Saudi Polymers will bring online its new integrated polyolefins complex in Jubail

(Platts) -- Saudi Polymers will bring online its new integrated polyolefins complex in Jubail, Saudi Arabia, within a month -- pending ongoing safety checks -- a source close to the company said Tuesday. "The complex can start up anytime now," said the source. "It's undergoing safety procedures and checks."

The complex is built around an ethane/propane-based steam cracker, with the capacity to produce 1.165 million mt/year of ethylene and 445,000 mt/year of propylene. The entire olefins production is slated for captive use.

Saudi Arabian petrochemical producers are weaning off from their dependence on gas feedstocks due to tightening supply. The next major petrochemicals project on the table by Dow and Saudi Aramco, called Sadara, involves building a world-scale steam cracker that will be able to use a range of feedstocks when it comes online in 2014.

Downstream from the steam cracker, Saudi Polymers has a 1.1 million mt/year high density polyethylene plant, a 400,000 mt/year polypropylene plant and a 200,000 mt/year polystyrene plant at the new complex.

MRC

(Dow) -- The establishment of Sadara Chemical Company, a planned joint venture under formation between The Dow Chemical Company and the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco), is making significant progress following the authorization by the Boards of Directors of both companies in late July.

The two partners are in the final stages of establishing Sadara, and it is expected that the officer and board member nominees will soon be officially announced. The on-line recruitment process for the first in-take of Saudi apprentices commenced in August and the response was overwhelming, with over 6,300 applications received.

Meanwhile, the Engineering, Procurement & Construction (EPC) contract bidding process continues. 50% of the capital investment amount is already under contract with another 20% out for bid. It is expected that all invitation for bids will be out by end of the year.

MRC

(Krauss Maffei) -- The Supervisory Board of KraussMaffei AG, a worldwide leading manufacturer of plastic and rubber machinery and systems, appointed Jan Siebert as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) effective from January 1, 2012. He will succeed Dr. Dietmar Straub, who is managing the activities of KraussMaffei Group since April 2007 and who is leaving the company at his own request.

KraussMaffei is one of the world's leading manufacturers of machinery for processing plastics, and the only company supplying machinery covering three key technologies for the international plastics and rubber processing industries.

The KraussMaffei Group markets its products under the KraussMaffei, KraussMaffei Berstorff and Netstal brands. The KraussMaffei brand covers the whole spectrum of injection and reaction moulding technology, while KraussMaffei Berstorff specializes in extrusion solutions. The Swiss subsidiary Netstal is firmly established as a premium supplier of high-precision injection moulding machinery. Krauss-Maffei maintains a close-meshed network of over 140 subsidiaries and sales and service agencies close to customers worldwide.


MRC

(RIA Novosti) -- Larry Bates, a former BP top manager, who supervised the failed tie-up deal in January between the British oil giant and Russia's largest state-run oil company Rosneft, may join the local firm as vice president, Kommersant business daily said on Wednesday quoting a Rosneft official. Bates may be officially appointed by the end of the year, the paper added. A Rosneft representative said the company was considering Bates' candidacy , but declined to name the exact position, while a source in Rosneft said Bates might be appointed as advisor to Rosneft President Eduard Khudainatov.

In January, BP and Rosneft struck a $16-billion agreement to develop the Arctic shelf with BP getting new reserves and Rosneft gaining shelf technologies it lacked. But the deal collapsed after BP's partners in its local project said the Rosneft deal violated a shareholder agreement between them and the British major.


MRC

(BASF) -- With Efka 2010, BASF further strengthens its broad portfolio of high performance defoamers for industrial coating applications. The new silicone-free defoamer marks the latest addition to this product class and is suited for use in a wide range of solvent-borne coating systems. It can be used for pigmented and non-pigmented systems.


Formulators benefit from the optimized combination of excellent defoaming efficiency and no influence on gloss. The high clarity within the formulation is maintained prior as well as after curing which enables the production of defect-free high quality surfaces for industrial coatings. Efka 2010 is compatible with a variety of different systems including nitrocellulose/alkyd lacquers, 2k polyurethane-, stoving- and acid-cured coatings as well as cold-cured epoxy coatings.


The product is primarily designed for formulations for the furniture and flooring segment and is available within Europe, North America and China. Further market applications include the automotive industry.

MRC