Eastman to expand its Benzoflex plasticizer line in Estonia

(Plastemart) -- Eastman Chemical Company announced a second expansion of its Benzoflex plasticizer line at the Kohtla-Jarve, Estonia, site. The expansion will increase Benzoflex capacity at the site by an additional 11 KT and is expected to be completed by the end of Q2 2012.

The company also announced plans for expansion of the Benzoflex plasticizers and Admex polymeric plasticizers lines at its Chestertown, MD and Kingsport, TN sites. The total capacity for the expansions in North America is approximately 9 KT and is also expected to be completed by the end of Q2 2012. A benzoic acid derivative, Benzoflex is used in coatings, adhesives, sealants and caulks, and is also used to provide flexibility to PVC in a wide variety of applications, including vinyl flooring.

MRC

(Reuters) -- PetroChina plans to add 1.1 million tonnes of biofuels production capacity and import 470 KT of those fuels by 2015, a company official said on Thursday, as the oil firm aims to tap more alternative energy sources.

Of the planned production capacity, fuel ethanol will be 933 KTa and biodiesel will be 165 KTa, Fu Xingguo, deputy chief engineer of PetroChina's Petrochemical Research Institute, said at an industry conference.

The planned biofuel imports, which are likely from countries such as Brazil, will be blended with regular fuels and sold to southern Chinese provinces, he said.

Fu said some aviation biofuel the company produced will be used in a test flight next month. He did not give more details.

China has around 1.52 million tonnes of fuel ethanol capacity which mainly use grains as feedstocks, according to Fu.

MRC

(ICIS) -- European chemical stocks fell on Monday as global markets made further losses from Friday due to continuing fears over the eurozone's debt problems and a sharp drop in bank shares following the recommendation of UK banking reforms.

At 09:43 GMT Barclays was trading down 1.15%, HSBC Holdings was down 1.50%, while shares in Royal Bank of Scotland Group had fallen 0.42%. The Dow Jones Euro Stoxx Chemicals index at 09:46 GMT was trading down 2.42%, as shares in many of Europe's major chemical companies fell.
Top European producers were hit hard - petrochemical major BASF's shares had dropped 2.85%, while fellow Germany-based Bayer had fallen 3.22%. Dutch coatings firm AkzoNobel was down 2.44%, and France's Arkema had fallen by 1.67%.

Belgium's Solvay had fallen 3.65%, France-based industrial gases company Air Liquide was down 3.16%, while Germany's Linde was down 1.29%. Catalysts maker and precious metals trader Johnson Matthey of the UK was down by 1.46% and Swiss specialties maker Clariant was trading down 2.49%.

Asian petrochemical shares also dropped on Monday on renewed concerns on the sovereign debt crisis in the eurozone and its dampening impact on global demand.


MRC

(MRC) -- In case of adoption a new Customs Union regulation in Russia, which bans pouring beer in PET bottles, the Russian PET market volume will lose 30%, according to MRC analysts.

Russian brewers are among leading consumers of PET. The share of beer makes about 30% of total consumption of PET bottle pellets in Russia. About 31% make producers of carbonated soft drinks, 18% - producers of water. The rest of volumes are used in production of finished products such as bottled oil, juices, milk and so on.

In 2010, total volume of PET pellets in the Russian market made about 580 KT where the share of bottle PET was 520 KT. So, in case of new regulation adoption, which bans using PET bottles for bottling beer, the consumption of pellets just in Russia will decrease by 30% or by 156 KT.

Beer market has been stagnating for the third year. Following the results of the summer season 2011, other segments of PET packaging demonstrated slumping sales too. Indulgent summer compared with the heat wave of 2010 was the main reason for that.

According to MRC analysts, adoption of the amendment even more will aggravate the situation of Russian producers of PET pellets and PET preforms, taking away a significant share of their market, and cause serious losses to the Russian petrochemical industry in a whole. Fringe producers of caps for PET bottles and polypropylene producers will also be affected. Only in 2010, by MRC estimates, total production of beer caps in PET bottles made around 17 KT.

Here is given infographics, which shows the structure of Russian PET market and the possible affect of Customs Union amendment. Infographics can be downloaded here.

MRC

(ICIS) -- China's Shanghai SECCO Petrochemical halted operations at its 1.2m tonne/year naphtha cracker and several downstream plants overnight following a blast at an olefins pipeline, sources close to the company said on Friday.

The cracker is the single largest ethylene plant in China. The cause of the blast at the company's olefins pipeline in the petrochemical complex in Jinshan district of Shanghai is under investigation, with no definite restart dates set for the shut plants.

⌠It is too early to say when the cracker will restart, said another source close to the company. The company does not need to import ethylene spot cargoes since some of the derivative units were also taken off line, he said.

MRC