Trinseo completes acquisition of Italian API

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Trinseo, a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex binders and synthetic rubber, has completed the acquisition of API Applicazioni Plastiche Industriali S.p.A., as per GV.

This was announced by Trinseo on 10 July.

Trinseo said that the transaction includes API’s manufacturing and research facility at Mussolente, Italy, and all of API’s business, employees and assets. The API management team and employees are now part of Trinseo’s Performance Plastics business.

"The completion of this transaction will bring great opportunities to our customers and employees," said Chris Pappas, president and CEO of Trinseo. "We will be able to grow the combined business by leveraging API’s soft-touch polymers and Trinseo’s rigid polymers to our collective customer base in all geographies."

As MRC informed earlier, Trinseo and its affiliate companies in Europe have recently announced a price decrease for all polystyrene (PS) grades. Effective as of 4 July, or as existing contract terms allow, the July contract and spot prices for the products listed below will decrease as follows:

- STYRON general purpose polystyrene grades (GPPS), STYRON and STYRON A-TECH high impact polystyrene grades (HIPS) by - EUR80 per metric ton.

Trinseo is a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex and rubber. Trinseo's technology is used by customers in industries such as home appliances, automotive, building & construction, carpet, consumer electronics, consumer goods, electrical & lighting, medical, packaging, paper & paperboard, rubber goods and tires. Formerly known as Styron, Trinseo completed its renaming process in 1Q 2015. Trinseo had approximately USD4.0 billion in revenue in 2015, with 18 manufacturing sites around the world, and more than 2,200 employees.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Intertape Polymer Group Inc. has announced the completion on July 1 of the previously-announced transaction to acquire substantially all of the assets of Canadian Technical Tape Ltd, a North American supplier of industrial and specialty tapes based in Montreal, as per MarketWired.

The expected aggregate purchase price is approximately USD67 million (as updated from the previously-communicated purchase price of USD63 million due to certain purchase price adjustments), subject to further post-closing adjustments. All amounts in this press release are denominated in US dollars.

The Cantech acquisition will further enhance and extend the company's product offering, and provide additional distribution channels for IPG products in Canada, the US, and Europe. The purchase price was financed with funds available under IPG's revolving USD450 million credit facility.

As MRC wrote before, in early 2016, Intertape Polymer Group Inc. decided to invest in the construction of a greenfield manufacturing facility to increase the company's manufacturing capacity of water-activated tapes.

Intertape makes film- and paper-based pressure sensitive and water-activated tapes, polyethylene and specialized polyolefin films, woven coated fabrics and packaging systems for industrial and retail use. The company has 16 sites, including 11 manufacturing locations in North America and one manufacturing site in Porto, Portugal.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) — Zhejiang Petrochemical started construction on Monday of the first phase of its oil refining and petrochemical complex on the island of Zhoushan, near Shanghai, in Zhejiang province, the official Xinhua news agency reported, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Xinhua did not give an expected start-up date for the project. Reuters reported last year that the project was likely to be operational by 2020.

Zhejiang Petrochemical's project will consist of two 400,000 bpd oil refineries and two 1.4 MMtpy ethylene plants, according to an environmental evaluation paper from the Zhejiang provincial government dated May 3.

The project is part of Beijing's efforts to bring private investors into the country's state-controlled energy sector. It has also raised concerns of a growing domestic glut in oil products, especially in eastern China where diesel and gasoline demand eased.

Textile maker Rongsheng Holding Group, petrochemical maker Juhua Group and Tongkun Group, are the main financiers of the USD25.44-B project, the environmental document showed. The investors will borrow more than 120 B yuan in bank loans to finance the project, the document said.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) — Taiwan's Formosa Petrochemical Corp this week bought about 60 Mt of naphtha using a pricing formula uncommon in the region, said Reuters.

Formosa, Asia's top naphtha importer, paid a discount of about USD5/t to a formula based 50–50 on prices from S&P Global Platts and Oil Price Information Service (OPIS), a unit of consulting firm IHS Markit, the sources said.

