Local PVC markets firm up in Southeast Asia

(chemorbis) -- Heading into December, new PVC offers and sell ideas started to emerge with increasesin the local markets in Southeast Asia. Regional producers either issued price hikes or expressed their hike targets for the new month giving the VCM shortage in the region as the main reason while relatively better demand provided some support for their targets.

Most Southeast Asian PVC producers are known to be non-integrated and have to procure their VCM supply from other sources. Many regional PVC makers expect to see higher upstream costs in December mainly due to limited supplies stemming from the disruption at Tosoh's complex.

Earlier in November, Japanese Tosoh shut its 550,000 tons/year No. 2 VCM plant after an explosion and decided to shut its No. 3 plant with a capacity of 400,000 tons/year as a precaution. The company's No. 1 plant with 260,000 tons/year capacity was already down for maintenance since the middle of October. The company has not announced a planned restart date for its plants although it may reportedly take around six months for the company to resume normal operations at its 550,000 tons/year No 2 VCM plant, while damage to the company's 400,000 tons/year No 3 plant was thought be less severe.

This week, an Indonesian PVC producer expressed their December sell idea with $50-70/ton increases compared to their November done deals after wrapping up their business for this month. The producer cited healthy demand in the local market as well as higher expected VMC costs in December as the main reasons behind their hikes. Another Indonesian producer reported concluding their November sales amidst satisfying demand.

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(yourindustrynews) -- UOP LLC, a Honeywell (NYSE: HON) company, announced today that it has been selected by Zhejiang Shaoxing Sanjin Petrochemical Co., Ltd. to provide key technology to produce propylene in China.

The win marks the sixth time this year Honeywell's UOP technology has been selected by petrochemicals producers to produce propylene, which is used in the production of materials such as films and packaging.

"As petrochemicals producers in China increase production capacity to support rising demands, we are pleased to be at the forefront, offering the advanced technology needed to achieve the desired yields," said Pete Piotrowski, senior vice president for Process Technology and Equipment at Honeywell's UOP. "We remain committed to supporting the technology needs of petrochemicals producers worldwide, and we look forward to working with Zhejiang Shaoxing Sanjin on this project."

The new propane dehydrogenation unit will use Honeywell's UOP C3 Oleflex process technology to produce 450,000 metric tons annually of propylene. The unit is expected to start up in 2013 at Zhejiang's facility in Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province, China. In addition to technology licensing, Honeywell's UOP will also provide engineering design, catalysts, adsorbents, equipment, staff training and technical service for the project.

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(corporate.evonik) -- Essen, Germany-based Evonik Industries has closed the deal to take over the hydrogen peroxide business from Kemira Chemicals Canada Inc. effective to December 1, 2011. The transaction covers the Maitland (Ontario) production plant plus the seller's customer portfolio, with the Canadian employees also being transferred to Evonik.

⌠This transaction sees us taking another step in our global growth strategy for hydrogen peroxide, explained Jan Van den Bergh, Head of Advanced Intermediates, the business unit in charge of the hydrogen peroxide business at Evonik.

⌠Our growth strategy is based on new technologies, as is exemplified by our deal in Jilin, China, where we will be supplying H2O2 to a plant specializing in the chemical direct synthesis of propylene oxide, and by targeted acquisitions like this one in Canada,⌠ added Van den Bergh.
Production operations in Maitland will serve primarily to provide supplies of H2O2, an eco-friendly oxidation agent, to the North American cellulose and paper industry.

This new acquisition puts Evonik among the market leaders of hydrogen peroxide suppliers to the North American market (Canada and the U.S.). The takeover enables Evonik to increase its capacities for H2O2 production in North America by 44,000 metric tons to more than 200,000 metric tons per annum. The Group already runs local H2O2 production sites in Gibbons (Alberta, Canada) and Mobile (Alabama, U.S.A.).

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Wellman International is Europe's largest recycler of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles and also produces polyester stable fibre products and recycled PET (rPET), IVL said in a statement.
⌠The deal, which was first announced in September 2011, will assist IVL in pursuing its customers' sustainability needs and meet the demands of consumers for more recycling of post consumer products, IVL said.

Wellman International processes a total of 1.6bn used PET bottles each year.
⌠I see the possibility for Indorama Ventures to move towards being a zero waste' company with lower dependence on upstream carbon based feedstocks, said IVL CEO Aloke Lohia in the statement.

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SINGAPORE (ICIS) -- Russia's Rosneft is keeping the December-delivery Group I base oil prices from its Angarsk refinery to China largely unchanged from November, Chinese traders said on Thursday.
The refiner's December prices to China are at $950/tonne (┬703/tonne) for low-viscosity cargoes and $960-970/tonne for high-viscosity products, both on a DAF (delivered at frontier) basis to Erenhot, they said.

Market players were expecting a price reduction because of the prevailing weak demand.
However, Rosneft said stronger crude futures and its resultant higher production costs were its reasons for keeping its prices largely steady, according to the players.
In addition, the refiner plans to supply 8,000 tonnes of Group I base oils to China in December, a 16% drop from November, traders said.

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