MOSCOW (MRC) -- OQ Chemicals (Monheim am Rhein, Germany) says it will invest a “double-digit million euro amount” up to 2023 at its site in Oberhausen, Germany, as part of an efficiency program to enhance the site’s competitiveness, reported Chemweek.
The efficiency program process has been underway since 2019 and will secure the competitiveness of the site in the long term through efficiency and structural measures, with the investment will increase delivery capability, digitalization, organizational efficiency, and automation, it says. Around 90 jobs in the production and services sectors at the site will be cut gradually, it adds.
“International competition is becoming increasingly fierce,” says OQ Chemicals managing director Oliver Borgmeier. The efficiency program “includes significant investments to increase productivity at the Oberhausen site. With these changes, we are taking necessary and important steps to position this site economically in the long term,” he says.
OQ Chemicals, formerly Oxea, manufactures oxo intermediates and oxo derivatives. In October the company announced it had increased its global production capacity for isononanoic acid by 30% after completing an expansion of its manufacturing facility in Oberhausen. Work is currently underway on a sixth carboxylic acid plant at the site, with the facility due online by the end of 2021.
As MRC wrote earlier, in September 2020, OQ Chemicals entered into an agreement to license its advanced proprietary technology for the production of ethylene and propylene derivatives to Duqm Refinery and Petrochemicals Industries Company (DRPIC) in Oman. DRPIC, a joint venture between Oman Oil Company and Kuwait International Oil Company, is a planned grassroots petrochemical complex at Duqm, Oman. In all, DRPIC awarded twelve license packages to international licensors.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,760,950 tonnes in the first ten months of 2020, up by 3% year on year. Only high density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 978,870 tonnes in January-October 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports plus imports minus producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply of exclusively of PP random copolymer increased.
OQ Chemicals, formerly Oxea, is a global manufacturer of oxo intermediates and oxo derivatives, such as alcohols, polyols, carboxylic acids, specialty esters, and amines. These products are used for the production of high-quality coatings, lubricants, cosmetics and pharmaceutical products, flavours and fragrances, printing inks and plastics. OQ Chemicals is part of OQ, an integrated energy company that delivers sustainability and business excellence. OQ operates in 16 countries and covers the entire value chain from exploration and production to the marketing and distribution of its products.
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