PPG completes acquisition of Italian powder coatings manufacturing business

MOSCOW (MRC) -- PPG has announced that it has completed its acquisition of the powder coatings manufacturing business of Arsonsisi, an industrial coatings company based in Milan, Italy, as per the company's press release.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

The transaction will provide PPG with a highly automated, small- and large-batch capable, powder manufacturing plant in Verbania, Italy. PPG will also now have metallic bonding capabilities in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. In 2021, the Arsonsisi powder business had sales of approximately USD15 million.

Powder coatings are a sustainable product offering with low VOC emissions, enhanced durability, high transfer efficiency and the ability to be reclaimed or reused during application. In an ongoing commitment to sustainable innovations, PPG is investing in powder capabilities across the globe.

As MRC reported earlier, in June 2021, PPG announced an expansion of its coatings manufacturing capacity in Europe for packaging applications. The investments at sites in The Netherlands and Poland will support growing customer demand in the region for the latest generation of coatings for aluminum and steel cans used in packaging for beverage, food and personal care items. The projects include a further expansion of the company’s location in Tiel, The Netherlands, which will increase the plant’s production capacity for PPG INNOVEL non-BPA internal coatings for beverage cans by 30%. Expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2022, the project follows a 50% expansion completed at the end of 2020.

BPA is the main feedstock for the production of polycarbonate (PC).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's overall consumption of PC granules (excluding exports from Belarus) totalled 7,800 tonnes in January 2022, down by 4% year on year (8,100 tonnes a year earlier).

PPG Industries Inc. is an international American company manufacturing paints and varnishes, chemicals, optical components, specialty materials, glass and fiberglass. The company includes over 150 production units and representative offices in more than 60 countries around the world. PPG is one of the 500 largest US corporations by sales.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Indorama Ventures Ltd (IVL) has completed the USD1.3bn acquisition of Brazil-based surfactants and specialty chemicals maker Oxiteno, said the company.

The acquisition of Oxiteno, formerly a subsidiary of Brazilian firm Ultrapar, was announced in August last year and is effective from 1 April 2022 after the transaction was approved by Brazil’s Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE), IVL said.

With 11 manufacturing plants, customers in 4 continents, and an experienced management team, Oxiteno will complement IOD’s footprint in the U.S and Latin America, while its 5 research and technology centers will add to IVL’s innovation credentials in green chemistry. The extended footprint has potential to drive expansion in Europe and Asia by leveraging on IVOX’s surfactants business in Australia and India and IVL’s global presence in 34 countries. IVL expects to realize synergies of US$100 million by 2025 through portfolio adjustments, asset optimization and operational excellence

.Oxiteno becomes part of IVL’s Integrated Oxides and Derivatives (IOD) business segment, which IVL formed in 2020 with the purchase of assets from US-based Huntsman.

In December 2021, Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited (IVL), a global chemicals producer, announced it agreed to acquire Brazil-based Oxiteno S.A. Industria e Comercio, a subsidiary of Ultrapar Participacoes S.A. The acquisition gives IVL a unique portfolio in high-value surfactants and significantly extends its existing Integrated Oxides and Derivatives (IOD) business.

Oxiteno is a leader in the production of surfactants and specialty chemicals in the Americas. The company started its operations in 1973, in Sao Paulo, and its purpose is to contribute to the well-being of people through chemistry. It invests in research and development to offer innovative solutions in line with its customers' business objectives. The company is present in eight countries in the Americas, Europe and Asia and has 11 industrial units in Brazil, the United States, Mexico and Uruguay, in addition to five R&D centers and eight commercial offices in Argentina, Belgium, China and Colombia. In Brazil, it has factories in the cities of Suzano (SP), Tremembe (SP), Triunfo (RS) and in the Maua Petrochemical Complex (SP) and Camacari Industrial Complex (BA). Since April 2022, it is part of Indorama Ventures.
mrchub.com

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Eastman has entered an exclusive negotiation with Port-Jerome-sur-Seine as the preferred location of the molecular recycling facility it plans to build in France, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

This is an important step toward a significant milestone in the company's plan to invest up to USD1 B and build the world's largest material-to-material molecular recycling plant in France - a facility that will recycle approximately 160,000 tpy of hard-to-recycle polyester waste.

