PolyOne appoints new Vice President, Treasurer

MOSCOW (MRC) -- PolyOne Corporation, a premier provider of specialized polymer materials, services and solutions, has announced that Scott J. Leffler has been appointed vice president and Treasurer, said the producer on its site.

Mr. Leffler will now be responsible for all aspects of the company's capital structure, cash management, insurance and capital markets transactions. He was appointed to this position after serving as the company's vice president of Financial Planning and Analysis since 2013, and he will retain those responsibilities while in his new role as Treasurer. He replaces Daniel J. O'Bryon who has accepted a Chief Financial Officer position with a Florida-based company.

Mr. Leffler joined PolyOne in 2008 as senior finance manager in Corporate Treasury and was later promoted to finance director, South America, while based in the company's offices in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He began his career in the financial services industry, working in both trading and banking. Mr. Leffler earned a bachelor's degree in economics and history from Yale University and an MBA in finance from Emory University.

As MRC wrote before, in June, PolyOne Corporation has presented its specialty portfolio for automotive interiors to designers and engineers at the 2014 WardsAuto Interiors conference. These advanced technologies, including soft-touch materials as well as colorants and special effects, enable customers to design new features that boost consumer appeal and reduce manufacturing complexity.

We also remind that in February 2014, PolyOne Corporation announced the addition of new capabilities to its OnColor HC Plus portfolio. These expanded offerings add medical-grade LDPE, nylon, PEBA, PS and PVC to the globally available palette of specialty healthcare colorants, and are pre-certified to meet or exceed biocompatibility requirements for ISO 10993 and/or USP Class VI protocols.

PolyOne Corporation, with 2014 revenues of USD3.8 billion, is a premier provider of specialized polymer materials, services and solutions with operations in specialty polymer formulations, color and additive systems, polymer distribution and specialty vinyl resins.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sichuan Yongxiang is in plans to shut a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plant for maintenance turnaround, said Apic-online.

A source in China informed that the plant is likely to be shut in October 2015. It is planned to remain off-stream for around one month.

Located in Sichuan, China, the plant has a production capacity of 120,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote before, Sichuan Yongxiang Poly-silicon started up its 6,000 tonne/year polysilicon plant in 2012. The project has been under construction since July 2010. Sichuan Yongxiang invested yuan (CNY) 4bn (USD634m) for the project, which is located in Leshan city, Sichuan province, in southwestern China. The company currently has a total polysilicon capacity of 4,000 tonnes/year at Leshan city.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Reliance Industries, the second largest publicly traded company in India, is in plans to restart its domestic polypropylene (PP) plant following maintenance turnaround, reported Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in India informed that the plant is planned to be restarted towards end-March 2015. It was shut on February 28, 2015.

Located in Jamnagar in the Western Indian state of Gujarat, the plant has a production capacity of 1 million mt/year.

As MRC informed previously, Reliance Industries is implementing a new project to source 1.5 million tpy of ethane feedstock from the US to feed its crackers in India.

Besides, RIL has announced that it would invest over Rs 100,000 crore in expansion of its petrochemical capacities and adding value to its refining business.

Reliance Industries is one of the world's largest producers of polymers. The company's polymer production in 2010-11 (polypropylene, polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride) made 4,094 kilo tonnes.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- NOVA Chemicals has announced the commercialization of SURPASS HPs667-AB polyethylene resin, reflecting the company’s commitment to deliver greater value to its customers through the development of high-performance products, as per the company's press release.

This new resin is a result of the customer-centric research and development work at the company’s Centre for Applied Research and Centre for Performance Applications in Calgary.

HPs667-AB resin, an extension of NOVA Chemicals’ HPs167-AB high barrier blown film resin, is a high-density polyethylene (HDPE) designed for cast film, extrusion coating, extrusion lamination and some barrier molding applications. Its innovative molecular architecture enables up to 50% moisture and oxygen barrier improvement over conventional technology.

In addition, the resin features superior stiffness and can facilitate layer or lamination reductions. These physical properties enable converters and brand owners to improve the sustainability and shelf life of packaged goods in a wide range of applications, such as dry foods, snacks, liquid packaging and dairy.

"HPs667-AB resin and its revolutionary predecessor, HPs167-AB resin, deliver performance unlike anything else in the polyethylene market to date," said Carrie Richards, director of marketing, NOVA Chemicals Polyethylene Business. "The continued commercialization of innovative resins like this will enable our customers to tailor solutions and achieve a broad range of processing needs."

As MRC wrote before, in early 2013 NOVA Chemicals decided build two polyethylene (PE) plants and expand its ethylene capacity. NOVA has taken several actions to secure additional ethane feedstock supply for its crackers in Corunna, Ontario, and Joffre, Alberta.

Nova Chemical is one of the largest world's petrochemical companies, a manufacturer of polyethylene, styrene polymers, monomers, and many other related products.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Carbon Company and the chemical company BASF have concluded the joint research of a new composite material system as an important development step of their collaboration, as per BASF's press release.

The system aims at enhancing the cost-effectiveness of manufacturing thermoplastic carbon-fiber composites, for example in injection procedures (T-RTM: thermoplastic resin transfer molding) and reaction injection molding. The composite is based on a reactive polyamide system and compatible carbon fibers. A carbon-fiber surface-or sizing-specially designed for the matrix system as well as tailored thermoplastic reactive systems mean that lightweight structural components for, say, the automotive industry can now be manufactured quickly and easily.

This collaboration between SGL Group and BASF was launched back in October 2012. On the basis of the now-complete material research, the transfer of the special systems made from carbon fibers and matrices into specific applications of customers in the automotive industry is now under way.

As part of this collaborative project, SGL Group developed a new sizing formulation for the carbon fibers. In addition, special processes for manufacturing carbon-fiber-based textiles such as fabrics and braidings were also developed. To produce Non-Crimp-Fabrics (NCF), special threads are used that enable processing in the reactive polyamide system.

BASF's role in this project was to process SGL Group's newly developed carbon fibers using the T-RTM technique and to characterize them comprehensively both chemically and mechanically. The BASF research team is continuing to work intensively on the development of caprolactam-based thermoplastic reactive systems.

Thermoplastics-based carbon-fiber composites combine the properties of carbon fibers such as high rigidity and low weight with the familiar processing advantages of thermoplastics, allowing them to be formed, recycled and welded. This helps make carbon fiber technology an even more viable proposition for large-scale production in a number of different applications.

As MRC wrote before, in October 2014, BASF and Archroma agreed on the sale of BASF’s global textile chemicals business to Archroma, a supplier of specialty chemicals to the textile, paper and emulsions industries.

BASF is the leading chemical company. It produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries. BASF had sales of over EUR74 billion in 2014 and around 113,000 employees as of the end of the year.
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