Styron to permanently close Texas PC plant

MOSCOW (MRC) -- US styrenics producer Styron, alternately known as Trinseo, has said it plans to close its only North American polycarbonate plant, at Freeport, Texas, by the end of 2014 and exit the market, said Chemanager.

The plant with a capacity of around 100,000 t/y officially belongs to the company's former parent Dow Chemical. The former Dow styrenics unit also produces PC at Stade, Germany, and at Niihama, Japan as part of a joint venture with Sumitomo.

The PC market has been plagued by overcapacity, which has depressed prices and earnings even at leading producers such as Bayer MaterialScience (BMS). Patrick Thomas, CEO of the Bayer offshoot, said earlier this year there were signs that some of the smaller players were planning to quit the market.

Styron said it also will convert a nickel butadiene rubber line at Schkopau, Germany, to produce neodymium butadiene rubber. Conversion of the unit also owned by Dow is expected to begin in the next few months and completed by the end of 2015. Styron said the rubber investment is designed to meet increasing demand for green tires and ultra-high performance tires.

Styron is a leading global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex and rubber, dedicated to collaborating with customers to deliver innovative and sustainable solutions. Styron’s technology is used by customers in industries such as home appliances, automotive, building & construction, carpet, consumer electronics, consumer goods, electrical & lighting, medical, packaging, paper & paperboard, rubber goods and tires.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Production of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in Russia dropped from January to April 2014 by 3% year on year, according to MRC ScanPlast.

The output of Russian plants decreased over the said period, despite the overall increased production capacities this year (by 90,000 tonnes at Polief). The overall PET production in Russia totalled 146,600 tonnes over the first four months of 2014.

The situation started to change in April because of a launch of PET chips produciton at Alco-Naphtha. The plant resumed production after a two-month outage and is now operating in a normal mode.

The overall capacity utilisation at Russian plants was 86% in April 2014, whereas this figure was 89% in April 2013.

In its turn, Bashkir Polief reached its full capacity utilisation at two reactors in April. The plant produced over 18,000 tonnes of PET in April, which was the highest figure in the history of the company.

An outage at the Kaliningrad plant in February and March led to increased sales of Russian PET in the domestic market in April. However, buying activity fell again in May on the back of the arrival of significant quantities of imported PET in the market.

As reported earlier, April PET imports reached 30,000 tonnes, which was the top level since June 2011.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Petroleos Mexicanos, the state-owned oil producer, is negotiating with Chinese companies to create a fund valued at as much as USD4 billion to invest and finance projects, said Bloomberg.

The proposed arrangement is in a "final stage of negotiations," Pemex, as the Mexico City-based oil producer is known, said in an e-mailed statement yesterday, correcting an earlier filing that said a deal had already been signed.

The Sino-Mex Energy Fund would be the largest Chinese investment fund in Latin America, according to the earlier statement sent to the Mexican Stock Exchange. The prospective agreement between Pemex’s international unit PMI Comercio Internacional and Xinxing Ductile Iron Pipes, SPF Capital Hong Kong Ltd. and other Chinese companies would be used to finance large-scale projects and create jobs.

Pemex is seeking to increase sales to Asia and Europe to offset falling oil exports to the U.S., Mexico’s largest crude buyer. U.S. oil imports from Mexico have fallen 47% in the past decade, dropping to a 20-year low, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Pemex has announced plans this year to export light crude to Japan, Hawaii, India and Switzerland, and will continue to pursue new partners in Asia and the Pacific region, Gustavo Hernandez, Pemex’s director of exploration and production, said last week.

As MRC wrote before, Pemex on May 6 2014 said it plans to quadruple petrochemical investment to 50.4 billion pesos (USD3.89 billion) over the next four years to boost output. The company with Mexichem formed an alliance to revamp the Pajaritos petrochemical plant last year.

Pemex, Mexican Petroleum, is a Mexican state-owned petroleum company. Pemex has a total asset worth of USD415.75 billion, and is the world's second largest non-publicly listed company by total market value, and Latin America's second largest enterprise by annual revenue as of 2009. Company produces such polymers, as polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Westlake Chemical Corporation has announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire German-based Vinnolit Holdings GmbH and its subsidiary companies from Advent International, a private equity firm, reported the company on its site.

Vinnolit is an integrated global leader in specialty polyvinyl chloride (PVC) resins. The acquisition price of EUR490 million will be financed using existing Westlake cash and credit facilities. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2014, subject to standard closing conditions, including regulatory review.

