TPPI to restart aromatics plant in Indonesia

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Trans Pacific Petrochemical Indotama (TPPI) is in plans to restart an aromatics plant. It was shut in May 2014 owing to poor paraxylene (PX) margins, reported Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Indonesia informed that the plant is planned to be restarted in August 2014.

Located in East Java, Indonesia, the plant has a PX production capacity of 550,000 mt/year and benzene capacity of 350,000 mt/year.

We remind that, as MRC wrote previously, in May 2014, South Korea's Samsung Total Petrochemicals Co Ltd announced that a small quantity of a petrochemical product leaked into the sea from a newly-built PX plant in South Korea. The company has cleaned it up. About 2.4 kilolitres of para diethyl benzene leaked while flowing to test pipelines of the new plant at the company's Daesan petrochemical complex. The new plant has an annual production capacity of 1 million tons of paraxylene and 420,000 tons of benzene.
MRC

BASF introduces new construction products based on Micronal PCM

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Construction products based on Micronal PCM by BASF constitute an alternative to or a complementary solution for power-consuming air conditioning systems, as per the company's press release.

The current introduction of the gypsum "Comfortboard 23" by Knauf, a manufacturer of construction systems, means that an innovative, ready-to-use construction product was launched in the German market, which is going to be available worldwide.

When temperatures rise, the Micronal PCM material within the board gets activated. Through absorbing and storing superfluous heat as and when required, the micro-encapsulated Micronal phase change material ensures that the ambient room temperature remains comfortable for longer. This is achieved through the paraffin wax core of the microscopically small Micronal PCM polymer capsules, which starts to melt around temperatures of 23 Celsius; this leads to an absorption of heat and prevents the room temperature from rising. As soon as, for example during the night, the room is ventilated and the room temperature goes down, the absorbed heat gets re-released. The core of the Micronal PCM latent heat storage material cools down, solidifies and is once more ready to absorb the next temperature peak on the following day of summer weather.

Therefore, Micronal PCM facilitates intelligent temperature management - without the use of energy- and maintenance-intensive climate control systems. Another option is to combine an air-conditioning system with a latent heat storage facility. The air conditioning system needed in such a case would be much smaller.

Due to the minute size of its particles, Micronal PCM with its latent heat storage effect can be incorporated in virtually all building materials - from drywall boards to interior plaster. BASF uses the product for its own building projects.

The Dispersions & Pigments division of BASF develops, produces and markets a range of high-quality pigments, resins, additives and polymer dispersions worldwide. These raw materials are used in formulations for coatings and paints, printing and packaging products, construction chemicals, adhesives, fiber bondings, plastics as well as for electronic applications such as displays.

As MRC wrote previously, in early June 2014, BASF successfully closed the previously announced transaction to divest its PolyAd Services business unit to Edgewater Capital Partners, L.P., a private equity firm based in Cleveland, Ohio. PolyAd Services is a stand-alone global business that offers innovative specialty blends and services to solve additive incorporation problems for the plastics compounding and converting industry globally. The business serves a wide spectrum of plastic applications in industries, such as automotive, building and construction, packaging and electronics

BASF is the largest diversified chemical company in the world and is headquartered in Ludwigshafen, Germany. BASF produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries. BASF had sales of about EUR74 billion in 2013 and over 112,000 employees as of the end of the year.
MRC

JAC to start new aromatics plant in Singapore

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Singapore's Jurong Aromatics Corp expects to start its new aromatics plant at Jurong island in August, reported Apic-online with reference to a source close to the company.

The schedule is slightly delayed from an earlier plan of H2 July.

The plant will have capacity to produce 800,000 mt/year of paraxylene, 400,000 mt/year of benzene and 200,000 mt/year of orthoxylene.

"The company is likely to start test run in August and may be able to produce on-spec cargoes within August," the source said.

BP has a USD10 billion deal to supply JAC with condensate and offtake some of the new plant's production. Other companies with offtake deals include Vinmar, SK Energy, Glencore and Jiangsu Sanfangxiang.

