuPont). Dow is a large producer of plastics, including polystyrene, polyurethane, polyethylene, polypropylene, and synthetic rubber.
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MOSCOW (MRC) - Production of polymer products in Belarus decreased by 13.9% in the first quarter of this year, according to MRC analysts.

The greatest reduction in production volumes occurred for the goods used in the construction sector: plastic windows, boxes and window sills and doors and door boxes made of polymers.

According to the National Statistics Committee of Belarus, production of windows, window boxes and sills was 34,900 sq. m in March, compared with 19,500 sq. m in February. Total production of these products in Belarus reduced to 72,000 sq. m in Q1 2014, down 15.7% in the same time a year earlier.

March production of plastic doors and boxes in Belarus increased to 1,900 sq. m, compared with 1,500 sq. m in February. Total production of plastic doors and boxes in Belarus was 5,100 sq. m in Q1 2014, down 16.4% year on year.

Last month' s production of plates, films and polymer sheets in Belarus was 7,200 tonnes, compared with 5,800 tonnes in February. Production of these products in Belarus was 19,600 tonnes in Q1 2014, down 12.2% in the same time a year earlier.

March output of boxes, crates, plastic trays in Belarus was about 66.8 million units, from 58.9 million units in February. Total production of these polymer products in Belarus rose to 187.3 million units in Q1 2014, up 12.1% compared to the same time in 2013.

Production of pipes, hoses and fittings made of polymers in March decreased to 897 tonnes, from 915 tonnes in February. Total production of pipes, hoses and fittings made of polymers in Belarus was 2,800 tonnes in Q1 2014, up 4.3% year on year.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- INVISTA and Solvay have signed a settlement agreement that resolves disputes related to adiponitrile (ADN) intellectual property and technology in use at their nylon 6,6 intermediates Butachimie joint venture in Chalampe, France, said the company in its press release.

The settlement confirms INVISTA’s exclusive ownership of the ADN technology at Butachimie and includes a plan to upgrade the facility with INVISTA’s latest and most advanced ADN technology. The planned upgrade would be one of several components in a new joint venture relationship between the two companies.

"Retrofitting Butachimie with INVISTA’s newest ADN technology will dramatically increase the plant’s efficiency," said Warren Primeaux, president of INVISTA Intermediates. "Under this new joint venture, we are excited to work together with Solvay to better serve our customers and support nylon 6,6 growth."

The Butachimie joint venture has been operating for 40 years, and is the world’s largest ADN facility. The nylon 6,6 intermediates made at Butachimie are used to make nylon 6,6 fibers and polymers that ultimately become part of air bags, automobile parts, carpet, workout apparel, outdoor equipment and more.

As MRC wrote before, INVISTA signed an exclusive, long-term agreement with Petrochemical Conversion Company Ltd. (PCC) to purchase and market nylon 6,6 engineering resin for export from PCC’s new world-scale nylon 6,6 plant in Al-Jubail, Saudi Arabia.

INVISTA is one of the world’s largest integrated producers of chemical intermediates, polymers and fibers. The company’s advantaged technologies for nylon, spandex and polyester are used to produce clothing, carpet, car parts and countless other everyday products. Headquartered in the United States, INVISTA operates in more than 20 countries and has about 10,000 employees.

Solvay assists industries in finding and implementing ever more responsible and value-creating solutions. Solvay generates 90% of its net sales in activities where it is among the world's top three players. It serves many markets, varying from energy and the environment to automotive and aerospace or electricity and electronics. The group is headquartered in Brussels, employs about 29,400 people in 56 countries and generated 9.9 billion euros in net sales in 2013.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sabic Innovative Plastics will invest in a production line for Stamax-brand long glass fiber-reinforced polypropylene (PP) resin at its manufacturing site in Shanghai, reported the company on its site.

Investment or production capacity numbers were not revealed, but the new line is expected to come on stream in H2-2015.

This will be Sabic's third Stamax plant, joining existing facilities in Genk, Belgium, and Bay St. Louis, Miss., according to the statement.

The new China capacity brings Stamax operations closer to customers in Asia, noted Alan Leung, vice president of global and Asia Pacific commercial operations. It also helps respond to growing demands by automakers in the region for lightweight-enabling materials that can help reduce vehicle emissions.

As MRC informed earlier, designed specifically to help customers in the beverage industry reduce transportation losses, Sabic has recently broadened its stretch film portfolio to include one of the first commercially available materials in Europe to combine polypropylene (PP) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE).

Sabic is a diversified manufacturing company, active in chemicals and intermediates, industrial polymers, fertilizers and metals. It is the largest public company in Saudi Arabia and the largest company in the Middle East. Sabic is currently the second largest global ethylene glycol producer and is expected to become number one after the introduction of these new projects. Sabic is the third largest polyethylene manufacturer, the fourth largest polyolefins manufacturer and the fourth largest polypropylene manufacturer. It is also the world's largest producer of mono-ethylene glycol, MTBE, granular urea, polyphenylene and polyether imide.
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