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MOSCOW (MRC) -- South Korea's Hanwha Chemical is no longer considering buying parts of Dow Chemical's chloro-alkali business, reported Reuters with a reference to a spokesman for Hanwha Group.
South Korea's Hanwha Chemical had picked Credit Suisse to advise on possible purchases from Dow Chemical's chloro-alkali business but its interest is still in the early stages, Hanwha said earlier this year.
Hanwha Chemical and two group affiliates said in late November 2014 that it will buy stakes in Samsung Group's four chemical and defence firms for 1.9 trillion won (USD1.72 billion).
The Hanwha spokesman said the stake purchases in Samsung firms are expected to boost its petrochemical business, no longer making it necessary to consider Dow Chemical's businesses.
The Dow Chemical Company is an American multinational chemical corporation. As of 2007, it is the second-largest chemical manufacturer in the world by revenue (after BASF) and as of February 2009, the third-largest chemical company in the world by market capitalization (after BASF and DuPont). Dow is a large producer of plastics, including polystyrene, polyurethane, polyethylene, polypropylene, and synthetic rubber.
Hanwha Group is one of the largest business conglomerate in South Korea. Founded in 1952 as Korea Explosives Inc., the group has grown into a large multi-profile business conglomerate, with diversified holdings stretching from explosives, their original business, to retail to financial services.
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Hanwha Chemical drops review of buying Dow Chemical chlorine business
KazMunaiGaz and French Air Liquide sign memorandum of understanding
According to the Memorandum, the parties will work to agree the terms of the joint project of production and supply of industrial gases for the needs of Kazakhstan refineries. It is planned that the project will include the plants for industrial gases production of all three Kazakhstan oil refineries and measures for improvement of industrial gases production efficiency.
In future, it is planned to establish a joint venture between JSC KazMunaiGaz - refining and marketing and French company Air Liquide.
"We are interested in cooperation with «Air Liquide», to use its expertise and technologies in industrial gases production for refineries. The signed Memorandum of Understanding confirms the readiness of our companies to apply all the efforts to realize the joint project, which carries both technical and economic benefits for our refineries, - emphasized in his speech General Director of JSC "KazMunaiGaz - refining and marketing" (Chairman of the Management Board) Daniyar Tiyessov.
As MRC wrote before, Kazakhstan plans to build a major petrochemical complex by 2016 to produce higher-value products from associated petroleum gas that is currently mainly flared. The complex will be built in the Atyrau region, where one of Kazakhstan's major oil fields, Tengiz, is located and which will become the key source for feedstock to the complex. The first two stages of the complex, to be completed in 2016, will require 7 billion cubic meters/year of gas as feedstock and will see propylene and polypropylene output capacity of 500,000 tpa and 800,000 tpa, respectively. The third stage will envisage butadiene output at 250,000 tpa, with gas from other major fields in Kazakhstan, Karachaganak and Kashagan as feedstock, she said. This stage is currently expected to be built in 2016 as well but it is most likely to be delayed to at least 2018 because of delays in startup of Kashagan.
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Indorama Ventures to acquire Chinese Performance Fibers
Indorama Ventures Ltd (IVL) will make the acquisition from an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners Inc, a leading private investment firm specialising in leveraged buyouts and investments in market-leading companies. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Performance Fibers Asia is the premier producer of tyre fabrics in the region and is the second largest production facility of its kind in China. Asia is the largest and fastest-growing market for tyres globally, accounting for more than 50% of global tyre demand in 2013 and expanding at 8% CAGR over the last five years.
This acquisition represents the continuation of IVL’s strategy to increase and strengthen its presence in the high value-added (HVA) automotive safety applications. Performance Fibers Asia brings together a broad and complementary portfolio of innovative products to Indorama Ventures, following the acquisition of PHP Fibers and Trevira in the last two years. The combined three businesses are expected to have annual revenue of at least $850 million.
The Performance Fibers business in Europe and the Americas will continue to operate separately under the ownership of Sun Capital and the leadership of the existing management team in those regions.
