Trinseo raises September prices of PS and copolymers in Europe

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Trinseo, a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex binders and synthetic rubber, and its affiliate companies in Europe have announced price increases for all polystyrene (PS), acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) and acrylonitrile styrene copolymer (SAN) grades, as per the company's press release.

Effective September 1, 2018, or as existing contract terms allow, the contract and spot prices for the products listed below increased as follows:

- STYRON general purpose polystyrene grades (GPPS) - by EUR85 per metric ton;
- STYRON and STYRON A-Tech high impact polystyrene grades (HIPS) - by EUR85 per metric ton;
- MAGNUM ABS resins - by EUR60 per metric ton;
- TYRIL SAN resins - by EUR60 per metric ton.

As MRC informed before, Trinseo last raised its prices for all PS, ABS and SAN grades on 1 August 2018, as stated below:

- STYRON GPPS grades - by EUR30 per metric ton;
- STYRON and STYRON A-Tech HIPS grades - by EUR30 per metric ton;
- MAGNUM ABS resins - by EUR30 per metric ton;
- TYRIL SAN resins - by EUR30 per metric ton.

Trinseo is a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex and rubber. Trinseo's technology is used by customers in industries such as home appliances, automotive, building & construction, carpet, consumer electronics, consumer goods, electrical & lighting, medical, packaging, paper & paperboard, rubber goods and tires. Formerly known as Styron, Trinseo completed its renaming process in 1Q 2015. Trinseo had approximately USD4.4 billion in net sales in 2017, with 16 manufacturing sites around the world, and approximately 2,200 employees.
MRC

Petroleum industry donates Rs 25 cr to Kerala flood relief

MOSOCW (MRC) -- The petroleum industry in India has been on a constant vigil in the state of Kerala throughout the flood crisis to ensure continuous supply of petroleum fuels and LPG, as per Worldofchemicals.

Now the Central petroleum public sector companies have come together to donate Rs 25 crore to the Chief Minister’s relief fund as a helping hand to the state.

On the behalf of the industry, the cheque of Rs 25 Crore was handed over to Shri Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Minister, Kerala, by Alphons Kannanthanam, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Tourism, in the presence of V Muraleedharan, Member of Parliament, Prasad K Panicker, executive director (Kochi Refinery), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited and representatives of Indian Oil Corporation Limited and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited.

During the crises period, petroleum industry was able to maintain normal operations of Kochi Refinery, installations and other facilities. Amidst many challenges including the flooding of the water pumping station that supplies water for refinery operations from River Periyar, BPCL was able to run the units of Kochi Refinery to ensure availability of petrol, diesel and LPG.

In addition, Reliance Foundation has also donated Rs 21 crore to the Kerala flood relief and provided aid material worth around Rs 51 crore to help the people affected by the heavy rains.

Reliance Foundation is affiliated with Reliance Industries Limited and one of the largest private foundations in the country.
MRC

Cosmo Films launches heat resistant films

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Cosmo Films, a global leader in speciality films for flexible packaging, lamination and labeling applications as well as synthetic paper has introduced BOPP based heat resistant (HR) films, as per the company's press release.

The films have been engineered to work as printing layer replacing BOPET film in multi-layer laminates for various packaging applications in both food and non-food segments.

The new heat resistant films are clear, non-heat sealable and both sides treated films with excellent printability and go mostly for reverse printing. The thermally stable films have excellent slip properties and good machinability and therefore work well on high speed FFS packaging machines. Available in 15, 18, 20 microns; the films are well suited for both adhesive as well as extrusion lamination and offer good lamination bond.

The company has also launched a barrier version of the film. The transparent BOPP based barrier HR film has excellent oxygen barrier properties and offers OTR of less than 100cc/m2/day. The film has good grease resistance that comes in handy for oily snack food packaging; which is a big application area of this film.

Speaking on the development, Mr. Pankaj Poddar, CEO Cosmo Films said, "Homogeneous structures are becoming increasingly preferable as recyclability of multilayer packaging becomes need of the hour. Polypropylene structures or even Polypropylene plus Polyethylene structures are better placed from recyclability perspective because they belong to the same polymer family. Cosmo Films with more than 100 years of collective OPP experience now stands in an advantageous position to develop specialised polypropylene films aimed at a sustainable future".

As MRC reported earlier, in March 2017, Cosmo Films commenced a new line of production of biaxially-oriented polypropylene (BOPP) films. The new line ihas a capacity of 60,000 tpa, which enhanced the company’s overall capacity by 4%.

