Angarsk Polymer Plant shut its PE production

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Angarsk Polymer Plant (part of Rosneft) has shut down its high density polyethylene (LDPE) production for a scheduled maintenance, according to the ICIS-MRC Price report.

The plant's customers said Angarsk Polymer Plant took off-stream its LDPE production capacities for the scheduled turnaround on 18 June. The outage will be long and will last about 30 days. The plant's annual production capacity is 80,000 tonnes. This is the first shutdown for maintenance at Russian LDPE plants in the summer series of turnarounds.

Gazprom neftekhim Salavat and Tomskneftekhim intend to shut their LDPE production for a scheduled maintenance in July. Ufaorgsintez is expected to conduct a turnaround at its production in September.

As reported earlier, Angarsk Polymer Plant last took off-stream its production in February 2016. Then, as a result of the breakdown of the compressor equipment, pyrolysis was put out of operation, as a consequence, all units were idle. It was only on 30 June that Angarsk Polymer Plant was managed to be launched.

Angarsk Polymer Plant (controlled by Rosneft through OOO Neft-Aktiv) is the only petrochemical full-cycle plant in Eastern Siberia. The bulk of the produced ethylene is used by the plant for the production of LDPE, styrene monomer (SM) and polystyrene (PS). Straight-run gasoline and hydrocarbon gases, mainly produced by OAO Angarskaya NHK, are the feedstocks for the plant.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Imports of polypropylene (PP) into Belarus increased to about 29,700 tonnes in first four months of this year, up 6% year on year, compared to the same period of 2016. All PP grades accounted for the increase in shipments, according to a MRC's DataScope report.

April PP imports into Belarus decreased to 7,800 tonnes from 9,400 tonnes a month earlier, local companies reduced their purchasing of injection moulding propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) and statistical propylene copolymer (PP random copolymer). Total PP imports into the country reached 29,700 tonnes in January - April , compared with 28,000 tonnes year on year. Demand for all PP grades increased, but propylene copolymer accounted for the greatest growth.

Structure of PP supplies over the reported period looked as follows.

April imports of homopolymer PP to the Belarusian market decreased to 5,400 tonnes from 6,300 tonnes a month earlier, with Russian injection moulding homopolymer PP accounting for the main decrease in shipments. Overall shipments of homopolymer PP reached 20,100 tonnes in the first four months of 2017 versus 19,500 tonnes a year earlier. Russian producers, with the share of 86% of the total shipments, were the key suppliers.

April imports of propylene copolymers into Belarus was 2,400 tonnes versus 3,100 tonnes a month earlier. The largest producer of injection moulding packaging decreased its purchasing of injection moulding PP random copolymer in Russia. Total imports of propylene copolymers into Belarus exceeded 9,600 tonnes in January-April , compared with 8,500 tonnes year on year. Russian producers, with the share of about 75%, were also the main suppliers of propylene copolymers.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Pavlodar Oil and Chemistry Refinery (POCR), one of the biggest oil refineries in Kazakhstan and operated by the state-owned oil company KazMunaiGaz, is currently undergoing a USD1.2bn modernisation in order to increase its refining capacity to 7.5 million tonnes a year (Mt/y), as per Hydrocarbons-Technology.

The facility was commissioned in 1978 and is spread over 460ha of industrial area in the city of Pavlodar, which is located in the country's north-eastern region.

The site processes west-Siberian crude oil to produce motor gasoline, diesel, jet kerosene TS-1, furnace oil, fuel oil, liquefied gas, sulphur, bitumen and raw material for carbon.

Approximately 60% of the refinery's total volume of light oil products is supplied to the domestic market.

The modernisation of the refinery will enable it to offer high-quality petroleum products consumers in Kazakhstan.

Work under the project began in 2015 and is scheduled to be completed by September 2017.

The modernisation of POCR will see the construction of 12 new units, including a combined sulphur production unit and an isomerisation unit.

Construction of a naphtha splitter is also planned, which will feature two storage tanks and possess a total capacity of 10,000 cubic m for high-octane gasoline.

Further, a jet fuel hydrotreatment unit, LPG treatment facilities and a 2Mt/y automatic gasoline mixing station will be added to the refinery.

Plans have also been outlined for the addition of a sour water stripper, amine regeneration facility and an automated gasoline blending facility.

The modernisation works will include the reconstruction of 18 general facilities, including the existing crude atmospheric distillation unit, naphtha hydrotreatment unit, VGO hydrotreatment unit, catalytic cracking unit and reforming unit. In addition, the diesel hydrotreatment unit is set to be converted into a naphtha hydrotreatment unit.

The refinery modernisation will enable it to produce quality petroleum products that comply with the K4 and K5 ecological grades and improve the oil refining depth by 90%. It will also facilitate the production of Euro-4 and Euro-5 standard products.

The project will double the production rate of aircraft fuel and increase diesel oil production to 5,630t and high-octane gasoline to 297,000t/y. In addition, a two-fold increase in light oil products output will be achieved.

The processing capacity of hydrotreated vacuum gas oil at the refinery will increase from the existing 1.2Mt/y to 1.9Mt/y following the refurbishment.

Additionally, it is expected to enable the refinery to produce petroleum products with less sulphur, benzene and other redundant components.

New technologies and improved control automation are scheduled to be added as part of the development.

