Wacker aims to increase global silicone capacity

Wacker Chemie AG is accelerating the expansion of its production capacities. Investment projects to this end are either in the planning stage or are nearing completion, said the company.

Significant capacity expansions for liquid silicone rubber (LSR) will be available in the second half of this year, and will come into full effect in 2023. Increasing production volumes for high con¬sistency rubber (HCR) are also scheduled. With expansion measures at several other sites, Wacker will gradually in¬crease its capacities for HCR and LSR grades significantly in the next few years. Over EUR100 million have been earmarked for this capacity boost.

The scheduled investments are in line with Wacker new growth targets announced in March. The company intends to increase growth in its chemical divisions by focusing on product specialties. “Wacker returned to a growth trajectory last year. We finished 2021 with record sales and strong earnings – despite headwinds from raw material and energy prices. We want to maintain this momentum and are charting our course for accelerated growth going forward. This is also true for our specialty chemicals business”, says Wacker CEO Christian Hartel.

The availability of liquid and high consistency silicone rubber will benefit from several expansion measures in the next years. Wacker expects additional LSR capacities in the second half of this year due to several capacity expansions at its production site in Burghausen, Germany, which will be complete at the end of the year. New capacities will also be installed at WACKER’s US-based production site in Adrian, Michigan, to better serve the North and Central Americas market locally from next year onwards.

Substantial capacity expansions are also planned for high consistency rubber grades, starting with Wacker new production site in Panagarh, India, which will start production shortly. Additional HCR capacities will be available early next year at the company’s sites in the Czech Republic (Pilzen) and in Japan (Tsukuba). Pilzen produces ready-to-use SILMIX silicone compounds for key industries; Tsukuba, Japan, which produces silicone emulsions, too, supplies high-consistency and room-temperature vulcanizing silicone rubber as well as LSR.

As per MRC, Wacker Chemie AG is moving forward with “Shape the Future,” its efficiency program initiated last November. The Munich-based chemical company has recenly announced that company management and employee representatives have agreed on a framework for the planned job cutbacks.

As MRC reported earlier, Wacker Chemie operates a 90 ktpa EVA compounding plant at the Ulsan site, consisting of two lines. The second line with a capacity of 40 thousand tons of products per year was launched in 2013.

Wacker Chemie manufactures and markets EVA dispersions under the VINNAPAS brand name. VINNAPAS polymer dispersions are used in a wide range of industries: for the production of complex thermal insulation systems, building and tile adhesives, plaster, building mixtures and mortars, cement sealing slurries and nonwovens.
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MRC) -- PPG announced that it has committed to setting near-term company-wide emission reductions in line with climate science through the Science Based Target initiative (SBTi), which is an organization that helps companies define their decarbonization strategy and reduce the impacts of climate change, said the company.

PPG has an existing goal to reduce GHG emissions intensity by 15% by 2025 from a 2017 baseline, achieving a 9.7% reduction in 2021. The company has long reported emissions intensity from its own operations (Scope 1 emissions) and purchased electricity, steam, heating and cooling (Scope 2 emissions) and plans to unveil its new 2030 goals over the coming months. Moving forward, PPG is prioritizing evaluating indirect emissions that are from sources outside of the organization that PPG does not own or control, including raw materials, use of sold products, and product end-of-life (Scope 3 emissions).

"In this critical moment for climate change, we are committed to further evaluating and reducing emissions throughout our value chain,” said Diane Kappas, PPG vice president, Global Sustainability. “We are working across our organization to define additional actions we can take to help prevent the earth from warming more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. Following our validation work with SBTi and an emissions analysis, we intend to announce new, aggressive 2030 goals that will define our decarbonization strategy to help protect the planet for current and future generations."

PPG also released its 2021 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report, which details advancements in its sustainable innovations, board governance of ESG, efforts to reach its 2025 sustainability goals and further actions to support customers’ sustainability goals.

We remind that 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.

PPG is a leading supplier of powder coatings to the automotive, transportation, appliance, furniture and other markets. The company expanded the business with its 2020 acquisition of Alpha Coating Technologies, which manufactures powder coatings for light industrial applications and heat-sensitive substrates, and its 2021 acquisition of Worwag, which makes liquid, powder and film coatings for industrial and automotive applications. PPG recently agreed to acquire the powder coatings business of Arsonsisi, including a manufacturing plant in Verbania, Italy.

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Azelis announces that it has reached an agreement to acquire Chemo India and Unipharm Laboratories’ distribution assets, said the company.

Both companies are renowned local distributors of specialty chemicals and ingredients for the CASE (coatings, adhesives, sealants, elastomers), L&MWF (lubricants & metalworking fluids) and pharmaceutical market segments in India.

The acquisition strengthens the Group’s industrial chemicals portfolio and its footprint in the pharmaceutical market, further reinforcing Azelis’ lateral value chain (LVC) for these market segments. The transaction represents a solid fit with the Group’s growth ambitions in India, as well as its wider strategic vision for the Asia Pacific region.

Founded in 1966 and 1970 respectively with headquarters in Mumbai and four sites in Bhiwandi, Chemo India and Unipharm Laboratories are the distribution partners of global and regional principals, and serve a large and growing customer base. Owners Amit Shah and Jigar Shah will both continue to lead the business and support the integration into Azelis, working closely with Azelis’ existing CASE, L&MWF and Pharma business teams to grow the Group’s footprint in India and its subcontinents. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2022, after fulfilment of customary closing conditions.

Besides, Azelis made two acquisitions in July, 2021, both in South Korea. The most recent agreement, announced on Jul. 14, is the proposed takeover of Seoul-headquartered Coseal, which specializes in the distribution, repackaging and blending of agricultural/horticultural surfactants. This transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2021, when all of Coseal’s 45 employees, along with its owner and CEO Sang Jin Kang, will transfer to the Belgium-based distributor.

