Icis
en
MOSCOW (MRC) -- Celanese Corporation, a global technology and specialty materials company and a global leader in vinyl acetate ethylene (EVA) emulsions, has announced its intent to construct a EVA emulsions production unit in Southeast Asia, as per the company's statement.
The unit is expected to begin production by mid-2016.
"This proposed expansion will support our global and regional growth strategy to expand our reach into the markets of Southeast Asia," said Mark Murray, vice president and general manager of the Celanese emulsion polymers business. "Building a EVA plant in Southeast Asia would broaden our network to better serve customers throughout the Asia-Pacific region, primarily in the high-end applications of architectural coatings, building and construction, carpets, and paper industries."
As MRC wrote before, Celanese Corporation has recently developed new emulsion products for architectural paints. The company has also expanded its product portfolio for the coatings and adhesives industries, including Celansese's solvents, vinyl acetate monomer, EVA polymers and emulsions. Yhe company's new emulsion products - EcoVAE 450, Avicor 385 and Avicor 390 - represent solutions to many of the industry's issues including low-VOC primers, stain resistance and broad formulation latitude.
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. With sales almost equally divided between North America, Europe and Asia, the company uses the full breadth of its global chemistry, technology and business expertise to create value for customers and the corporation. Based in Dallas, Texas, Celanese employs approximately 7,400 employees worldwide and had 2013 net sales of EUR6.5 billion.
MRC
Celanese to build EVA emulsions unit in Southeast Asia
SABIC expanding technology center in Jubail
MOSCOW (MRC) -- SABIC is expanding its Technology Center in Jubail Industrial City in line with its strategy to continue investing in technology and innovation, and create new market opportunities and products to cope with global growth, said the company in its press release.
The Jubail center is a part of the company’s global research network of 19 Technology and Innovation facilities.
The expansion project includes a new building adjacent to the existing center to be built at a cost of USD 11 million, and scheduled for commissioning by 2017. The Conceptual Development Package has been completed and the project is now in Front End Engineering Package stage.
Ernesto Occhiello, SABIC Executive Vice President, Technology & Innovation, said that the center in Jubail has been earmarked for expansion specifically because of its proximity to SABIC’s manufacturing affiliates in the industrial city. "The project, which is well in line with our 2025 strategy, will be instrumental in driving our research and development efforts, particularly in our chemicals and fertilizers business," he said.
The new building will have a buildup area of 3,300 sq. m. on two floors out of which 1,500 sq. m. will be allotted for labs. The site’s total occupancy will be increased by 50% to accommodate 450 employees.
We remind that, as MRC informed earlier, in late May 2013, SABIC, Saudi Arabia's petrochemical major, opened a new engineering thermoplastics compounding facility and a polypropylene compounding plant at its manufacturing facility in Jubail, Saudi Arabia.
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. Sabic is currently the second largest global ethylene glycol producer, the third largest polyethylene manufacturer, the fourth largest polyolefins manufacturer and the fourth largest polypropylene manufacturer.
MRC
Wison completes EPC services at Petrochima’s Sichuan LLDPE project
This is the last start-up project in PetroChina Sichuan Integrated Petrochemical and Refinery Complex (Sichuan Project). Currently, all the six projects in the Complex undertaken by Wison Engineering have started successful operations.
The Complex, with a total of 19 main units, includes two parts: one is the 10 MTA oil refinery plant and the other one is 800,000 tpa ethylene plant.
As one of the main EPC services supplier, Wison Engineering undertook the task of building six main units, including the ethylene cracking furnace and pipe-racks, the Linear Low-Density Polyethylene Plant, the wax oil hydrocracking plant, the integrated paraxylene-aromatic unit (including PSA), the integrated sulfur recovery plant, and the wide-area covering auxiliary units as well. Throughout the three-year construction process, the strong project management team from Wison Engineering achieved a series of innovation and breakthrough in technology improvement, quality management, HSE and project schedule control.
