Exxon Mobil petrochemical plant launch delay canceled

(Reuters) -- Exxon Mobil Corp will not delay the start up of its new petrochemical plant in Singapore despite the glut in ethylene supplies.

- We are into long-term investments. The petrochemical industry goes through many cycles. We cannot predict the cycles", - ExxonMobil's senior vice president Andrew Swiger told a news conference at the Asia Oil and Gas Conference. - We will start our plant as scheduled.

The multibillion-dollar ethylene cracker on Singapore's Jurong Island has a capacity of 1 million tonnes per year (tpy).

MRC

(prw) -- DuPont group is constructing a new plant for the production of films for laminated glass in the Moravian town of Holesov in the Czech Republic.

The global chemicals and plastics group, through its local subsidiary Retrim-CZ, is investing around ┬9.2m in the new facility which initially will employ 15. It is scheduled to be launched in October this year.

DuPont, with a national base in the Czech capital Prague, acquired the Czech safety glass interlayer company Retrim, a specialist in recycling PVB (polyvinyl butyral resin) materials, based in Zlin in 2004. Its technology allows the re-use of the material in the manufacture of automotive and architectural laminated glass.

DuPont was already producing safety glass interlayer materials at other plants in South Korea, the US and Germany. The Czech acquisition was also designed to boost DuPont's presence in central and Eastern Europe.

In 2009, the US group, which employs a total of 111 people in the Czech Republic, opened a structural demonstration centre in Prague.

MRC

(fibre2fashion.com) -- The India Oil Corporation (IOC) the biggest state-owned refining company in India has set up a 850,000 tons / year ethylene plant in Panipat in Punjab. The plant uses the latest Lummus Global's patented technology.

The plant which started in March has been built at a cost of Rs 144 billion. The raw material, naphtha will be sourced from its Koyali, Mathura and Panipat refineries.

According to IOC, the current utilization of the plant is 50 percent. By the first week of June 2010, IOC plans to activate the downstream derivatives production unit.

This will include 350,000 tons / year linear low density polyethylene, 300,000 tons / year high density polyethylene, 650,000 tons / year of polypropylene, in addition to a 600,000 tons / year of purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant.

MRC

(ICIS) -- Major plastics producer LyondellBasell has declared force majeure on deliveries of certain grades of low density polyethylene (LDPE) from its 320,000 tonne/year plant at Aubette in France, a company source said on Thursday.

⌠The plant is due up again soon but our stock position is such that we could not avoid force majeure, said the source.

The unit had been suffering technical difficulties for several days and the low stock position at the site led to the declaration.

LDPE availability was already tight throughout Europe and buyers had paid increases for the past five months. PE producers were now aiming to raise prices again, by as much as ┬80/tonne ($98/tonne) in one case, but buyers resisted such hikes as the monthly ethylene contract for June had only risen by ┬10/tonne.

Initial reports from producers suggested they were managing to implement increases of ┬40/tonne, but this was not yet fully confirmed by buyers. LDPE net prices were reported in the mid-to-high-┬1,200s/tonne FD (free delivered) NWE (northwest Europe).

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:

pipe extrusion;

film extrusion;

injection molding.

LUDWIGSHAFEN (BASF) -- The Board of Executive Directors of BASF SE announced the following changes in its management team.

Jacques Delmoitiez (57), currently President of BASF's Polyurethanes division located in Brussels, Belgium, will become President of BASF's regional division Europe, located in Ludwigshafen, Germany effective October 1, 2010. The current President, Dr. Walter Seufert (59) is retiring as of September 30, 2010.

Wayne T. Smith (50), currently President of BASF's Catalysts division located in Iselin, New Jersey, will take over responsibilities for the Polyurethanes division as of September 1, 2010. Frank A. Bozich (49) will become head of the Catalysts division. He is currently responsible for the area of precious and basic metals in the Catalysts division.

MRCMRC Reference

BASF. The share in the Russian market in 2008:
PS - 9.1% (GPPS - 5.9%, ABS - 11.4%, EPS - 10.6%).

Annual sales growth in Russia over the 5 years:
PS - 15%.

Imports by polymers processing technologies:
foaming;
injection molding.