Hexpol TPE optimises equipment of Lichtenfels site

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Hexpol TPE has optimised the extrusion equipment and production capacities at its site in Lichtenfels, Germany, with the installation of a filtration system from Trendelkamp Technologie GmbH, as per GV.

In addition, all extrusion lines were equipped with granulate classifiers from Trendelkamp.

According to Dominik Fehn, Production Manager Hexpol TPE GmbH, the family owned company from Nordwalde, Germany, was selected due to customisation options of the screen changer as well as excellent communication and quick response times. The filtration systems are characterised by heat insulation and rectangular breaker plates that save energy and also reduce pressure loss over the screen changer, as stated by Trendelkamp.

As MRC reported earlier, in 2013, the Hexpol TPE group, a manufacturer of custom-formulated TPE and flexible polymer compounds, appointed MLPlastics as its distribution partner in the North of Germany.
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MOSCOW (MRC) - Saudi Aramco plans to deliver the first crude oil cargo to its joint-refinery project with Petronas in Malaysia in October as the companies prepare for trial runs at the new plant, several sources with knowledge of the matter said, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The project, Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID), is a $27 billion complex located between the Malacca Strait and the South China Sea, conduits for Middle East oil and gas bound for China, Japan and South Korea.

RAPID is one of four new refineries in Asia, with a combined crude processing capacity of nearly 1.3 million barrels per day, scheduled to start up from late 2018 to 2019. These plants will increase Asia’s crude demand while adding to fuel output in the region, traders and analysts said.

"Together with the other mega-refineries poised to start up around the same time, there is potentially a brief window for margins to be awful before IMO effects kick in in the second half of 2019," said Nevyn Nah, a Singapore-based analyst at Energy Aspects.

Nevertheless, RAPID is expected to put Malaysia in a competitive position, not only for its own targets for switching to producing Euro V fuel, but also ahead of the IMO 2020 ruling by increasing its net length in diesel, he said.

International Maritime Organization (IMO) rules will cap ships’ sulphur emissions at 0.5 percent of fuel content in 2020, from 3.5 percent now. Shippers have several ways to comply – including investing in costly “scrubbers” to allow them to keep burning high-sulphur fuel oil, or shifting the roughly 4 million bpd of fuel they burn to more expensive low-sulphur gasoil.

RAPID will contain a 300,000-bpd refinery and a petrochemical complex with a capacity of 7.7 million tonnes a year. Refinery operations are set to begin in 2019, with petrochemical operations to follow six to 12 months afterwards.

Saudi Aramco will supply 50 percent of the refinery’s crude oil with an option of increasing it to 70 percent. While the first crude for RAPID has been scheduled for delivery in October, the timeline for trial runs at the new plant has not been firmed up, some of the sources said.

Saudi Arabia has increased its oil production to above 10 million bpd since June to meet rising global demand. It is also in talks with new Chinese refiners Dalian Hengli Petrochemical and Zhejiang Rongsheng Petrochemical to supply long-term crude.

Aramco and Malaysia’s Petronas approached banks earlier this year to refinance an USD8 billion loan for the project. Saudi Aramco and Petronas did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF has appointed Ketan Joshi to lead its Petrochemicals business unit in Asia Pacific, based in Hong Kong, effective September 1, 2018, said the producer on its site.

Joshi started his career with BASF in 2006 in the R&D department. He then held various management positions in Corporate Strategy, as well as in Product Management and Global Strategy for the Intermediates Division. He was most recently Head of Strategic Marketing and Projects, Intermediates Asia Pacific. As Vice President, Petrochemicals Asia Pacific, he will focus on expanding the business and supporting BASF’s customers and partners in the region.

As MRC informed before, 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.

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.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Zeon Corporation said that it will establish a new subsidiary in Thailand for acrylic rubber manufacture and sale. Zeon Chemicals Asia Co Ltd (tentative)will be located in the Rayong Province, Thailand, as per Worldofchemicals.

Acrylic rubber (ACM) is a speciality synthetic rubber combining high heat resistance and excellent oil resistance. ACM is broadly utilized in under-hood automotive applications such as transmission seals, gaskets as well as inter-cooler hoses.

The demand for acrylic rubber is expected to expand steadily in the Asian region, led by production growth of internal combustion and turbocharged engine powered automobiles.

The Thailand operation joins Zeon’s existing acrylic rubber manufacturing capabilities in Japan and USA.

As MRC wrote before, in 2013, Zeon started a new solution styrene butadiene rubber (SSBR) plant on Singapore's Jurong Island. The plant is expected to have an initial capacity of 35,000 mt/year. The company was tentatively planning to double capacity in 2015-2016 but will watch the market demand for SBR first before deciding on this. The SBR produced at the plant will be used for tires, with SBR's key feedstocks being butadiene (60%) and styrene monomer (35%).

Zeon has three synthetic rubber plants with a total production capacity of 270,000 mt/year, which can produce SBR, butadiene rubber, as well as isoprene rubber.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Waves began to batter parts of the U.S. Gulf Coast on Tuesday as the region felt the first effects of Tropical Storm Gordon, which is expected to become a hurricane before it comes ashore with high winds and heavy rain, forecasters said, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The storm also caused a jump in global oil prices after the evacuation of two oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. Gordon was due to come ashore late on Tuesday near the border between Louisiana and Mississippi, and drop as much as 12 inches (30 cm) of rain in areas still recovering from last year’s hurricanes, the National Hurricane Center said.

Currently carrying winds of around 65 miles per hour (105 km per hour), the storm was expected to pack hurricane-force winds - of at least 74 mph (119 kph) - when it reached the Gulf Coast, the center said. Beaches around Mobile, Alabama, were seeing storm-driven waves on Tuesday morning, said Stephen Miller, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service.

“We’re expecting an increase in winds,” Miller said in a phone interview. "We could see flooding." Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency, as did New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell.

Storm surge - sea levels driven higher - of as much as 5 feet (1.5 m) could hit a stretch of coast from Shell Beach, Louisiana, to Dauphin Island, Alabama, forecasters said. The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency told South Mississippi residents to be prepared to evacuate.

As of Tuesday morning, Gordon was located about 190 miles (305 km) east-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, and was heading west-northwest, the Miami-based hurricane center said.

U.S. oil producer Anadarko Petroleum Corp evacuated workers and shut production at two offshore oil platforms on Monday, and other companies with production and refining operations along the Gulf Coast said they were securing facilities.

The Gulf of Mexico is home to 17 percent of U.S. crude oil and 5 percent of natural gas output daily, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. Coast Guard said the ports of New Orleans as well as Gulfport and Pascagoula, Mississippi, may have to close within 48 hours.

Last year, powerful hurricanes hit Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico, causing thousands of deaths, hundreds of billions of dollars worth of damage and massive power outages. Gordon, which was not forecast to be a major hurricane, was expected to weaken rapidly after moving ashore, the hurricane center said.

The Inn at Ocean Springs and The Roost Hotel in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, had guests planning to ride out the storm, said Kristin Smith, the general manager of both hotels.
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