Celanese's business to acquire two product lines from DuPont

(plastemart) -- Celanese Corporation's Advanced Engineered Materials business has completed a transaction to acquire two product lines, DuPont Zenite liquid crystal polymer (LCP) and Thermx polycyclohexylene-dimethylene terephthalate (PCT), from DuPont Performance Polymers. "This acquisition will continue to build upon Celanese's position as a global supplier of high performance materials and technology-driven applications as we continue to expand our innovative offerings in growth-oriented segments to support our customers," said David Weidman, chairman and CEO, Celanese. "These two products broaden the company's Ticona Engineering Polymers offerings, enabling Celanese to respond to a globalizing customer base, especially in the high growth electrical and electronics application segments." "As the leading supplier of high performance engineering resins, DuPont Performance Polymers is fully committed to growing and strengthening its broad product portfolio," said Diane Gulyas, president, DuPont Performance Polymers. "DuPont Performance Polymers has concluded that this opportunity to divest Zenite LCP and Thermx PCT is in the best long-term interests of our portfolio and customers. We will work closely with Celanese to make the transition period as effective as possible for our customers.

MRC

(plastemart) -- A series of unplanned cracker and derivative issues in Europe are driving ethylene (C2) and propylene (C3) markets in opposite directions. Currently, cracker reductions are reported at Priolo, Italy; Tarragona, Spain; Carling, France; Cologne, Germany; and Grangemouth, UK. However, none were officially confirmed by the companies concerned.

Borealis' cracker at Porvoo, Finland with capacity to produce 380,000 tpa ethylene and 220,000 tpa propylene, is confirmed to be running at reduced rates due to a furnace issue. Dow Chemical's No 2 cracker at Terneuzen, Netherlands has been out of action after having tripped on 5 May. The cracker has the capacity to produce 590,000 tpa ethylene and 295,000 tpa propylene. Feedstock constraints triggered some production difficulties at Dow's cracker in Spain that has now been sorted and the cracker is currently running at near full rates. Scheduled maintenance continues at Dow's cracker at Boehlen in Germany and a restart is not due for another two to three weeks. LyondellBasell's Berre, France cracker continues to run at reduced rates following its restart after planned maintenance a week or so ago. Its butadiene (BD) force majeure had been extended into May because of feedstock crude C4 constraints.

MRC

(Borealis) -- Borealis, a leading provider of chemical and innovative plastics solutions, announces a net profit of EUR 54 million for the first quarter of 2010, compared to a net loss of EUR 56 million in the first quarter of 2009. Despite an increase in net debt, the company's financial position remains solid with a gearing ratio of 49% at the end of Q1, compared to 43% in Q1 2009, within Borealis' target range of 40-60%.

In line with the general market trend, both feedstock prices and polyolefin market prices continue to increase. Due to this development as well as some delays in expansion projects in the Middle East, industry margins improved during the first quarter of 2010. Borealis' positive result was also driven by an increase in sales of value added products within the company's portfolio.

In the base chemicals business group, Borealis saw some recovery with sales volumes in melamine and plant nutrients as well as in phenol. The results of Borealis' joint venture Borouge also contributed positively to the results of the first quarter.

In an effort to stay competitive, Borealis closed, as planned, its high-density polyethylene plant in Beringen, Belgium on March 31.

MRCMRC Reference

Borealis. The share in the Russian market in 2008:

polyethylene - 4.1% (including HDPE - 4.7%, LLDPE - 8.7%);
polypropylene - 3.2% (PP-impact - 7.5%).

Annual sales growth in Russia over the last 5 years:
polyethylene - 11%;
polypropylene - 6%.

Leader in polymers processing technologies:
extrusion coating;
cable extrusion;
injection molding.

(Plastics Today) -- Plastics supplier Ticona (Kelsterbach, Germany) strengthens its portfolio with the acquisition of DuPont's competing liquid crystal polymer business, and also took over that company's PCT operations. Price of the purchase is not yet being revealed; DuPont's LCP and PCT ops brought in $40 million in 2009.

DuPont (Wilmington, DE) has marketed its LCP under the Zenite brand name. LCP finds use in a variety of applications but is of special interest in the electronics/eletricaldevice markets due the the material's high temperature stability. LCPs are used in switches, connectors, memory module sockets, in-play consoles, laptops, televisions and mobile phones and other electrical and electronics devices. Other suppliers of LCP include Sumitomo, Toray, Solvay Advanced Polymers and Polyplastics, which makes and markets Ticona's Vectra-brand LCP in Asia. Polyplastics recently increased its LCP capacity due to what it reports is renewed strong demand from Asian E/E device manufacturers.

In reply to questions from MPW, Ticona officials said no DuPont personnel or plant/equipment were part of the acquisition; the purchase involves recipes and intellectual property. The deal actually closed May 5, they said. Ticona will not reveal its current LCP capacity.

Polycyclohexylene-dimethylene terephthalate (PCT), marketed by DuPont as Thermx, is essentially a hyped-up polyester or PBT, offering higher heat stability and better hydrolysis resistance than those materials. Typical parts include circuit board connectors, automotive connectors, lamp sockets and relays.

MRC

(plastemart) -- In first few days of May, the market has seen two major crackers coming onstream in Asia and the Middle East - Shell Chemicals' 800,000 tpa ethylene cracker in Singapore followed by Ras Laffan Olefin Cracker in Qatar with a production capacity of 1.3 mln tpa of ethylene- the world's largest ethane based cracker, as per Chemorbis. In April, several ethylene capacities came online : Sinopec Zhenhai's 1 mln tpa ethylene cracker in China came onstream on April 20. However, the cracker encountered a problem after 8 days following the start-up, which was expected to last for a week. CNOOC-Shell (CSPC) expanded ethylene capacity from 800,000 tpa to 1 mln tpa with restart set for May 8 after delays in April. In the Middle East, Sharq Petrochemicals started commercial operations on April 1 of an ethylene cracker with 1.3 mln tpa capacity.

Some major crackers are scheduled to come onstream in Iran: Morvarid Petrochemicals is to restart its cracker with 500,000 tons/year ethylene capacity. In April, Kavian Petrochemical Company was also heard to be conducting test runs at its Olefin No. 11 complex, which consists of two large olefin plants each with a capacity of 1,200,000 tpa. The company was said to be preparing for commercial runs at the new complex in May. All of these new capacities are expected to hit the ethylene markets in the medium term as well as the downstream polymer markets. Even though Asia is suffering from tightness stemming from planned and unplanned outages in the region, the impact of new capacities may be felt soon, particularly after the start-up of Shell's Singapore cracker and the restart of Sinopec Zhenhai's cracker.

Market players also foresee that the impact of new capacities will make itself felt on the market particularly in the second half of the year, when there are more crackers expected to be brought online.

MRC

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