Kaneka Corp buys US formulated advanced resin supplier Applied Poleramic

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Kaneka Corporation has acquired Applied Poleramic Inc (API), the California-based formulated advanced resin supplier in the aerospace area, for approximately USD15 million, as per Business-standard.

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 high growth potential in this sub-segment compared to the general structural composites market. “We anticipate this sub-segment to grow more than 10 percent annually within the next 10 years or exceed USD2 billion in market value,” said Kaneka Corporation officials.

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 OEMs 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 USD200 million in sales. Growth will be achieved by fully utilising and uniting Kaneka global resources in corporate research, product research, and product development; located in institutes and research centres throughout Japan and North America.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Liaoning Huajin Chemical has restarted its polypropylene (PP) unit following an unplanned outage, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the company has resumed operations at the unit on August 14, 2017. The unit was shut in end-July 2017 owing to shortage of feedstock.

Located in Liaoning province, China, the PP unit has a production capacity of 50,000 mt/year.

We remind that, as MRC informed before, in-mid May 2017, Sinopec Yangzi Petrochemical took off-stream its PP plant for a maintenance turnaround. The duration of the planned shutdown could not be ascertained. Located in Jiangsu province, China, the plant comprising three units have a production capacity of 200,000 mt/year, 100,000 mt/year and 100,000 mt/year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) — China's energy demand will peak by 2040, later than the previous forecast of 2035, as transportation fuel consumption continues to rise through the middle of this century, state-owned oil major China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) said on Wednesday, as per Reuters.

Energy consumption in China, the world's second-largest economy, will peak then at 4.06 Bt of oil equivalent, up from the previous forecast of 3.75 Bt 5 yr prior, CNPC said in its annual long-term energy outlook. CNPC raised its forecast because it predicts transportation demand will rise through to 2050, twenty years longer than previously estimated.

China's oil demand will reach a ceiling of 690 MMtpy, equivalent to 13.8 MMbpd, by 2030, CNPC said. The country is the world's second-largest oil consumer. That compares with last year's estimate of a peak of 670 MMtpy by 2027.

Oil demand will grow at an annual rate of 2.7% until 2020, slowing to 1.2% until 2030, the report said. The headline number indicates that Chinese energy markets will continue to set the pace globally. However, the slowdown in oil consumption raises further doubt about the future role of oil in China's energy mix as alternative fuels take a greater share of the transportation and power generation sectors.

Gasoline demand will peak as soon as 2025, CNPC said. That would mean China's gasoline demand would peak only shortly after the United States. China has vowed to cap its energy consumption in 2017 in order to raise the use of cleaner fuels as part of a wider campaign to fight air pollution.

Clean energy, including renewable fuels and natural gas, will replace coal power as the largest fuel source for power generation by 2030 and account for more than half of the nation's power generation by 2045, it said.

Natural gas consumption will rise to 620 Bcm in 2030, said CNPC, up from 510 Bcm in last year's report. Power demand will total 11.8 Tkw hours by 2050, the report said.

Annual crude output will remain around 200 MMt, or 4 MMbpd, until 2030, at which point it will start to fall. Gas output will reach 380 Bcm by 2050. At that point, China will account for around 15% of world's gas production, it said.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Hanwha Chemical is likely to undertake planned shutdown at its polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plant in Ulsan, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in South Korea informed that the company has planned to shut the plant in October 2017 for a period of around 15-20 days. The exact date of the shutdown could not be ascertained.

Located in Ulsan, South Korea, the PVC plant has a production capacity of 300,000 mt/year.

As MRC reported before, in 2015, Hanwha Chemical merged two of its chemical compounds businesses, Hanwha Next and Hanwha Compound. The combined entity, named Hanwha Compound, produces polyethylene, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride, and acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene. The company operates manufacturing plants in Yeosu and Suncheon, with an annual capacity of 100,000 tons.

Hanwha Group is one of the largest business conglomerate in South Korea. Founded in 1952 as Korea Explosives Inc., the group has grown into a large multi-profile business conglomerate, with diversified holdings stretching from explosives, their original business, to retail to financial services.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has opened a technologically advanced product application & research centre (PARC) for polymers at Vadodara, Gujarat. The PARC will focus on creating value addition opportunities, not only for RIL’s polymer business, but also for its customers by offering technical, product upgradations and application development services, said Business-standard.

The PARC, initially set up in Mumbai in 1990 with the sole objective of providing product support solutions to customers, has now been transformed into a crucial R&D facility for polymers, such as polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC).

Ajay Shah, president - polymer chain, Reliance Industries, said, "The PARC at Vadodara possesses a spacious shop floor and state-of-the-art labs that are equipped with the world’s finest processing and testing equipment. It has been tailored to cater to the ever-growing needs and expectations of our customers. A dynamic set of young engineers and technologists at the labs will play a crucial role as the vital link between end users, converters and manufacturing plants. I believe that a facility of this magnitude will go a long way to ensure that Reliance is at the quality frontier of our industry, globally."

The PARC houses the best brains of polymer technology, engineering and sector specialties. The team works tirelessly, creating opportunities and providing solutions to the ever-growing market needs and customer demands. The team is equipped at providing best-quality technical services, benchmarking, development of new grades in polymers, and inventions of applications.

Perry Vyas, Managing Director, Skaps India, said: “We are eager to use RIL’s world-class PARC facility as it is manned by the best talent in India. The unique combination of ultra-modern machineries, experienced technologists and engineers will help us boost the quality of our product offerings, and save costs as well. The facility will serve as an incubator for us to innovate and manufacture top quality products for international markets."

The processing machinery section at PARC is equipped with advanced machineries that can use PE for making mono & multilayer blown films, PP TQ film, PE & PP cast films & sheets. The huge shop floor also equipped to make articles through the processes of blow molding, injection molding, roto molding, compression molding and pipe extrusion.

The PARC team also engages with end-user industries, such as FMCG, automobile, food and beverages, agriculture, OEMs converters and other polymer processors.

The applications laboratory at the PARC is capable of performing tests for characterisation of polymers in accordance with the Indian and international standards. It is equipped with facilities for physical, mechanical, thermal, optical, environmental and rheological tests.

The PARC offers processing and testing services – such as value-added services like evaluation of their existing products, formulation of new products and creation of new applications - to customers and help them meet the global standards.

Apart from the PARC, RIL houses its product development centre at Vadodara, which specialises in plasticulture application development and creates awareness by providing on-ground training to farmers about plasticulture product usages and their benefits. Also, there is the elastomer customer support centre for research, testing and product development activities for elastomer.
MRC