CPC Corp to take off-stream No. 6 aromatics plant in Taiwan for maintenance

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Taiwan’s state-owned CPC Corporation is in plans to shut its No. 6 aromatics plant for a maintenance turnaround, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Taiwan informed that the unit is likely to be taken off-stream in mid-February 2016. The exact duration of the shutdown could not be confirmed.

Located in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, the plant has a benzene capacity of 20,000 mt/year, isomer MX capacity of 96,000 mt/year and toluene production capacity of 96,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed previously, at present CPC Corp. is in negotiations with an unidentified Indonesian firm regarding the purchase and relocation of CPC's Kaohsiung, Taiwan, naphtha cracker to Indonesia.

CPC Corporation, Taiwan, is engaged in the exploration, production, refining, procurement, transportation, storage, and marketing of oil and gas. The company provides fuel oil, including automotive unleaded gasoline and diesel fuel, low-sulfur fuel oil, marine distillate fuels, marine residual fuels, and aviation fuel; petrochemicals, such as ethylene, propylene, butadiene, benzene, para-xylene, and ortho-xylene; liquefied petroleum gas products comprising liquefied petroleum gas, propane, butane, and a propane/butane mixture; lubricants, motor oil, industrial oil, grease, and marilube oil; SNC products, including petroleum ether, naphtha, toluene, xylene, crude octene, methyl alcohol, normal paraffin, viscosity-graded asphalt cement, and sulfur; and natural gas.
MRC

European petrochemicals production of BP falls 8.4% in 2015

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BP's petrochemicals production in Europe fell 8.4% year on year to 3.5 mln mt in 2015, as per Plastemart.

Global petrochemicals production rose 5.3% to 14.8 mln mt in 2015, pulled up by the 19.7% growth in production outside of the US and Europe to 7.6 mln mt, BP said in a statement. In the US, production slid 4.6% to 3.7 mln mt.
In Europe, steam cracker outages contributed to the drop in production last year.

At the end of March, BP Refining and Petrochemicals declared force majeure on a cracker at Gelsenkirchen, Germany, due to a power outage. BPRP has two crackers at the site with a combined capacity of 1.05 million mt/year. At the beginning of July, BPRP declared force majeure on propylene deliveries from the Mineraloelraffinerie Oberrhein refinery at Karlsruhe, Germany, of which it owns a stake.

2015 was marked by an "unusually" high number of cracker outages in Europe- touching a high of 25% in March of total production in NWE. The asset reliability of European crackers and downstream units is expected to remain a concern in 2016, following a year of unprecedented production issues throughout the chain. Polymer production units and crackers have suffered from technical issues stemming from high utilization rates, combined with older technology, leading to a string of production problems.

Industry analysts believe that this will continue: "(Declarations of) force majeure are a regular occurrence in the European polymer business because of the age of most petrochemical production sites. There is no doubt that force majeures will occur in 2016," Joe Pilaro, head of US consultancy Brae Partners, said to Platts in December.

As MRC reported before, in late 2014, BP announced its plans to invest over USD200 million to upgrade its purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plants at Cooper River, South Carolina and Geel, Belgium. he investments will position these assets amongst the most efficient PTA manufacturing facilities in the world.

BP is one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, serving millions of customers every day in around 80 countries, and employing around 85,000 people. BP’s business segments are Upstream (oil and gas exploration & production), and Downstream (refining & marketing). Through these activities, BP provides fuel for transportation; energy for heat and light; services for motorists; and petrochemicals products for plastics, textiles and food packaging. It has strong positions in many of the world's hydrocarbon basins and strong market positions in key economies.
MRC

Borealis presents new PP carbon fibre reinforced solutions for lightweight automotive construction

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Fibremod technology portfolio with carbon fibre reinforced polypropylene (PP) grades has been unveiled by Borealis, said the producer in its press release.

