Global automotive plastic consumption estimated to grow at CAGR of 8% from 2013 to 2018

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The global automotive plastic consumption is anticipated to grow from 7.1 mln tons in 2012 to 11.3 mln tons by 2018 at an expected CAGR of 8% from 2013 to 2018, reported Plastemart with reference to as per RnRMarketResearch.

The high growth rate of the industry is attributable to increasing passenger car production and initiatives by automobile manufacturers towards light-weighting of cars. The global market is mainly driven by passenger car production and increasing utilization of automotive plastics in vehicle designs. The report covers global consumption of seven major types of automotive plastics used in passenger cars such as polypropylene (PP), polyurethanes (PU), polycarbonates (PC), high density polyethylene (HDPE), polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), and composites.

The use of plastics in interior, exterior, and under bonnet components of automobiles help in weight reduction, improve aesthetics, vibration and noise control, and cabin insulation. The properties of plastics such as easy moldability, recyclability, scratch resistance, high volume to weight resistance, thermal stability, impact strength, and resistance to abrasion make them suitable for use in automobiles. Among all the automotive plastics, PP leads consumption by 37% followed by PU (17.3%), ABS (12.3%), composites (11.5%), HDPE (10.8%), PC (6.8%), and PMMA (4.4%) due to their easy forming properties and their availability at cheaper price than other materials.

As of 2012, Asia-Pacific leads consumption by capturing 50.5% of market followed by Europe (28%), North America (11.3%), and rest of the world (10.1%). Major suppliers/producers include Dow Chemical Company (U.S.), Bayer MaterialScience (Germany), Momentive Performance Materials (U.S.), Akzonobel (Netherlands), and Evonik (Germany).

The leading consumers include major automobile manufacturers such as Toyota Motor Corp., Hyundai Motor Company, Mitsubishi Motors Corp., General Motors, Honda Motor Co. Ltd, and Peugeot SA. The main drivers of automotive plastics utilization are their potential for mass reduction of automobile and fuel consumption reduction potential by reducing the weight of the vehicle. The factors restraining the growth of market are high material cost and huge investment in material research activities by companies. The opportunities are cited in the development of new materials such as reinforced composites and PMMA.

The global passenger car production is dominated by Asia-Pacific region followed by Europe, North America, and rest of the world.

As MRC wrote earlier, BASF opens new center in Thailand for Asian growing automotive market. BASF has set up a new Coatings Technical Competence Center ASEAN in Bangkok, Thailand. This new facility supports technical and laboratory activities mainly in motorcycle coatings including technology transfer, product development, performance testing, color design and development, and houses a sales and marketing team as well as a technical service team of more than 20 professionals, all catering to motorcycle manufacturers in the ASEAN region.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Braskem's Technology and Innovation Center in Triunfo, Rio Grande do Sul invested RUSD1 million to acquire a new piece of equipment for evaluating the sizes and changes in the polymer chains studied in the laboratories, which are important characteristics for the manufacture and application of the plastic resins developed by the company, reported the company on its site.

The technology, which is known as gel permeation chromatography (GPC Polymer-Char), enables simultaneous analyses of polymer chains, which increases productivity and reduces the consumption of solvents and generation of waste, thereby making the entire process more sustainable.

It will also increase the company's capacity to meet the needs for developing new products to support industrial plants and clients. "Another key aspect is the fact that the entire preparation and analysis are conducted without any direct contact by researchers with the solvents," said Nercio Hexsel, director of the CT&I.

Braskem's Technology and Innovation Center in Triunfo has 11 research laboratories and six pilot plants. The structure is used to develop new materials and technologies whose applications improve people's lives and make manufacturing processes more sustainable. In 2013, the center, which has 44 Team Members, conducted 46,000 tests, 15,000 of which to support some 500 Clients. In the same period, new products developed in the last three years by the company's Technology and Innovation area accounted for 19% of the volume of polypropylene and polyethylene sold in Brazil.

As MRC informed previously, last summer, Braskem, one of the leading thermoplastic resin producers in the Americas and among the world's largest biopolymer producers, announced the expansion of its portfolio of renewable products with the launch of its new line of green low-density polyethylene (LDPE), with this new product family complementing itпїЅs already well known Green Plastics.

Braskem is Brazilian main producer of polyethylene and polypropylene. In addition with ongoing plants located in both petrochemical complexes, in April 2008 Braskem opened a 300,000 metric ton polypropylene plant in the city of Paulinia (Sao Paulo).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Yisheng Petrochemical has shut its No.1 purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant, as per Apic-online.

A Polymeurpdate source in China informed that the plant was shut on June 24, 2014 owing to technical issues. A restart date for the plant could not be ascertained.

Located at Dalian in China, the plant has a production capacity of 2.5 million mt/year.

As MRC wrote previously, BP Zhuhai Chemical had deferred the startup of its new purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant to 2015. It was earlier scheduled to start in Q4, 2014. The reason for the delayed startup has been attributed to weak margins for PTA. To be located in Zhuhai, southern Guangdong province of China, the plant will have a production capacity of 1.5 million mt/year.

We remind that China based company Xianglu Petrochemical started up its new purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant in end-November 2013. Located in Xiamen, China, the plant has a production capacity of 1.5 million mt/year.

