Essentra buys Australian Specialty Plastics

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Plastic, fiber, foam and packaging specialist Essentra plc has completed the acquisition of Specialty Plastics, a distributor of protective plastic products based in Perth, Australia, said Plasticsnews.

Essentra Chief Executive Colin Day said the deal adds a distribution site on Australia’s west coast to Essentra’s existing facility in Sydney.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Specialty Plastics serves customers in end markets including hydraulics, fabrication, construction and mining.

Essentra, which is based in Milton Keynes, England, was formerly known as Filtrona plc. The company is publicly traded, and reported 2014 sales of 865.7 million pounds (USD1.3 billion).

Essentra is an international supplier of specialist plastic, fibre, foam and packaging products with four Strategic Business Units: Distribution, Specialist Technologies, Health & Personal Care Packaging and Filter Products.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Phillips 66 Partners announced an agreement with Phillips 66 to acquire its interests in three pipeline systems, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The acquisition includes one-third equity interests in the limited liability companies that respectively own the Sand Hills and Southern Hills natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline systems, and a 19.46% equity interest in Explorer Pipeline Co., the owner of the Explorer refined products pipeline system.

In exchange, Phillips 66 will receive total consideration of USD1.01 B consisting of USD880 M in cash and 1.7 million newly issued PSXP units to be allocated between common units and general partner units in a proportion allowing the general partner to maintain its 2% general partner interest.

The transaction is expected to be immediately accretive and is anticipated to close in early March 2015. "This acquisition will expand our fee-based portfolio into NGL transportation and provide us with an interest in one of the largest refined products pipeline systems in the US," said Greg Garland, Phillips 66 Partners chairman and CEO.

The transaction includes Phillips 66’s equity interests in entities holding the following assets:

The 720-mi Sand Hills NGL pipeline system provides takeaway service from DCP Midstream and third-party plants in the Permian and the Eagle Ford basins to fractionation facilities along the Texas Gulf Coast and the Mont Belvieu, Texas market hub. The system has a capacity of 200 Mbpd and is expandable up to 350 Mbpd with additional pumping stations.
The 800-mi Southern Hills NGL pipeline system provides takeaway service from DCP Midstream and third-party plants in the Midcontinent to fractionation facilities along the Texas Gulf Coast and the Mont Belvieu, Texas market hub. The system has a capacity of 175 Mbpd.
The 1,830-mi Explorer Refined Products pipeline system provides connectivity to refineries and market centers from the Gulf Coast to the Midwest. The system has a capacity of 660 Mbpd.

The terms of the transaction were approved by the board of directors of the general partner of Phillips 66 Partners, based on the approval and recommendation of its conflicts committee, which is comprised solely of independent directors. The conflicts committee engaged Evercore Partners to act as its financial advisor and Vinson & Elkins, LLP to act as its legal counsel.

As MRC informed before, Phillips 66 and Chevron Phillips Chemical are teaming up with the Sweeny Independent School District in Texas to help fund the creation of a petrochemical academy.

Phillips 66 is an American multinational energy company headquartered in Westchase, Houston, Texas. It debuted as an independent energy company when ConocoPhillips spun off its downstream assets and midstream assets. Phillips 66 began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on May 1, 2012, under the ticker PSX. The company is engaged in producing natural gas liquids (NGL) and petrochemicals.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions, the engineering and construction specialist of the ThyssenKrupp Group, has won a follow-up order from the Hungarian fertilizer manufacturer Nitrogenmuvek Zrt. to expand its production capacity, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing.

A 1,150 tpd nitric acid plant will be built at Petfurdo, approximately 100 km southwest of Budapest, and is scheduled for completion in 2017.

Nitrogenmuvek Zrt. already operates two ammonium nitrate plants supplied by ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions at the Petfurdo site. A plant to manufacture granulated calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN) and ammonium nitrate fertilizer is currently under construction.

ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions is responsible for engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning of the new nitric acid plant.

As MRC wrote before, ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions is making its Steam Active Reforming (STAR) process available to Formosa Plastics Corp (FPC) for a propane dehydrogenation (PDH) project in Texas, USA. The PDH plant is to be built at Formosa's existing petrochemical complex in Point Comfort.

The PDH plant in Point Comfort will have a capacity of 545,000 tpy of propylene and is part of the Point Comfort petrochemical complex expansion announced by FPC in February 2012.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Russian Chemists Union (RCU) appealed to the Ministry of Industry to rise import duties on titanium dioxide (TiO2 )at a level not less than 15%, and set custom indicative prices for this product not less than at USD2,300, according to RCU.

"After the EU decided to ban the supply on their territory any product produced in the Crimea, RCU sent an appeal to consumes to replace imported titanium dioxide( TiO2) by the material from " Crimean Titan "- as per the annual report of the RCU.

But to replace imported titanium dioxide to the Russian is difficult. First, the feedstock is on the territory of Ukraine. Second, not all producers are satisfied with the quality of the Crimean TiO2. Due to its high quality of titanium dioxide, the USA remains the world's largest net exporter of white pigment. Russian market of titanium dioxide, used for the paints and varnishes, already tends to reduce imports from Europe and USA. Producers are interested in the Chinese TiO2 and are in no hurry to buy the Crimean material.

Tatiana Kusyakova, director of science "paint factory" Hemi ", said:" Crimean Titan currently has quite decent quality; 90% of its formulations may be applied, but in pure white colour we still use US titanium dioxide".

Because of the sharp changes in exchange rates in the end of 2014 all imported goods became very expensive for Russian consumers. Since the end of October 2014 the bulk of traders of imported titanium dioxide began to announce prices for Russian domestic market in dollars. Recalculation was based on the exchange rate at the time of payment.

Total imports of TiO2 in Russia exceeded 75,000 tonnes in 2014. "The consumption of titanium dioxide in the paint segment in Russia slightly, but will decline in 2015 and possibly in 2016," - said Gregory Balmasov, managing chemical business of the group of companies "ETC".

As MRC reported earlier, "Crimean Titan", the subsidiary of Group DF in 2014 produced 101,000 tonnes of titanium dioxide, and managed to maintain production of titanium dioxide at the level of 2013.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Last year's overall imports of unmixed polyvinyl chloride (PVC) into Belarus decreased by 10.1% and totalled 39,200 tonnes, according to MRC DataScope report.

December PVC imports to Belarus remained at a rather high level, despite seasonal factors, and totalled 2,700 tonnes versus to 2,100 tonnes a month earlier. The overall demand for PVC from local converters fell to 39,200 tonnes from January to December 2014 from 43,700 tonnes a year earlier.

Weaker demand for PVC was caused by lower sales of finished products from PVC, particularly, shaped and linear articles, both in the domestic and foreign markets. 25,400 tonnes of shaped and linear articles from PVC were shipped only for exports during the stated period, whereas a year ago the figure was 29,100 tonnes.

German producers with a share of about 49% are the key PVC suppliers for the Belarusian market. Russian producers have actively narrowed German producers in the Belarusian market in recent months. The overall imports of unmixed PVC from Russia rose to 5,400 tonnes in 2014.

Anwil, Polish producer, also accounted for a significant share of the Belarusian market. PVC imports from Poland exceeded 8,400 tonnes over the said period.
MRC