BASF expands capacity for cellular PU elastomers in India

moSCOW (MRC) -- BASF India Limited has announced that it plans to expand its manufacturing capacity of Cellasto cellular polyurethane elastomers and cease thermoplastic polyurethane manufacturing at its Dahej plant in Gujarat, India, in line with changing customer needs in the South Asia region, as per GV.

According to BASF, Cellasto components have been used successfully for over 55 years in the suspension system, to reduce NVH (noise, vibration and harshness) in automotive vehicles. The expansion at Dahej will serve India’s growing automotive market for both two-wheel and four-wheel vehicles. The expansion project includes a new production line, and will supplement Cellasto’s testing equipment installed in 2017. Customers will benefit from fast response and local expertise, said the company. At the same time, BASF will focus on supplying South Asia markets with TPU from its global network, instead of local production.

"We continue to stay close to our customers by adjusting our production, to meet their changing needs. For instance, by 2030, India is slated to be among the three largest automotive manufacturers worldwide. To be able to meet this demand, our manufacturing facilities need to be efficient and effective. We are confident that by refocusing our manufacturing capabilities, we will be able to achieve greater efficiency while better addressing our customers’ expectations and needs," said Raman Ramachandran, Chairman and Managing Director, BASF India Limited and Head - South Asia.

This change will have no impact on the jobs at the Dahej manufacturing site, as employees currently working in TPU production will be redeployed in other areas including Cellasto production, said BASF.

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 centers, 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 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.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Amsterdam-based Synvina CV is planning to extend the pilot phase of its FDCA (furandicarboxylic acid) production by 24 to 36 months in order to “optimise” future commercial-scale production, according to Avantium NV, one of the partner companies in the joint venture, as per Plasticseurope.

In a 12 Jan statement, Avantium, who shares the ownership of the bio-plastics start-up with BASF SE, said the decision was made following a broad feasibility assessment for commercial-scale production of FDCA in its reference plant intended to be built in Antwerp. FDCA is the main building block for the new polymer PEF (polyethylenefuroate).

The assessment, according to Avantium, looked at product performance, market appetite and technical process, and confirmed that product performance and customer demand were “strong”. In the technical process evaluation, however, Synvina has identified some steps that require improvement, which will help efficiency of the process.

“As a result, Synvina intends to extend the pilot phase, which will in turn extend the timeline to start up the reference plant by 24 to 36 months,” said Avantium. “The confidence of Avantium, BASF and Synvina in the product performance and its market potential has only increased since Synvina was founded.

“Encountering technical challenges is not uncommon in innovative, ground-breaking technologies of this kind,” said Avantium CEO Tom van Aken, adding the companies involved had increased confidence in the product performance and market potential.

“Synvina is working closely with BASF and Avantium to resolve these challenges. We are all confident that this will result in a production process that runs smoothly and reliably, and a product that is as pure as the market demands,” he added.

According to Van Aken, the reference plant will be operational in the 2023-2024 time-frame. Synvina was established in October 2016 with the intent to build and operate the reference plant.

This will be the first commercial-scale plant to produce FDCA, the breakthrough building block for the biopolyester PEF.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Jiaxing Petrochemical Co., a subsidiary of Tongkun Group, has started up its second purified terephthalic acid (PTA) line in Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province, China, according to Apic-online.

The new PTA line, which utilizes Invista Performance Technologies' P8 process technology, has 2.2-million t/y of PTA capacity, according to several industry reports.

Jiaxing Petrochemical's first line, also based on Invista technology, has a capacity of 800,000 t/y of PTA and has been in operation since 2012.

"We are pleased to see the successful start-up of our second PTA line and the operations are currently running very well," noted Xu Jinxiang, president of Tongkun Group.

