AkzoNobel Performance Coatings adds capacity in Indonesia

MOSCOW (MRC) -- AkzoNobel Performance Coatings has announced plans to invest EUR2.5 million to expand its plant in Cikarang, Indonesia, as per the company's press release.

The investment will add capacity to help meet growing demand for the company’s International brand products, which are supplied by the Protective Coatings and Marine Coatings businesses. The project is expected to be completed by April 2015.

"The local market has been expanding over the last three years," explained Mauricio Bannwart, Managing Director of AkzoNobel's Protective Coatings business. "Further growth is now anticipated as Indonesia seeks to improve its position in the petrochemical and power sectors, while an improvement in marine new build is also anticipated."

News of the expansion comes after AkzoNobel recently invested a total of EUR5 million to add capacity for both its Marine Coatings and Protective Coatings businesses in Singapore and Sunshine, Australia.

Commenting on the new projects, Conrad Keijzer, the company's Executive Committee member responsible for Performance Coatings, said: "Our business in Asia has experienced double-digit annual growth during the last five years. These expansions will ensure that we are well positioned to meet customer demand going forward. By focusing our investment at key sites we are achieving economies of scale, allowing us to continuously improve our operational productivity."

As MRC wrote before, in September 2014, AkzoNobel announced that it would establish a new organization for its Performance Coatings Business Area in order to drive leading performance. The simplified new structure, which became fully operational in January 2015, reduces the number of global management layers. As a result, Performance Coatings is managed through seven Strategic Market Units under the leadership of Executive Committee Member Conrad Keijzer. The seven units are focus on specific customer segments and technologies. They will be: Marine Coatings, Metal Coatings, Powder Coatings, Protective Coatings, Specialty Coatings, Vehicle Refinishes and Wood Coatings.

Akzo Nobel N.V., trading as AkzoNobel, is a Dutch multinational, active in the fields of decorative paints, performance coatings and specialty chemicals. Headquartered in Amsterdam, the company has activities in more than 80 countries, and employs approximately 55,000 people.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Kuwait Styrene Company (TKSC) announced realizing a net profit of USD 126 million for the fiscal year ending 31 December 2014, in comparison to net profits of USD 180 million during 2013, said Albawaba.

On this occasion, TKSC Board Chairman Hadi Abul said, "As the only Kuwaiti producer and exporter of Styrene Monomer (SM), the company has continued realizing notable net profits despite a number of challenges, mainly decreasing oil prices and the hike in feedstock costs. On the other hand, the company maintained this overall success through its human resources especially nationals, strategic planning, operational excellence, and increasing global SM demand which has reached 27 million metric tons (MT) during 2014."

Abul expressed, "Utmost appreciation and gratitude to all contributors to this success, especially TKSC Board Members, executive management, EQUATE Petrochemical Company, Kuwait Paraxylene Production Company (KPPC), The Kuwait Olefins Company (TKOC), as well as various government and private bodies for their continuous support of TKSC."

On his part, TKSC CEO Adel Al-Munifi said, "During 2014, the company has realized a number of distinguished achievements that included producing 526,000 MT which is a new record since our plant’s capacity is 450,000 MT annually. Our sales in terms of volume have increased and the sales value was USD 807 million in comparison to USD 915 during 2013. The year 2015 is expected to witness more challenges in light of fluctuating oil prices which might be lower than 2014, and this matter will have an impact of petrochemical markets as a whole and demand for petrochemicals, as well as instability in prices."

As MRC wrote before, Dow will reconfigure and reduce its equity base in the MEGlobal and Greater EQUATE joint ventures, including The Kuwait Olefins Company (TKOC) and The Kuwait Styrene Company (TKSC), through a divestment of a portion of the company’s interests in these ventures.

