Asahimas starts maintenance and debottlenecking at No 2 VCM unit

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Asahimas, part of Asahi Glass, has taken its No. 2 vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) unit off-stream for maintenance and debottlenecking exercise, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Indonesia informed that the company has commenced maintenance along with the capacity expansion at the plant on January 15, 2018. The plant is slated to remain off-line for a period of around 7 weeks.

Following the expansion at the capacity will be increased by 100,000 MT to 350,000 mt/year.

Located in Anyer, Indonesia, the No.2 VCM plant currently has a production capacity of 250,000 mt/year.

As MRC reported earlier, in mid-February 2016, Asahi Glass began shipping polyvinyl chloride (PVC) from the Anyer plant at Cilegon, Indonesia, following completion of an expansion program at PT Asahimas Chemical.

Asahi Glass Co., Ltd., more commonly known as AGC, is a global glass manufacturing company, headquartered in Tokyo. It is one of the core Mitsubishi companies.

PT Asahimas Chemical is owned 52.5% by Asahi Glass, 11.5% by Mitsubishi Corp. and 18% each by the local Rodamas and Ableman Finance.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sadara Chemical Company (Sadara) has signed an agreement to supply SADIG-ILCO, a new Saudi-German joint venture focused on the manufacture of a wide range of speciality chemicals with ethylene oxide (EO) and propylene oxide (PO), said Worldofchemicals.

Under the terms of the supply agreement, SADIG-ILCO’s new PlasChem Park facility will offtake EO and PO from Sadara through the EO and PO pipelines that are being established by Sadara.

Using these products as feedstock, the company will manufacture a range of speciality chemicals, some of which will be produced for the first time in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This will further enable the production of market-ready products in several areas, including coatings and adhesives, personal care products and many other industrial applications.

"With Sadara’s products now in the local, regional and global markets, we are able to show investors definitively that the Kingdom is an attractive destination for new and exciting downstream manufacturing opportunities. The speciality chemicals that SADIG-ILCO will produce locally will replace imports and encourage the development of new downstream speciality industries,” said Mohammad Alazzaz, director of Value Park for Sadara.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Honeywell Process Solutions (HPS) has announced that BASF has opened a state-of-the-art control room equipped with Honeywell Experion technology at its waste incineration complex in Ludwigshafen, Germany, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The control room was officially inaugurated on November 28, 2017, by Dr. Uwe Liebelt, president, BASF European Site and Verbund Management, and Vimal Kapur, president of HPS.

Honeywell re-designed the plant's control room with BASF's Industrie 4.0 initiative in mind. Virtualization technology delivers consolidated plant information to operators via eight large-screen Experion Orion Consoles, which also embed traditionally separate Microsoft Office desktop applications alongside the distributed control system one. Two Experion Collaboration Stations enable BASF to run production meetings more efficiently by using real-time data and online documents.

As part of Honeywell's Experion Process Knowledge System, 29 C300 Controllers and 20,000 I/O modules facilitate plant-wide monitoring, improve safety and fire protection, and increase reliability. In addition, a new MediluX lighting system in the control room improves visual conditions for operators day and night, reducing eye strain and fatigue.
"This strategic project is a prime example of how Industrie 4.0 is transforming industrial operations," Kapur said. "Previously, BASF operators had to gather and piece together data to form a high-level view. Now, critical information is digitally consolidated and streamed onto central displays, transforming efficiency, productivity and decision-making."

The plant's six incinerators process hazardous waste that cannot be reused or recycled and convert it into steam and electrical power. The clean, reusable energy is channeled back into BASF's production processes, helping the company save resources and reduce emissions.

"Thanks to excellent cooperation with Honeywell, our 60-year-old plant now has one of the most modern control rooms in the world," said Dr. Karin Flore, head of waste incineration, BASF.

The incineration plant serves more than 200 BASF production facilities within the company's flagship,10-square-kilometer production site as well as facilities outside the BASF complex. The reliability of the plant is critical to BASF's wider production operations because any standstill could potentially affect the world's largest chemical complex as a whole.

