Styron to introduce new grades of its performance plastics portfolio

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Styron will be participating at the 23rd Fakuma international trade fair for plastics processing in Friedrichshafen, Germany(October 14-18, 2014), where Styron will introduce new products that have been added to its Performance Plastics portfolio, reported the company on its site.

The new products are as follows:

- EMERGE 8830 Advanced Resins - a clear transparency grade for lighting with a UL 94 rating of V-0 rating at 1.0 mm;

- EMERGE PC/PET 9500 CR Advanced Resins - a high performance chemical resistant material for medical devices, effective against the nine leading chemical antagonists.

Styron will also introduce enhanced MAGNUM ABS Resins and PULSE PC/ABS Engineering Resins for automotive exterior applications, which broaden Styron’s reach in the application area.

In addition, at the show, Styron will highlight its strategic initiative Numbers That Count, emphasizing Styron’s customer-centric, results-oriented approach to customer needs assessment and product development.

"We are looking forward to participating at Fakuma and sharing our expertise in Performance Plastics and Styrenics. Performance Plastics is an important area of our business devoted to premium plastics solutions for technologically-advanced customers who require products that enable them to differentiate themselves in their respective markets and provide quantifiable benefits," said Dagmar van Heur, Vice President of Performance Plastics.

As MRC informed previously, US styrenics producer Styron, alternately known as Trinseo, had said it plans to close its only North American polycarbonate plant, at Freeport, Texas, by the end of 2014 and exit the market. 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.

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

BASF reorganizes its paper chemicals business

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF is changing the organizational set-up of its paper chemicals business to strengthen its competitiveness and better meet the needs of the paper industry, as per the company's press release.

BASF is a leading global supplier to the paper industry and offers a comprehensive range of chemical products for paper manufacturing and coating.

As of January 1, 2015, the Paper Chemicals division will be dissolved. The current headquarters of the Paper Chemicals division in Basel, Switzerland will be closed by the end of 2014. Overall, there will be a reduction of about 50 positions globally as a result of the implementation of the new set-up. The business will be continued in other divisions of the Performance Products segment as follows:

The wet-end chemicals and kaolin businesses will be integrated into the Performance Chemicals division, supplementing the polyacrylamide value chain. A new global business unit "Paper Chemicals" will be established within the Performance Chemicals division. BASF is evaluating strategic options for its paper hydrous kaolin business.
The paper dispersions business and the Center for Sustainable Paper Packaging (CSPP) will be integrated into the division Dispersions & Pigments, supplementing the latex dispersions value chain.

"Integrating the paper chemicals business along existing value chains will allow BASF to optimally steer plant capacity and leverage the advantages of the BASF Verbund. This will strengthen our businesses and further increase the competitiveness of our Performance Products segment," said Michael Heinz, member of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF SE and responsible for the Performance Products segment.

BASF remains committed to the paper chemicals industry by providing sustainable solutions and technical expertise. There will be no impact on supply security and service for the customers. Sales with paper chemicals were EUR1.44 billion in 2013.

As MRC informed previously, in July 2014, BASF Shanghai Coatings Co., Ltd. inaugurated its new automotive coatings plant at the Shanghai Chemicail Industry Park in Shanghai, China. The expansion of its automotive coatings production capacity with an investment of around EUR50 million further strengthens BASF’s presence in China and its position as a leading coatings supplier to the automotive industry.

BASF is the world’s leading chemical company. Its portfolio ranges from chemicals, plastics, performance products and crop protection products to oil and gas. BASF had sales of about EUR74 billion in 2013 and over 112,000 employees as of the end of the year.
MRC

LyondellBasell eyes further ethylene expansion at Channelview complex

MOSCOW (MRC) -- LyondellBasell is evaluating a further expansion project at its petrochemical plant in Channelview, Texas, that would potentially add up to 550 million lb/year (250,000 tpy) of ethylene capacity, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Preliminary engineering work is already underway to assess expansion feasibility. If the project proceeds, the anticipated time frame for completion would be 2017.

The proposed expansion project would be in addition to work already underway to install two large cracking furnaces at the Channelview site. Those are slated to increase production by 250 million lb/year (113,000 tpy) when construction work is expected to be completed early next year.

In addition to expansion at Channelview, LyondellBasell is increasing ethylene capacity at two other Texas plants. An 800 million lb/year expansion has just been completed in La Porte, and an additional 800 million lb/year of capacity are also being added at the company's site in Corpus Christi, which is scheduled for completion in late 2015.

When all three are completed, a total of 1.85 billion lb/year of ethylene capacity is expected. This figure will increase to 2.4 billion if the additional expansion project is finalized.

"Our strategy continues to be the cost-effective expansion of existing facilities to take swift advantage of abundant supplies of low cost natural gas and ethane from shale production," said Tim Roberts, executive vice president for LyondellBasell's Americas olefins and polyolefins business.