Borealis' leading-edge Fibremod technology portfolio has a proven track record in realising weight reduction in many automotive applications and is now expanded with Fibremod Carbon, a carbon fibre reinforced polypropylene. This innovative portfolio extension will help the automotive industry to reap the benefits of carbon fibre reinforced plastics, such as outstanding density to weight ratio, significant weight reduction potential, and increased functionalisation and modularisation of components. The excellent economic efficiency of the Fibremod Carbon portfolio will also promote the more widespread use of this potentially revolutionary material in the mass production of automobiles.

Driven by the aim to reduce fuel consumption and overall operating cost, the aircraft industry has been a pioneer in lightweight construction using Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastics (CFRP). CFRP have also found an important niche in high-end sports cars and motorsport vehicles. With ever increasing demands for improved fuel economy, these materials are also finding their way into everyday passenger cars. European Union regulations to reduce CO2 emissions for new cars to 95g/km on average by 2020 and the US Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standard, which aims to increase the mileage of new car models from 39 to 60 miles per gallon (17 to 26 kilometres per litre) by 2025, have created a new sense of urgency for lightweight construction.

The Borealis Fibremod Carbon technology portfolio is a highly cost-effective alternative to other engineering polymers, high performance polymers or even lightweight metals. The same weight reduction can be achieved with Fibremod Carbon as with leading materials such as magnesium or carbon fibre reinforced polyamide, with the additional benefits of no contact corrosion, no moisture absorption and suitability for economic injection moulding processes, while at the same time incurring only half of the costs compared to traditional materials. Compared to aluminium, the cost benefit is still significant; a comparison to PA6-GF30 shows neutral cost advantage, but a weight reduction potential of more than 30%.

Because carbon fibre reinforced PP grades are by nature complex, they require extensive engineering. For this reason, Borealis has developed computer-aided methods to predict fibre orientation and distribution, thus allowing for an integrative simulation of the final application performance. Borealis has also established state-of-the-art testing methods and standards for fibre reinforced PP and is fully committed to further enhancing its modelling and simulation methodologies. This means Borealis can provide comprehensive support to its customers in developing and implementing new lightweight solutions based on Fibremod Carbon; expensive prototyping and physical testing of the final application can be reduced to a minimum.

Three new grades will augment the already cutting-edge Fibremod portfolio:

- Fibremod CB201SY: a 20% carbon fibre reinforced engineering PP boasting a maximized performance strength-to-weight saving ratio;
- Fibremod CB301SY: a 30% carbon fibre reinforced engineering PP offering up to 40% weight saving potential when compared to other lightweight materials currently in use;
- Fibremod CB401SY: a 40% carbon fibre reinforced engineering PP providing ultra-high stiffness, thus enabling lighter weight, high performance plastics applications

These new grades are especially suited for applications such as chain adjusters, pump housings, headlamp housings, oil pans, seat frames, arm rests, gear shifting gates and sunroof frames. Also being explored are applications in structural parts in interiors, under-the-bonnet applications, and motorcycle parts.

As MRC wrote previously, in June 2015, Borealis announced progress made to date on the start-up of the third phase expansion of its Borouge joint venture with Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. in Ruwais, Abu Dhabi. By the end of 2014, the 1.5-million-t/y ethylene cracker, as well as three of the five polyolefin plants had started production. During the first quarter of this year, Borouge continued this process with the start-up of its high-pressure polyethylene plant. The Borouge 3 expansion includes two Borstar enhanced PE plants with a combined capacity of 1.08-million t/y, a 350,000-t/y low-density PE plant and two Borstar enhanced polypropylene facilities having a total capacity of 960,000 t/y.

Borealis is a leading provider of innovative solutions in the fields of polyolefins, base chemicals and fertilizers. With headquarters in Vienna, Austria, Borealis currently employs around 6,500 and operates in over 120 countries. It generated EUR 8.3 billion in sales revenue in 2014.
MRC

Showa Denko decides to expand high-purity boron trichloride plant

MOSCOW (MRC) - Showa Denko has decided to increase its capacity to produce high-purity boron trichloride (BCl3), which is a kind of specialty gas used in the manufacture of electronic materials, to 1.5 times of the previous level, said the company in its press release.

