Teijin completes acquisition of Continental Structural Plastics

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Teijin Limited has announced that it has completed the USD825 million acquisition of all the shares of Continental Structural Plastics Holdings Corporation (CSP), a global leader in automotive lightweight composite technologies, as per the company's press release.

As a wholly-owned subsidiary of Teijin, CSP will remain an autonomous operation, with CSP’s management team maintaining the agility and decision making ability necessary to operate effectively in the automotive industry. Frank Macher remains as Chairman and CEO, and Eric Haiss, former Vice President of Teijin Advanced Composites America will be appointed as Executive Vice President. The CSP brand, which is well recognized in the North American marketplace for award-winning materials and products, will be maintained as the company further strengthens its global capabilities.

Through this acquisition, the Teijin Group will realize significant materials synergies, with CSP, enabling the combined companies to utilize high-performance composites technologies including glass fiber reinforced thermosets and thermoplastics, carbon fiber, aramid fibers and multi-material hybrid composite solutions. These materials will be used to manufacture a range of lightweight components including Class A body panels, pickup boxes, battery carriers and a number of structural applications that will help the global automotive industry meet design and regulatory challenges.

The Teijin Group will enhance its global development capabilities as a solution provider, allowing the combined business to better address the requirements of global automakers. The automotive composite products business of the Teijin Group is targeting annual sales of USD 2.0 billion by 2030.

We remind that, as MRC informed before, in late 2015, Teijin shut down its polycarbonate (PC) resin plant in Singapore, which lacked competitiveness in terms of energy costs, and put the industrial facility on Jurong Island up for sale through an expression of interest. The Singapore plant had 225,000 t/y of polycarbonate (PC) capacity.

For more than 40 years, Continental Structural Plastics has provided leading-edge technologies in lightweight materials and composite solutions for the automotive, heavy truck, HVAC and construction industries. Headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan, CSP provides full-service engineering support, and holds more than 50 patents covering materials development and manufacturing processes in composite materials formulation, design and manufacturing technologies. The company has operations on three continents and has more than 3,300 employees.

Teijin is a technology-driven global group offering advanced solutions in the areas of sustainable transportation, information and electronics, safety and protection, environment and energy, and healthcare. Its main fields of operation are high-performance fibers such as aramid, carbon fibers & composites, healthcare, films, resin & plastic processing, polyester fibers, products converting and IT. The group has some 150 companies and around 16,000 employees spread out over 20 countries worldwide. It posted consolidated sales of JPY790.7 billion (USD 7.4 billion) and total assets of JPY 823.4 billion (USD 7.7 billion) in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2016.
MRC

January prices of European PVC rose for CIS markets

MOSOCW (MRC) -- Negotiations over prices of European polyvinyl chloride (PVC) for January shipments to the CIS countries continued this week. Many producers announced price increases, following higher ethylene prices, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

Negotiations over January PVC shipments to the CIS markets began back in the last week of December, but most companies took a pause until January. Negotiations continued this week, some producers' export quotas were limited, prices also went up.

The contract price of ethylene in Europe for January shipments was agreed upon by EUR45/tonne higher from December, which increased PVC production costs by an average of EUR23/tonne. Most producers announced an increase in January export prices, but the price rise was not proportional to the amount of the increase of production costs.

A company said it had managed to negotiate a deal for January shipment before the ethylene price settlement, and the PVC price was agreed upon at a lower level than in December. In general, negotiations over January shipments of suspension polyvinyl chloride (SPVC) to the CIS markets were held in the range of EUR730-810/tonne FCA, whereas December deals were done in the range of EUR735-790/tonne FCA.
MRC

Baerlocher adding third reactor in Cincinnati

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Baerlocher USA unit of Baerlocher Group plans to build a third reactor making plastics additives in Cincinnati, said Plasticsnews.

The project will increase by 50 percent Baerlcoher’s production of calcium, zinc, sodium and other metal soaps in Cincinnati, where Baerlocher USA is based. It also will further position the firm to meet steadily accelerating demand from the North American polyolefin and PVC industries, officials said in a Jan. 7 news release.

In addition, the new reactor will support the development of Baerlocher innovations such as its Baeropol RST-brand polyolefin stabilization technology and solid calcium-based PVC stabilizers. These applications are expected to grow as the industry looks to reduce the use of VOCs and heavy metal stabilizers, officials added.

The new reactor is expected to be fully operational in June. The project is expected to create at least six new jobs. Company officials declined to release the amount of investment for the new reactor, but described it as "a major capital investment.