"The additional ethylene capacity we are already adding at our three Texas plants through existing expansion projects is the equivalent of constructing a new stand-alone cracking unit," he added.

LyondellBasell Industries NV is a manufacturing company. The company produces chemicals, fuels, and polymers used for packaging, clean fuels, durable textiles, medical applications, construction materials, and automotive parts. LyondellBasell Industries operates globally and is headquartered in the Netherlands. LyondellBasell is also a leading licensor of polypropylene and polyethylene technologies. The more than 250 polyolefin process licenses granted by LyondellBasell are twice that of any other polyolefin technology licensor.
MRC

New Saudi refining JV Satorp hits full capacity

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Arabia’s newest oil refinery reached full capacity last month, adding to international competition that Total and Vitol said will force more European plants to close, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The Satorp refinery, a venture between Total and Saudi Arabian Oil Co., processed crude at full capacity of 400,000 bpd on Aug. 1, Patrick Pouyanne, Total’s president of refining and chemicals, said at a conference in Brussels on Tuesday.

Europe’s refineries are too small and not sophisticated enough to compete with new plants, Chris Bake, executive director at Vitol, the world’s largest oil trader, said at a separate conference in Fujairah, in the United Arab Emirates.

European refineries are shutting or converting to storage depots at the fastest pace since the 1980s after demand for oil products dropped for seven years and competition from other regions intensified. Seventeen plants closed in the past six years, according to the International Energy Agency, the Paris-based adviser to 29 nations.

Another 10 refineries need to close, equating to 1.5 million to 2 million bbl of daily capacity, Pouyanne said.

Another 4.8 million bbl of daily capacity would have to be cut worldwide by 2019 to increase the average refinery-utilization rate to the levels last seen before the 2008 financial crisis, Bosoni said. This may be done by closing existing plants or delaying or canceling new projects, she said.

European refiners are at risk of closing because "they’ve been under-investing for too long and are too small to compete with the biggest refineries in the Middle East and India," said Vitol’s Bake.

Satorp is the first of three new Saudi refineries. Saudi Arabian Oil Co., known as Aramco, is constructing another 400,000 bpd plant at Yanbu on the Red Sea coast with China’s Sinopec Group. The project is in the “precommissioning” stage, Aramco CEO Khalid Al-Falih said on Sept. 10.

The Jazan refinery project in the kingdom’s southwest will also process 400,000 bpd of crude and is planned to begin operations in 2016.

Satorp, a company that is 62.5% owned by Aramco and 37.5% owned by France’s Total S.A., plans to build a 400,000 barrel-a-day export refinery in Jubail. The refinery complex, estimated to cost more than USD10 billion to build, is part of a drive by the world’s top oil exporter to boost refining capacity by more than 1.7 million barrels a day from installed capacity of 2.1 million barrels a day now.MRC

PVC production in Russia increased by 2% in January - August 2014

MOSCOW (MRC) - Total production of unmixed polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in Russia increased by 3% in the first eight months of 2014.
A significant increase in production volumes showed Bashkir Soda Company and Khimprom (Volgograd), according to MRC ScanPlast.

Russia's unmixed PVC production decreased to 30,100 tonnes in August, compared with 56,950 tonnes in July, mainly because of a scheduled maintenance works at the largest Russian PVC producer - SayanskKhimPlast. Total PVC production in the country grew to 409,400 tonnes in January - August of this year, compared with 403,300 tonnes year on year. Russian PVC production increased because of a production rates at Bashkir Soda Company an absence of maintenance works at Khimprom Volgograd.

SayanskKhimPlast almost all August was shut for maintenances, so producer's PVC production in August was only 1,000 tonnes. Producer's PVC production in January - August of this year remained at the last year's level at 180,500 tonnes.

Bashkir Soda Company (formerly Kaustik (Sterlitamak), significantly increased capacity utilisation in August, having reached 19,700 tonnes of suspension PVC (SPVC) last month. Producer's production of SPVC totalled 152,500 tonnes in January - August of this year, up 10% year on year.

Kaustik Volgograd has been working at a lower capacity utilisation in the last two months, so SPVC production by the producer was 8,100 tonnes. Kaustik Volgograd increased SPVC production to 64,200 tonnes in the first eight months of 2014, compared to 62,900 tonnes year on year.

The only emulsion polyvinyl chloride (EPVC) producer in Russia - Khimprom (Volgograd) decreased EPVC production to 1,400 tonnes in August because of technical problems at the carbide furnaces, compared with 1,700 tonnes in July. Producer's EPVC production totalled 12,400 tonnes in the first eight months of the year, up 16% year on year because of the reduction of time of turnaround.

As it was already reported, Rusvinil (JV SIBUR and SolVin) in August launched SPVC production in the test mode. There is no official data on the August production at Rusvinil.


MRC