Kuraray restarts VAM plant in La Porte after winter storm

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Kuraray America, a subsidiary of the Kuraray Group and one of the leading international companies in the production of specialty chemicals, fibers, resins and elastomers, has resumed operations at its vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) plant in La Porte, Texas, USA, reported Rubber&Plastics News.

This plant with the capacity of 335,000 mt/year was shut in mid-February because of the unprecedently low temperatures in the region and was restarted on 2 April, 2021.

Meanwhile, production is still suspended on some lines of this plant, but on which lines, it is not specified.

As MRC reported earlier, Kuraray America last shut its VAM plnat in La Porte for a one-month scheduled maintenance in October 2019.

VAM is the main raw material for the production of ethylene-vinyl-acetate (EVA).

According to MRC's DataScope report, February EVA imports to Russia rose by 1,44% year on year to 3,14 tonnes from 3,10 tonnes a year earlier, and overall imports of this grade of ethylene copolymer into the Russian Federation grew in January-February 2021 by 0,68% year on year to 6,230 tonnes (6,190 tonnes a year earlier).

iKuraray America is one of the world's largest specialty chemicals, fibers, resins and elastomers companies. The company's manufacturing facilities are located in Houston, Texas.
MRC

Formosa crackers are operating normally in Texas in April

MOSCOW (MRC) -- All three crackers in Texas of petrochemical producer Formosa Plastics USA, part of Taiiwan's Formosa Petrochemical, are now operating, reported S&P Global with reference to sources familiar with company operations' confirmation April 12.

Formosa Plastics USA has restarted its 900,000 mt/year cracker at its Texas complex after completing a turnaround. .
The company launched the turnaround after restarting its 1.2 million mt/year cracker, the largest at the site, and a smaller 750,000 mt/year unit after sustained subfreezing temperatures forced widespread petrochemical shutdowns along the US Gulf Coast in mid-February.

The smallest cracker had already been shut for much of 2020, and its restart prompted Formosa to move ahead with the planned turnaround on the middle-sized facility.

As MRC informed previously, Formosa Plastics Company (FPC), also part of Formosa Petrochemical, unexpectedly took off-stream its No. 1 cracker in Mailiao, Taiwan on 12 April 2021 due to an unspecified technical issue. Market sources said the cracker with an annual capacity of 700,000 tons of ethylene and 350,000 tons of propylene would remain offline for 7 to 10 days.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 356,370 tonnes in the first two month of 2021, down by 9% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market was 246,870 tonnes in January-February 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.

Formosa Petrochemical is involved primarily in the business of refining crude oil, selling refined petroleum products and producing and selling olefins (including ethylene, propylene, butadiene and BTX) from its naphtha cracking operations. Formosa Petrochemical is also the largest olefins producer in Taiwan and its olefins products are mostly sold to companies within the Formosa Group. Among the company's chemical products are paraxylene (PX), phenyl ethylene, acetone and pure terephthalic acid (PTA). The company's plastic products include acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) resins, polystyrene (PS), polypropylene (PP) and panlite (PC).
MRC

OMV appoints new refining head

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Supervisory Board of OMV Aktiengesellschaft, the international, integrated oil, gas and chemical company headquartered in Vienna, has appointed Martijn van Koten (51) as the new Executive Board member responsible for the Refining division of OMV Aktiengesellschaft, as per the company's press release.

Martijn van Koten has accepted the appointment. He will assume the position depending on his availability, at the latest with effect from July 1, 2021 for a three-year period, with an extension option for further two years, subject to mutual consent. Martijn van Koten is currently working as Executive Board Member for Base Chemicals and Operations at Borealis AG.

The reorganization of the OMV Group approved by the Supervisory Board came into force on April 1, 2021, involving splitting and expanding the former area of Refining & Petrochemical Operations into two areas: Refining and Chemicals & Materials.

This structural change facilitates the forward integration in the chemicals sector that has been underway ever since OMV acquired a majority stake in Borealis. With this change, OMV is consistently positioned across the entirety of its expanded value chain and can bundle all relevant responsibilities for petrochemicals and chemicals in a single board division.

As MRC wrote before, OMV is investing EUR40 million (USD48 million) to expand and modernize a steam cracker and associated units at its refining and petrochemicals complex at Burghausen, Germany. The upgrade will increase the site’s ethylene and propylene production capacity by 50,000 metric tons/year. Following a planned turnaround of the refinery, the revamped cracker and petchem units are expected to start operations in the third quarter of 2022. Initial groundwork is already underway ahead of the upgrade.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated polyethylene (PE) consumption totalled 356,370 tonnes in the first two month of 2021, down by 9% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) increased. At the same time, polypropylene (PP) shipments to the Russian market was 246,870 tonnes in January-February 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.

OMV produces and markets oil and gas, innovative energy and high-end petrochemical solutions – in a responsible way. With Group sales of EUR 23 bn and a workforce of around 20,000 employees in 2019, OMV Aktiengesellschaft is one of Austria’s largest listed industrial companies.
MRC

SABIC selects HSBC and Morgan Stanley to work on its specialty chemicals unit IPO

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC), the world’s fourth-biggest petrochemicals firm, has selected HSBC and Morgan Stanley to work on the planned initial public offering (IPO) of its specialty chemicals business, reported ArabNews with reference to two sources familiar with the matter.

SABIC hired Saudi investment bank NCB Capital earlier this year to work on the public share sale, which sources said could raise several hundred million dollars.

