Force-majeurs declared in BP petrochemical sites

LONDON (ICIS news)-- BP Refining and Petrochemicals (BPRP) has declared force majeure on propylene (C3) supplies from its PCK Schwedt, Germany, and Nerefco Rotterdam, Netherlands refineries, a company source said on Tuesday.

⌠The forces majeures were declared on Monday (17 May) the source said.

In a letter to its customers, BPRP said that a gas leak and resulting fire on 15 May had forced it to declare force majeure for the rest of May 2010 to its customers supplied from its PCK Schwedt fluid catalytic cracker (FCC).

The FCC had been down for planned maintenance since 7 April and had been due to restart around 6 May.

MRC

(prw) -- Ineos has lifted the force majeure declared on 5 May for its deliveries of General Purpose Polystyrene (GPPS) and EPS packaging grades from its plant in Wingles, France.

The blockade of the canals by French barge owners has now been cleared. The regular supply of styrene monomer to the Wingles site has been resumed and all production lines have been restarted and are now operating smoothly.

MRCMRC Reference

Ineos is a petrochemical group.
In Russia Ineos's interests are represented by Ineos Polyolefins and IneosChlorVinyls.

The share in the Russian market in 2008:
PVC - 4.5%;

polyethylene - 1.9%
(HDPE - 2.8%, LDPE - 1.2%);
polypropylene - 1.4%
(PP-random - 22.1%, PP-impact - 2.0%);
polystyrene - 0.9%.

Imports by polymers processing technologies:
profile extrusion;
pipe extrusion;
film extrusion;
injection molding.

(prw) -- One of Europe's leading producers of breathable film for hygienic applications plans to slash its workforce of close to 850 by over 500 as it attempts to stem substantial losses.

Nuova Pansac, headquartered in Mantua, northern Italy, and with factories in Marghera, Mira, Portogruaro, Ravenna and Zingonia, appears to have been hard hit by a combination of the global economic crisis and some poor decisions at board level. It says job cuts will see its Portogruaro and Ravenna plants close completely, while the 484-strong workforce in Mira will be cut to 269, and at Marghera 23 of 69 jobs will go.

The plant in Mira was opened as recently as 2004, to satisfy global demand for breathable film, bucking a trend that saw many film makers ship out of Western Europe for lower-cost countries.

The effect of the cuts will be to almost halve production capacity, which is currently understood to be over 130,000 tonnes/yr. Turnover at its height reached somewhere near ┬275m.

MRC

(Sabic) -- SABIC Innovative Plastics' expansive portfolio of high-performance, lightweight resins is helping airline industry customers soar. The company's ability to provide "one-stop shopping" enabled LSG Sky Chefs and Norduyn to create a new line of ultra-light in-flight trolleys that can help reduce aircraft fuel consumption and emissions. LSG Sky Chefs is the world's largest provider of in-flight services. Norduyn is a designer and manufacturer of innovative galley and cabin product solutions for commercial aviation.

The trolleys, launched at the Aircraft Interiors Expo held from May 18 to 20 in Hamburg, Germany, will be on display at SABIC Innovative Plastics' stand and also at Norduyn's and LSG Sky Chefs' stands - feature UV-resistant Ultem resin for the extrusion profiles and door latch, and tough Noryl resin for the frame and other components.

Jointly designed by LSG Sky Chefs and Norduyn, the new full- and half-size trolleys utilize Noryl resin in the frame and critical components to replace metal, thereby slashing weight by up to 40% and reducing the number of parts by a third. This high-tech engineered plastic also provides outstanding non-halogenated flame retardance and enhanced safety with industry-leading flame/smoke/toxicity (FST) performance meeting Federal Aviation Regulation (FAR) 25.853 requirements. Noryl resin was also selected for its good hydrostability and low density and for its proven track record in a wide and growing range of important aircraft applications.

MRCMRC Reference

Sabic. The share in the Russian market in 2008:
PE - 0.2%;
PP - 0.4%;
PS - 0.2%.

Annual sales growth in Russia over the last 5 years:
PE - 33%;
PP - 62%.

(Plasteurope) -- French chemical producer Arkema said it was ⌠pleased with the performance of its Industrial Chemicals and Performance Polymer business segments in the first quarter of 2010. The two segments, which together account for 80% of sales, each generated an EBITDA margin of 14.5%. The Vinyls segment continued to lag behind, with a negative margin of 3%. Altogether, turnover of the French company rose by nearly 20% to EUR 1.3 bn, although volumes were still below pre-crisis levels. EBITDA more than doubled to EUR 137m from EUR 57m.

Sales of Performance Products, including PA and PDVF, rose by 15% to EUR 372m. This was thanks largely to a rebound in volumes on the back of increased demand from the automotive sector and the Asian market. Arkema pointed also to a ⌠growing contribution of products targeting new industries, including solar photovoltaics. The segment's EBITDA more than tripled to EUR 54m from EUR 17m, as unit margins held up well against higher raw materials costs.

By contrast, sales of the Vinyls segment rose by 5.4% to EUR 271m. The EBITDA loss widened to EUR 8m from EUR 2m a year earlier, but the company noted that this was an improvement against the fourth quarter of 2009, when the loss stood at EUR 18m. The negative price effect ⌠corresponds essentially to the halving of caustic soda prices against the 2009 quarter, Arkema added.

Industrial Chemicals including PMMA increased its sales by 30% to EUR 661m, with nearly half the improvement due to consolidation of acrylics assets acquired from Dow Chemical. EBITDA improved by nearly 32% to EUR 96m, and unit margins for acrylic acid solidified against Q4 2009 despite higher propylene costs.

MRCMRC Reference

Arkema.

The share in the Russian market in 2008:

PVC - 0.2%;

EVA - 1.1%.

Annual sales growth in Russia, during the recent 5 years:

PVC - 69%;

PE - 121%.

Imports by polymers processing technologies:

coating;

cable extrusion.