Performance Fibers Asia production facilities are strategically situated in the Pearl River Delta city of Kaiping, where IVL’s Guangdong facility is a supplier of specialty PET polymers, providing immediate synergies in the raw material supply chain and operational excellence.
As MRC wrote before, the plant engineering and construction specialists, Uhde Inventa-Fischer, have executed the revamp of a plant for the production of bottle and packaging-grade PET for Indorama Ventures Poland Sp. Z.o.o. in Wloclawek, Poland.
Indorama Ventures is a leading producer in the polyester value chain in Thailand with strong global network and manufacturing across Asia, Europe and North America. Its products serve major players in diversified end use markets, including food, beverages, personal and home care, health care, automotives, textile, and industrial. The company"s main products are PTA, PET and polyester fibre, which are distributed across the world.
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Ineos and Sasol started construction of HDPE plant
MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ineos Olefins & Polymers USA (INEOS) and Sasol broke ground today on their much anticipated high density polyethylene (HDPE) manufacturing joint venture at the Ineos Battleground Manufacturing Complex in La Porte, Texas, on 5 December, reported Ineos on its site.
"This important step, among many, is a celebration of the efforts of Ineos and Sasol, and their respective teams, to realize the vision of a world-scale asset, facilitated by leading bimodal technology, for integration into both partners’ upstream and downstream business platforms. This project represents not only a commitment to the bimodal HDPE market, but also a significant investment in the community in which the facility will operate," said Dennis Seith, CEO of Ineos Olefins & Polymers USA.
"We are delighted to be moving ahead on this important project which supports our North American growth strategy," said Fleetwood Grobler, executive vice president of Sasol’s global chemicals business. "This state-of-the-art facility will be ideally located close to our existing and future ethane cracker and derivatives complex in Southwest Louisiana."
The facility will produce 470,000 tonnes per annum of bimodal HDPE using Innovene S process technology licensed from Ineos Technologies. The intention is to produce alimited number of grades allowing high grade efficiencies.
Ineos will operate the 50/50 Joint Venture. Start-up of the plant is expected in 2016.
As MRC informed earlier, in August 2014, KBR was awarded a contract from Ineos and Sasol to provide engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) services for an HDPE facility to be located at Ineos' Battleground complex in La Porte, Texas.
Sasol Limited is an integrated energy and chemical company based in Johannesburg, South Africa. It develops and commercialises technologies, including synthetic fuels technologies, and produces different liquid fuels, chemicals and electricity.
Ineos is a global manufacturer of petrochemicals, speciality chemicals and oil products. It comprises 15 businesses each with a major chemical company heritage. Its production network spans 51 manufacturing facilities in 11 countries throughout the world.
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Flint Hills begins construction of Corpus Christi West refinery upgrade
MOSCOW (MRC) -- Flint Hills Resources has begun the construction phase of a project that will enable its Corpus Christi West refinery to process more domestic crude into transportation fuels, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.
This project, named Project Eagle Ford, is expected to cost around USD600 million, require around 2,000 contractors and be completed in 36 months.
In May, Flint Hills Resources received permits for the project from the US Environmental Protection Agency and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Internal board approval was received in September.
"In addition to being able to process more domestic crude, this project will also enable us to reduce our criteria air emissions by using best available control technologies and other emission reduction strategies," said Valerie Pompa, vice president for Flint Hills Resources Corpus Christi.
The current capacity of the West refinery is about 230,000 bpd. After the project is complete, it will have the capability to process 100% domestic crude.
As MRC wrote before, Flint Hills Resources, LLC announced it is moving forward with a significant expansion of its chemicals business with the completion of its acquisition of PetroLogistics LP and its general partner, PetroLogistics GP LLC. The USD2.1 billion transaction is the largest in the company’s history.
Flint Hills Resources, through its subsidiaries, is a leading refining, biofuels and chemicals company. Its subsidiaries market products such as gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, ethanol, biodiesel, olefins, polymers and intermediate chemicals, as well as base oils and asphalt.
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