DOMO Engineering Plastics establishes a sales office in Mumbai, India

MOSCOW (MRC) -- DOMO Chemicals announced that a new Sales Office has been established in Mumbai, India. This setup is part of DOMO Chemicals’ strategy of enhancing its position as a globally present solution provider in the engineered polymers market, said the company on its site.

The sales office will be managed by Mr. Tushar Parida, Country Manager India. "By operating from our Mumbai office DOMO Engineering Plastics will assure its dedicated presence on the Indian market. This enables us to guarantee our customers in India and the countries in this region a customized communication, and to respond swiftly to the local and regional market needs.", Mr. Parida stated.

DOMO Engineering Plastics, Sales Office Mumbai, will serve its customers with an extensive variety of products and solutions including Domamid Nylon 6 and 6.6 functionalized compounds, and Thermec polymers with enhanced performance at high temperatures, to serve the automotive, electrical and consumer goods industries. With Econamid and Econamid Oro, the company’s engineering polymers range based on high quality secondary feedstock, the assortment is completed with a range of sustainable nylon (PA6 and PA66) compounds, offering durable ecological solutions with the highest quality standards.

As MRC informed earlier, Domo Chemicals acquired US based engineering plastics specialist Technical Polymers. Closing took place on 30 June 2015.

DOMO Chemicals is a privately owned German based Chemical Company with USD1 billion sales and 900 employees with facilities in Germany, Italy, China and the USA. DOMO Chemicals is a fully integrated caprolactam and nylon 6 specialist globally active in the field of nylon 6 intermediates (caprolactam, cyclohexanone, phenol, acetone, etc.), nylon 6 resins, nylon 6 engineering plastics, engineering plastics compounds, nylon 6 packaging film, fertilizers and distribution of petrochemical products.
MRC

Iran says fire at Bu Ali Sina petrochemical complex contained

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A fire that broke out at Iran's Bu Ali Sina petrochemical refinery complex has been contained, the Iranian oil ministry said on its official website Shana on Thursday, reported Reuters.

The fire broke out at the complex in the southwest city of Bandar Mahshahr on Wednesday, but caused no fatalities, the official IRNA news agency reported.

"The fire was prevented from spreading to other units of the plant. It has been contained now," a local official from Iran's Khuzestan province told Shana.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, according to the oil ministry website.

As MRC informed previously, as of 2015, number of active Iranian Petrochemical complexes were 53, with total production capacity of 59 million metric ton, producing range of polymers, chemicals, aromatics & liquid gas, located mainly at Iranian south region, next to Persian Gulf, called Assaluyeh and Mahshahr Special Economic Zones.

At the moment, there are 67 developments projects in the country which are under construction, adding 61 million metric ton on total production and estimated to fully run till 2018.
MRC

Force majeure continues on Total polymer plants in France

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Force majeure remains on all of Total's polymer plants in France and there have been no additional supply disruptions following a strike on Tuesday, as per Plastemart citing Platts.

Total declared force majeure on all its polymer plants in late May, following a national labor strike. The source said the force majeure "remains at is" as the company had not reached the minimal survival stock level which will allow it to lift the measure.

"All plants are running at good levels and Total is monitoring the situation," the source added. Total is also accepting orders. The national strike on Tuesday did not have any impact on production. Total operates nine polypropylene, polyethylene and polystyrene plants including its joint venture with Ineos.

At Gonfreville, HDPE production capacity is 240,000 tpa, LDPE is 160,000 tpa, LLDPE is 80,000 tpa, PP is 210,000 tpa and PS is 50,000 tpa. In Carling, there is production capacity of 210,000 tpa LLDPE, 150,000 tpa of PS, as well as a newly started 30,000 tpa reinforced PP compound site. The Total-Ineos joint venture is at Lavera and hosts 300,000 tpa of PP production.
MRC

Steam-cracking processes by ExxonMobil and Saudi Aramco allow petrochemical

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Two new steam-cracking processes developed by ExxonMobil and Saudi Aramco, respectively, allow petrochemical producers to essentially skip the refining process in converting crude oil directly to light olefins, said IHS.

