BASF strengthens collaboration with Grolman in Europe

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF and Gustav Grolman GmbH & Co. KG strengthen their exclusive collaboration in Europe in the marketing of amine-based curing agents for the professional processing of epoxy resins, said BASF on its site.

Grolman expands the marketing of the BASF specialty chemicals under the Baxxodur brand to Italy, Spain and Portugal, specifically for use in epoxy resin based applications. Examples are thermosetting laminates, highly resistant floor coatings, corrosion protection varnish and composite materials. The products are used in the construction industry as well as in the automotive, marine, aerospace and industrial applications manufacturing.

With the extended regional partnership with BASF, Grolman, one of Europe's largest distributors of specialty chemicals, further strengthens its strong position. Grolman has a diversified know-how in application technology. The high-quality curing agent components made by BASF supplement Grolman’s product portfolio of resins, accelerators, additives, flame retardants, pigments and special fillers for the thermosetting industry.

Under the brand name Baxxodur, BASF markets a diversified spectrum of amine-based curing components for the professional processing of epoxy resins. Since 2015, BASF and Grolman collaborate exclusively in the marketing of Baxxodur in Europe. Since then, Grolman has been marketing the BASF specialty chemicals in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Ireland, Great Britain, France, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark specifically for use in epoxy resin based applications.

As MRC reported earlier, in December 2017, BASF’s Coatings division inaugurated a new automotive coatings plant at its Bangpoo manufacturing site, Samutprakarn province, Thailand. The new plant is the first BASF automotive coatings manufacturing facility in ASEAN, and will produce solventborne and waterborne automotive coatings to meet growing market demand in the region.

The Grolman Group operates an international specialty ingredients distribution business. It is composed of individual sales offices based in all European countries, each supported by technically trained sales staff, customer service teams and local warehousing. The Grolman Group, run by the fifth generation of the Grolman family, has been privately owned since it was established in 1855.

BASF is the leading chemical company. It 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.BASF generated sales of EUR64.5 billion in 2017.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Biofuel producer and oil refiner Neste sees good opportunities for its renewable jet fuel despite a canceled pilot project in Switzerland, a company executive said, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The Finnish company is hoping to get a boost for its biofuels business in the coming years from proposed reductions of CO2 emissions in aviation.

The pilot project was due to replace at least 1 percent of jet fuel used at Geneva airport with Neste’s biofuel, until Swiss authorities earlier this week told Neste they had decided not to back the scheme.

Neste had considered the Geneva project as an important step in ramping up its aviation business, but the head of its renewable products Kaisa Hietala told Reuters the cancellation would not affect Neste’s plans.

“It was surprising, a disappointment ... but we have other partners to proceed with, and there are more coming in the pipeline,” she said. Neste has recently announced similar projects with Dallas airport in the United States as well as American Airlines, and the product has already been tested by Boeing and Lufthansa.

“At the moment, what holds back this market is high price and availability. But when the market is created, there will be more interest,” Hietala said. She added Neste’s plan to expand its biofuel production in Singapore would enable it to provide sufficient volumes for the aviation market. Production at the new line is due to begin in 2022.

The International Civil Aviation Organization is targeting carbon-neutral growth in aviation from 2020, Hietala noted. “Aviation is a global business that grows at a fast pace. Reliability of delivery for the fuel will be an important question."

Alongside Neste, at least one other company, U.S. AltAir Fuels, has tested biofuel for aircraft with pilot projects. Neste has stepped up usage of low-quality feedstock in its biofuels: waste and residue inputs, such as animal fats, make up more than 80 percent of its raw materials.

In the first half of 2018, biofuels for road traffic made 70 percent of Neste’s core profit of 679 million euros (USD777 million). “Aviation might become a significant source of income for us in the future,” Hietala said.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Canada’s gas-rich province of Alberta is looking to recreate the building boom spreading along the US Gulf Coast, where inexpensive natural gas generated billions of dollars in investment by petrochemical companies, reported Reuters.

The adoption by drillers of fracking technology to unlock oil and gas from shale rock expanded US production dramatically starting a decade ago. That abundance has generated USD194 billion since 2010 in announced capital investment to build or expand US chemical plants that use gas to make plastics, fertilizer and fuel, according to the American Chemistry Council.

Alberta hopes to do the same thing, turning prices that are about one-third those at the US Gulf Coast into a competitive advantage to attract petrochemical companies. Such investment would provide a badly needed market for oil and gas within the landlocked province, where energy companies struggle to reach buyers farther away.

Alberta in 2016 launched incentives to diversify its oil-based economy. Two projects, including Inter Pipeline Ltd’s planned CUSD3.5 billion (USD2.7 billion) petrochemical plant near Edmonton, have been approved to share CD500 million in royalty credits.

