US, UK oil traders admit defrauding LyondellBassell of $80m

(ICIS) -- Two oil traders have pleaded guilty to defrauding LyondellBassell Industries and its Houston Refinery subsidiary of more than $80m (┬58m) in an oil shipping conspiracy, the US Department of Justice said on Thursday.

The department said that oil traders Bernard Langley, 54, of the UK, and Houston, Texas, resident Clyde Meltzer, 65, admitted to conspiracy and wire fraud in a scheme that involved overcharging LyondellBassell and Houston Refinery for crude oil freight costs.

In a case that was brought to the attention of prosecutors by LyondellBassell, federal attorneys had alleged that Langley and Meltzer conspired with a LyondellBassell employee, Jonathan Barnes, to charge above-market shipping rates on the company's crude oil imports from Venezuela. Barnes, who pleaded guilty in March this year, had served as the marine chartering manager for LyondellBassell's Houston refinery starting in 2006.

According to the department's charges, beginning in late 2006 Barnes agreed to give chartering contracts to shipping companies that Langley and Meltzer had set up in the British Virgin Islands and elsewhere.


MRC

(ICIS) -- Weak polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) demand in Europe has led to increased export activity and some low-priced spot deals at prices that many players consider below the current market level, sources said on Thursday. ⌠European demand is very disappointing, but we hope to reach our projected volumes by selling to export markets, said one producer.

Targeted markets include Africa and South America, with some volumes also secured to Asia, with low density polyethylene (LDPE) and PP seen as the most commonly traded material at present.

FOB) (free on board) levels below $1,400/tonne (┬1,022/tonne) are said to be on offer for PP homopolymer, and levels barely above this level are said to be available for LDPE exports.

Most exports are being done directly from producers, without the involvement of traders, but some say current levels are too low for them, as it would be below variable costs.

European buyers and sellers are reluctant to push for a big price reduction in their monthly discussions with producers, as any price drop will have to be passed on to buyers' own customers downstream, and would probably not generate increased activity, given the economic situation in Europe at present.


MRC

(BASF) -- Colorcon, Inc. and BASF have announced a collaboration for the development of future film coating systems using Kollicoat Smartseal 30 D, and a new Colorcon pre-formulated additive.
Colorcon has developed a pre-formulated additive system for use with Kollicoat Smartseal 30D which enables efficient preparation and application of this polymer in taste masking applications. The pre-formulated additive lowers the number of materials to be dispensed by 50% and reduces the preparation time by almost 40%.


⌠We have chosen Kollicoat Smartseal 30 D, because it is the best-in-class reverse enteric polymer for taste masking, said Kamlesh Oza, General Manager Film Coating at Colorcon. ⌠Kollicoat Smartseal 30 D is the first water-based dispersion having both taste masking and moisture barrier properties. It was developed to simplify and accelerate aqueous film coating operations, and opens new doors for formulating tablet, pellet, and particle coatings. Our collaboration to develop the additive will bring batch-to-batch color consistency, performance, speed and simplicity enabling easy reconstituting of the film former in pharmaceutical coating operations while maintaining functionality.


Colorcon is a world leader in the development, supply and support of formulated products for the pharmaceutical and nutritional industries. Its core businesses include film coatings, modified release technologies, functional excipients and tablet design services.

MRC

(Plastemart) -- S-Oil's newly expanded Onsan Plant in Ulsan has been officially opened. The project, which doubled the plant's petrochemicals production capacity to 1.7 mln tons, was completed in April and the expanded facility went into commercial operations in May. This was followed by the stabilization period, during which the company ensured that all systems were running as intended.

⌠The new facilities are the starting line for S-Oil's future, not the final destination, and we will expand our business territory to petrochemicals downstream and further to solar energy business of manufacturing poly silicon, Subaey said. The 1.3 trillion won (US$1.1 bln) expansion project pushed up the company's annual capacity for producing petrochemicals such as paraxylene and benzene from 1.24 mln metric tons to 2.46 mln tons.

In addition, the Onsan facility's daily crude oil refining capacity has also increased to 669,000 barrels from the previous 580,000 barrels. ⌠S-Oil exports about 60% of its petrochemical products and is now positioned as the largest paraxylene supplier in the region thanks to new capacity addition. On the back of solid demand growth in China and Asia, which make up 79% of global paraxylene demand, S-Oil will create stellar economic results with over 20% growth in operating income, the S-Oil CEO said.

MRC

(Reuters) -- Belgian PVC window frame maker Deceuninck lowered its outlook on Thursday, saying the global economic slowdown had caused consumers to delay insulating their homes. While previously forecasting 2011 revenue would remain flat, the group said it now expected a decline of 3-4 percent. "What we're seeing is an entire softening of the market, which is very typical in an industry like ours which is cyclical," Chief Executive Tom Debusschere told a conference call.

Shares of Deceuninck fell as much as 5.3 percent in early Thursday trading, compared with a decline of about 1 percent in the Belgian Midcap Index , of which it is a constituent. Deceuninck said it still expected a net profit for the full year as raw material prices had stabilised.

The group makes PVC-based products for the construction industry, such as motorway walls to block traffic noise, made from recycled PVC.

The group said demand was weakest in the U.S. and central and eastern Europe, while revenue rose in Germany and Turkey.

MRC