CNOOC Ningbo to start up deep catalytic cracker in April 2016

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chinese producer CNOOC Ningbo Daxie Petrochemical plans to start up a deep catalytic cracker (DCC) at Ningbo in April next year, as per Chemweek.

Construction of the DCC, which processes 2.2mln tpa of residual fuel oil and vacuum gasoil, is nearing completion. It has a capacity to produce 420,000 tpa of propylene. The DCC is located within the Daxie development zone at Ningbo in east China's Zhejiang province.

CNOOC Ningbo Daxie has not built any propylene downstream units and will need to sell its propylene to the market.

The company has built 300,000 tpa dry gas-based ethylbenzene plant and a derivative 280,000 t/yr styrene monomer plant. The DCC and derivatives units are part of CNOOC Ningbo Daxie's integrated distillates utilization project with total investment of about 13bn yuan (USD2 bln). Construction begain in 2013. Its other petrochemical units include a 400,000 benzene/toluene/xylene plant and a 120,000 tpa MTBE unit.

Daxie Petrochemical, which produces fuel oil and bituminous feedstock, has a 160,000 b/d crude distillation unit.

As MRC wrote before, in July 2015, LyondellBasell announced that CNOOC Oil and Petrochemicals Co., had selected the LyondellBasell Spherizone technology for a 400,000 tons per year polypropylene (PP) plant planned to be built at Huizhou, China.

CNOOC Ningbo Daxie Petrochemical Co. Ltd. manufactures and distributes petrochemical products. The company supplies refined oil, road asphalt, lubricating oil, petroleum coke, fuel oil, liquefied petroleum gas, and aromatic products.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- German chemical company Wacker Chemie AG said its third-quarter net income plunged to EUR58.2 million from EUR119.0 million reported last year. Earnings per share were EUR1.21 , compared to EUR2.43 in the prior year, said the company in its press release.

Sales climbed 10.2% to EUR1.358 billion from EUR1.232 billion in the prior year, with all divisions generating year-over-year sales increases.

Looking ahead, Wacker Chemie said group net income is projected to be somewhat lower than last year.

The company expects a slight rise in EBITDA on a comparable basis.

The company expects full-year 2015 group sales to grow by around 10%, if economic conditions do not weaken further.

In Q3 2015, WACKER POLYMERS posted total sales of EUR313.0 million (Q3 2014: EUR288.0 million), up almost 9 percent. Significantly higher volumes overall and positive exchange-rate effects were factors in this rise. The division’s sales were nearly 1 percent below the previous quarter (EUR314.6 million). Marginally lower average prices relative to the preceding quarter played a role here. WACKER POLYMERS’ EBITDA increased considerably between July and September 2015 both year over year and compared with Q2 2015. Year over year, EBITDA climbed some 34 percent to EUR64.7 million (Q3 2014: EUR48.2 million), with sales gains being one of the main reasons for this growth, and higher capacity utilization and lower raw-material costs also playing a role. WACKER POLYMERS beat its prior-quarter EBITDA figure of EUR56.8 million by around 14 percent. The EBITDA margin for the third quarter of 2015 was 20.7 percent, after 16.7 percent a year ago and 18.1 percent in Q2 2015.

As MRC reported earlier, Wacker Chemie AG launched its new production plant for ethylene-vinyl-acetate copolymer (EVA) dispersions at its Ulsan site in South Korea. The additional 40,000 tonnes from the second reactor line increases the site's EVA-dispersion capacity to a total of 90,000 tonnes per year. The production capacity of the site, thus, almost doubled, making the plant complex one of the biggest of its kind in South Korea.

Wacker Chemie AG is a worldwide operating company in the chemical business, founded 1914. The company is controlled by the Wacker-family holding more than 50 percent of the shares. The corporation is operating more than 25 production sites in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. The product range includes silicone rubbers, polymer products like ethylene vinyl acetate redispersible polymer powder, chemical materials, polysilicon and wafers for semiconductor industry.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- State Oil Co. of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) has let a contract to Axens SA, Rueil-Malmaison, France, to build diesel fuel and gasoline hydrotreating units as part of the company’s ongoing modernization and expansion program at its Heydar Aliyev (formerly New Baku) refinery at Baku in Azerbaijan, said Ogj.

The companies signed a contract for the new units on Oct. 28 in Baku, SOCAR said. Axens’ scope of work under the contract will include delivery of construction and technology licensing for the two hydrotreaters, according to Rovnag Abdullayev, SOCAR’s president. A value of the contract was not disclosed.

In addition to the diesel fuel and gasoline hydrotreating units, the modernization program at Heydar Aliyev will involve construction of several other new units, including a bitumen plant, amine-treating units, and an LPG Merox unit, Abdullayev said at the contract-signing ceremony.

Most recently, SOCAR finalized a contract with Austria’s Porner Ingenieur GMBH to provide basic design works for the proposed 400,000-tonne/year grassroots bitumen plant, with Fluor Corp. to serve as contractor on the project (OGJ Online, Oct. 23, 2015; Sept. 18, 2015).