Alberta solicited bids for a second subsidy round in June.

"They’re getting all kinds of expressions of interests," David Podruzny, vice-president of business and economics at the Chemical Industry Association of Canada, said in an interview.

As attractive as cheap gas is, skeptics say Alberta’s incentives fall short of those in the US Gulf, and the province also has the disadvantages of higher costs and inadequate infrastructure.

But companies are chasing opportunities even without government help.

CF Industries Holdings Inc is boosting ammonia fertilizer production by 150,000 short tons annually at its Medicine Hat, Alberta, plant starting later this year. The lower cost allows it to ship farther than usual, to farmers in the corn-growing U.S. state of Iowa.

"At times it’s free," said Bert Frost, CF’s senior vice-president of sales, of Alberta’s gas. "We have the lowest-cost gas in the world today."

Fertilizer producer Nutrien Ltd has begun analyzing a potential expansion in Alberta, Chief Executive Chuck Magro said. He expects the abundance of cheap gas to persist, even if the USD40 billion LNG Canada terminal for liquefied natural gas is built in coming years, creating a new export outlet.

"Our analysis is you would need to build several (LNG terminals) before we would see much higher gas prices," he said in an interview this month. "I’m quite bearish for natural gas in Western Canada for the foreseeable future."

Methanex Corp, which makes a liquid chemical called methanol, is considering a second plant in Medicine Hat, said Paul Daoust, vice-president for North America.

Canada is the world’s fifth-largest gas producer, but much of the gas it used to sell into the Northeastern United States has been displaced by expanding US supplies.

An incentive program spanning up to a decade and competitive with what is available along the US Gulf Coast is necessary to offset Alberta’s higher capital costs, said Lori Kent, executive director of Resource Diversification Council.

Insufficient pipeline infrastructure is also holding the province back, said John Rogers, senior vice-president at credit ratings agency Moody’s.

Low prices have been a hardship for gas producers, and prolonged weakness could force them to reduce supplies.
Crew Energy Inc has already shut in dry gas wells this year, said Chief Executive Dale Shwed.

"If companies are not going to make money producing gas and selling it, they’re not going to drill for it," Shwed said.

We remind that, as MRC informed before, in December 2017, Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. was awarded a contract by Canada Kuwait Petrochemical Corporation (CKPC) to provide front-end engineering design (FEED) services for a proposed greenfield, integrated propane dehydrogenation and polypropylene facility located in Sturgeon County, Alberta, Canada.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Invista’s technology and licensing group, Invista Performance Technologies (IPT), and Fujian Billion Petrochemicals Co., Ltd. have reached an agreement to license INVISTA’s latest purified terephthalic acid (PTA) process technology for a new PTA line, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The PTA line will have a design capacity of 2.5 million metric tonnes per year and will be installed in Fujian Province, China.

"We are honored that our advanced, industry-leading P8 technology has been selected. Our demonstrated ability to deliver a fast schedule and the fact that our technology is proven were key factors in our selection. This represents a new chapter for deployment of Invista’s P8 PTA technology aimed at creating competitive advantage for our global customers," Mike Pickens, IPT president said.

A kick-off meeting was successfully held in the week of August 13, 2018. The targeted project start-up date would be in August 2020.

As MRC wrote previously, in May 2018, Invista Performance Technologies (IPT) announced the success of its latest P8 PTA technology deployed on Jiaxing Petrochemical’s second PTA Line.

IPT’s P8 PTA technology is available as a licence package from Invista Performance Technologies.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sinopec Maoming Petrochemical has restarted its No. 2 low density polyethylene (LDPE) unit in Guangdong, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the unit has recently resumed production following a brief maintenance. The unit was shut on August 22, 2018.

Located at Guangdong in China, the No. 2 unit has a production capacity of 280,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed previously, Sinopec Maoming Petrochemical conducted a brief turnaround at its LDPE unit No. 1 on 1-2 September, 2017. Located at Guangdong in China, the unit has a production capacity of 120,000 mt/year.

Sinopec Maoming Petrochemical Company (Maoming Company) - a subsidiary of Sinopec- is located in Maoming, Guangdong and was founded in May 1955. The company now has a crude oil processing capacity of 13.5 million t/a and an ethylene production capacity of 1 million t/a. Maoming Company has turned out to be a large-scale integrated refining and chemical enterprise with refining as the leading business and petrochemical sector as the mainstay.

China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, or Sinopec Limited is a Chinese oil and gas company based in Beijing, China. It is listed in Hong Kong and also trades in Shanghai and New York . Sinopec is the worlds fifth biggest company by revenue.
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