The discount paid for the cargoes, to be delivered in the second-half August to the port of Mailiao, marked the lowest price paid by Formosa since December, as the market struggles with surplus supplies.

"The difference in naphtha prices between those assessed by Platts and OPIS is very marginal," said one of the sources. They both declined to be identified as they were not authorised to speak with media.

They added that Formosa plans to use the new formula in other transactions, saying it was in talks with sellers for some time before the change.

The company operates three naphtha crackers that produce more than 2.9 MMt of ethylene a year. Before this, Formosa, like other end users in eastern Asia, bought naphtha on a formula that was fully priced off Platts assessments.

On the other hand, refiners such as Abu Dhabi National Oil Corp (ADNOC), Indian Oil Corp (IOC) and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) use prices from Platts and Argus Media.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Honeywell has announced that Canada Kuwait Petrochemical Corp. (CKPC) has chosen Honeywell UOP's C3 Oleflex technology to produce 550,000 metric tons per year of polymer-grade propylene at CKPC's proposed facility in Sturgeon County near Edmonton, Alberta, as per JWN.

CKPC is a joint venture of Pembina Pipeline Corporation of Canada and Petrochemical Industries Company K.S.C. of Kuwait.

Honeywell also will provide the process design package, proprietary and non-proprietary equipment, on-site operator training, technical services for startup and continuing operation, and key catalysts and adsorbents for the project. Including this project, Honeywell UOP's Oleflex technology has been selected for 41 out of 51 propane and isobutane dehydrogenation projects globally since 2011.

"Historically, propylene has been produced as a byproduct of making ethylene from petroleum, but with the influx of lighter feedstocks, the amount of propylene from these manufacturing processes is dramatically reduced," said John Gugel, vice president and general manager of Honeywell UOP's Process Technology and Equipment business. "Honeywell UOP's Oleflex process addresses the growing propylene supply gap by producing on-purpose propylene from propane, which is in abundant supply."

CKPC's proposed new facility is slated to consume 22,000 barrels per day of propane from Pembina Pipeline Corporation's Redwater fractionation complex and other regional facilities, and to produce more than 1.2 billion pounds per year of polypropylene for customers throughout North American and the world.

Honeywell UOP's C3 Oleflex technology uses catalytic dehydrogenation to convert propane to propylene and is proven to have the lowest cash cost of production and the highest return on investment among competing technologies. Its low energy consumption, low emissions and fully recyclable, platinum-alumina-based catalyst system minimizes its impact on the environment. The independent reaction and regeneration sections enable steady-state operations, improved operating flexibility, and a high on-stream factor and reliability.

Honeywell UOP also licenses C4 Oleflex technology, which converts butanes to butylenes, the primary ingredient for making high-octane fuel additives and synthetic rubber. Since the technology was first commercialized in 1990, Honeywell UOP has commissioned 27 Oleflex units for on-purpose propylene and isobutylene production. Global production capacity of propylene from Oleflex technology now stands at approximately 6.8 million metric tons per year.

CKPC is in the front-end engineering design (FEED) phase of developing a world-scale integrated propane dehydrogenation and polypropylene upgrading facility. The project being developed by CKPC remains subject to a positive final investment decision from each partner of the joint venture, as well as regulatory and environmental approvals.

As MRC informed earlier, in February 2017, Honeywell announced that Borealis AG had selected Honeywell UOP's process technology for a proposed plant in Kallo, Belgium, that converts propane into propylene, a primary ingredient for making plastics.

Honeywell UOP is a leading international supplier and licensor of process technology, catalysts, adsorbents, equipment, and consulting services to the petroleum refining, petrochemical, and gas processing industries. Honeywell UOP is part of Honeywell's Performance Materials and Technologies strategic business group, which also includes Honeywell Process Solutions, a pioneer in automation control, instrumentation and services for the oil and gas, refining, petrochemical, chemical and other industries.
MRC