Solvay completes purchase of Eastman stake in Primester

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Solvay has completed the purchase of Eastman Chemical Company's share in their former US joint venture Primester, as per EuroInvestor.

As the sole owner of the cellulose acetate flake plant, Solvay has secured the most economical long term supply for its own tow businesses while adapting capacity to demand.

Eastman will provide the long-term supply of basic utilities and raw materials to the Kingsport, Tennessee-based plant.

As MRC wrote previously, in the second half of May 2016, Solvay and Eastman Chemical Company signed a definitive agreement to end their cellulose acetate production joint venture Primester with Solvay acquiring Eastman’s 50% stake in the US-based plant and becoming its sole owner.

Besides, in early May 2016, Solvay signed a definitive agreement with Brazilian chemical group Unipar Carbocloro to sell its 70.59% stake in Solvay Indupa.

"Solvay’s divestment of Indupa follows our announced early exit of our European PVC joint venture as Solvay is transforming into a specialty chemicals group," said then Vincent De Cuyper, member of Solvay’s Executive Committee. "In acquiring Solvay Indupa, Unipar will strengthen its strategic position in the caustic soda and chlorine value chain extending its chemical footprint in PVC and allowing for the further development of Indupa."

Solvay S.A. is a Belgian chemical company founded in 1863, with its head office in Neder-Over-Heembeek, Brussels, Belgium. The company has diversified into two major sectors of activity: chemicals and plastics. Solvay supplies over 1500 products across 35 brands of high-performance polymers - fluoropolymers, fluoroelastomers, fluorinated fluids, semi-aromatic polyamides, sulfone polymers, aromatic ultra polymers, high-barrier polymers and cross-linked high-performance compounds.
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DSM polyamide tapping into drinking water-contact applications

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Royal DSM, a global science-based company active in health, nutrition and materials, is taking its EcoPaXX polyamide into an important new market - drinking water contact application, said the producer in its press release.

Use of this material offers a high-performance, lead-free option for applications such as faucet mixing valves.

The water management market is looking for high-performance polymers that are able to withstand the stringent requirements of hot-water contact, while still meeting all major drinking water approval schemes.

Legislation also has been driving replacement of metals in applications that involve direct contact with drinking water. Brass and other metals traditionally have been used for such applications as faucets, water-meter and boiler components. Lead contamination in drinking water is a major concern worldwide, leading to more stringent regulation on lead limits in drinking water. This has driven the industry to look for alternatives, and engineering plastics such as EcoPaXX offer a completely lead-free solution, and fully comply with those regulations.

Leading industry players already are successfully using EcoPaXX Q-DWX10, a 50% glass-fiber-reinforced polyamide 410, for faucet mixing valves because of its outstanding performance. This material enables the design of faucet mixing valves with lower risk of part failure and water leakage, a key focus for the industry.

Externally validated by international lifecycle assessment experts, EcoPaXX base polymer is carbon-neutral from cradle to gate. Compared to polyphthalamide (PPA) resins with similar function, EcoPaXX compounds offer a 30% lower carbon footprint. Additionally, the material shows excellent flow and processability, resulting in high weld-line strength, and can be processed like any other standard polyamide material.

Having recognized this trend, DSM is further extending its portfolio of specialty materials suitable for addressing the full spectrum of drinking water contact uses. The company already offers EcoPaXX and ForTii - inherently hydrolysis-resistant grades that are based on polyamides 410 and 4T, respectively. It also recently added Xytron PPS compounds, which are ideal when very high dimensional stability is needed.

"With the successful commercialization of EcoPaXX polyamide 410 in faucet mixing valves, DSM has proven its ability to offer solutions for highly critical drinking water contact applications," says Caroline Mitterlehner, business responsible for the water management segment at DSM. "DSM is already active in many high-heat and water-contact applications in other industries, such as cooling-systems in automotive. We are now successfully translating this competence of resistance to hydrolytic environments into the drinking water contact market, where temperatures are lower, but required lifetimes are typically much longer."

As MRC reported before, in April 2016, as a result of increasing raw material prices Netherlands-based Royal DSM increased the price for its Akulon and Novamid polyamide 6 polymers and compounds. DSM raised its prices in Europe by EUR120/tonne for polyamide polymer and by EUR85/tonne for polyamide compounds.

Royal DSM is a global science-based company active in health, nutrition and materials. DSM delivers innovative solutions that nourish, protect and improve performance in global markets such as food and dietary supplements, personal care, feed, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, automotive, paints, electrical and electronics, life protection, alternative energy and bio-based materials.
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Sinopec Yangzi Petrochemical shuts PP plant in China for maintenance

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sinopec Yangzi Petrochemical has taken off-stream its polypropylene (PP) plant for a brief maintenance, reported Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the company has recently halted operartion at its plant for a maintenance turnaround. It is likely to remain off-line for period of around 1 week.

Located in Jiangsu province, China, the plant has a production capacity of 200,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote before, Russian petrochemical company Sibur is in talks with shareholder Sinopec about investing in a planned gas chemical plant in Russia's Far East, said Sibur boss Dmitry Konov. Sibur plans to buy gas from fields which Russia's Gazprom will develop in Eastern Siberia. He said a subsidiary of the Chinese firm, Sinopec Engineering Group, may also take part in constructing the plant. In December, Sinopec paid USD1.338 billion for a 10% stake in Sibur and said it planned to acquire an additional 10% within three years.