These new processes could potentially save refiners as much as USD200/ton of ethylene produced, according to a comprehensive engineering analysis conducted by IHS.

"In 2014, ExxonMobil commissioned a world-scale facility in Singapore that produces 1 mln tons per year of ethylene directly from crude oil," said Anthony Pavone, director of engineering at IHS Chemical, and one of the authors of the IHS Chemical Process Economics Report; Steam Cracking of Crude Oil. "We at IHS Chemical believe this process nets ExxonMobil about USD100-200/metric ton above traditional naphtha cracking."

The ExxonMobil process completely bypasses the traditional naphtha cracking process. Saudi Aramco has its own process for crude oil to olefins, and in June 2016, Aramco announced a joint venture with SABIC to study building a ‘crude oil-to-chemicals’ complex in Saudi Arabia. Though the exact process configuration for the potential joint-venture was not disclosed, it is possible this complex will employ the Aramco process, at least in part.

According to the IHS report, the ExxonMobil process completely bypasses the refinery and feeds crude oil to the cracking furnaces. These have each been modified to include a flash pot between the convective and radiant sections of the furnaces. Next, the crude oil is pre-heated and then flashed, IHS said, essentially ‘topping’ the lighter components from the crude.

This extracted vapor, the IHS report said, is then fed back into the furnace’s radiant coils and cracked in the usual fashion. The heavier liquid that collects at the bottom of the flash pot is either transferred to the adjacent ExxonMobil refinery, or sold into the merchant market.

IHS cautioned, the Aramco process is still only a proposed project; no facility actually has been built to test the process. The IHS report said the Aramco process begins by feeding the whole barrel of crude to a hydrocracking unit, which removes sulfur and shifts the boiling point curve significantly toward lighter compounds. The gas-oil and lighter products are sent to a traditional steam cracker, while the heavier products are sent to a proprietary, Aramco-developed deep-fluid catalytic cracking unit (FCC) that maximizes olefin output.

MRC

SABIC and SK Chemical closed negotiations on purchasing Nexlene technology

MOSCOW (MRC) -- SABIC and the Korean petrochemical company, SK Global Chemical, have successfully concluded negotiations for a 50-50 joint venture that will purchase the unique Nexlene solution technology and a plant that manufactures a range of high-performance Ethylene/Alpha-Olefin copolymers products in Ulsan, Republic of Korea, said SABIC.

The aggregate purchase price for the technology and plant is approximately US$640 mln. The closing of the deal on July 3, in Seoul was presided over by Abdulrahman Al-Fageeh, Polymers Executive Vice President, and Hwa Youp Cha, SK Global Chemical CEO.

The joint venture holding company, SABIC SK Nexlene Company (SSNC) is headquartered in Singapore. Its wholly owned subsidiary, Korea Nexlene Company (KNC), owns the plant in Ulsan, which has an annual capacity of 230,000 tons. The parties intend to further expand capacity with the construction and operation of additional plants globally. The plant will produce metallocene based linear low-density polyethylene, polyolefin plastomers, and polyolefin elastomers to meet the growing needs of diverse industries such as flexible packaging, industrial and agricultural film, automotive, consumer products (footwear), medical, and construction.

As MRC informed earlier, both companies announced the future deal in June 2015.

The joint venture marks the latest SABIC investment in manufacturing capability in the Far East. With Nexlene, SABIC now has access to the most complete Polyethylene technology platforms within the petrochemical industry. SK Global Chemical is a pioneering petrochemical company in the Republic of Korea, being the first in the country to build a naphtha cracking facility in 1972. Through continuous facility investment, R&D and technological improvement, the company has maintained its position as the leader of the petrochemical industry in Korea.

Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) ranks among the worldпїЅs top petrochemical companies. The company is among the worldпїЅs market leaders in the production of polyethylene, polypropylene and other advanced thermoplastics, glycols, methanol and fertilizers.
MRC