Arkema declares force majeure on PVC and caustic soda

LONDON (ICIS) -- France's Arkema has declared force majeure on its chlor-alkali and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) production, following strike-related shutdowns at several sites, a company source said on Tuesday.
The force majeure on PVC was declared last week and has now been extended to its chlor-alkali products, including caustic soda, the source said.

⌠It's a disaster for us and we have no knowledge of when production will resume, the source added.
The strikes were triggered by last week's announcement that Arkema will sell its vinyl business to Switzerland-based investment group Klesch in order for Arkema to focus on its industrial chemicals and performance products segments.
The electrolysis units in Fos and Lavera, in southern France, were shut as a result, the source said.
In addition, production at the Jarrie site has stopped because of a chlorine leak associated with start-up problems, following an unplanned shutdown in October, the company said on a statement on 28 November.

There is no material available from the Jarrie site, while the company is only able to provide 50% of its regular quantities from Fos and Lavera. Its plant in St Auban consumes most of its product internally.
The company's total nameplate capacity for caustic soda is 850,000 tonnes/year, according to the source. Among its plants, Lavera is the largest.
The European caustic market remains balanced to tight. Although demand has weakened over the past two weeks, scarce availability and production outages have continue to tighten the market.
Most local producers remain out of the spot market and only able to meet their contractual obligations.

Perspectives of development of the polymers markets, pricing issues and other important aspects will be discussed at The Polymers Summit-2011, which will be held in Moscow on November 30, 2011 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel. The Summit is organized by MRC with the support of ICIS. The main idea of the Summit is to find a "the golden mean" between producers and converters. When producers receive exactly such margin of production, which helps them to invest in production expansion in order to substitute polymers imports, and the converters receive such price of feedstock that helps them to compete imported finished products. The Summit site gives an access to the live video of the Summit, speakers" presentations, as well as opportunities to ask questions or make appointments to any Summit partcipant.

MRC

LONDON (ICIS) -- An initial European ethylene contract settlement for December has been agreed down by ┬15/tonne at ┬1,080/tonne ($1,440/tonne), primarily reflecting the weak demand situation, a key producer said on Tuesday.

The producer said that it wanted ⌠to break the ice referring to the slow progress and tough nature of the discussions which had gotten underway last week.

Another major producer said that it had also reached an agreement at ┬1,080/tonne and the ┬15/tonne reduction was a ⌠compromise because cracker margins are not that brilliant and neither are derivative margins. It added that there had been little significant change in upstream naphtha values over November.
So far, two producers and one major non-integrated consumer have confirmed the settlement. Confirmation is pending from another two integrated consumers and one other non-integrated consumer.
The contract is settled on a free delivered (FD) northwest Europe (NWE) basis.

Perspectives of development of the polymers markets, pricing issues and other important aspects will be discussed at The Polymers Summit-2011, which will be held in Moscow on November 30, 2011 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel. The Summit is organized by MRC with the support of ICIS. The main idea of the Summit is to find a "the golden mean" between producers and converters. When producers receive exactly such margin of production, which helps them to invest in production expansion in order to substitute polymers imports, and the converters receive such price of feedstock that helps them to compete imported finished products. The Summit site gives an access to the live video of the Summit, speakers" presentations, as well as opportunities to ask questions or make appointments to any Summit partcipant.

MRC

(english.peopledaily.com.cn) -- Located in the Dagang District of Tianjin Sinopec/SABIC Tianjin Petrochemical Company largest single ethylene installation in China reached its goal of annually producing 1 million tons of ethylene 38 days ahead of schedule, and will certainly surpass its production plan in 2011.

All the technical and economic indexes of the installation continue to remain at the benchmark levels of the industry. The year of 2011 is the first goal-reaching year of the installation since it successfully passed the test run and was put into service in January 2010.
The cracked-gas compressor, known as the "heart" of the installation, is still in good condition after running for 23 months. The project's newly added water consumption of 3,000 tons per hour completely comes from desalted seawater, demonstrating the installation's circular economy.