The new bitumen plant, which comes as part of the refinery’s reconstruction and modernization, is due to be commissioned in 2018. Designed to be implemented in stages during 2015-19, the refinery’s modernization and upgrading program also includes plans to renovate the refinery’s primary crude processing, catalytic cracking, and catalytic reforming units.

Once completed, the Heydar Aliyev overhaul will increase the refinery’s crude processing capacity to about 7.5 million tpy from its current 6 million-tpy capacity, resulting in 100% production of fuels that meet Euro-5 quality standards as well as high-quality raw feedstock to be transported via pipeline to an associated ethylene and polyethylene plant operated by SOCAR subsidiary Azerikimya Production Union.

The revamp program follows the Jan. 1 shutdown and subsequent merger of processing activities at SOCAR’s Azerneftyag refinery with those of the nearby Heydar Aliyev refinery as part of the company’s plan to eliminate economically inefficient production activities and management structures associated with the operation of two separate refineries.

As MRC informed earlier, INEOS Technologies is pleased to announce that it has licensed its Innovene S Process for the manufacture of medium density and high density polyethylene to SOCAR Polymer for their HDPE project in the Chemical Industrial Park located in Sumgait, Azerbaijan.

SOCAR Polymer is a subsidiary of the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR). The entity was formed at the end of 2013 to run investments at the Sumgait Chemical Industrial Park, a production park which intends to become a chemical hub in central Asia.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The cast polymers market was valued at USD6349.7 mln in 2014, which is projected to reach USD8987.1 mln by 2020, at a CAGR of 7.2% during the forecast period from 2015 to 2020, as per Plastemart with reference to Micro Market Monitor.

The demand for cast polymer is expected to increase owing to the high demand from the building, construction & remodeling industry, continuous improvement in the quality of products, and rise in the demand for technically-advanced materials.

Cast polymers is a group term used for different product types that are used in residential as well as non-residential areas. It consists of solid surfaces, cultured marble and, engineered stone. These products are man-made, chemically-composed, and use naturally available components. Cast polymers have a wide range of variety, which includes bath tubs, kitchen slabs, kitchen & bathroom sinks, bathroom counter tops, and firewall surrounds, among others. These products are used in houses, schools, laboratories, and offices, among other places.

Global cast polymer market has witnessed a significant growth in past few years. Cast polymers are mostly preferable because of their high mechanical properties. Nowadays, the cast polymer resins are also widely used in residential as well as non-residential segments. The growing demand for technically-advanced products and superior quality products is also driving the market. Chemicals that are used in the making of cast polymers are alumina trihydrate, calcium carbonate, silica, resins, natural quartz/stones, and other components. The solid surface segment has the largest share of 46.1% in the cast polymers market. However, the engineered stone segment is the fastest-growing product at a CAGR of 7.7% during the forecast period from 2015 to 2020. This is due to the fact that an engineered stoned is a look-alike of the naturally-available products, and it is available in many colors, in a wide variety, and in various shapes compared to natural stones, marble, and granite.

The global cast polymers market, by type, was valued at USВ6349.7 mln in 2014, which is projected to reach USD8987.1 mln by 2020, at a CAGR of 7.2% during the forecast period from 2015 to 2020. In this report, the global cast polymers market has been segmented by type, material, and region. Asia Pacific holds the largest share in this market due to the larger number of constructions and remolding in this region as compared to others.

As MRC wrote before, growing demand from automotive and electronics is expected to boost growth in the global plastics market. The growing practice of using plastic pipes in the construction of new oil and gas transmission lines is also creating good growth opportunities for the market. Plastic pipes corrode much slower than cast-iron, since they are drastically less reactive than metal pipes, and are less brittle.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Bashkir company "Gazprom neftekhim Salavat", one of the largest Russian petrochemical producers, has suspended its high density polyethylene (HDPE) production, according to ICIS-MRC Price reports.

Gazprom neftekhim Salavat shut down its HDPE production on 27 October because of technical issues, said the company's customers. At the same time, the reasons of the outage, as well as its duration, were not reported. The Salavat plant's annual HDPE production capacity is 120,000 tonnes.

It is also worth noting that there have been problems at Kazanorgsintez's HDPE production since the end of last week. The Kazan plant had to temporarily restrict its HDPE output because of problems with ethylene and at the plant's granulation units.

There were no reports about problems at other Russian HDPE producers (Stavrolen and Nizhnekamskneftekhim).

JSC "Gazprom neftekhim Salavat" (formerly JSC "Salavatnefteorgsintez") is one of Russia"s major petrochemical complexes. The company was integrated into JSC "Gazprom" system. The concentration of the full cycle of hydrocarbon processing, petrochemistry and mineral fertilizer production on the one site is the main advantage of GNS. The company comprises oil refinery, chemical plant, gas&chemical plant and monomer plant. The list of manufactured commodity products now includes more than 140 items, including 76 items of the main products: motor gasoline, diesel fuel, kerosene, fuel oil, toluene, solvent, liquefied gases, benzene, styrene, ethylbenzene, butyl alcohols, phthalic anhydride and plasticizers, polyethylene, polystyrene, silica gel and zeolite catalysts, corrosion inhibitors, elemental sulfur, ammonia and urea, glycols, and amines, a wide range of plastic consumer goods, surfactants and others.
MRC