Covestro continues MDI production in Tarragona

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Covestro has announced that it will continue manufacturing MDI in Tarragona, Spain. The plant closure that had originally been planned for the end of 2017 has been suspended for the time being reported GV with reference to the company's statement.

The main reason for this decision was the significant increase in demand for MDI, said Covestro. Furthermore, the company has managed to get access to important raw materials - in particular chlorine - for the Tarragona site for the next years beyond the end of 2017. According to current plans, the impact on the employees will be minimized.

"This is good news for the Tarragona site and our employees. Through our continued operations in Tarragona, we want to reliably meet our customers’ growth further on," said Andrea Firenze, Managing Director of Covestro S.L. in Spain.

"The decision is a clear statement that we remain committed to the MDI market. We will investigate various options for additional MDI to cover the growing demand", added Markus Steilemann, Head of the Business Unit Polyurethanes and Board Member for Innovation. In this context, Covestro is committed to its plans to increase MDI production at its German site in Brunsbuttel.

Covestro has two locations in Spain that currently employ around 330 people. The site in Barcelona (Zona Franca) is dedicated to the manufacturing of resins and the production of coatings, textile and fabric treatments, acrylic dispersions and polyurethanes. At the end of 2016, the company announced the incorporation of a new production line of polyurethane dispersion for coating textiles.

At the Tarragona location, Covestro operates an MDI facility, a polyurethane system house and infrastructure facilities that are also available to other companies in the chemical park. In addition, a logistics centre for hydrochloric acid will be built here, with an investment of around EUR 3 million.

As MRC wrote previously, Covestro is moving forward with a repurposing of its production operations in Brunsbuttel, Germany. The Board of Management officially approved an expansion of production capacity for the foam component MDI (feedstock for polyurethane) at the site in July 2016. An existing, idled plant for the precursor TDI will be converted for production of MDI. The plans call for roughly doubling production capacity at the site to a total of approximately 400,000 metric tpa of MDI. Commissioning of the new plant complex is scheduled for late 2018.

Covestro (formerly Bayer MaterialScience) is an independent subgroup within Bayer. It was created as part of the restructuring of Bayer AG from the former business group Bayer Polymers, with certain of its activities being spun off to Lanxess AG. Covestro manufactures and develops materials such as coatings, adhesives and sealants, polycarbonates (CDs, DVDs), polyurethanes (automotive seating, insulation for refrigerating appliances) etc.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Reliance Industries has completed the sale of its Mauritius-incorporated arm Gulf Africa Petroleum Corporation (GAPCO) which trades and markets fuel in the African markets to French energy major Total Marketing & Services, marking its exit from the international fuel retail business, reported The Economic Times.

In May 2016, the billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries' subsidiary, Reliance Exploration & Production DMCC, had signed an agreement to sell its entire 76% stake in GAPCO to TOTAL. The company has now concluded the transaction after obtaining requisite regulatory approvals and consents, RILBSE 3.93 % said in a statement on Wednesday.

"Since the acquisition of 76% equity interest in GAPCO by REPDMCC in 2007, GAPCO has significantly grown and is one of leading petroleum marketing company in East Africa owning retail outlets as well as onshore and offshore terminals," RIL said in the statement.

GAPCO is a holding company with operating subsidiaries in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda which are primarily engaged in petroleum product import, and trading, storage, distribution, marketing, supply and transportation of oil products in East Africa. The transaction also involved minority shareholder who sold their entire respective holdings in GAPCO for cash, the company said.

The company did not disclose the deal consideration. The acquisition would help Total, the fourth largest distributor of lubricants, to consolidate its presence in Africa where it is a leading distributor of petroleum products and increase its market share to over 20% from around 175 in 2015.

Reliance Industries, like other private sector energy company Essar Oil, has started expanding its fuel retail business after the government deregulated diesel prices in in October 2014.

As MRC informed previously, RIL has delayed the start-up of its new monoethylene glycol (MEG) plant until Q2 2017. The company scheduled to commence operations at the plant in Q2 2017. As per the earlier plans, the plant was to be started in December 2016. Located at Jamnagar, Gujarat in India, the plant has a production capacity of 750,000 mt/year.

Reliance Industries is one of the world's largest producers of polymers. The company is engaged in a wide range of activities, ranging from oil and gas production to production of polyester and polymer goods, including the production of polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and textiles.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF has recently inaugurated its new Innovation Campus Asia Pacific, located in Mumbai, India. With a total expected investment of up to EUR 50 million, the projects marks BASF’s largest R+D investment in South Asia, as per GV.

All global research operations at the innovation campus will be housed under BASF Chemicals India Private Limited, a 100 % subsidiary of BASF.

The innovation campus will expand the company’s existing R+D activities in India to include global and regional research on a wide range of speciality chemicals. Topics will cover personal and home care, process development, organic synthesis, crop protection and many more. Amongst others, the approximately 20,000 m2 campus houses scientific and technical laboratories, offices, and an auditorium.

