Lubrizol buys Brazil-based coatings technology manufacturer

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Lubrizol Corporation announces that it has acquired EcoQuimica Industria e Comercio Produtos Quimica Ltda., a manufacturer and supplier of coatings technology for products sold into decorative paints, textiles, cement, elastomeric coatings and paper coatings, as per the company's press release.

Headquartered in Paulinia, a municipality in the state of Sao Paulo, EcoQuimica (formerly under common ownership with Mercia Industria e Comercio Produtos Quimica Ltda.) will expand Lubrizol's performance coatings footprint in the Latin America marketplace.

"The acquisition of EcoQuimica will enable Lubrizol to broaden our already comprehensive portfolio on a global basis and provide us a stronger local presence in this market," said Tesh Gor, vice president and general manager of Lubrizol Performance Coatings. "The combined technologies and knowledge of our two companies will allow us to provide our customers with more comprehensive solutions in both the global and regional markets.

In addition, Lubrizol recently purchased land adjacent to the EcoQuimica facility to support future expansion. "With the combined property situated in a prime location in Sao Paulo, Lubrizol plans to expand with the addition of a warehousing facility as well an applications and technical services lab," said Gilson Santos, Lubrizol vice president, Latin America.

As MRC wrote before, Lubrizol Corporation completed the acquisition in the United States and Canada of Weatherford International’s global oilfield chemicals business, known as Engineered Chemistry and its United States drilling fluids business, known as Integrity Industries.

EcoQuimica is now part of Lubrizol Advanced Materials, reporting into Lubrizol's Performance Coatings business. This transaction includes all intellectual property, trademarks and customer lists of EcoQuimica. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The Lubrizol Corporation, a Berkshire Hathaway company, is an innovative specialty chemical company that apart from its production develops and supplies technologies to customers in the global transportation, industrial and consumer markets. Lubrizol is providing innovative solutions for its customers high-performance application needs and remains committed to ongoing investment in its CPVC capabilities that support future growth. With headquarters in Wickliffe, Ohio, Lubrizol owns and operates manufacturing facilities in 17 countries, as well as sales and technical offices around the world. Founded in 1928, Lubrizol has approximately 8,000 employees worldwide. Revenues for 2013 were USD6.4 billion.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- US energy major Chevron Corp said it will stop exploring for shale gas in Poland, a sector that has failed to live up to its early promise of transforming eastern Europe's energy supplies, reported Reuters.

Chevron's Polish unit "has decided to discontinue shale gas operations in Poland as the opportunities here no longer compete favorably with other opportunities in Chevron's global portfolio", the company said in a statement.

Exxon Mobil, Total and Marathon Oil have also stopped shale gas exploration in Poland.

As MRC wrote before, according to 2012 report from business intelligence group GlobalData, the ongoing shale revolution will guide the US ethylene industry surge in the near future, growing by more than a third by 2017.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Kayan Petrochemical plans to shut several units at its petrochemicals complex in Jubail for scheduled maintenance in February and October, said Tradearabia.

The company, an affiliate of Saudi Basic Industries Corp (Sabic), will shut its olefins plant from February 1 for almost five weeks, it said.

Production rates at some plants that depend on olefins will be cut but the impact will be offset by Kayan's inventories and other affiliates of Sabic, it said, predicting the financial impact would be SR 62 million (USD16.5 million), which would be reflected in first-quarter earnings.

In addition, an ethylene gylcol and ethylene oxide plant will be shut from October 1 for 60 days for maintenance and repairs.

Kayan will shut plants that use ethylene glycol and ethylene oxide; a polycarbonate plant will stop for 75 days, an amines plant for 65 days, and an ethoxylate plant for 61 days. All will undergo maintenance during that period.

The company said it would incur losses of SR 340 million from those shutdowns, which would be reflected in fourth-quarter earnings.

As MRC wrote earlier, Saudi Kayan, Sadara Chemical and Saudi Acrylic Acid Company (SAAC) have joined forces to establish a new company, which will build the first butanol plant in the Middle East and the largest in the world. The Saudi Butanol Company, which will produce butanol to support the growth of the paints and coatings industry in Saudi Arabia, will be located at Tasnee Petrochemicals Complex in Jubail Industrial City and operated by Tasnee.

Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Company is a manufacturing affiliate of the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Haldia Petrochemicals (HPL), the showpiece industrial project of industry-starved West Bengal, after being shut for over six months, is trying to hobble back to normalcy aided by lenders’ confidence and fall in naphtha price in world market, as per Business-standard.

Price of naphtha, the main feedstock of the petrochemical plant, is at USD400 a tonne as compared to USD1,000 in July, when the plant was shut due to lack of working capital.

According to company sources, the trial run for the captive power plant and the naphtha cracker unit has already begun. The plant has placed order for fresh naphtha and technicians are joining back.

Following the lender’s meet last week and the private promoter, The Chatterjee Group’s (TCG) promise to bring in margin amount of Rs 100 crore, the banks agreed to infuse fresh funds of Rs 800 crore in to the plant. TCG is one of the principal promoters of HPL, along with the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) and now in management control after WBIDC had agreed to transfer its stake to the group.

Their approval is critical before any of the proposals to revive the firm is accepted. HPL management had asked for Rs 1,000 crore to buy naphtha. The plant, when running at full capacity requires around 2.2 million metric tonne (mmt) in a year.

Officials of HPL also said that the fall in prices of raw materials gave them the confidence that even if the working capital is given in small tranches, they can restart operation. Industry experts say that currently the market for injection-moulded products such as syringes, crates, buckets, filaments is showing an uptrend.

But there is caveat. During the long closure of the plant, many longtime customers of the plant, especially the downstream units have started buying products from abroad. At its prime, HPL had a market share of 12.8 percent and a near monopoly in the eastern region.

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) -- Japanese chemical producer Kuraray has completed the sale of its European polyvinyl butyral (PVB) film business to GVC Holdings subsidiary GVC, said Chemicals-technology.

The sale of the former DuPont business forms part of the company's efforts to comply with the European Commission's conditional approval for its acquisition of DuPont's glass-laminating solutions / vinyls (GLSV) business.
"The sale consists of PVB film assets, including a production facility in Uentrop, Germany, and a research and development centre in Mechelen, Belgium."

Effective from 31 January 2015, the sale consists of PVB film assets, which will be transferred to GVC, including a production facility in Uentrop, Germany, and a research and development centre in Mechelen, Belgium.
Kuraray earlier said that the transaction with GVC will result in a loss of around JPY6bn (USD51m).

The company signed an agreement with GVC for the transaction in October 2014. The EC issued conditional approval for the Kuraray-DuPont deal in April last year, subject to certain conditions to avoid competition concerns.

GLSV, a part of DuPont packaging and industrial polymers, offers polyvinyl butyral and ionomer sheets for safety glass and vinyl acetate monomer and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) products for architectural, automotive and industrial uses. The business operates six manufacturing facilities in the US, Europe and Asia.

Kuraray produces specialty chemicals, fibres and other materials, including functional resins and films, synthetic isoprene chemical products, synthetic leather, vinylon fibre and polyester fibre.
MRC