Penoplex to resume GPPS production in Kirishi on 5 September

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Penoplex, Russia's largest producer of extruded polystyrene foam, plans to resume general purpose polystyrene (GPPS) production at its Kirishi plant on 5 September, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

This plant with a capacity of 50,000 tonnes of GPPS per year was shut for maintenance on 5 August 2019.

There was an acute shortage of material, including GPPS, in the Russian polystyrene (PS) market in late August, which was partially caused by the outage at the Kirishi plant.

In addition, the resumption of Gazprom neftekhim Salavat's GPPS production after a scheduled turnaround was delayed for several weeks. The plant’s production capacities were taken off-stream for maintenance in July, and premium GPPS grades had not yet entered the market as of the end of last week.

Penoplex is a large Russian producer of polymer-based building and decorative materials. The company began its activity in 1998 with the launch of Russia's first line for the production of heat-insulating materials from extruded polystyrene foam under the PENOPLEX trademark. The company has eight production sites, seven of which are located in Russia and one - in the Republic of Kazakhstan (Almaty region), with a total production capacity of 4 million cubic metres.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- SIBUR-Khimprom has announced its September expandable polystyrene (EPS) prices for Ukrainian consumers, buyers of Russian material in the region told MRC on Monday.

Thus, September prices of material for the Ukrainian market were heard at USD1,270/tonne FCA Voronezh, excluding VAT.

The August main price was at USD1,295/tonne FCA Voronezh, excluding VAT.

The Russian producer reduced its prices for additional August quantities to USD1,245/tonne FCA Voronezh, excluding VAT, in the third decade of last month. The plant had in stock “Alfapor 301” grade for additional orders.

SIBUR-Khimprom (part of SIBUR Holding) specializes in the processing of liquid hydrocarbons and is one of the leading Russian producers of a number of the most important petrochemical products. The company has three main production capacities: production of butyl alcohols and 2-ethylhexanol with a capacity of 160,000 tonnes per year, production of ethylbenzene (220,000 tonnes per year), styrene monomer (SM) production (135,000 tonnes per year) and polystyrene (PS) production (100,000 tonnes per year), ethylene and propylene unit, production of eco-friendly plasticizer DOTF (100,000 tonnes per year).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ecuador is seeking private companies interested in building a new refinery on the OPEC nation’s coast with a capacity of up to 300,000 barrels per day (bpd), reported Reuters a state official said.

The government of President Lenin Moreno signed a decree authorizing the design, construction and operation of the refinery, which will not include any participation by the Ecuadorean government or state-run companies.

"It is a private investment ... the investor can present a project to build the refinery," Oil Minister Carlos Perez told reporters. He said several companies were interested, without identifying any specific firms.

Ecuador expects the project will require a USD6 billion investment, but the total may change depending on the design.

The government this week will begin evaluating the financial and technical capacity of interested companies and within 60 days will produce a list of qualified investors that may submit proposals.

The refinery will have to include deep conversion plants to process heavy crude and will not purchase crude directly from Ecuadorean state companies, but rather will have to participate in bidding processes. It will also have to sell fuel to Ecuadorean state companies at prices below those quoted in the Gulf of Mexico, Perez said.

The refinery will function alongside the aging 110,000 bpd Esmeraldas facility, which has suffered chronic operational problems.

Moreno hopes to have Esmeraldas’ crude processing system run by a private operator due to environmental pollution problems in the area of the plant.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Nouryon (former AkzoNobel) will double capacity at its surfactants plant in Stenungsund, Sweden to support the growth of several existing products as well as new sustainable technologies for markets including oil and gas, lubricants and fuels, and asphalt, as per the company's press release.

The EUR12-million expansion and upgrade project includes the installation of a new reactor and is expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2021.

The additional capacity will allow Nouryon to expand production of several innovative technologies for the oil and gas market. These include Armohib CI-5150, a corrosion inhibitor that meets the industry’s most stringent environmental requirements, as well as a new range of biodegradable demulsifiers that will give oil and gas producers a more sustainable option to separate crude oil from natural gas and water.

"Our customers are looking for more innovative and environmentally-conscious solutions that offer better biodegradability, lower toxicity, and meet the latest regulations," said AB Ghosh, Managing Director Surface Chemistry at Nouryon. "The design of this new reactor allows for a wide range of chemistries and technologies, including those required for creating more sustainable ingredients."

The expansion also allows Nouryon to increase output of products including Berol R648NG, a unique biodegradable surfactant used as a degreaser by customers in the cleaning market. It will also produce surfactants used in the lubricants and fuels and asphalt markets.

Nouryon CEO Charlie Shaver added: "We started producing surfactants at our Stenungsund site in 1917. Over the past 102 years, the facility has proven to be key to our growth and the investment to double capacity there makes good business sense. We are now well positioned to meet the growing demand from our customers for more sustainable products."

The Stenungsund project is the latest in a series of investments by Nouryon in Sweden to meet growth in customer demand. The company recently completed a EUR20 million project at Sundsvall that significantly raises production capacity for its Expancel expandable microspheres, and earlier this year completed a EUR4 million expansion of surface-modified colloidal silica at Bohus.

As MRC informed before, Nouryon (formerly AkzoNobel Specialty Chemicals) has licensed its innovative continuous initiator dosing (CiD) technology to Karpatnaftochim, Ukraine’s largest polyvinyl chloride (PVC) producer. Nouryon’s patented CiD technology allows PVC producers to increase reactor output by up to 40E, improve product quality, and make the production process intrinsically safer – all with minimum capital expenditure.

Karpatneftekhim is one of the largest enterprises of Ukraine's petrochemical complex. Currently, the plant can produce annually 300,000 tonnes of PVC, 200,000 tonnes of caustic soda, about 180,000 tonnes of chlorine, as well as 250,000 tonnes of ethylene and 100,000 tonnes of polyethylene.

According to ICIS-MRC Price report, Karpatneftekhim reduced its capacity utilisation in July, its total production fell to 14,500 tonnes from 20,800 tonnes a month earlier. Overall PVC production in the country reached 126,800 tonnes in the first seven months of 2018, down 1% year on year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Plastic product distributor Curbell Plastics Inc. has purchased Nationwide Plastics Inc., a full-service distributor with extensive plastic part fabrication and precision machining capabilities, for an undisclosed amount, said Canplastics.

The acquisition adds Nationwide Plastics’ 50-plus employees and three facilities – in Arlington and Houston, Tex., and Jackson, Miss. – to the national Curbell distribution network, which now numbers 22 locations. Curbell has its own location in Arlington, and the two Arlington locations will eventually combine to form the largest Curbell branch, Curbell said in an Aug. 26 statement.

Founded in 1942, Curbell is headquartered in Orchard Park, N.Y., and distributes performance plastic sheet, rod, tube, film, adhesives, sealants, and prototyping materials for manufacturing. It also offers fabrication and machining services that include complete CNC plastics machining, and many different types of plastics molding and processing.

Curbell said that Nationwide Plastics will operate as a division of Curbell for the immediate future, and that customers of each company will continue to receive access to both organization’s technically trained sales and business development teams, as well as the Curbell and Nationwide Plastics e-commerce websites.

“We’re confident Nationwide Plastics customers will quickly see that the service level they’re used to will get even better as we combine our resources and talents with Curbell,” Nationwide Plastics vice president Chris Jones said in the statement.
MRC