(plastemart) -- Saudi Arabia-based Al-Waha Petrochemical Co's 450,000 tpa polypropylene (PP) unit was taken offline this week owing to a technical issue at the Al Jubail site. The facility had only recently come back on stream following scheduled maintenance. Cause of the shutdown is unknown.
(prw) -- Polyamide producer Aquafil Engineering Plastics of Italy has appointed Ultrapolymers as a new distributor for its product range in the UK and Northern Ireland.
Ultrapolymers said it will focus on application developments with its customers utilising Aquafil's core product strengths. These include a speciality portfolio including semi aromatic, high modulus and impact modified grades; Colour - full compound or XB patented technology; commodity PA6 grades; the first UL Environmental accreditation for any recycled PA.
David Viehoff at Ultrapolymers said: ⌠We are delighted to represent a company that meets our customer needs. AEP has an economic business and flexible plant setup capable of fast turn around for new developments, small lot orders and regular production. They are a forward thinking technical company with a flair for development. This partnership will be appreciated by current and potential customers alike.
HOUSTON (Houston News) -- A fire at LyondellBasell's oil refinery in the Houston Ship Channel this afternoon sent huge clouds of black smoke into the sky and all but halted fuel production at the sprawling facility.
The fire started at about 2:30 p.m. at one of two crude distillation units at the plant and raged for an hour before company firefighters put it out, according to LyondellBasell spokesman David Harpole. Neither the cause of the blaze nor the damage to the unit was immediately known.
No workers were reported injured in the fire, however, two firefighters were being treated for heat exhaustion after battling the blaze, Harpole said. The 268,000 barrel per day Houston plant is the nation's 16th largest oil refinery, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
MRCMRC Reference
LyondellBasell. The share in the Russian market in 2008:
PE - 1.4% (including HDPE - 2.5%, LDPE - 0.3%);
PP - 4.1% (including block-copolymers - 9.5%).
Annual sales growth in Russia, during the recent 5 years:
PE - 27%;
PP - 88%.
The leader in the following polymers processing technologies:
(Plastics Today) -- Continuing difficulties in the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) market and the rapid rise of its next-generation copolyester have prompted chemical and plastics manufacturer Eastman Chemical Co. (Kingsport, TN) to reassess its portfolio, with the previously announced strategic review of its PET unit to be concluded this summer. On April 23, the company announced that it was considering a sale of that business, hiring financial management and advisory firm Merrill Lynch to assess its options.
At a May 13 event in Kingsport to celebrate the official opening of its new Tritan copolyester production line, Mark Costa, executive VP specialty polymers, coatings, adhesives and chief marketing officer told PlasticsToday that Eastman hopes to make a decision about the unit's fate this year. "We have been clear that the PET business obviously hasn't performed to our expectations," Costa said. "We have launched a strategic process to examine who would be the best owner of that business, whether it's us or someone else. We think it's a very attractive business, and there is very strong interest in that business as we run that strategic process."
MOSCOW (SIBUR) -- Federal authorities have accepted Sibur's project of a new polypropylene production complex in Tobolsk, Siberia. The project is admitted to be fully respectable to all the egineering conditions and appropriatable to all the Federal standards.
The complex will produce 500,000 tons of polypropylene a year. Its annual output of polypropylene, used in food containers and textile fibers, is now 220,000 tons. It is expected to be launched at full capacity at the end of 2012.
Sibur Holding is the largest Russian petrochemical group.
Shareholders:
Gazprombank (70% minus 1 share);
Gazfond (25% plus 1 share);
5% reserved for option program.
The share in the Russian market in 2008:
polyethylene - 11.1%;
polypropylene - 16% (including PP-random - 11.2%);
ABS - 5.2%;
PVC - 8.1%.
Icis
en