As Kuwait’s first and only producer of Styrene Monomer, The Kuwait Styrene Company (TKSC) was established in 2004 as an international joint venture between Kuwait Aromatics Company (KARO) and The Dow Chemical Company (Dow). EQUATE Petrochemical Company is the single operator of Greater EQUATE, which includes The Kuwait Styrene Company (TKSC), Kuwait Paraxylene Production Company (KPPC) and The Kuwait Olefins Company (TKOC) under one fully integrated operational umbrella at Kuwait’s Shuaiba Industrial Area.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Idemitsu Kosan, one of Japan’s largest refining and petrochemical companies, is likely to shut its styrene monomer (SM) plant for a maintenance turnaround, reported Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Japan informed that the SM plant is planned to be shut in April 2015. It is expected to remain off-stream for around three months.

Located at Chiba in Japan, the SM plant has a production capacity of 210,000 mt/yr.

As MRC informed before, Idemitsu Kosan also will be shutting its refinery in Japan for maintenance turnaround in April 2015. It is likely to remain off-stream for around one month. Located at Chiba in Japan, the refinery has a crude processing capacity of 220,000 bpd.

Idemitsu Kosan is a Japanese petroleum company. It owns and operates oil platforms, refineries and produces and sells petroleum, oils and petrochemical products. The company runs two petrochemical plants in Chiba and Tokuyama. The two naphtha crackers can produce up to 997,000 tonnes of ethylene per year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Equate Petrochemical Company, Kuwait’s first international petrochemical joint venture, posted a decline in net profit to USD1.04 billion for the fiscal 2014, compared to USD1.245 billion achieved in 2013, said Tradearabia.

"Taking into consideration that 2014 was filled with challenges and developments, these results are extremely positive," said Equate president and CEO Mohammad Husain.

Husain said the year 2014 included a number of serious challenges that faced the hydrocarbon industry as a whole, including the petrochemical sector. "For example, the drop of oil prices in global markets by over 40 per cent within a three-month timeframe, shortage of feedstock required for the petrochemical industry, fluctuating international prices, increasing demand despite drop in prices, as well as lack of opportunities for growth and expansion."

The year recorded major highlights in Equate's history, including its one-month turnaround for ethylene, polyethylene, ethylene glycol and utilities units. In addition, it finished the first phase of the polyethylene debottlenecking project to increase the production capacity from 825,000 tonnes annually to almost 1 million tonnes.

Equate set a new world record by completing turnaround and debottlenecking project within 30 days, he said. "With that said, we must take into consideration that those 30 days did not witnesses any sales or commercial operations relevant to products. At the same time, there were extraordinary costs that had to be accounted for. Based on that, the company dealt with 2014 on the basis of being a 11-month year while meeting the commitments of 12 months," Hasain clarified.

As MRC wrote before, Equate Petrochemical Company said that Gulf petrochemical investments exceeded USD250 billion by 2015.

Equate 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.
mrcplsat.com

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Lorestan Petrochemical is in plans to shut a linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) plant for maintenance turnaround, informed Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Iran informed that the plant is likely to be shut in March 2015. The duration of the turnaround could not be ascertained.

Located in Iran, the plant has a production capacity of 300,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed previously, it has been more than 50 years that Iran started producing petrochemical products and Iran National Petrochemical Company (NPC) is celebrating its anniversary this year.

Iran, as one of the main energy hubs in the world, with huge oil and gas reserves, is one of the leading producers of petrochemical products in the world.

In 2006, the total consumption of different polymer products was 202 million metric tons and it is estimated this figure reach to 316 million metric ton by 2016. This means only countries with huge feeding materials can be successful on raising production level, and gladly Iran is among one of those countries.

Currently number of active Iranian Petrochemical complexes are 53, with total production capacity of 59 million metric ton, producing range of polymers, chemicals, aromatics & liquid gas, located mainly at Iranian south region, next to Persian Gulf, called Assaluyeh and Mahshahr Special Economic Zones.

At the moment, there are 67 developments projects in the country which are under construction, adding 61 million metric ton on total production and estimated to fully run till 2018.
MRC