As MRC informed before, on 5 December 2014, in Astana in the framework of the business forum during the official visit of the President of French Republic F.Hollande to the Republic of Kazakhstan, JSC "KazMunaiGaz - refining and marketing" and French company Air Liquide signed a Memorandum of Understanding on a joint project. According to the Memorandum, the parties were to work to agree the terms of the joint project of production and supply of industrial gases for the needs of Kazakhstan refineries. It was planned that the project would include the plants for industrial gases production of all three Kazakhstan oil refineries and measures for improvement of industrial gases production efficiency.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) — The blow molding process netted three awards during the Society of Plastics Engineers' annual Plastics for Life competition, held at the Antec conference in Anaheim, said Plasticsnews.

A panel of judges picked the winners of five awards, from parts that had already won in competitions at previous SPE conferences throughout the past year. The Grand Prize Award winner went to the extrusion blow molded PET PleurX drainage bottle, used by patients at home to drain fluid from the lungs and for malignant ascites.

Another part, a big underfloor duct for a John Deere backhoe, won two awards: Improving Life and the People's Choice. FGH Systems Inc., a maker of blow molded tooling in Denville, N.J., won the Grand Prize for the thick-wall bottle. The bottle is being molded with a FGH mold, on a Uniloy shuttle blow molding machine, with a W. Muller accumulator head. An even wall thickness was important because the bottle is hooked up to a vacuum system to remove liquids.

The Improving Life and attendee-voted People's Choice awards went to Deere & Co. for an extrusion blow molded duct that moves heating, ventilating and air conditioning to the cab in a backhoe.

A foam additive is used to create a large bubble structure, making an insulation barrier. "This sits above the transmission, so there is a lot of heat," said Ken Carter, a staff materials engineer at Deere's technology and innovation center in Moline, Ill.

In an interview on the parts competition floor at Antec, Carter said Deere developed the foaming process and the molds. Adopting blow molding brought the duct from 43 pieces — four rotomolded parts and a lot of assembly components — down to two pieces.

Carter said Regency Plastics Inc. of Ubly, Mich., extrusion blow molds two pieces and them infrared welds them together. Deere worked with Agri-Industrial Plastics Co., a blow molder in Fairfield, Iowa, to develop the foaming process, Carter said.

"We made the process so we can take it to any molder," Carter said. "It's not something where they have to buy special equipment. All they have to do is buy a vacuum pump."

John Ratzlaff, who coordinates the Plastics for Life parts competition, announced the winners at the Antec news conference on May 9. Other award winners are: Santa Fabio for General Motors General Motors Co.'s Global Manager of Waste Reduction John Bradburn demonstrates the Chevrolet Equinox engine insulation made from used water bottles from several GM facilities.

The Sustaining Life Award went to General Motors Co. for the engine cover insulator used on the 2016 Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Sierra pickup truck. The part used 2 million PET water bottles from Flint, Mich., which faced a drinking water crisis, and another 1.2 million water bottles from GM's plants in Michigan.

The recycled PET was processed into fleece used in the engine covers. Other uses for the material included air filters for GM factories and insulation as coats that double as sleeping bags for homeless people.

The Protecting Life Award went to Profile Plastics Inc. of Lake Bluff, Ill., for a thermoformed housing for a surgical waste management system used in hospital operating rooms.

Profile Plastics used negative pressure forming tools, which resulted in a good cosmetic appearance, with many molded-in features that reduced assembly time. The front cover has seven vacuum-formed and three pressure formed parts, with a total of seven pneumatic slides. The top cover has seven pneumatic slides. The top and front covers are formed from Kydex-T acrylic/PVC sheet. The clear windows are polycarbonate.

The Quality of Life Award went to Plastic Technologies Inc. and Yumix LLC for the Holland, Ohio-based PTI's Clasper bottle, a two-component PET package with a shrink label, that lets the user make his or her own mixed drink. The smaller bottom container holds alcohol, and the larger one holds juice. To make a drink, the consumer separates the shrink sleeve at the seam between the top and bottom containers via a perforation, unsnaps the bottom container from the base of the primary bottle opens both and pours the alcohol into the juice.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Kaneka Corporation’s wholly owned subsidiary, Kaneka Americas Holding, Inc. (KAH) (Texas, USA, President: Kazuhiko Fujii) and Applied Poleramic Inc. (API) (California, USA, President: Brian S. Hayes), a formulated advanced resin supplier in the aerospace area have agreed to KAH’s acquisition of all of API’s shares and have entered into a Stock Purchase Agreement on June 19, 2017, said the company on its website.

KAH shall acquire all of API’s stocks for approximately USD 15 Million and API will become a consolidated subsidiary of KAH. The acquisition is subject to approval by the Committee of Foreign Investment in the United States and satisfaction of other customary conditions.

In the area of aerospace, there is a rapid growth for high performance composites in demanding applications such as engines, hot areas of the aircrafts, rockets and launch vehicles. Due to its superior properties over metal and metal alloys of: weight to strength ratio, heat-resistance and durability, Kaneka sees greater growth potential of this sub-segment than the general structural composites market. We anticipate this sub-segment to grow more than 10% annually within the next 10 years or exceed USD 2 billion in market value.

Established in 1992, API possesses formulated advanced resin technology used in high performance composites. API has been a strategic supplier of high performance composites to OEM’s and their subcontractors. Kaneka currently also supplies high performance materials such as Polyimide films (Apical®) and resin modifiers (Kane Ace® MX) to the same key end customers. Kaneka sees the acquisition of API as a way of achieving an accelerated synergistic growth through the integration of advanced core technologies from both companies.

After the acquisition of API, Kaneka will continue to seek M&A and partnership opportunities to further strengthen growth, sales and market position of high performance composites in the area of aerospace. By 2025, Kaneka aims to achieve more than USD 200 Million in sales. Growth will be achieved by fully utilizing and uniting Kaneka global resources in corporate research, product research, and product development; located in institutes and research centers throughout Japan and North America.

MRC