Williams mulls second ethane cracker at Geismar

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chemical maker Williams is considering adding a second ethane cracker at the company’s Geismar complex and is looking to partner with one or two other firms on the project, said Plastemart.

"We’re out in the market right now trying to assess the market’s interest in participating in an investment there," John Dearborn, Williams’ senior vice president of NGL and petchem services, said during a May 1 conference call with stock analysts and investors.

Geismar 1, the existing ethane cracker, has been expanded about as much as possible, Dearborn said.

The plan is to build a new, large cracker - Geismar 2 - and sell its production on a fee-for-service basis. The cost of the project and its production capacity were not disclosed.

Ethylene is used in shrink wrap and food packaging. Abundant supplies of low-cost natural gas have prompted companies to switch to gas as the feedstock for ethylene.

Williams plans to restart Geismar 1 in June, close to a year after an explosion shut down the facility.

Williams is one of North America"s largest natural gas gatherers and processors. Williams also has a growing midstream business in Canada focused on processing oil sands off-gas into NGLs and olefins. It also has a domestic olefins business that provides customers in the petrochemical industry with a full suite of products and services.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Solvay and AkzoNobel have joined forces with EY (Ernst & Young) to jointly develop a monitoring system that tracks and quantifies the use of renewable raw materials in paints, coatings and other applications, said Solvay in its press release.

The partnership builds on last year’s agreement between AkzoNobel and Solvay, whereby the company progressively increases the use of Solvay’s bio-based epichlorohydrin, or Epicerol, in its coatings products.

Rather than buying Epicerol directly from Solvay, AkzoNobel obtains epoxy resins from a number of intermediate producers. The company then uses these epoxy resins as ingredients in various coatings.

Under this new agreement, Solvay, AkzoNobel and EY will develop a "chain of custody methodology" to ensure that even in situations where no physical segregation of petro and bio-based materials is practiced, volumes may still be assigned and reported.

"This is a vital next step to measure and share with partners our progress in using Solvay’s bio-based epichlorohydrin," explained Peter Nieuwenhuizen, AkzoNobel’s Director of Innovation and Partnerships.

Epicerol has a substantially lower carbon footprint than fossil-produced epichlorohydrin and is already used in AkzoNobel’s coating products worldwide. By 2016, the company aims to source 20% of its total epichlorohydrin demand as bio-based material.

As MRC wrote before, AkzoNobel and Solvay have signed a three-year agreement whereby AkzoNobel will increase the use of renewable raw materials in its paints and coatings, building on an existing partnership between the two companies.

Solvay Specialty Polymers manufactures over 1500 products across 35 brands of high-performance polymers - fluoropolymers, fluoroelastomers, fluorinated fluids, semi-aromatic polyamides, sulfone polymers, aromatic ultra polymers, high-barrier polymers and cross-linked high-performance compounds - for use in aerospace, alternative energy, automotive, healthcare, membranes, oil and gas, packaging, plumbing, semiconductors, wire and cable, and other industries.

Akzo Nobel N.V., trading as AkzoNobel, is a Dutch multinational, active in the fields of decorative paints, performance coatings and specialty chemicals. Headquartered in Amsterdam, the company has activities in more than 80 countries, and employs approximately 55,000 people.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- SK Engineering & Construction, one of South Korea top builders, has completed construction on Jurong Aromatics Corp.’s (JAC) Jurong Island, Singapore, aromatics complex, adding about 4-million t/y of new paraxylene, benzene, orthoxylene and fuels capacity, reported Apic-online with reference to Korean press reports.

In 2011, JAC established a joint venture with SK Petrochemical, SK Gas and SK Engineering & Contraction to build the USD2.4-billion project, which had been delayed twice to complete financing.

Earlier reports said the project was expected to produce 800,000 t/y of paraxylene, 450,000 t/y of benzene, 200,000 t/y of orthoxylene and 2.5-million t/y of fuels.