Established in 1981, Cosmo Films is a global leader in speciality films used for packaging, laminating and labeling applications. Its films offerings include bi-axially oriented polypropylene (BOPP) films, cast polypropylene (CPP) films and soon to be offered bi-axially oriented polyethylene terephthalate (BOPET) films. Today, the company is the largest exporter of BOPP films from India and also a largest producer of thermal laminating films in the world with plant cum distribution centres in the U.S, Korea & Japan. We also have global channel partners in more than 70 countries which helps us service our valued customers across the globe.

Hengyi pushes back Brunei refinery start-up to Q2 2019

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The start-up a refinery-petrochemical project in Brunei by China’s Hengyi Industries International Pte Ltd will likely be delayed by a few months to the second quarter of next year, four industry sources said, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The project, at Brunei’s Muara Besar island and which includes a 175,000-barrels-per-day (bpd) refinery, was expected to be mechanically completed by end-2018, with operations slated for the first quarter of next year.

Construction is now expected to be finished by the first quarter of 2019, with the first crude oil cargo to be delivered to the plant at the end of that period, one of the sources said. Reasons for the delay were not immediately clear, but new refineries often face start-up delays.

Trial runs at the crude distillation unit (CDU) will start around April-May and operation could begin in the second or third quarter of next year, the source said.

Hengyi Industries International plans to import Middle East crude for the refinery’s first cargo, although this will largely depend on economics at the time of importing, the source said.

The company is the trading arm of privately-run Chinese company Hengyi Group, which is a major synthetic fiber producer in China and owns Shenzhen-listed Hengyi Petrochemical.

The Brunei refinery-petrochemical project will produce gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, the sources said. It will not produce any fuel oil for export. Hengyi Petrochemical did not respond to a request for comment.

The Brunei complex also houses an aromatics plant that will make 1.5 million tonnes per year (tpy) of paraxylene and 400,000 tpy of benzene.

The refinery plans to export oil products to customers in Asia, but it will also have to compete with other new refining projects in the region, including the USD27 billion Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) complex in Malaysia, which is jointly owned by Malaysia’s Petronas and Saudi Aramco.

RAPID is also aiming for start-up next year.
MRC

Qatar Petroleum in talks over potential German LNG terminal

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Qatar Petroleum (QP), the world’s top supplier of liquefied natural gas (LNG), is talking to German energy firms Uniper and RWE about cooperating on a potential local LNG terminal, its chief executive told Reuters.

"We have a serious interest in participating in a German LNG terminal and are talking to Uniper and RWE," Saad Al-Kaabi told business daily Handelsblatt in an interview ahead of the Qatar Germany Business and Investment Forum in Berlin on Sept. 7.

Al-Kaabi said there were two ways of participating in an LNG terminal, either by securing capacity to open up supply, or by taking a stake in the terminal infrastructure.

"The builders of the terminal will have to think about which option they want, and we have to decide what suits us best," he said.

A spokeswoman for RWE, Germany’s largest power producer, said talks with Qatar Petroleum were about potential gas deliveries to Germany, not about a shareholding in a potential German LNG terminal.

Germany, Europe’s largest energy consumer, shelved plans for an LNG terminal of its own a few years ago, with major operators participating in foreign projects - including Rotterdam’s Gate terminal - instead.

However, talks about installing an LNG terminal have been revived in the wake of increasingly dynamic global flows of the fuel and discussions about its use in shipping to meet looming requirements for cleaner fuels.

A consortium comprising Dutch gas network operator Gasunie, German tank storage provider Oiltanking and Dutch oil and chemical storage company Vopak, is currently trying to get such a project off the ground.

A funding decision by the consortium, dubbed German LNG Terminal, expected by the end of 2019.

Some policymakers favor LNG as a way of reducing Europe’s dependence on gas from Russia, which is pressing ahead with its Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

Uniper said it has repeatedly pointed out that a German LNG terminal would be beneficial in light of declining gas resources in Europe, adding that Qatar Petroleum subsidiary, Qatargas, had been a strategic partner for years.

"We are in constant contact with them. Such discussions are, of course, confidential," the group said.

As MRC wrote before, in July 2017, QP successfully completed the integration of Qatar Vinyl Company (QVC) into Qatar Petrochemical Company (Qapco), six months before the deadline of last year end.
MRC