AkzoNobel to produce marine and protective coatings in Russia

MOSCOW (MRC) -- AkzoNobel said on 9 June that it is adding marine and protective coatings capacity at its existing performance coatings site at Lipetsk, south of Moscow, said Chemweek.

The new capacity is expected to be operational in the third quarter of this year. It will enable AkzoNobel to supply protective coatings for the regional oil and gas, mining, power and infrastructure markets, as well as marine coatings for ship building, maintenance and repair. The investment represents a further expansion for the multi-business site at Lipetsk.

As MRC informed earlier, AkzoNobel said it is in discussions with BASF to acquire BASF’s industrial coatings business. BASF confirmed that it is in discussions with AkzoNobel on the potential sale, but also declined to give further information. BASF is relatively small in industrial coatings.

Akzo Nobel N.V., trading as AkzoNobel, is a Dutch multinational, active in the fields of decorative paints, performance coatings and specialty chemicals. Headquartered in Amsterdam, the company has activities in more than 80 countries, and employs approximately 55,000 people.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF is extending its existing production facilities for Laromer UV/EB acrylates, which are part of BASF’s C3-Verbund system, at its Ludwigshafen site in Germany, as per the company's press release.

By significantly increasing its production capacities, BASF is responding to the rising demand for high-quality UV/EB acrylates and strengthening its position as one of the world’s leading manufacturers of UV/EB resins used as binders for energy-curable coatings and inks. The additional capacities will be available as of the 3rd quarter of 2016.

"We have experienced a considerable increase in global demand for our high-quality UV/EB acrylates over the last few years. This investment is our response to rising demand. The additional capacities will help us increase our supply reliability and show our commitment to provide customers with high-quality UV/EB acrylates," says Ulf Neidlein, Vice President, who is responsible for BASF’s resin and additive business in Europe.

UV/EB-curable acrylates are one of BASF's pillars of growth. In response to the demand, BASF began setting up additional capacities at its site in Meaux, France early in 2014.

Customers use Laromer resins as binders to formulate coatings for furniture and flooring, inks and overprint varnishes as well as coatings for plastics and metal substrates. In addition, BASF offers a broad portfolio of complementary resins such as polyisocyanates, dispersions and additives.

As MRC wrote previously, in April 2016, BASF celebrated the inauguration of its new PU flooring facilities for the production of Ucrete in Bukit Raja, Klang/Malaysia. It is the first manufacturing hub in Asia Pacific to produce all components of Ucrete.

BASF is the largest diversified chemical company in the world and is headquartered in Ludwigshafen, Germany. BASF 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 generated sales of more than EUR70 billion in 2015.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Total Lindsey Oil Refinery Ltd. has awarded AESSEAL a five-year managed reliability contract for their mechanical seals at Lindsey Oil Refinery, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The contract, which was negotiated over a two-year period, will include the supply and repair of the mechanicals seals used on over 600 rotating equipment assets.

Working closely with the Total rotating equipment and operations teams, AESSEAL is tasked with improving reliability and reducing total cost of ownership by extending the meantime between failures on the assets.

Total is the world’s fourth-largest independent oil and gas company, with operations in 130 countries and more than 100,000 employees. The Lindsey Oil Refinery is situated in Killingholme, North Lincolnshire, UK and is one of the six UK oil refineries.

As MRC informed before, Total's proposed new ethane cracker near its refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, is being designed to have a capacity of 1 million tpy, the company said in a permit application to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), in April 2015. Construction on the cracker could start in June 2016, the company said, with operations starting three years later. The project would include seven ethane-cracking heaters.

Total S.A. is a French multinational oil and gas company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world with business in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia. The company's petrochemical products cover two main groups: base chemicals and the consumer polymers (polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene) that are derived from them.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Shenhua Ningxia Coal Industry has restarted its No. 1 polyproplyene (PP) line following a maintenance turnaround, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the No. 1 line resumed production early this week. The line was taken off-stream on May 15, 2016. The other three PP lines are likely to be restarted before June 15, 2016.

Located at Ningxia province of China, the PP plant comprises of four lines have a combined production capacity of 1 mln mt/year.

As MRC informed previously, in early June 2016, Sinopec Yangzi Petrochemical took off-stream its PP plant for a brief maintenance. 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.

Shenhua Ningxia Coal Industry Group Co., Ltd. engages in coal mining and washing, coal deep processing, coal chemical industry, electric power, real estate, and other businesses.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The innovation-driven world of chemical and technology companies is characterized by a constant process of change, as per the company's press release.

To maintain its successful track record in this environment, BASF is further speeding up and focusing its research and development activities, said Dr. Martin Brudermuller, Vice Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors and Chief Technology Officer of BASF, at the Research Press Conference held today in Ludwigshafen. Even though BASF’s research is already very successful with an output of about €10 billion sales from innovative products, the company needs to adapt its established approaches to changing conditions, said Brudermuller.

"Our R&D success factors are creativity, efficiency and integration. Fostering creativity and creating the conditions necessary to achieve it are among the company’s most important tasks," he added. Creative and efficient work is also supported by integration, Brudermuller explained. "To do this, we need to intelligently combine the competencies of our global Research and Development Verbund while also taking advantage of our external networks." Every R&D employee needs to demonstrate focus and discipline combined with flexibility and openness. "We gain speed by constantly challenging ourselves to flexibly react to changes and to tackle the right topics in a focused way," Brudermuller said.

Innovations based on chemistry require market-oriented research and development that focuses strongly on the needs of customers. In 2015, BASF’s research pipeline encompassed around 3,000 projects and spending on research and development rose to EUR1,953 million (2014: EUR1,884 million). The operating divisions were responsible for 79 percent of these R&D expenditures. The remaining 21 percent was allocated to cross-divisional corporate research focusing on long-term topics of strategic importance to the BASF Group. In order to bring promising ideas to market even faster, BASF regularly assesses its research projects using a multistep process and focuses its topics accordingly.

The foundation of BASF’s innovation strength is its global team of highly qualified employees from various disciplines: In 2015, around 10,000 employees were working in Research and Development worldwide. The central research areas Process Research & Chemical Engineering, Advanced Materials & Systems Research and Bioscience Research serve as BASF’s three global research platforms, headquartered in the company’s main regions – Europe, Asia Pacific and North America. Together with the development units of the divisions, they form the core of BASF’s Know-How Verbund. With around 4,900 employees working in Research and Development, Ludwigshafen (including Limburgerhof) remains the largest site in BASF’s Research Verbund. This was reinforced by the investment in a new research building which creates modern workspaces and ideal cooperation conditions for around 200 employees in the platform Advanced Materials & Systems Research.

As MRC wrote before, in April 2016, BASF celebrated the inauguration of its new PU flooring facilities for the production of Ucrete in Bukit Raja, Klang/Malaysia. It is the first manufacturing hub in Asia Pacific to produce all components of Ucrete.

BASF is the largest diversified chemical company in the world and is headquartered in Ludwigshafen, Germany. BASF 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 generated sales of more than EUR70 billion in 2015.
MRC