JAC's shareholders are SK International Investment Singapore (30%), Sanhai (25%), Houston-based Arovin (10.5%), Glencore International (10%), Shefford Investments (9.5%), UVM Investment (5.1%), Singapore's EDB Investments (5%) and India-based Essar Projects (4.9%).

As MRC informed previously, South Korea's Samsung Total Petrochemicals is set to expand oil product sales to the domestic and export markets once it starts production of gasoil and jet fuel from its new Daesan aromatics plant later this year. The new plant will enable the petrochemical firm to produce gasoil for the very first time, from a 150,000 bpd condensate splitter primarily designed to supply feedstock for aromatics production. Capacity at the Samsung Total plant will comprise 1.05 mln mt of gasoil and 1.45 mln mt of jet fuel annually from its new aromatics plant that will start production as early as July this year.

Samsung Total is a 50-50 joint venture between South Korea's Samsung Group and the French chemical group Total.
MRC

PolyOne specialty TPE material enables OEMs to meet skin sensitivity testing requirements

MOSCOW (MRC) -- PolyOne GLS Thermoplastic Elastomers, a global leader in high-performance, custom-formulated thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) solutions, has announced that its Versaflex CE 3620 material meets all ISO 10993-10:2010 testing requirements with no signs of irritation, as per the company's press release.

These results provide confidence to designers creating innovative products for the wearable consumer electronics segment.

"Our pro-active work in achieving compliance for our material helps leading consumer brands gain a competitive edge by indicating that their products are made with materials tested and approved for skin sensitivity," said Charles Page, director, global marketing, PolyOne GLS Thermoplastic Elastomers. "Additionally, brand owners can accelerate time to market with this innovative material, which meets the pace of the consumer electronics market."

Recent industry recalls and consumer concerns in the wearable electronics market have heightened the need for materials that do not cause irritation when in contact with the skin. Several Versaflex CE materials have been used in wearable electronics applications without irritation for a number of years, and the recent ISO testing results underscore this track record.

The Versaflex CE family of TPEs provides consumer electronics brands new solutions for unique design, performance and aesthetics. Key performance characteristics include: haptics, such as a silky smooth feel; strong chemical and UV light resistance for long-term durability; and vibration-damping qualities to enhance device performance and end user comfort.

As MRC informed earlier, in February 2014, PolyOne Corporation announced the addition of new capabilities to its OnColor HC Plus portfolio. These expanded offerings add medical-grade LDPE, nylon, PEBA, PS and PVC to the globally available palette of specialty healthcare colorants, and are pre-certified to meet or exceed biocompatibility requirements for ISO 10993 and/or USP Class VI protocols.

PolyOne Corporation, with 2013 revenues of USD3.8 billion, is a global provider of specialized polymer materials, services, and solutions. PolyOne is a provider of specialized polymer materials, services and solutions with operations in specialty polymer formulations, color and additive systems, polymer distribution and specialty vinyl resins.
MRC

Russian PC market showed an increase of 8% from January to May 2014

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Consumption of polycarbonate (PC) rose from January to May 2014 by 8% year on year and totalled 43,700 tonnes, according to MRC ScanPlast.


This increase was mainly caused by the expansion of extrusion grade PC segment. It is the most dynamic and promising sector in the Russian market and accounts of about 80% of the total market.

Agriculture (building of greenhouses) and construction (curtain walling systems, decoration elements) are
the main areas of consumption of finished goods made from this material.

Demand has two seasonal peaks in this sector. The first lasts from April to May on the back of increased production of honeycomb PC sheets for agricultural needs. The second surge in buying activity occurs in September and October and is caused by stronger demand for monolithic (mostly) and honeycomb PC sheets from the construction sector.

Stronger demand for extrusion PC grades for the production of honeycomb PC sheets for the construction of greenhouses over the first five months of 2014 played the main role in the expansion of the PC market.

Market players reported a slight shortage of material for sheet extrusion during the period of the strongest demand in the market (mid-May). This particularly affected converters that use domestic material (Kazanorgsintez). Some of them were forced to use Asian material or imported PC from Saudi Arabia. Extrusion grade PC is not usually imported to Russia from these regions, because its quality does not stand competition with Russian material.

mrpclast.com