High-purity BCl3 is a specialty gas mainly used for fine-etching of aluminum circuits in the manufacturing process of LCD panels and silicon semiconductors. In recent years, electronic material manufacturers have been making capital investment in the fields of organic light emitting diode (OLED) display panels and low temperature poly-silicon (LTPS) LCD panels, both of which are equipped with aluminum circuits. Therefore, the demand for high-purity BCl3 gas is expected to be stable in the future. Thus SDK decided to increase the productive capacity of its high-purity BCl3 manufacturing facility in Kawasaki Plant. SDK will start operation of the expanded BCl3 plant in this March.

SDK's electronic-material-processing high-purity gas business has a history of nearly 40 years, and is acclaimed by customers due to its high-level technology to purify, analyze and control quality of specialty gases, which we cultivated over many years. SDK is the one and only company in the world that manufactures and sells various types of high-purity gases including fluoride, chloride, bromide, and ammoniate gases. We offer high-purity gases suitable for each process of electronic material manufacturing.

Under its ongoing medium-term consolidated business plan "Project 2020+," SDK classifies its business in electronic-material-processing high-purity gases into the category of "Growth-accelerating" business. SDK will continue aiming to further strengthen and expand its specialty gas business, responding rapidly to the expansion of the global electronic materials market.

As MRC informed earlier, Showa Denko (SDK) decided to establish a new production site for thermosetting bulk molding compound (BMC) in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, China, jointly with Eternal Materials Co., Ltd., a synthetic resin manufacturer based in Taiwan. SDK Group aims to strengthen its BMC business through this establishment of its second BMC production site in China.

Showa Denko K.K. is a major manufacturer and marketer of chemical products serving a wide range of fields ranging from heavy industry to the electronic and computer industries. SDK makes petrochemicals (ethylene, propylene), aluminum products (ingots, rods), electronic equipment (hard disks for computers) and inorganic materials (ceramics, carbons). The company has overseas operations and a joint venture with Netherlands-based Montell and Nippon Petrochemicals to make and market polypropylenes. In March 2001, SDK merged with Showa Denko Aluminum Corporation to strengthen the high-value-added fabricated aluminum products operations, and is today developing next-generation optical communications-use wafers.
MRC

Marathon beats profit expectations as crack spread rises

MOSCOW (MRC) -- US refiner Marathon Petroleum reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit as low crude costs and strong gasoline demand pushed up margins, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

US refiners have been pumping out strong profits as a plunge in crude prices widened crack spreads -- the difference between the prices of crude oil and refined products. Marathon Petroleum, which was spun off from Marathon Oil, said the crack spread increased to USD6.65/bbl in the fourth quarter from USD5.43/bbl a year ago.

The fall in oil prices, however, has resulted in a challenging environment for master-limited partnerships (MLP), CEO Gary Heminger said.

Marathon's MLP, MPLX LP, which bought natural gas processor MarkWest Energy Partners last year, cut its 2016 distribution growth target to 12-15% from 25%. Tax-advantaged MLPs, which hold energy infrastructure assets, have come under pressure in recent months as the oil price slump weighs on cash flows.

Marathon Petroleum earned 79 cents/share, excluding an inventory writedown of USD370 million, above analysts' average estimate of 69 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Net income attributable to the company slumped 77% to USD187 million, or 35 cents/share, from a year earlier. Revenue and other income fell nearly 30% to USD15.61 billion, missing the average estimate of USD16.35 billion.

As MRC informed earlier, pipeline unit of refiner Marathon Petroleum plans to buy MarkWest Energy Partners, the second-largest US processor of natural gas, for about USD15.8 billion in stock and cash.

Marathon Oil Corporation is a United States-based oil and natural gas exploration and production company. Principal exploration activities are in the United States, Norway, Equatorial Guinea, Poland, Angola and Iraqi Kurdistan.
MRC