Sinopec Jingmen to shut PP plant for maintenance in China

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sinopec Jingmen is likely to shut operations at its PP plant, as per Apic-online.

Located at Jingmen, Hubei province in China, the PP plant has a production capacity of 120,000 mt/year.

The plant will be taken off-stream for a scheduled maintenance turnaround on May 21, 2014 and will remain shut for around three weeks, according to a Polymerupdate source in China.

As MRC informed earlier, Sinopec Sabic Tianjin shut its PP plant for maintenance turnaround on May 7, 2014. It is planned to remain off-stream for around one month. Located in Tianjin city, China, the plant has a production capacity of 450,000 mt/year.

Besides, in November 2013, top Asian refiner Sinopec Corp won initial approval from China's top economic planner for a plan to build a USD10-billion refinery and petrochemical complex in Shanghai. China, the world's largest net importer of oil, is likely to add 3 million barrels per day, or a quarter of new refining capacity, between 2013 and 2015 to fuel economic growth, industry officials and Chinese media estimate.

China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group) is a super-large petroleum and petrochemical enterprise group established in July 1998 on the basis of the former China Petrochemical Corporation. Sinopec Group's key business activities include the exploration and production of oil and natural gas, petrochemicals and other chemical products, oil refining.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Four petrochemical projects, all in southwest of Iran, will be funded by Chinese investors, according to a TREND News Agency report.

Chinese companies would be investing EUR470 million in the construction of Lordegan Petrochemical Complex, the report said quoting Iran’s Mehr news agency.

Chinese investors have also pledged to finance Bushehr, Hengam and Gachsaran petrochemical complexes, the report said.

The process of extending credit to Iranian petrochemical projects by the Chinese firms went ahead after the November 24, 2013, interim agreement signed between Iran and the 5+1 group consisting of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany.

In March this year, Abbas Sheri-Moqaddam, managing director of National Petrochemical Company (NPC), said that around US$ 8 billion worth of foreign investment is required for the development of the country’s petrochemical sector and the NPC is trying to attract investment from foreign investors.

Meanwhile, the NPC is setting up a Petrochemical Development Fund, wherein private investors, banks and other potential investors would be involved. The fund would help finance petrochemical development projects.

The exports of petrochemicals from Iran increased by about 1% year-on-year to USD10.723 billion during the last Iranian calendar year that ended on March 20, 2014. In the new Iranian calendar year that began on March 21, 2014, the country’s petrochemical exports are likely to touch USD12 billion, as per NPC estimates.

We remind that, as MRC wrote before, in April 2014, European countries such as Italy, Spain and Greece resumed imports of petrochemical products from Iran. Iran’s oil and petrochemical exports have increased following some sanctions relief, including the EU and US bans on the country’s petrochemical exports. The ban ease is part of an agreement inked in Geneva last November between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the US, France, Britain, Russia, and China - plus Germany, under which the six countries agreed to provide Iran with some sanctions relief in exchange for Iran agreeing to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activities during a six-month period. The Geneva deal took effect on January 20.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recently issued a final notice of decision for the Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) for greenhouse gas (GHG) construction permit for the ExxonMobil Olefins Plant in Baytown, Texas, as per 4-traders.

The company proposes to construct a new ethylene production unit consisting of eight ethylene cracking furnaces and recovery equipment to produce polymer-grade ethylene.

"We are working to control greenhouse gas emissions and promote clean energy in the new projects coming to communities across Texas," said EPA Regional Administrator Ron Curry. "These projects show that economic development and environmental protection can go hand-in-hand."

On Nov. 25, 2013, EPA issued a final permit to the facility. The permit was appealed to EPA's Environmental Appeals Board, which denied review of the petition on May 14, 2014. On May 14, EPA finalized the permit allowing ExxonMobil to begin construction of the project. The project is part of a multibillion-dollar expansion project in Baytown. It's estimated to create 10,000 construction jobs and 350 permanent jobs.

"ExxonMobil's petrochemical expansion, enabled by growing supplies of shale energy, will create thousands of new jobs and boost the Houston area economy and tax revenues by nearly a billion dollars a year. This export-oriented project is a powerful example of how shale energy can revitalize the U.S. economy in an environmentally responsible manner," said Stephen D. Pryor, president, ExxonMobil Chemical Company.