In the time since Eastman Board Chair and CEO Mark Costa and French President Emmanuel Macron jointly announced the company's planned investment in January, Eastman conducted a selection process of three potential locations and chose to enter exclusive negotiations with Port-Jerome-sur-Seine in Normandy. This site offers proximity of supply to waste polyester for feedstock, required space for an expansive facility and the necessary infrastructure for operations of this scale. Eastman expects the facility to be operational by 2025.

"We conducted a very thorough assessment process of three excellent candidate sites and selected Port-Jerome-sur-Seine because it offered the essential elements for constructing and operating a facility of this magnitude," Costa said. "Only two months have passed since I met with President Emmanuel Macron in January, and we continue to be impressed by the collaboration that is making rapid progress possible. We are grateful for the efforts of the national, regional, and local governments; state agencies and development authorities."

Eastman's proven polyester renewal technology (PRT) is complementary to mechanical recycling and provides true circularity for hard-to-recycle plastic waste that remains in a linear economy today. This material, like colored or degraded polyethylene terephthalate (PET) or textiles, is typically incinerated because it either cannot be mechanically recycled or must be downcycled.

PRT creates potentially infinite value from materials by keeping them in production life cycle after life cycle. With the technology's highly efficient polyester yield of 93% and the renewable energy sources available in Normandy, Eastman can transform waste plastic into first-quality polyesters with GHG emissions up to 80% less than traditional methods.

The Eastman investment will be a significant economic driver, enabling France to sustain its leadership role in the circular economy. The project will create employment for approximately 350 people and lead to an additional 1,500 indirect jobs in recycling, energy and infrastructure. On the topic of job creation, Costa added that the available workforce in Port-Jerome-sur-Seine is another element that makes it an advantaged location.

The many integrated elements of the French facility will enable Eastman to make unique contributions to build a true circular economy for plastics. As a material-to-material recycling plant, Eastman's operations will include on-site polymerization. This provides Eastman the capability to take hard-to-recycle polyester waste and sort, depolymerize and produce recycled PET at a single location. Eastman expects these efficiencies to lower costs for end products with recycled materials, enabling consumers to make more sustainable choices without significantly higher costs. The plant will also reduce the country's carbon emissions by reducing dependency on imported fossil-fuel based products.

As MRC reported earlier, Eastman Chemical Co. (Kingsport, Tenn.) has completed the acquisition of the business and assets of Matrix Films, LLC and its UK affiliate, PremiumShield Limited, marketer of PremiumShield performance films, including its extended line of automotive film patterns.

We remind that Eastman is increasing capacity for its Naia-brand cellulosic filament yarn at its plant in Barcelona, Spain. Eastman is increasing its capacity to produce Naia cellulosic filament yarns at its plant Barcelona, by 30% by mid-2021, and by more than 50% by the end of 2022.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PET consumption remained steady in December 2021 year on year. December estimated PET consumption totalled 67,880 tonnes (67,710 tonnes in December 2020).

Eastman is a multinational chemical company serving customers in approximately 100 countries. Sales in 2015 amounted to around USD9.6 Billion. The company is headquartered in Kingsport, Tennessee, USA. The company employs approximately 15 thousand people around the world.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- In a move to expand Sulzer’s footprint in India and support one of India’s key industrial hubs, the company has opened a new state-of-the-art service center in Vadodara, Gujarat, India, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The facility will widen the availability of high-quality services for rotating equipment in India. Using cutting-edge machinery and advanced digital technologies, the center will offer repairs, upgrades, retrofits and parts manufacturing for a wide range of equipment including pumps, steam turbines, compressors and expanders, extending the life of vital infrastructure assets and ensuring they operate as efficiently as possible.