BP is one of the world's leading international oil and gas companies, providing its customers with fuel for transportation, energy for heat and light, retail services and petrochemicals products for everyday items.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Dow Chemical will begin construction on June 30 of its previously-announced world-scale ethylene production facility in Freeport, Texas, said Hydrocarbomprocessing.

This represents a prominent milestone in the company delivering on its strategy to invest in a performance-based portfolio of technology-enabled businesses, according to Dow officials.

The significant investment in Dow’s Texas operations remains on track and on-plan for start-up in the first half of 2017, and will employ up to 2,000 workers during construction.

"This world-scale ethylene facility is a foundational element in Dow’s strategy to utilize low-cost and advantaged shale gas feedstocks to enable growth in key value-add market-driven businesses," said Andrew N. Liveris, CEO of Dow. "Collectively, Dow’s US Gulf Coast investments serve as an integral component of our global growth strategy, where we are leveraging our first-mover advantage to deliver significant shareholder value, enabling the company to achieve our near-term USD10 billion EBITDA goal and beyond."

With a nameplate capacity of approximately 1.5 million tpy, Dow’s new ethylene production facility is part of a multi-billion dollar investment. Alongside previously announced plastics and elastomers facilities, this will support market growth and expansions of Dow’s industry leading-leading performance plastics franchise.

"When combined with our on-purpose propylene PDH project, which is more than 30% complete, this ethylene production facility takes Dow yet another step closer to realizing the full financial benefit of our Gulf Coast investment effort," said Jim Fitterling, Dow's executive vice president of feedstocks, energy and performance plastics.

"This investment will connect cost-advantaged raw materials to many of the company’s highest-margin downstream businesses – including performance plastics – businesses that also consistently deliver a high return on invested capital. Once fully operational, our Gulf Coast investments are projected to deliver an estimated USD2.5 billion in EBITDA and will serve as a solid base for long-term growth while further strengthening Dow’s market competitiveness."

In total, Dow’s comprehensive US Gulf Coast investments in Texas and Louisiana will employ 5,000 workers during peak construction. The projects announced for the Freeport site represent the majority of those workers, with 4,000 required for construction of multiple feedstocks, derivatives and supporting infrastructure projects.

Dow Texas Operations in Freeport is Dow’s largest integrated manufacturing site worldwide and the largest chemical complex in North America with more than 4,200 employees and 3,800 contractors on site daily.

As MRC informed previously, in February 2014, CB&I was awarded a contract to provide pipe fabrication for Dow Chemical's US Gulf Coast investment program. Dow's investment plan includes construction of a new propylene and ethylene production unit in Texas and four new polyethylene plants in Texas and Louisiana.

The Dow Chemical Company is an American multinational chemical corporation headquartered in Midland, Michigan, United States. Dow is a large producer of plastics, including polystyrene, polyurethane, polyethylene, polypropylene (PP), and synthetic rubber. The company's more than 5,000 products are manufactured at 188 sites in 36 countries across the globe.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- UOP LLC, a Honeywell company, announced that its licensee, China's Wison (Nanjing) Clean Energy Co. Ltd., has produced more than 360 mln lbs of light olefins at a plant in Nanjing, China, using UOP's breakthrough methanol-to-olefins (MTO) process technology, said Plastemart.

The plant, the first commercial-scale facility to use the UOP/Hydro MTO process technology, has been operating since September 2013 and is successfully meeting expectations for the quality and quantity of light olefins, as well as other performance criteria. The Wison facility is using UOP's Advanced MTO process that combines the UOP/Hydro MTO process and the Total/UOP Olefin Cracking process.

The combination significantly increases yields and feedstock efficiency. The process converts methanol, which can be derived from low-cost raw materials such as coal or natural gas, into ethylene and propylene. Based on proprietary UOP catalysts, the Advanced MTO process provides high yields with low operating costs. MTO also offers flexibility in the ratio of propylene to ethylene produced, so operators can adjust plant operations to most effectively address market demands. The Wison plant, designed by Wison Engineering, the largest private sector chemical engineering, procurement and construction management (EPC) service provider in China, has an annual production capacity of 300,000 metric tons per year of ethylene and propylene. UOP provided technology licenses, basic engineering, catalysts, adsorbents, specialty equipment, and technical services for the plant.

The UOP/Hydro MTO process technology was successfully demonstrated in a semi-commercial-scale unit built and operated by Ineos (then Norsk-Hydro). The Total-UOP OCP process technology was developed jointly by UOP and Total Petrochemicals and demonstrated in an integrated MTO-OCP semi-commercial-scale unit built and operated by Total in Feluy, Belgium. Since 2011, UOP has announced four licenses for MTO technology in China. Shandong Yangmei Hengtong Chemicals Co. Ltd., expected to start up later this year, will use the technology to produce 295,000 metric tons per year of ethylene and propylene, and Jiutai Energy (Zhungeer) Co., expected to start up in 2015, will use it to produce 600,000 metric tons per year of ethylene and propylene. Jiangsu Sailboat Petrochemical Chemicals is also building what is expected to be the largest single-train MTO unit in the world, producing 833,000 metric tons of ethylene and propylene per year.
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