China: new caprolactam project set to go on stream in 2015

(chemmonitor) -- Financial Bureau of Liaocheng provided a subsidy for the China-based company Luxi Chemical Group for the caprolactam (capro) project. The subsidy totals CNY 68.8 (USD 11) million.

The project will be located in Shandong province and will be able to produce 200,000 tonnes of capro annually.

Shandong Liaocheng Luxi Chemical Sale Co., Ltd., a large-scale state-owned chemical group, is located in Liaocheng City. Group has 11 subsidiary companies, with assets of RMB6.49 billion, more than 11,000 employees, and annual turnover over RMB 10 billion. The annual output is synthetic ammonia 1 million tons, methanol 400,000 tonnes, urea 1.6 million tonnes, compound fertilizer 2 million tons, DAP 200,000 tons, sulphuric acid 1 million tons, hydrochloric acid 250,000 tonnes, caustic soda 300,000 tonnes, liquified chlorine 80,000 tonnes, and benzyl chloride 100,000 tonnes.

MRC

(chemmonitor) -- A capacity expansion project will be commenced by LyondellBasell. The maker with headquarters in the Netherlands intends to increase butadiene (BD) production at one of its manufacturing units by 40 percent.

The producer will exercise works at its site in Wesseling (Germany). The maker targets to complete the expansion by June 2012.

As a result, BD plant situated at the locality will start generating up to 238,000 tonnes per year.

The firm does not disclose probable expenses of the project.

MRC

(chemnet) -- Malaysia's Rubber Industry Smallholders Development Authority, or Risda, plans to invest MR67.5 million (USD 22.5 million) in Sarawak state in 2012 to replant natural rubber trees.

The investment will affect about 5,000 hectares of land and the amount is larger than the MR17.7 million invested from 2009 to 2011.

In Sarawak, rubber trees have been planted on about 157,163 hectares of land, consisting of 151,474 hectares of matured area and 5,689 hectares of immature area, according to Sarawak's agriculture department.

In late October, the Malaysian government allocated MR195 million for rubber replanting and new rubber cultivation programs in the country for fiscal 2011-2012.

Malaysia is the third largest rubber producer in the world, after Thailand and Indonesia, and made 916,259 mt of the commodity over January-November 2011, data from the Department of Statistics showed.

MRC

(process-worldwide) -- Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia's state owned national oil company plans big expansions in Asia. The company presented plans to increase refinery operation by 50 percent to 6 million barrels/day, investing around USD 90 billion.

Jeddah/Saudi Arabia - Arabian refinery giant Saudi Aramco announced plans to invest USD 90 billion to increase refining capacity by 50 percent up to six million barrels/day within the next five years. Most of this future growth is not planned for the domestic Middle Eastern markets, but for refinery operations in Asia: The bulk of Aramco's future refinery expansions is planned for China, said Saudi Armco's CEO Kalidh Al-Falih.

For China, the company plans to enter joint ventures with local partners, to tap the increasing oil consumption of Asia's biggest energy user. According to Frost & Sullivan, a growth partnership company, Saudi Aramco's growth plans are clearly aligned with the diversification objectives of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Other plans of Saudi Aramco include the expansion of its petrochemical branch as well as the exploration of unconventional gas sources such as shale and tight gas, officials stated.

MRC

(chemnet) -- Plastic film and bag recycling in the US is on the increase, jumping 14% in 2010 to 971.8 million pounds, according to a new report.

The annual increase is the first of more than 3% since 2006. "We are excited about the dramatic jump, said Keith Christman, managing director of plastics markets for the American Chemistry Council (ACC).

"The communication is getting out that plastic bags can be recycled. A lot more bags have messages on them that say bring it back,' he said. However, Mark Murray, executive director of Californians Against Waste, said the percentage increase was misleading.

"By every measure, plastic bags remain a recycling failure, Murray said. "The reported growth in plastic bag recycling volume of 27 million pounds from 2009 to 2010 was completely swamped by the Environmental Protection Agency's reported 220 million pound growth in plastic bag generation during the same period, he said.

"The volume of plastic bags generated and disposed grew by a substantially greater volume than recycling in 2010, Murray added.

The amount of plastic bags and film collected in 2010 jumped 14% from nearly 854.4 million to 971.8 million pounds in 2010, according to data compiled by Moore Recycling Associates and released by ACC yesterday.

By comparison, the cumulative percentage increase the previous three years was just 5.2%, with yearly individual increases of 2.24% in 2007, 0.25% in 2008 and 2.64% in 2009.

MRC