Dow announces new NORDEL polymer family addition

April 8 (adsalecprj) -- The Dow Chemical Company announced in late March the newest addition to the NORDEL polymer family.

NORDEL 4785HM Hydrocarbon Rubber is the successor to the gas-phase grades that were the market-leading products for dense extrusion applications. NORDEL 4785HM is a high ethylene, high molecular weight polymer designed for exceptional cost performance in elastomer parts.

Dow used the technology behind NORDEL IP Hydrocarbon Rubber to design NORDEL 4785HM to have filler acceptance, cure rate and green strength, while retaining fast mixing and good low temperature properties. Designed primarily for automotive dense profiles, NORDEL 4785HM can also be used in hoses, building profiles, roofing, and molded parts. In all applications, filler and oil levels can be increased compared to 60-70 Mooney viscosity polymers for greater cost efficiency.

Some of the highlights of the new product include small pellets that mix faster than bales to save money in mixing and increase the productivity of the mixing room, a tailored molecular weight distribution to give very rapid cure, extrusion speeds and good shape retention especially in highly-filled compounds.

MRC

MRC Reference

Share in the Russian market, 2008:

polyethylene - 2.5% (including LLDPE - 33.1%);

polypropylene - 0.8% (including PP-impact - 1.1%);

polystyrene - 2.6%.

Annual sales growth in Russia, recent 5 years:

polyethylene - 55%;

polypropylene - 28%;

polystyrene - 2%.

Imports by processing technologies:

pipe extrusion;

film extrusion;

sheet extrusion;

foaming.

April 8 (prw) -- Leading Russian oil group Lukoil has put back the planned launch of a major ┬2.6bn gas-chemicals expansion project in southern Russia to 2016 or 2017. The lingering global economic recession played a significant role in the group's decision to postpone completion of the Caspian gas-chemical complex and the expansion of its existing Budyennovsk chemical cracker. The complex, originally set to go on stream this year, was already postponed until 2013.

Lukoil planned the complex in Budyennovsk with a 15 billion m3/year gas processing capacity after discovering six important oil and gas fields in the Caspian Sea. The new chemical complex will source the Caspian natural gas for production at its new 600,000 tpa PE plant. Lukoil is not alone in reassessing the timing of its strategic projects. Another Russian petrochemicals player, Salavatnefteorgsintez, based in the Russian semi-autonomous republic of Bashkortostan, has again postponed its plan to build a 120,000 tpa high density polyethylene (HDPE) plant, originally scheduled for 2006.

The company had hoped to launch the new polyethylene operation in Salavat by last year but it missed the latest deadline at the end of 2009. But Russia's leading petrochemicals producer Sibur Holding is still forging ahead with its several polymer projects. Its Tobolsk-Polymer scheme, including the construction of 510,000 tpa propylene and 500,000 tpa polypropylene plants in Tobolsk, Tyumen state, is due on stream in 2012.

Meanwhile, Sibur has been reticent to confirm the exact launch timing of Russia's first worldscale vinyl complex in Kstovo in the Nizhny Novgorod region. Including a 330,000 tpa PVC plant, the Rusvinyl complex - a joint venture project between Sibur, Solvay group offshoot SolVin and BASF - was set for start up this spring. Despite a slowdown in Russian national growth, demand for polymers is still growing, albeit slowly and seems set to remain more buoyant than for chemicals generally through to 2012, Russia's Economic Development Ministry has said.

MRC

April 8 (prw) -- Russian-owned petrochemicals manufacturer Karpatneftekhim will finally launch its planned Ukraine PVC production plant in November this year. The company, part of the Lukor-Neftekhim chemicals division of independent Russian oil and gas group Lukoil, is completing the construction of the 300,000 tpa suspension vinyl facility in Ukrainian city of Kalush.

The cost of the $234m facility is expected to be recovered within the space of nine years, the company is reported to have said. Downstream, Karpatneftekhim is also understood to be planning to extrude PVC profiles at the site and has begun installing equipment for this operation. Despite the regional economic slowdown, vinyl demand is continuing to grow in the Ukraine and Russia, driven by the construction sector. Both countries have relied heavily on vinyl imports to feed that demand.

In 2008, the company completed construction of new chlorine and caustic soda production facilities with capacities of 182,000 tons of gaseous chlorine and 200,000 tons of caustic soda at Kalush.

MRC

April 8 (Dow) -- Effective immediately, or as contract terms allow, Dow Europe GmbH and its affiliate companies revise their price increases for polystyrene, ABS and SAN products by an additional 30 Euro per metric ton. This revision of the April price increase announced March 24, 2010 is due to higher settlement of raw material costs than anticipated.

The updated price increases effective immediately are:

For all STYRON and STYRON A-TECH polystyrene grades by 130 Euro per metric ton;

For all MAGNUM ABS grades and TYRIL SAN grades by 180 Euro per metric ton.

These price increases are applicable across the European, Middle Eastern and African regions.

MRC

MRC Reference

Share in the Russian market, 2008:

polyethylene - 2.5% (including LLDPE - 33.1%);

polypropylene - 0.8% (including PP-impact - 1.1%);

polystyrene - 2.6%.

Annual sales growth in Russia, recent 5 years:

polyethylene - 55%;

polypropylene - 28%;

polystyrene - 2%.

Imports by processing technologies:

pipe extrusion;

film extrusion;

sheet extrusion;

foaming.

LDPE prices varied within the range of RUB54500-57500/mt, including VAT, FCA, depending on a grade and producer at the end of March - beginning of April.

By estimate, Russian LDPE exports fell to 17.6 kt in March. PE production increased by more than 5 kt.

MRC

For more detailed information on the polyethylene market, see MRC Price Report.