Lotte Chemical UK confirms PET expansion plans at Wilton

LONDON (ICIS)--Lotte Chemical UK's plans to expand its polyethylene terephthalate (PET) operations at Wilton in northeast England to 350,000 tonnes/year has received board approval, a company source confirmed on Friday.

"The expansion and further integration in C8 enables us to be competitive in the wider European market as we go forward," said Lotte Chemical UK business director Mark Kenrick.
Work to add a new 200,000 tonne/year plant alongside the existing 150,000 tonne/year facility is due for completion by the third or fourth quarter of 2013, the company said in an earlier press release. No financial details were disclosed.

In the press release SY Huh, president of Lotte's parent company KP, said the plan demonstrated KP's ambition to become "an Asia Top 10 Global Group by 2018".
Lotte Chemical UK has been given a conditional regional growth fund (RGF) offer by the UK government, which is expected to be fully confirmed by the end of 2011.
According to urban regeneration company Tees Valley Unlimited, Lotte Chemical UK has been given approval for ?6.7m (┬7.7m, $10.3m) of RGF support towards the construction of a new PET plant.
Lotte Chemical UK manufactures and sells polyester intermediate PTA and PET resin for use in the packaging industry.


Plans to expand at Lotte Chemical UK were first indicated as a possibility to ICIS in March. This announcement and the expansion plans of other PET and upstream purified terephthalic acid (PTA)producers have prompted concern among industry players that the market will be oversupplied.
"The market won't be able to absorb it all," one supplier said, echoing comments from others.

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SINGAPORE (ICIS)--Taiwan's Formosa Petrochemical Corp (FPCC) reported a 2% year-on-year drop in September revenue to New Taiwan dollar (NT$) 47.7bn ($1.56bn), with its petrochemical operations recording a decline of more than 16% in turnover.

FPCC's petrochemical business generated NT$11.5bn in revenue in September, down year on year from NT$13.8bn, according to data on the company's website.
For the first nine months of 2011, FPCC's total turnover at NT$595.7bn was still about 5% higher compared with the same period last year, data showed.

Compared with the first nine months of 2010, petrochemical revenue for January-September 2011, however, slipped by about 2% to NT$177.6bn, which accounts for about 30% of FPCC's total turnover for the period, based on the data.
FPCC had production disruptions at its petrochemical complex in Mailiao, Taiwan, because of fire incidents.

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(euobserver) -- EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson is set to place tariffs of 15.2 per cent on plastic bags from China and of 14.3 per cent on bags from Thailand, according to media reports.
The move follows an inquiry, which found that plastic bags were being dumped illegally into the EU.
Due to lower raw material and labour costs plastic bags imported from the Far East are estimated to be between 10 per cent and 20 per cent cheaper than those produced in Europe, with annual Chinese exports of plastic bags coming up to $300 million (┬235 million).

The inquiry followed a complaint by 30 European producers of certain plastic sacks and bags representing more than 25 per cent of the EU's production in the sector.
Although the 30 withdrew the complaint in February, French industry has kept up pressure and received backing from French transport commissioner Jacques Barrot, according to the Times.
For 30 years Mr Barrot was the president of a trade association that represents the plastics industry in his home region of Haute-Loire.

But British retailers have objected to the tax estimating the tariffs would lead to ?60 million (┬88 million) of extra cost for carrier bag users.
"The extra costs of plastic bags are just going to be passed on to consumers in higher food and clothes bills. Anti-dumping measures always hit consumers' pockets," said conservative British MEP and member of the European Parliament's international trade committee, Syed Kamall.
Last week three US producers of polyester fiber also filed an anti-dumping duty petition against China, saying Chinese sales at unfair prices are hurting the US industry.

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SINGAPORE (ICIS)--Asian paraxylene (PX) market players are facing a potential ⌠non-settlement for the benchmark October Asia Contract Price (ACP), market sources said on Friday.

⌠Continued negotiations during the EPCA failed to yield any possibilities for a settlement, said a source familiar with the negotiations.
A sole settlement between Japan's Idemitsu Kosan and China's Zhejiang Yisheng Petrochemicals was heard at $1,620/tonne (┬1,198/tonne) CFR (cost & freight) Asia.
Other key buyers said the settled price is too high as the margins for the downstream purified terephthalic acid (PTA) producers are thin.

ExxonMobil and South Korea's S-Oil are looking to settle their October PX ACP at $1,620/tonne CFR Asia and $1,630/tonne CFR Asia respectively, but continue to face resistance from key buyers, according to sources.
Japan's JX Nippon Oil & Energy and Idemitsu Kosan have ceased their ACP negotiations with their respective customers and are looking towards published spot prices for contract settlements.

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SINGAPORE (ICIS)--Marubeni Trading Corp has signed an agreement with Kazakhstan's national chemical firm United Chemical Company (UCC) to study and develop a series of chemical projects in the central Asian country, the Japanese trading firm said on Friday.

⌠By concluding [the] Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for Cooperation, both UCC and Marubeni acknowledge each other as strategic partners and will jointly proceed with study and development of a series of chemical projects, the company said in a statement.
The MOU between the two firms was signed on 6 October this year, the company said.

⌠Marubeni will contribute to the development of chemical industry in Kazakhstan by utilizing several functions such as investment, finance, products off-taking and plant construction, it added.
UCC was established in 2009 to develop the chemical industry in the oil and gas rich country, according to Marubeni.

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