Perspectives of development of the polymers markets, pricing issues and other important aspects will be discussed at The Polymers Summit-2011, which will be held in Moscow on November 30, 2011 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel. The Summit is organized by MRC with the support of ICIS. The main idea of the Summit is to find a "the golden mean" between producers and converters. When producers receive exactly such margin of production, which helps them to invest in production expansion in order to substitute polymers imports, and the converters receive such price of feedstock that helps them to compete imported finished products. The Summit site gives an access to the live video of the Summit, speakers" presentations, as well as opportunities to ask questions or make appointments to any Summit partcipant.

MRC

(english.peopledaily.com.cn) -- Located in the Dagang District of Tianjin Sinopec/SABIC Tianjin Petrochemical Company largest single ethylene installation in China reached its goal of annually producing 1 million tons of ethylene 38 days ahead of schedule, and will certainly surpass its production plan in 2011.

All the technical and economic indexes of the installation continue to remain at the benchmark levels of the industry. The year of 2011 is the first goal-reaching year of the installation since it successfully passed the test run and was put into service in January 2010.
The cracked-gas compressor, known as the "heart" of the installation, is still in good condition after running for 23 months. The project's newly added water consumption of 3,000 tons per hour completely comes from desalted seawater, demonstrating the installation's circular economy.

Perspectives of development of the polymers markets, pricing issues and other important aspects will be discussed at The Polymers Summit-2011, which will be held in Moscow on November 30, 2011 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel. The Summit is organized by MRC with the support of ICIS. The main idea of the Summit is to find a "the golden mean" between producers and converters. When producers receive exactly such margin of production, which helps them to invest in production expansion in order to substitute polymers imports, and the converters receive such price of feedstock that helps them to compete imported finished products. The Summit site gives an access to the live video of the Summit, speakers" presentations, as well as opportunities to ask questions or make appointments to any Summit partcipant.

MRC

(main.omanobserver.om) -- Orpic announced yesterday that three additional units will be included in the proposed Sohar Refinery Expansion Project. The new expansion supported by the Government of Oman is expected to improve the Sohar Refinery's product quality and increase output by more than 70 per cent.

Orpic's CEO Musab al Mahruqi said, the latest additions to the Sohar Refinery Expansion Project came to enhance the production of petroleum products for local market and increase the gross margin for the refinery. Also, the addition came in view of the latest improvised operating experiences gained at Orpic.

Al Mahruqi added that Sohar Refinery has recently been operating at high utilisation rates reaching 110 per cent of design capacity. The improvement in utilisation rate has been incremental over the past few years and 2011 marked the highest average utilisation rate for the refinery. 2011 has also marked the second year for the commercial operation of the Aromatics plant in Sohar. The average utilisation rate for the Aromatics plant in 2011 exceeds 90 per cent whereas the feedstock is partially supplied by Sohar Refinery.
The additional units will be added to the current configuration for the Sohar Refinery Expansion Project which includes the following process units: Crude Distillation (CDU), Vacuum Distillation (VDU), Hydrocracker (HCU), Sulphur Recovery Units (SRU), Isomerisation (ISOM), PSA unit for Hydrogen, Sour water strippers, Amine Regeneration Unit along with other treating units together with Utilities and Offsites.

Perspectives of development of the polymers markets, pricing issues and other important aspects will be discussed at The Polymers Summit-2011, which will be held in Moscow on November 30, 2011 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel. The Summit is organized by MRC with the support of ICIS. The main idea of the Summit is to find a "the golden mean" between producers and converters. When producers receive exactly such margin of production, which helps them to invest in production expansion in order to substitute polymers imports, and the converters receive such price of feedstock that helps them to compete imported finished products. The Summit site gives an access to the live video of the Summit, speakers" presentations, as well as opportunities to ask questions or make appointments to any Summit partcipant.

MRC