Sinopec Corp. is one of the largest scale integrated energy and chemical companies with upstream, midstream and downstream operations. Its refining and ethylene capacity ranks No.2 and No.4 globally. The Company has 30,000 sales and distribution networks of oil products and chemical products, its service stations are now ranked third largest in the world.
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Saudi Aramco enters Baltic market with key crude oil supply contract to PKN Orlen

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Aramco and PKN Orlen, the Polish crude oil refining company, has held a signing ceremony of a contract agreement for Saudi Aramco to supply PKN Orlen with 50,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil starting May 1, 2016 with provisions for automatic annual renewal, said the producer on its site on 1 June.

The contract, formally agreed in May, marks PKN Orlen’s first long-term contract with a producer from the Middle East region and comes after Saudi Aramco supplied six spot trial cargoes to PKN Orlen’s refineries in Poland, Lithuania and Czech Republic, reaffirming Saudi Aramco’s continued role as the world’s leading and most reliable supplier of energy.

The signing ceremony at Saudi Aramco’s headquarters was presided by Amin H. Nasser, President and CEO of Saudi Aramco, and Abdulrahman F. Wuhaib, Senior Vice President, Downstream, Saudi Aramco, and by Wojciech Jasinski, President and CEO of PKN Orlen.

Amin Nasser, President and CEO, of Saudi Aramco, said: "This agreement marks a strong first-step for Saudi Aramco’s entry into the Baltic market, adding value in the key markets of Poland, Lithuania, and the Czech Republic where PKN Orlen operates refineries. We continue to explore opportunities to strengthen our position as the supplier of choice in all global markets and we are confident that we are uniquely positioned to add real value to our customers’ businesses and in the growth of the economies they serve."

He added: "The agreement also firmly underlines Saudi Aramco’s ability to meet customers’ needs by leveraging our unparalleled supply infrastructure. We are always ready, willing and able to meet any additional call on demand from new and existing customers around the world."

As MRC wrote previously, in early November 2015, Poland’s top refiner PKN Orlen took delivery of its first crude from Saudi Arabia, a shipment that marked the start of new trade relationship undermining the traditional dominance of Russian supplies.

Wojciech Jasinski, President and CEO, PKN Orlen said: "This is the first direct long term contract with a supplier from the Gulf region in the history of our company. It shows the direction of our thinking on strategic diversification of crude supply sources, which is centered on partnering with tested oil producers from different geographical regions and on securing optimum supply terms. We have repeatedly announced our intention to use market opportunities to secure an optimal supply structure and good financial terms, and we are delivering on this objective."

PKN Orlen is one of the largest crude oil refiners in Poland and operates the second largest complex for terephthalic acid production in Europe. In addition to its six refineries, PKN Orlen operates the region’s largest network of service stations located in Poland, Lithuania and the Czech Republic. It currently (2015) ranks 353, with a revenue of over USD33.8 billion.
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Clariant and Gevo to develop catalysts for ethanol-based chemicals production

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Gevo Inc. has entered into an agreement with Clariant Corp., one of the world’s leading specialty chemical companies, to develop catalysts to enable Gevo’s ETO technology, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The company’s ETO technology, which uses ethanol as a feedstock, produces tailored mixes of propylene, isobutylene and hydrogen, which are valuable as standalone molecules or as feedstocks to produce other products, such as diesel fuel and commodity plastics, that would be drop-in replacements for their fossil-based equivalents.

Underpinning the ETO technology was Gevo’s invention of proprietary mixed-metal oxide catalysts that produce polymer grade propylene or high-purity isobutylene, along with hydrogen in high yields in a single processing step from conventional fuel-grade specification ethanol.

Clariant is committed to the development and scale-up of the catalyst, which is expected to continue the advancement of the ETO technology, while Gevo focuses the majority of its internal resources on the ongoing optimization of its core isobutanol technology. Once the ETO technology has been successfully developed and scaled-up, Clariant will be in a position to produce quantities of the catalyst needed to meet commercial production requirements. As with its isobutanol technology, Gevo anticipates growing its ETO business through licensing.

Gevo has filed a series of patent applications related to this technology. The ETO technology has the potential to provide the estimated 25 billion gallon global ethanol industry a much broader set of end-product market and margin opportunities, beyond the use of ethanol as a gasoline blendstock. It also has the potential to address a variety of markets in the chemicals and fuels fields, such as automobile parts, packaging, durable goods made of plastic, renewable diesel fuel and renewable hydrogen for the chemical, energy and fuel cell markets.

We remind that, as MRC informed before, in 2014, CB&I and Clariant announced that their new Ziegler-Natta (ZN) polypropylene catalyst plant in Louisville, Kentucky, was on schedule to begin production in 2015. The plant is part of a long-term strategic partnership between Clariant’s catalysts business and CB&I’s Lummus Novolen Technology business. Based at Clariant’s largest US production hub, the new facility will combine innovative catalysts jointly developed by both companies with high-capacity output.

Clariant AG is a Swiss chemical company and a world leader in the production of specialty chemicals for the textile, printing, mining and metallurgical industries. It is engaged in processing crude oil products in pigments, plastics and paints.
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