We remind that, as MRC wrote previously, within the next five years, BASF plans to invest globally more than EUR200 million in its plastic additives business, approximately half of which in Asia, focusing on capacity expansions and operational excellence. Plastic additives improve product properties such as scratch resistance or light stability, and optimize plastics manufacturing processes. As the leading global supplier of plastic additives with manufacturing assets in all regions, BASF is a major partner to the plastics industry.

BASF is the largest diversified chemical company in the world and is headquartered in Ludwigshafen, Germany. BASF produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Oil held steady above USD69 a barrel on Thursday, supported by falling inventories of crude and threats of an attack on Nigeria's petroleum industry, although a reported rise in U.S. fuel supplies weighed, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Crude is within sight of its highest since December 2014, supported by supply cuts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and concern that unrest in producer nations such as Nigeria could further curb output.

Militant group Niger Delta Avengers threatened to attack Nigeria's oil sector in the next few days, potentially hampering supplies in Africa's largest exporter. "The impact of such a threat, if carried out, would be significant on the global supply and demand balance," said Tamas Varga of oil broker PVM. "The market is still sensitive to geopolitical developments."

Brent crude, the global benchmark, had slipped 7 cents to USD69.31 by 0943 GMT. On Monday it hit USD70.37, the highest since December 2014. U.S. crude was up 2 cents at USD63.99 and reached its highest since December 2014 on Tuesday. A supply report from the American Petroleum Institute on Wednesday presented a mixed picture, with inventories of gasoline and diesel rising and crude stocks falling. The U.S. government's weekly supply data is due on Thursday. Brent has risen from USD61 a barrel in early December and some analysts say the rally may be about to run out of steam.

"The upside is now limited for oil prices," said Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at brokerage Forex.com. "U.S. oil producers will ramp up production in the coming months." The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Tuesday it expects U.S. oil output to continue to rise in February with production from shale increasing by 111,000 bpd. The agency previously said U.S. output could reach 10 MMbpd in February and 11 MMbpd in 2019. Even so, traders said prices were unlikely to fall far due to the OPEC-led curbs and the risk of further disruptions.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russia's production of high density polyethylene (HDPE) decreased in January-December 2017 by 10% year on year to 898,000 tonnes. All Russian producers reduced their output, with Kazanorgsitez being the exception, according to MRC's ScanPlast report.

December production of HDPE in Russia increased to 73,700 tonnes, whereas a month earlier this figure did not exceed 63,700 tonnes. Gazprom neftekhim Salavat and Stavrolen increased PE production. Overall HDPE production reached 898,000 tonnes in 2017, compared to 1,000,000 tonnes a year earlier. Only Kazanorgsintez increased its production, whereas other producers reduced their output because of different reasons.

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

Russia's December HDPE production at Kazanorgsintez increased to 47,500 tonnes from 46,500 tonnes a month earlier. The Kazan plant's overall HDPE production was 507,700 tonnes in January-December 2017, up by 4% year on year.

Stavrolen last month increased the production of HDPE for long-term preventive maintenance, but did not reach 100% of capacity utilisation. December HDPE production grew to 17,700 tonnes, compared with 8,700 tonnes in November. The plant's HDPE output reached 232,600 tonnes in 2017, down by 14% year on year.

Gazprom neftekhim Salavat decreased capacity utilisation in December, producing about 8,500 tonnes of HDPE against 7,700 tonnes in November (the producer shut the plant for a week long maintenances in November). Overall HDPE production at the Bashkir plant reached 92,200 tonnes in January-December 2017, down by 15% year on year. This year's low production was caused by a long shutdown for maintenance in July-August.

Nizhnekamskneftekhim switched over to production of linear PE in the early November. Thus, only 65,600 tonnes of HDPE were produced in 2017, whereas in 2016 this figure was 135,600 tonnes. Such a noticeable reduction in the output was caused by an increase in the share of linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) in the total production.


MRC