The specialty chemicals business brings in about USD2 billion in sales each year for SABIC, which is controlled by state oil company Aramco, one of the sources, and a third source, said. The unit produces speciality engineering thermoplastic resins and compounds, composites, thermosets and additives, according to its website.

The country had a flurry of public offerings last year as companies tap into Saudi demand for shares since oil giant Aramco’s record IPO in 2019. Saudi Arabia is encouraging more companies to list in a bid to deepen its capital markets under reforms aimed at reducing its reliance on oil.

As MRC informed earlier, SABIC, a global leader in the chemical industry, is looking at converting plastic waste into a form of oil as part of its circular economy push and also plans to establish its first chemical recycling project after signing an initial agreement with Saudi Investment Recycling Company (SIRC), a unit of the Public Investment Fund.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated polyethylene (PE) consumption totalled 356,370 tonnes in the first two month of 2021, down by 9% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) increased. At the same time, polypropylene (PP) shipments to the Russian market was 246,870 tonnes in January-February 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.

Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) ranks among the world's top petrochemical companies. The company is among the world's market leaders in the production of polyethylene, polypropylene and other advanced thermoplastics, glycols, methanol and fertilizers.
MRC

Clariant presents innovative sustainable additive solutions for Chinese market

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Clariant’s Additives business continues to step up support for the needs of China’s growth industries, with new top-class facilities to foster R&D and joint application technology developments at the One Clariant Campus (OCC), as per the company's press release.

Ahead of Chinaplas 2021, Clariant shares a taster of bio-based additives available to advance resource-efficient innovation in local market segments, highlights from its new sustainable solutions set for their regional debut.

The new Additives’ R&D Center will be integrated in the new Clariant Innovation Center China in Shanghai. It aims to bring faster lead times and more speed in development efforts for various application sectors including E&E, 5G, automotive, packaging, fibers & films, adhesives, coatings and inks. Supplementing Clariant’s additives’ production facilities in China, the R&D Center will offer customers unique, from-the-ground-up opportunities for joint development and application testing, at every step of the value chain. From polymerization to compounding and conversion, all the way to performance testing.

Located right in the main markets for Polyamide (PA), Polyester (PET) fibers, engineering thermoplastics & thermosets, and increasingly biopolymers, the new facility will feature a state-of-the-art plastics processing and testing laboratory equipped with related technologies such as for polycondensation, compounding, spinning, injection molding and foaming, and establish a broad range of relevant testing and analytical capabilities.

To support local manufacturers, Clariant has successfully introduced solutions from its AddWorks PKG series in China to further improve the inherent properties of polyolefins for the packaging of highly demanding new applications. This includes AddWorks PKG 113, designed for high speed Cast Polypropylene (CPP) and Biaxially Oriented Polypropylene (BOPP) resins providing excellent polymer melt protection and high film productivity, and AddWorks PKG 171 designed for vis-broken PP and for low discoloration PP applications. Both products will feature at Chinaplas 2021 alongside more new sustainable additive solutions for key market segments.

EcoCircle supports the transition from a one-way plastics value chain to a circular plastics economy by going beyond a simple product focus, looking at the entire value chain, and identifying the most sustainable and viable solutions. This includes the development of sustainable solutions for mechanical recycling and the use of certified renewable raw materials to produce high-performance additives. Qualifying products carry a designator based on their mass-balance or real renewable carbon content to help manufacturers identify products with key advantages. Among others, this includes Terra for products with a high renewable content, minumum 50% Renewable Carbon Index (RCI) based on mass balance certification or real renewable content; and VITA for products from natural origin with at least 98% RCI real renewable content.

New for the chinese market is the Exolit OP Terra range, renewable-based halogen-free flame retardants. A like-for-like drop in alternative to Clariant’s fossil based Exolit OP products, they achieve UL 94 V-0 rating with stable flame retardancy even after multiple recycling processes. Application areas include electronic and electrical equipment, and automotive components.

Licocare RBW VITA will also be presented to customers in China for the first time. Clariant’s fully sustainable, practically 100% renewable, non-food competing bio-additives solutions offer multiple processing and end-product enhancements to biopolymers, such as Polylactic Acid (PLA). And in doing so, Licocare RBW VITA opens up opportunities for brands to consider biopolymers as a viable, low carbon footprint alternative to fossil based-plastics. Clariant also introduces Licocare RBW 330 VITA, a new renewable-based solution that nucleates polyamides, reducing the cooling time and shrink/warp, yielding faster cycles, and leading to better molding costs.

As MRC reported earlier, in October 2020, Clariant announced the construction of a new state-of-the-art catalyst production site in China. This project represents a significant investment which further strengthens Clariant’s position in China and enhances its ability to support its customers in the country’s thriving petrochemicals industry.

The new facility will be primarily responsible for producing the Catofin catalyst for propane dehydrogenation, which is used in the production of olefins such as propylene. Thanks to its excellent reliability and productivity, Catofin delivers superior annual production output compared to alternative technologies, resulting in increased overall profitability for propylene producers, says the company. Construction at the Dushan Port Economic Development Zone in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province was scheduled to commence in Q3 2020, and Clariant expects to be at full production capacity by 2022.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 241,030 tonnes in January 2021 versus 217,890 tonnes a year earlier. Only shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 141,870 tonnes in January 2021 versus 123,520 tonnes a year earlier. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.

Clariant AG is a Swiss chemical company and a world leader in the production of specialty chemicals for the textile, printing, mining and metallurgical industries. It is engaged in processing crude oil products in pigments, plastics and paints.
MRC