Nearly two weeks earlier, on Jul. 1, Azelis revealed it had purchased MH, a local distributor in the food ingredients market, providing the multinational specialty chemicals distribution group with a foothold in the food and health segment. Also headquartered in Seoul, MH is a family-owned business, supplying products such as gluten, starches, sweeteners and functional food ingredients.

Azelis is a leading distributor of speciality chemicals and food ingredients present in over 50 countries across the globe with around 2,200 employees. Our knowledgeable teams of industry, market and technical experts are each dedicated to a specific market within Life Sciences and Industrial Chemicals.
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Lummus Technology announced it and its catalyst partner Clariant have been awarded a major contract by Fujian Meide to supply CATOFIN technology and catalysts for a new, world-scale propane dehydrogenation (PDH) unit in Fuzhou, China, said Hydrocabonprocessing.

Already operating one PDH unit at its Fuzhou petrochemical complex, Fujian Meide is now building one of the largest PDH units in the world and has selected the CATOFIN process and catalysts for the project's second phase. The new unit will produce 900,000 mtons of propylene annually and is scheduled to commence operation in 2023.

"Our close partnership with Clariant has continued to improve CATOFIN over the years to the benefit of our customers," said Leon de Bruyn, President and Chief Executive Officer of Lummus Technology. "The process has a proven track record of unmatched productivity, often beyond design capacity (up to 110% on average), giving producers a significantly higher return on investment and more profitable daily operations. This has made it a global leader for propylene production."

"This strategic collaboration exemplifies our dedication to product innovation with ground-breaking chemistry, such as our Heat Generating Material (HGM)," said Stefan Heuser, Senior Vice President and General Manager at Clariant Catalysts. "As a result, HGM, together with new Lummus process technology, reduces energy consumption of the CATOFIN process by one-third, making it a low-carbon route to propylene production."

"With an annual capacity of 900,000 tons, our second PDH unit will be among the world's largest," said Zheng Chaohui, President at Fujian Meide Petrochemical Co. "No other PDH technology is proven at this scale, and we needed best-in-class performance. CATOFIN was our first choice because it is widely recognized as the most advanced solution in the PDH industry. Clariant and Lummus Technology have already proven to be the right partners for us, not only with their products, but also their technical expertise."

The CATOFIN process combines Lummus' advanced technology with Clariant's tailor-made catalysts and HGM to convert propane to propylene with unsurpassed reliability. Since its commercial launch in 2017, CATOFIN has been selected for 34 new projects around the world, representing more than 24,000 kilotons of new propylene capacity annually. Over 50% of these plants are located in China.

Fujian Meide Petrochemical Co. is a fully owned subsidiary of Zhongjing Petrochemicals Group, which is headquartered in Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, China. Specializing in energy, petrochemicals, logistics and packaging, Zhongjing Petrochemicals Group is the largest producer of BOPP (biaxially oriented polypropylene) films in China, with an annual capacity of 1 million tons of BOPP and 4 million tons of Polypropylene.

We remind, Clariant (CLN.S) and its main shareholder Saudi Basic Industries Corp (2010.SE) are to end a so-called "governance agreement" defining their relationship, stirring speculation SABIC could launch a full takeover bid for the Swiss chemicals firm.

We remind that 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.

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.

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Clariant continues to join forces with Ineratec in the challenge for a greener future, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Since 2017, Clariant’s tailor-made catalysts have supported Ineratec’s power-to-liquid technology for producing sustainable fuels from lab-scale to industrial pilot-scale. Now it will be used in the company’s first globally pioneering pilot plant in Frankfurt Hochst. This new pioneer plant has up to 10 times higher production capacity and the several thousand tons per year will be a main driver for the broad availability of sustainable, CO2-neutral fuels and chemicals.

"The collaboration with Clariant during our scale-up phase was one crucial part for the successful deployment at industrial scale”, CEO Tim Boeltken states. Marvin Estenfelder, Head of R&D at Clariant Catalysts, commented, “we are very pleased to collaborate with such an innovative company as Ineratec to jointly tackle the challenge of fighting climate change. The successful scale-up is a major step towards accelerating pioneering work in sustainable fuel production to gradually drive the decarbonization of the transport sector."

The collaboration focuses on the first reaction step within the power-to-liquid process, the reverse water-gas shift (RWGS) reaction to produce syngas from CO2 and renewable hydrogen. Due to the cutting-edge reactor technology Ineratec has developed for this step, the catalyst must provide specific characteristics to be applicable within the micro-structured system.

The tailored catalyst from Clariant allows reaching the optimal desired syngas composition for the subsequent synthesis reactions. In two industrial pilot plants, located in Germany, Clariant?s ShiftMax 100 RE reverse water-gas shift catalysts have already been used and proven to meet the expected syngas yield and composition. For Ineratec’s new larger pioneering plant, the technology will again rely on Clariant’s ShiftMax 100 RE catalyst to produce renewable syngas via reverse water-gas shift – an essential step in the conversion of CO2. The promoted nickel catalyst shows an unprecedented high resistance against coking and low methane by-product formation. Furthermore, ShiftMax 100 RE offers high CO2 conversion over a long lifetime, high poison resistance, and superior strength.

As per MRC, Clariant (CLN.S) and its main shareholder Saudi Basic Industries Corp (2010.SE) are to end a so-called "governance agreement" defining their relationship, stirring speculation SABIC could launch a full takeover bid for the Swiss chemicals firm.

We remind that 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.

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.
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