As MRC reported before, in 2013 Johnson Matthey Davy Technologies and The Dow Chemical announced that PetroChina Guangdong Petrochemical Company, a subsidiary of PetroChina selected LP Oxo technology to produce 2-ethylhexanol, normal butanol and iso butyraldehyde in its major petrochemical complex in Jieyang, Guangdong, China. The new LP Oxo unit, with a capacity of 85,000 metric tons of 2-ethylhexanol, 235,000 metric tons of normal butanol and 33,000 metric tons of iso-butyraldehyde on a yearly basis, will adopt JM Davy and Dow's LP Oxo SELECTOR 10 Technology with advanced liquid phase hydrogenation which features a high conversion of propylene to alcohols, low capital investment and easy operation.
PetroChina Company Limited, is a Chinese oil and gas company and is the listed arm of state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation, headquartered in Dongcheng District, Beijing. It is China's biggest oil producer.
MRC
HDPE imports in Ukraine decreased by 29% in January - April 2014
Ukraine's HDPE imports fell to a record low level in April over the last few years - about 5,400 tonnes. Total imports of HDPE in Ukraine decreased to 32,300 tonnes in January - April 2014, compared with 45,200 tonnes in the same period in 2013. Political instability and currency devaluation (more than 45%) have made many local companies cut HDPE procurement in foreign markets significantly.
Structure of HDPE supply in the context of processing technologies for the reported period was as follows. Ukraine's HDPE imports dropped to 690 tonnes in April, compared with 2,500 tonnes in March. HDPE imports declined in all the traditional directions: Russia, Europe, Middle East.
Total imports of film HDPE to Ukraine fell to 12,900 tonnes in the first four months of the year against 20,000 tonnes in the same period a year earlier.
April imports of pipe HDPE to Ukraine fell to 840 tonnes. Total imports of pipe HDPE to Ukraine decreased by 35% to about 5,400 tonnes in January - April 2014.
Imports of blow moulding HDPE declined to 1,600 tonnes in April. Imports of blow moulding HDPE to the country were about 6,200 tonnes in the first four months of 2014, down 25% year on year.
Ukraine's imports of injection moulding HDPE decreased to 1,800 tonnes in April. Total imports of injection moulding HDPE into Ukraine increased by 15% to about 6,600 tonnes in the first four months of this year.
Total import supply in other HDPE processing sector for the reported period decreased more than twofold to about 1,100 tonnes.
MRC
PVC production in Russia dropped by 3% from January to April 2014
MOSCOW (MRC) -- The overall production of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in Russia dropped by 3% over the first four months of 2014. An outage at SIBUR-Neftekhim and decreased capacity utilisation at Volgograd Khimprom were the main reasons for lower production, as per MRC ScanPlast.
April PVC production in Russia rose to 54,900 tonnes (50,500 tonnes in March). The overall PVC output by Russian producers decreased to 212,700 tonnes from January to April 2014 from 219,300 tonnes a year earlier. SIBUR-Neftekhim completely shut down its production in early April 2013 on the back of the commissioning of a new plant - RusVinyl. Khimprom (Volgograd), the only producer of emulsion polyvinyl chloride (EPVC) in Russia so far, also reduced further its capacity utilisation in 2014.
Only two Russian producers - Bashkir Soda Company and Kaustik (Volgograd) - managed to increase their production over the first four months of 2014. The overall PVC output at these plants totalled over the stated period 75,800 tonnes (an increase of 5%) and 31,007 tonnes (an increase of 1%), respectively.
Sayanskkhimplast, Russia's largest suspension polyvinyl chloride (SPVC) producer, maintained its output at the last year's level. The overall SPVC production was about 99,200 tonnes from January to April 2014. The plant intends to expand its capacity from the current 280,000 tonnes per year to 320-350 tonnes per year until late 2014.
Khimprom (Volgograd) increased its capacity utilisation in April and produced 1,700 tonnes, while this figure was 1,500 tonnes in March. The plant's overall EPVC production dropped by 5% over the first four months of the year to about 6,000 tonnes.
As reported earlier, RusVinyl (a joint venture of SIBUR and SolVin) plans to start operations at its SPVC and EPVC production with the annual capacity of 300,000 tonnes and 30,000 tonnes, respectively, in the second half of 2014.
MRC