Bayer MaterialScience wins approval to build German TDI plant

(bayer) -- Bayer MaterialScience can begin construction in Dormagen of a new world-scale plant for a key plastics precursor. The Cologne regional administration has now granted the permit for an early start to construction, clearing the way for the extensive construction work to begin promptly.

The final operating permit is expected in the spring. Plans call for the construction of a EUR 150 million high-tech plant in Dormagen for the particularly ecological production of the chemical TDI (toluene diisocyanate), which is required for flexible polyurethane foam.

"We are pleased that the construction for this important project can now begin and be completed within the next two years as planned," says Dr. Joachim Wolff, head of the polyurethanes business and member of the Executive Committee of Bayer MaterialScience. "With an annual capacity of 300,000 metric tons, the future world-scale plant is the final building block of a long-term investment strategy in Dormagen in addition to being a key element for optimizing our isocyanate production in Europe."


In the medium term, it will replace the existing plants for the production of TDI in Dormagen and Brunsbuttel. Bayer MaterialScience expects demand for this precursor for flexible polyurethane foams to continue to grow.

MRC

(reuters) -- Austria's energy company OMV AG expects the consortium in charge of the Shah Deniz II gas field in Azerbaijan to decide definitively on a pipeline partner by mid-2013 to transport its gas to Europe, OMV's Chief Executive said on Wednesday.

BP operates the Shah Deniz II gas field, containing some 1.2 trillion cubic metres of gas, and holds a 25.5 percent stake, as does Statoil, with the rest divided between SOCAR, LUKOIL, NICO, Total and TPAO.

"It appears the pipeline decision will be made in the middle of 2013," Gerhard Roiss told a news conference in Vienna.

But Roiss added that the timing of a decision was up to Shah Deniz, and not the pipeline projects competing to transport its gas.

The 4,000 km Nabucco pipeline project would transport central Asian gas through Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary into Austria and western Europe.

MRC

(chemicals-technology) -- India's Assam Petrochemicals is planning to build methanol and downstream acetic acid (AA) plants in Namrup, Assam.
The plants, which are expected to be completed by the end of 2014, will produce methanol of 500,000tpa and acetic acid of 200,000tpa.

Assam's natural gas will be used as feedstock to complete the construction of the methanol plant. Although concrete plans had not been finalised yet, in the long term, the company plans to build further downstream plants at the site.
As part of the plan, Assam Petrochemicals is considering dimethyl ether and biodiesel plants to use the methanol.

The company is also planning to build downstream vinyl acetate monomer (VAM), polyvinyl acetate (PVA) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH) plants to use the AA. Starting in September 2012, the company is planning to import acetic acid from Middle Eastern sources on contractual terms.

Major acetic acid producers in Asia and the Middle East include China's Jiangsu Sopo Chemical, Shanghai Wujing Chemical, Yankuang Cathay Coal Chemicals, Henan Shunda Chemical and Hebei Yingdu Gasification.
Assam Petrochemical, which is predominantly owned by the Assam state government, is involved in the manufacture of petrochemicals using natural gas as feedstock.

The company also has a small methanol plant and a downstream formaldehyde plant in Namrup, with both having a capacity of 33,000tpa.

MRC

(chemicals-technology) --Saudi Aramco Asia Company (SAAC) has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with PT Pertamina to assess the economic feasibility to build an integrated refining and petrochemical project at Tuban, East Java, Indonesia.

The proposed refinery and petrochemicals project is designed to produce 300,000 barrels per day of crude oil, of which the majority will be supplied by Aramco under a long-term contract.
The proposed plant will also produce refined petroleum and petrochemicals products to meet rising demand in Indonesia and other countries in South-East Asia.

SAAC, a subsidiary of Saudi Aramco, has various business and support services for many of the latter's business operations in the Asian region, while PT Pertamina is involved in exploration and production of oil and gas; the refining, manufacturing and marketing of oil products and petrochemicals; and the development of biofuels, geothermal power and other sustainable alternative energy sources.

MRC

(ei.wtin) -- Polyester producer Indorama Venture Limited (IVL) recorded consolidated sales revenue of USD6bn last year, approximately double the figure it achieved in 2010 (USD3bn).

The company's net profit also rose to USD510m, this was 55% above the $328m achieved in 2010, and after excluding extraordinary items IVL's profits were still 38% higher when compared to the same period.

Despite the natural disasters that occurred in Thailand and Alabama, US, IVL's annual volume growth increased by nearly two-fifths.

In 2011, its reported Consolidated EBITDA was USD558m, reflecting growth of 28% over the previous year, while Core EBITDA was USD552 million, or growth of 38%.

The end consumer demand growth for PET and Polyester was in line with forecasts at 7% globally, however industrial sentiments in the fourth quarter in 2011 turned bearish leading to de-stocking and a reduction in inventory similar to sentiments observed in Q4 2008 at the height of the financial crisis.

According to IVL, Q4 2011 was significantly impacted by both short term de-stocking of inventories globally due to falling commodities prices, which resulted in lower production volumes, and the loss in production of plants in Thailand due to the floods.

However, after a slow fourth quarter all of its business segments are seeing resilient consumer demand in all markets, leading to high manufacturing utilisation rates and lower operating costs due to scale.

Recently the company has made a number of acquisitions including the buyout of FiberVisions, Old World and Wellman International. The FiberVision deal not only adds specialty mono/bi- component fibres in high value consumer applications, but also makes IVL the largest producer of polypropylene fibre.

MRC