"Baerlocher is bullish on the North American plastics industry, so we are continuing to invest in new capacity and innovative additive solutions for our customers," Baerlocher USA president and CEO Edward Hall said in the release. "The new reactor is specifically targeted at market opportunities that we have carefully analyzed and are actively pursuing."

Metal soaps are used in plastics applications as acid scavengers, stabilizers, internal and external lubricants, water repellents and mold release agents. Large amounts of PE capacity are being added on the U.S. Gulf Coast because of affordable supplies of natural gas developed via hydraulic fracturing (fracking). In the PVC sector, company officials said that additive manufacturers are consolidating and scaling back, opening up new opportunities for companies like Baerlocher.

Munich-based Baerlocher Group is a leading manufacturer of additives for the plastics industry. Its portfolio includes a broad range of stabilizers and other additives for a variety of polymer and non-polymer applications.
MRC

Massachusetts judge requires Exxon to hand over climate documents

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A Massachusetts judge has refused to excuse ExxonMobil Corp from a request by the state's attorney general to hand over decades worth of documents on its views on climate change, state officials said on Wednesday, reported Reuters.

The decision by Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Heidi Brieger denying Exxon's request for an order exempting it from handing over the documents represents a legal victory for Attorney General Maura Healey, who is investigating the world's largest publicly traded oil company's climate policies.

"This order affirms our longstanding authority to investigate fraud," Healey said on Twitter following the decision, adding that Exxon "must come clean about what it knew about climate change."

Exxon spokesman Alan Jeffers said the company was "reviewing the decision to determine next steps."

Healey is one of two state prosecutors, the other being her counterpart in New York, investigating whether Exxon knowingly misled its shareholders and the public as to what it knew about climate change.

The investigations follow separate reports by online news publication Inside Climate News and the Los Angeles Times showing that Exxon worked to play down the risks of climate change despite its own scientists' having raised concerns about it decades earlier.

The news came on the day former Exxon Chief Executive Rex Tillerson faced a US Senate confirmation hearing on his nomination to serve as President-elect Donald Trump's secretary of state.

Asked during the hearing if he believed human activity was contributing to climate change, Tillerson did not answer yes or no, but said, "The increase in greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are having an effect. Our abilities to predict that effect are very limited."

As MRC informed before, in September 2016, ExxonMobil and its partners BP and ConocoPhillips have decided not to move forward with their JV, Alaska LNG, as they believe that current market conditions make the project unprofitable.

ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world's oil and about 2% of the world's energy.
MRC

Chemical leak hits Shell facility, fire at ExxonMobil plant in separate incidents

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Two petrochemical giants in Singapore were hit by separate safety incidents this week - ExxonMobil's chemical plant on Jurong Island caught fire early on Sunday morning (Jan 8) and the next afternoon, a chemical leak occurred at Shell's Pulau Bukom manufacturing site, said Channelnewsasia.

No injuries were reported in both cases, said the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF). In response to queries, Shell confirmed on Wednesday that the leak happened in a unit that was already shut down for maintenance. "Mitigating measures were immediately taken. Repairs were completed on Jan 10," said a spokesperson for the company.

Shell added that "there is no adverse impact expected in the water or the surroundings" as a result of the leak.

When asked about what chemical was leaked, Shell said it does not provide such details "for reasons of commercial confidentiality". "The cause of the leak is being investigated," its spokesperson added. "The safety of the community and our personnel, as well as the protection of the environment, remain our top priority."

SCDF said that as a precautionary measure, it deployed resources to be on standby at the site while Shell's in-house contractors carried out leak containment operations. In August 2015, a fire at the same Shell facility injured six contractor workers.

The fire at ExxonMobil's Singapore chemical plant at 100 Jurong Island Highway started at about 5.30am. SCDF deployed three fire engines, a Red Rhino, an ambulance and seven support vehicles.

The fire was linked to residual hydrocarbon in one of the units within the premises, and was extinguished by SCDF within 25 minutes using a ground monitor, an unmanned fire-fighting machine and a waterjet, with the support of two fixed monitors from the in-house company emergency response team.

ExxonMobil said it "regrets" the fire, adding that the company is investigating the cause of the blaze.

"Safety is a core value at all our operations and facilities. We learn from all incidents and use these learnings to reinforce our commitment to continued safety improvement," ExxonMobil said. "While we manage our business with the goal of preventing incidents, we are prepared for emergencies should they occur and can respond quickly and effectively."
MRC