The innovation campus significantly expands BASF’s research capacities in India, which were established in 2005 and expanded in 2014 to cover agricultural research, organic synthesis, molecular modelling and advanced process research. The innovation campus includes laboratories for chemical synthesis, application and process development, as well as analytics. It brings all new and existing research and development activities by BASF in Mumbai under one roof. Combined with the broad range of current development activities, Innovation Campus Asia Pacific (Mumbai) will enable global know-how exchange and foster collaboration with customers, industrial and academic partners. The campus can accommodate up to 300 scientists and will bring together top scientists from India and other parts of the world.

"We see the demand for innovative solutions in many industries in India, including automotive as well as food and nutrition. Moreover, India is now home to a wide range of high caliber scientists and excellent domestic research capabilities," said Sanjeev Gandhi, Member of the Board of Executive Directors, BASF SE, responsible for Asia Pacific. BASF has expanded its presence in India during the past several years, both in terms of local manufacturing as well as in providing tailored solutions for the challenges of mobility, housing, environmental protection and hygiene. Through its local subsidiaries, namely BASF India Limited, BASF Chemicals India Private Limited and BASF Catalysts India Private Limited, the group has invested actively in India to realise these opportunities, with approximately EUR 300 million investment over the past four years in manufacturing and R&D.

One of BASF’s three central technology platforms, Advanced Materials & Systems Research, has been headquartered at the Innovation Campus Asia Pacific (Shanghai) since January 2016, headed by Dr. Harald Lauke, President of the technology platform and Regional Research Representative for Asia Pacific. The other two technology platforms, Chemical Engineering & Process Research and Bioscience Research, are respectively headquartered in Europe and North America. Innovation Campus Asia Pacific (Mumbai) will house research activities from all these platforms. Through its local subsidiary, BASF India Limited, the group has also been operating an Agricultural Research Station in Pune since 2015, and an R&D Center in Mangalore since 2014, focusing on offering technical and product development support to local and global automotive coatings customers. These R+D facilities form a strong network to drive and support both regional and global innovation projects.

At the end of 2016, BASF in India had 2,356 employees at ten production sites and ten offices, as well as two R+D centres, located in Mumbai and Mangalore. In 2016, BASF registered sales of approximately EUR 1.1 billion to customers in India.

As MRC wrote before, in early March 2017, BASF Catalysts India Private Limited inaugurated its new mobile emissions catalysts manufacturing site. The site includes a new 47,000-square-meter production plant, which replaces an existing BASF plant in Chennai and is the culmination of a three-year expansion project, which has doubled the company’s catalyst manufacturing capacity in India.

BASF is the world’s leading chemical company. Its portfolio ranges from chemicals, plastics, performance products and crop protection products to oil and gas. BASF generated sales of about EUR58 billion in 2016.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Zhongtian Hechuang Energy has restarted its linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) plant last week, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the company has resumed operations at the plant on March 24, 2017. The plant was shut for maintenance in mid-March 2017.

Located in Inner Mongolia, the plant has a capacity of 300,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed previously, another major petrochemical producer in China - Sinopec Maoming Petrochemical - shut its LLDPE plant for a maintenance turnaround early this week. The exact duration of the planned turnaround could not be ascertained. Located at Guangdong in China, the plant has a production capacity of 220,000 mt/year.

Zhongtian Hechuang Energy is a joint venture between Sinopec (38.75%), China Coal Group (38.75%), Shenergy Group Co., Ltd. (12.5%), and Inner Mongolia Manshi Coal Group (10%).
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- China’s first large-scale carbon capture storage and utilization (CCUS) facility enters construction. The facility's final investment decision represents a series of "firsts" for China and Yanchang Petroleum, one of China's largest oil and gas companies and the facility's owner, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

This is the first large-scale CCUS facility to enter construction in China and Asia, and the first large-scale coal-to-chemicals carbon capture and storage facility.

Located near Xi'an, Yanchang CCUS will capture more than 400,000 tpy of CO2 from two coal to gasification (syngas) plants. It will reinject captured CO2 into previously developed oil fields to release oil from existing formations in a process known as Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR).

"Four years ago, this was an industrial plant venting CO2 into the atmosphere. Today, just four years later, it is a standard-bearer for clean technology,” said Alex Zapantis, Asia Pacific General Manager, Global CCS Institute. “This facility is expected to capture between 6 MMt and 8 MMt of CO2 over the course of its life. This is a massive credit to Yanchang Petroleum and the Shaanxi Province which has created a small piece of history in a city renowned for its rich history -- the famed Terracotta Army. We look forward to seeing Yanchang Petroleum and others like it continue to advance the climate change agenda across China and show the world how practical, cost effective and climate-relevant CCS is."

Currently, there are 16 large-scale CCS facilities in operation around the world with a further five coming onstream within the next 12-18 months.

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