Poland's ZAP to sell CPL to Chinese companies

(Fibre2fashion) -- Zaklady Azotowe Pulawy (ZAP), one of the leading Polish chemical companies, has signed four agreements to sell caprolactam (CPL) to Chinese companies.

The deal envisages ZAP selling CPL worth 315 million zloty (EUR 75.3 million) to the Chinese firms. The latest agreement has come close on the heels of the Polish company announcing a joint venture partnership with Zaklady Azotowe Tarnow (ZAT), another Polish company, to construct a CPL plant, which is likely to come up either in China or Taiwan.
China's domestic CPL production is rising at a fast pace, but still it is unable to meet the current domestic demand of 1.34 million tons. China is currently the world's largest importer of CPL and the Chinese firms are expected to import about 620,000 tons of CPL in 2012, according to Hubert Kamola, Sales Director at ZAP.

ZAP is based in Pulawy, in Poland's eastern provinc 's eastern province of Lublin, and has a CPL production capacity of 70,000 tons per annum, most of which is sold in Germany and Southeast Asian markets. In 2011, ZAP's CPL sales in Southeast Asian market rose by eight percent, while its total sales increas only three percent.

MRC

(bbc) -- European Union officials are expected to vote on draft legislation that would label Canadian fuel as more polluting than oil from other parts of the world.

Oil extracted from "oil sands" is regarded by some as energy intensive and environmentally damaging.

The vote comes as native groups are suing the provincial and federal governments for breaching a treaty designed to preserve their way of life. Officials are set to vote on the matter on 23 February.

The proposal from the EU's executive would include oil sands - also known as tar sands - in a ranking designed to inform buyers about the most carbon-intensive options. The oil industry has argued the proposed legislation could create an unreasonable administrative burden.

Canada has some of the largest oil sand reserves in the world and its extraction is making the country and its people wealthy.But for the people of the Beaver Lake Cree Nation it comes at a cost: their traditional way of life. The Beaver Lake Cree people live in the largest boreal forest in the world, in the province of Alberta.

MRC

(plastech) -- Car makers expect that a 5% weight reduction can result in average fuel saving of 3%. This is critical as electric vehicles of the future will depend on electricity stored in heavy batteries.

Plastics can make a substantial contribution by offsetting this extra weight. Vehicles where the passenger cell is built of light-weight but very strong carbon fibre reinforced plastics and side panels from plastics will soon be on the market. In combination with other materials, plastics can reduce the weight of car parts by up to 70% when compared with conventional material components.

Moreover, innovative technology makes it possible to use plastics and metals together, thus combining the advantages of both materials. It is also worth
noting that an increasing amount of bodywork parts are bonded instead of welded, which further reduces weight and improves stability and strength. Bonded front and rear windshields enable the construction of increasingly aerodynamic vehicles.

In collaboration with Faurecia and Performance Materials Corporation (PMC), BASF has developed a car seat back based on new plastics technology. The back weighs 20% less than that of a conventional car seat and is about 30 mm thinner, an important advantage when it comes to making vehicles lighter.

MRC

(chemmonitor) -- A carbon project will be initiated in Pizhou City (China). It presupposes construction of a three plants integrated into a single complex.

A coal tar distillation unit with an annual capacity of 0.25 million tonnes will be amid the facilities. Two downstream plants employed in needle coke and carbon black production will be also built at the locality.

The complex is planned to start activity in the first half of 2014. Construction works will commence this year.

MRC

(chemmonitor) -- The US-based company Dow Chemical plans to escalate its contract price for caustic soda for Q2 in the European market by EUR 40 (USD 53) per dry metric tonne (dmt). The future hike in the contract values resulted from stable consumption of caustic soda in the northwest Europe and several turnarounds of the units.

Some companies consider the situation in the European market as balanced, while consumers of caustic soda are not apt to accept price surges because the supply increased in line with declined consumption.

MRC