SK Petrochemical and SK Gas supplied materials for the project and agreed to purchase some of the output.

As MRC wrote earlier, in December 2013, SK Engineering and Construction Co. signed a multi-billion dollar deal to set up a large-scale petrochemical plant in Egypt. The builder secured the USD3.6 billion contract for the Tahrir Petrochemical Project as part of a consortium with its German partner Linde. Private Egyptian developer Carbon Holdings placed the order. The plant in Ain Sokhna region, lying on the western shore of the Gulf of Suez, aims to produce 1.35 million tons of ethylene and polyethylene per year.

South Korea's SK E&C is an engineering, procurement, construction, and maintenance services organization. The company has executed a wide range of design and construction projects for the petroleum refining industry including taking a refinery plant project through all phases from design to purchasing, construction and test run. Some of its projects include implementation of full-scale refineries in Kuwait, Brazil and Ghana.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ineos Group Holdings Ltd. and Solvay SA (SOLB), Europe’s two biggest makers of polyvinyl chloride, won European Union approval for a 4.3 billion-euro (USD6 billion) joint venture of their PVC units after agreeing to sell plants, said Bloomberg.

Ineos will seek a buyer for sites producing suspension polyvinyl chloride and related assets, giving the purchaser a "self-standing S-PVC business capable of competing with the new joint venture," the European Commission said in an e-mailed statement today. Ineos and Solvay won’t close their deal until they have a binding agreement with a purchaser approved by EU regulators, the commission said.

The venture, announced last year, would allow the companies to cut costs in areas from transport to marketing and raise profitability amid a European industry suffering from inflated raw material and energy costs. The PVC market is facing overcapacity and weak demand in Europe, prompting companies in the labor-intensive industry to explore deals. Solvay has said it plans to exit the PVC venture at a later stage.

"PVC is an important raw material used in the construction sector and in many other industries," said EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia in an e-mailed statement. "The proposed commitments will ensure that the transaction will not result in higher prices to the detriment of businesses and consumers in Europe."

Ineos and Solvay said they’d comment later on the EU decision.

Solvay S.A. is a Belgian chemical company founded in 1863, with its head office in Neder-Over-Heembeek, Brussels, Belgium. The company has diversified into two major sectors of activity: chemicals and plastics. Solvay supplies over 1500 products across 35 brands of high-performance polymers – fluoropolymers, fluoroelastomers, fluorinated fluids, semi-aromatic polyamides, sulfone polymers, aromatic ultra polymers, high-barrier polymers and cross-linked high-performance compounds.

INEOS Group Limited is a privately owned multinational chemicals company consisting of 15 standalone business units, headquartered in Rolle, Switzerland and with its registered office in Lyndhurst, United Kingdom. It is the fourth largest chemicals company in the world measured by revenues (after BASF, Dow Chemical and LyondellBasell) and the largest privately owned company in the United Kingdom.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Henan Shenma Chlorine Alkali is likely to shut a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plant for maintenance turnaround, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the plant is planned to be shut on May 6, 2014. It is likely to stay off-stream for around two weeks.

Located in Henan province of China, the plant has a production capacity of 450,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote earlier, Xinxiang Shenma Zhenghua Chemical shut down its PVC plant for maintenance turnaround on April 16, 2014. It is likely to remain off-stream for around one month. Located in Henan province, China, the plant has a production capacity of 50,000 mt/year.

Earlier, Erdos Chlor-Alkali Chemical took off-stream its PVC plant for a one-month turnaround on April 1, 2014. Located in Inner Mongolia, the plant has a production capacity of 300,000 mt/year.

Besides, Japanese petrochemical producer - Taiyo Vinyl Corp., a subsidiary of Tosoh Group, shut down its PVC plant for maintenance turnaround on March 13, 2014. The plant remained off-stream for around one month. Located in Yokkaichi, Japan, the plant has a production capacity of 310,000 mt/year.
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