Haldia Petrochem resigns following differences with private promoter TCG group

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Uttam Kumar Basu, managing director of the ailing Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL), has resigned with immediate effect, as per business-standard.com. Basu, whose term was to end on December 31 this year, gave his resignation to the HPL board which accepted it in a meeting last week, said Plastemart.

According to sources, the resignation is a result of the Purnendu Chatterjee-led The Chatterjee Group wresting control of the management after the state government, represented by West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation, decided to offload its 41% stake in HPL in September 2014.

The development comes at a time when the future of HPL looks bleak as Chatterjee hasn't paid the first instalment of the Rs 1,305 crore he has agreed to pay for 520 million shares of HPL, at Rs 25.10 apiece. According to the deal, the share-transfer agreement would become valid after Chatterjee pays half the amount in the first instalment.
The plant remains closed since July 7 this year due to failure of the naptha-cracker unit - the main unit of the plant. The condition worsened after the principal lenders refused to infuse fresh funds, citing difference between the two promoters - TCG and WBIDC - over the non-payment of the first instalment. The plant needs Rs 1,000 crore for buying naptha, the main feedstock.

As MRC wrote before, IndianOil Corporation (IOC) is likely to call off its planned acquisition of the West Bengal government’s 40% in Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL) if The Chatterjee Group (TCG) chief Purnendu Chatterjee is appointed HPL chairman.

Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd is a modern naphtha based petrochemical complex at Haldia, West Bengal, India. Haldia has played the role of a catalyst in emergence of more than 500 downstream processing industries in West Bengal with a capacity to process more than 3,50,000 TPA of polymers, among which are polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mitsui Chemicals and China Petroleum & Chemical have announced the startup of one of the world’s largest EPT (ethylene-propylene-dieneterpolymer) plant for a single train under their joint venture, Shanghai Sinopec Mitsui Elastomers, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

EPT, which has superior resistance to heat and cold, UV rays, and chemicals, in addition to good electric insulation and other exceptional properties, is widely used in automotive parts (glass run channel, weatherstripsponge, etc.), electric cables, and other industrial materials.

With the rapid growth of the Chinese automotive industry and expansion of its social infrastructure (railways, etc.), the demand for EPT has increased significantly.

Commencement of full scale commercial operation of the plant will provide the Chinese market with superior quality, performance-driven functional materials backed by extensive technical services.

The joint venture’s EPT plant will stably supply superior quality EPT to meet the growing needs in the Chinese market.

As MRC informed before, last yeat, as part of a fundamental company's strategy Mitsui Chemicals and Prime Polymer, dedicated Japanese maker of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), intensified an ongoing collaboration by increasing polypropylene (PP) production in the United States to meet growing demands of the automotive materials sector.

Mitsui Chemicals is a leading manufacturer and supplier of value added specialty chemicals, plastics and materials for the automotive, healthcare, packaging, agricultural, building, and semiconductor and electronics markets. Mitsui Chemicals is a Japanese Chemicals company, a part of the Mitsui conglomerate. The company has a turnover of around 15 billion USD and has business interests in Japan, Europe, China, Southeast Asia and the USA. The company mainly deals in performance materials, petro and basic chemicals and functional polymeric materials.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Despite challenges, the petrochemical and chemical production in the Gulf region surged to more than 140 million metric tonnes (MT) during 2013, reported TradeArabia with reference to an industry expert.

"The global sales revenue of petrochemicals and chemicals was over USD4.1 trillion, of which more than two per cent belonged to Gulf countries," stated Mohammad Husain, the president and CEO of Equate Petrochemical Company, Kuwait’s first international petrochemical joint-venture.

Husain said the challenges were mainly feedstock shortage, market instability, infrastructure insufficiency and port congestions, in addition to lack of qualified human resources.

"Overcoming these challenges, through sustainability-based innovation and integration, is an utmost priority for GPCA which groups over 200 companies from around the world," he added.

Husain, who is also a GPCA board member, said: "While in 2013, the Gulf had a 7% of the global petrochemical and chemical production, its total production capacity is expected to top 225 million metric tons in the next years."

Husain said that Equate’s total production capacities, from plants owned and operated by it, exceed 5 million MT, including ethylene, polyethylene, polypropylene, ethylene glycol, heavy aromatics, benzene, styrene monomer and paraxylene.

As MRC informed before, EQUATE Petrochemical Company said that Gulf petrochemical investments will exceed USD 250 billion by 2015.

Euate is an international joint venture between Petrochemical Industries Company (PIC), The Dow Chemical Company (Dow), Boubyan Petrochemical Company (BPC) and Qurain Petrochemical Industries Company (QPIC). Equate is the single operator of a fully integrated world-scale manufacturing facility producing over 5 million tons annually of high-quality petrochemical products, such as polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), styrene monomer, ethylene glycol and palaxylene, which are marketed throughout the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Europe.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chevron Phillips Chemical has announced completion of an ethylene expansion at its Sweeny complex in Old Ocean, Texas, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing.

With the addition of a tenth furnace to ethylene unit 33 at the Sweeny complex, the expansion is expected to increase annual production by 200 million pounds.

Construction on the expansion began in 2013.

"This represents the next increment of expansion to our ethylene business," said Dave Smith, olefins and natural gas liquids vice president for Chevron Phillips Chemical.

"We're building toward the startup of the US Gulf Coast petrochemicals project in 2017 and supporting incremental growth of our olefins derivative businesses," he added.

Chevron Phillips Chemical's US Gulf Coast project ncludes the construction of an ethane cracker at the company's Cedar Bayou plant in Baytown, Texas, and two polyethylene units in Old Ocean, Texas, near the Sweeny complex.

The Sweeny complex is one of the world's largest single-site ethylene facilities and is now capable of producing roughly 12 million lb/day of ethylene, or 4.3 billion lb/year.

As MRC informed previously, in July 2014, Chevron Phillips Chemical received approval from its board of directors and obtained an environmental permit from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to expand normal alpha olefins (NAO) production capacity at its Cedar Bayou plant in Baytown, Texas. This investment will provide an additional 100,000 tpy of capacity. Construction completion is anticipated in July, 2015.

Chevron Phillips Chemica, headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas (north of Houston), US, is one of the world’s top producers of olefins and polyolefins and a leading supplier of aromatics, alpha olefins, styrenics, specialty chemicals, piping, and proprietary plastics. Chevron and Phillips 66 each own 50% of Chevron Phillips Chemical.
MRC