We remind that, as MRC reported earlier, in July 2017, CTCI and Invista entered into a Strategic Cooperation Framework Agreement to collaborate on possible PTA projects around the world, and agreed to work closely in pursuit of PTA licensing opportunities.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russia's overall production of unmixed polyvinyl chloride (PVC) grew in 2017 by 15% year on year, totalling 906,200 tonnes. Only two producers have grown resin production: SayanskKhimPlast and Kaustik (Volgograd), according to MRC ScanPlast.

December PVC production to Russia practically remained at the November's level and was about 85,700 tonnes. Overall PVC production reached 906,200 tonnes in January-December 2017, compared to 785,500 tonnes a year earlier. Only two plants out of four have increased output, and such a high level of output growth this year was a result of the low stocks of 2016.

The structure of PVC production by plants looked the following way over the stated period.

RusVinyl (JV SIBUR and SolVin) last month reduced the capacity utilisation, the enterprise produced about 29,700 tonnes of emulsion polyvinyl chloride (EPVC) in December, of which about 3,300 tonnes of emulsion polyvinyl chloride (EPVC), against 28,500 tonnes a month earlier. Thus, RusVinyl's overall production of resin reached 312,700 tonnes in the twelve months of 2017, up by 2% year on year.

SayanskKhimPlast decreased capacity utilisation in December, having produced about 24,800 tonnes of suspension PVC (SPVC) compared to 26,200 tonnes a month earlier. SayanskKhimPlast managed to manufacture 263,500 tonnes of resin in January-December 2017, compared to 142,800 tonnes a year earlier (last year's low production was caused by a forced long outage from mid-February to July 2016).

Bashkir Soda Company produced 23,100 tonnes of SPVC last month versus 22,600 tonnes in November. The plant's output of resin totalled about 243,000 tonnes in the first twelve months of 2017, compared to 248,700 tonnes a year earlier. The plant's lower output was largely caused by the forced shutdown in August because of problems with the supply of ethylene.

Kaustik Volgograd last month produced about 8,100 tonnes of SPVC, compared with 8,000 tonnes in November. The plant's overall production of resin reached 87,000 tonnes over the stated period versus 88,500 tonnes a year earlier.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The government will support state-owned companies working in the refining and petrochemicals sector to boost their production, Minister of Petroleum Tarek el-Molla said Thursday, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

During a meeting with the Alexandria Petroleum Company, Assiut Oil Refining Company (ASORC) and Egyptian Petrochemicals Company, heads of the companies presented their plans of production for fiscal year 2018/19.

Chairman of Alexandria Petroleum Company Medhat Bahgat said they plan to produce 99,000 tons of butange gas, 1.3 million tons of naphtha, 1.2 million tons of diesel, 1.4 million tons of fuel oil and 19,000 tons of asphalt.

The Alexandria-based company is planning two new projects to expand production and develop the facility.

As for ASORC, chairman of the company Nagy Kassab said they plan to refine one million ton of crude oil to produce 36,000 tons of butane, 520,000 tons of naphtha, one million ton of diesel, 2.3 million tons of fuel oil and 25,000 tons of jet fuel.

Chairman of Egyptian Petrochemicals Company plans to produce 90,000 tons of Polyvinyl chloride, 65,000 tons of sodium hydroxide and 15,000 tons of hydrochloric acid.

Egypt’s Petroleum Ministry aims to increase its annual production of gasoline, diesel, butane gas and jet fuel by 11.6 million tons in the next four years, at an investment of USD8.3 billion, boosting total production to around 28.5 million tons, up from the current 16.9 million tons.

This comes as part of the ministry’s plan to expand and develop refineries to boost domestic production of petroleum products, with the aim of filling the gap between production and consumption.

Under the plan, the ministry targets producing 3.113 million tons of gasoline, 6.603 million tons of diesel, 481,000 tons of butane gas and some 1.438 million tons of jet fuel. Developing the petrochemical industry will result in an improvement in plastics industry, fibers industry and other related industries.

By 2020, Egypt plans to produce more than three million tons of chemical products, under a 20-year national plan, which involves a range of products from ethylene and polyethylene to olefins and aromatics.
MRC