In June 2010, EPA finalized national GHG regulations, which specify that beginning on January 2, 2011, projects that increase GHG emissions substantially will require an air permit.

As MRC informed previously, in March 2014, ExxonMobil Chemical announced that it will build facilities to manufacture premium halobutyl rubber and Escorez hydrogenated hydrocarbon resin at its recently-expanded petrochemical complex in Singapore. Engineering and procurement activities had already begun, with construction expected to begin in the second half of 2014 and completion anticipated in 2017.

ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world's oil and about 2% of the world's energy.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Arkema, a global chemical company, and Polymem, a French SME specializing in the manufacture of filtration modules from hollow fiber membranes, have jointly developed a new ultrafiltration hydrophilic membrane technology to produce high quality water over the long term, reported Arkema on its site.

This ultrafiltration technology using membranes manufactured by Polymem from a brand new nanostructured Kynar PVDF polymer developed by Arkema, makes the treatment of water using membranes more effective and less energy-intensive.

The aim of the partnership is both to speed up the commercial development of this ultrafiltration membrane technology boasting durable hydrophilic properties, and to make it accessible to other water treatment players without delay. This technology has been proven by an ultrafiltration demonstrator manufactured by Polymem.

As a water treatment technology, membrane filtration is being adopted by many plants for recycling municipal and industrial wastewater, for drinking water, or for pre-treatment in seawater desalination. The water is fed at low pressure through thousands of semi-permeable and porous hollow fibers that retain suspended solids, impurities, bacteria and viruses. Today, one of the materials that is most widely used for these membranes is PVDF, in which Arkema is the world leader.

As MRC reported before, in early 2014, Arkema announced the construction of a new organic peroxide plant on its Changshu site in China. This investment will help double the site’s production capacity. By doubling its production capacity in China, Arkema will continue to support the strong growth in the organic peroxide market in Asia, a region in which the Group is also a producer in India, South Korea and Japan. The new Changshu plant is due to come on stream in early 2016.

Arkema with annual revenue of EUR6.1 billion is a leading European supplier of chlorochemicals and PVC. Kynar and Kynar Flex are registered trademarks of Arkema Inc. Arkema operates 11 organic peroxide plants on the three continents, has operations in more than 40 countries, some 14,000 employees and 10 research centers.

Polymem, a French independent SME located in the Toulouse area, established in 1997 by two engineers specializing in hollow fiber membranes for water treatment, manufactures water filtration membranes and modules for municipal, industrial and commercial markets. With over 200 installations worldwide, the company’s know-how for the sector’s OEMs and distributors relies on a comprehensive range of both standard and customized filtration membranes and modules in order to design reliable and cost-competitive membrane systems.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- MRC has launched a new analytical report, ScanPlast on polycarbonate (PC) market in Russia, MRC analysts said.

The report provides detailed information on the production and consumption of PC in Russia by product types. For the purposes of this analysis products were divided into the following types: PC granules (virgin), PC/ABS, PC/GF, PC compounds. Top grades, producers, exporting countries, and delivery terms are analysed for each type of product. Also, based on the data on the volume of the national PC production, we are able to estimate the market demand for the material and quantify its volume. In addition, there are general price reviews in the local PC market.

"Polycarbonate is a high-tech polymer, and we are confident that it has a great future in the global and domestic market. Our PC market is still young. Nevertheless, demand for PC and number of applications are growing, new importers are coming on board, the market is becoming more complex and varied. We published our first ScanPlast report on PC market for our clients on 21 February 2014. For those market players who need to understand the broader picture of supply and demand, this report will be an excellent addition to our DataScope, which is an in-depth insight into import and export flows in the PC market in Russia" - said Ekaterina Trubaeva, the production analyst at MRC on the launch of the new report.

MRC is an information and analytical company specialising in reporting on the polymers markets of Russia, Ukraine and CIS countries. ScanPlast and DataScope reports belong to the range of its supply and demand analytical products.

ScanPlast - is a monthly report of a given polymer market, summarising vital data over the past month, such as total estimated consumption by type of polymer, production by plants, export and import by polymer processing technologies, end consumption with consideration of stocks, schedule of shutdowns, top-5 grades and producers by sales.

DataScope - is a comprehensive operational analysis of trade flows, detailing imports and exports by polymer processing sectors, producers, countries and regions. This review also rates top producers of the given polymer in several processing technologies.
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