Vinnolit has six production facilities located in Gendorf, Burghausen, Cologne, Knapsack and Schkopau in Germany and Hillhouse in the United Kingdom. These operations have a combined annual capacity of 780,000 metric tons of PVC, including specialty paste and suspension grades, 665,000 metric tons of vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) and 475,000 metric tons of membrane grade caustic soda. Vinnolit has a world class research and development facility in Gendorf and applications laboratory in Burghausen.

Vinnolit's products are suitable for a wide range of industrial and building product applications including automotive sealants, cable sheathing, flooring, medical applications, pipes, rigid film, technical coatings, wall covering and window profiles. Vinnolit's headquarters are located in Ismaning, Germany, outside of Munich. The company generated EUR917 million of revenue in 2013 and employs approximately 1,400 employees.

"The acquisition of Vinnolit is an excellent strategic fit for Westlake. It will allow us to expand our chlorvinyl business globally and adds important specialty PVC products and technology to our existing portfolio," says Albert Chao, Westlake's President and CEO. "Vinnolit is an impressive company with an outstanding reputation for meeting customer needs with superior technology, product quality, and operating excellence. We look forward to working with their talented team as they join the Westlake family of companies."

"We have transformed Vinnolit into the leading specialty PVC manufacturer and remain dedicated to further growing the company's business," commented Dr Josef Ertl, Managing Director of Vinnolit, on behalf of the management board. "We thank Advent for their support and strategic advice in developing Vinnolit and facilitating its successful transformation. We, as a management team, look forward to beginning a new chapter in our company's history and continuing our successful growth path together with Westlake."

As MRC informed earlier, last March, Westlake Chemical agreed to acquire the PVC pipe and fittings unit of Compagnie de Saint-Gobain SA's CertainTeed Corp. for USD175 million. CertainTeed's pipe and foundation group produces PVC pipe and fittings for municipalities, water wells, mining, agriculture and irrigation. The transaction was closed in the second quarter of 2013.

Westlake Chemical Corporation is an international manufacturer and supplier of petrochemicals, polymers and building products with headquarters in Houston, Texas. The company's range of products includes: ethylene, polyethylene, styrene, propylene, caustic, VCM, PVC resin and PVC building products including pipe and specialty components, windows and fence.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Aramco said its downstream investments would exceed USD100 billion over the next decade, as global demand for oil rises by a quarter in the next 25 years, said Zawya.

According to the company's 2013 annual review, Aramco and its subsidiaries own or have equity interest in domestic and international refineries with a total worldwide refining capacity of 4.9 million barrels per day, of which its equity share is 2.6 million barrels per day, making it the world's sixth-largest refiner. Aramco is also looking to grow within the petrochemicals sector with two major projects.

Aramco has a joint venture with Dow Chemical to build the USD20 billion Sadara petrochemical complex in Jubail that is due to come on stream in the second half of 2015 is also expanding its petrochemical complex called PetroRabigh that it jointly owns with Sumitomo Chemical.

Khalid al-Falih, the company's chief executive said at a petrochemicals conference in Bahrain that the investment will exceed USD100 billion over the next decade alone. "As a result of both global demographic growth and rising standards of living in the developing world we see global demand for oil growing by a quarter over the next 25 years," he said.

Falih said Aramco's refining capacity would be between 8 million to 10 million barrels a day (bpd) in the coming years, a figure exceeding the goal cited by Aramco in 2012 of 8 million bpd.

Eng. Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al-Falih, Saudi Aramco's President and Senior Executive Officer, disclosed that the company is building the refineries in Jazan, Satorp, a joint venture with Total, and Yaserf, a joint venture with Sinopec, in addition to building or expanding two world-class chemical complexes: Sadara complex, a joint venture with Daewoo Chemical and Petro Rabegh complex, a joint venture with Sumitomo Chemical.

As MRC wrote before, Saudi Aramco Products Trading Co., the fuel marketing unit of Saudi Arabia’s state oil producer, started selling products of an affiliated petrochemicals maker. Aramco Trading will sell products including polypropylene and polyethylene made by Rabigh Refining & Petrochemicals Co.

Saudi Aramco, officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, is a Saudi Arabian national oil and natural gas company based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Aramco's value has been estimated at up to USD10 trillion in the Financial Times, making it the world's most valuable company. Saudi Aramco has both the largest proven crude oil reserves, at more than 260 billion barrels, and largest daily oil production.
MRC