The new engineering facilities cover 10,500 sqft and have been designed to deliver fast and efficient workflows, incorporating digital and lean principles to ensure an effective service for customers. The new service center has the capability to deliver leading maintenance solutions for a variety of equipment, regardless of the original equipment manufacturer.

Sulzer has been delivering manufacturing and maintenance services in India for more than 30 years. The company pioneered the introduction of high-energy pumps to the industrial sector and continues to lead the pump market in various applications. This expertise and experience also provides an excellent foundation for overhauling and repairing these vital assets to improve reliability and performance, while also reducing their carbon footprint with energy savings.

The team in Vadodara has access to Sulzer’s combined global engineering capabilities, including Venlo in the Netherlands and Indonesia, both of which have vast experience and expertise in turbomachinery repairs and upgrades. To complement this, Sulzer has also invested in its parts manufacturing capabilities at Vadodara with cutting-edge equipment, such as advanced CNC 4-axis turnmill machines, vertical & horizontal balancing machines, as well as the necessary expertise in design and materials engineering and additive manufacturing.

As MRC wrote before, Sulzer Chemtech will provide a BioFlux technology package to support the creation of the Sabah Maju Jaya Renewable Energy Industrial Complex (SMJREIC) in Malaysia. This new facility will produce sustainable fuels with limited GHG emissions by using locally-sourced, renewable feedstock. By leveraging Sulzer Chemtech’s technology, the new plant located at Sapangar Bay, Kota Kinabalu, will have a production capacity of 250,000 tpy.

We remind that earlier this year, Sulzer Chemtech finalized an agreement with Encina Development Group, LLC to provide technology to recover high purity circular aromatics from cracked oil products derived from Encina’s mixed-plastics-to-aromatics catalytic conversion platform. Encina’s 1000 tpd waste plastics recycling facility will be located in Northeast US, and is expected to be operational in 2024.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,487,450 tonnes in 2021, up by 13% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 1,494.280 tonnes, up by 21% year on year. Deliveries of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whreas.shipments of PP random copolymers decreased significantly.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Suncor Energy said it had extinguished a fire at its 146,000-bpd Edmonton refinery in Canada's Alberta that broke out in the morning and caused one injury, said Reuters.

"We initiated our response plan and evacuated the area. The fire has been extinguished and everyone is accounted for," a company spokesperson said. "As a result of the incident, one injury was reported and the individual was transported by ambulance to the hospital. Our first priority is to ensure the individual receives proper care," the spokesperson added.

The company, in a Facebook post on March 28, said it was shutting down process units at the Edmonton refinery for planned maintenance, which would cause increased flaring. It was not immediately clear if Wednesday's fire was related to the maintenance work or how it would impact production.

Suncor said it was working closely with local authorities and regulatory agencies and that an investigation would be conducted to determine the cause.

It was the latest safety incident for the company after CEO Mark Little pledged to improve its record earlier this year, following the death of an employee on January 6, the fourth fatality at a Suncor facility since late 2020, according to Scotiabank.

That January incident, at its base plant in Alberta's oil sands, occurred after a heavy haul truck rear-ended a second truck at the mine.

Little pledged the company would adopt new technology on all mobile equipment to avoid collisions and manage fatigue and that it would be in place within 18—24 months. He also promised other steps including implementing standard risk assessments across all sites of the Canadian oil producer.

As per MRC, Suncor today announced it will proceed with the phased implementation of autonomous haulage systems (AHS) at company-operated mines, starting with the North Steepbank mine. Over the next six years, the company expects to deploy more than 150 autonomous haul trucks in the full program, which will be one of the largest investments in electric autonomous vehicles in the world.

Also, Suncor Energy Inc. will spend USD1.4 billion to upgrade its Oil Sands Base Plant near Fort McMurray. Calgary-based Suncor will build two natural gas co-generation units that will replace three petroleum coke-fired boilers. The project is expected to be in service by the second half of 2023.
mrchub.com