Pellets made from ocean scrap

(plasticsnews) -- Production-run pellets made partially from plastic ocean litter have become a reality, thanks to 18 months of cooperation between packaging brand designer Method and recycler Envision Plastics Industries LLC.

The first batch of pellets streamed off the production line at Envision's Chino plant around noon March 1.

Executives from both companies beamed with pride and excitement, and captured the technology breakthrough, snapping pictures and video. They then watched as the otherwise unassuming black pellets were loaded into 1,200-pound boxes, ready to be molded into a Method-designed container that will hit a major grocery chain this fall.

"We did a couple of fist pumps," smiled Adam Lowry, co-founder, CEO and chief groundskeeper of the San Francisco-based Method, whose packages are made from 100 percent recycled materials.

Lowry declined to name the product that will be made from the ocean scrap, but he said that it will be an existing product, in one of the company's "iconic shapes."

Method-brand products include household and personal-care items. The container will be made by a major plastics packaging blow molder. The two companies overcame obstacles to reach this point.
MRC

(chemmonitor) -- Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat, a Russia-headquartered manufacturer, finalized works aimed at construction of a plant for urea granulation.

Trial runs at the facility have recently commenced following production of a test lot of around 60 tonnes last month.

The manufacturing process was provided the Japan-headquartered company Toyo Engineering Corporation.

The project was initiated in April of the preceding year. The facility is 100 percent ecofriendly.

MRC

(themoscowtimes) -- LUKoil has succeeded where natural gas exporter Gazprom failed, supplying fuel to China.

Gas from LUKoil's fields in Uzbekistan, where output generates more profit per barrel of oil equivalent than western Siberian crude, is flowing to China under an agreement with its Uzbek partners, LUKoil deputy chief executive Leonid Fedun said. "We are already supplying and will supply gas to China," Fedun said. "We have a pipeline project, with very good netbacks, supplying China."

Gazprom failed to sign a supply contract with China last year after at least a decade of talks. The company hasn't been able to agree on prices with China, which has instead built pipelines to gas- rich Central Asian states.

LUKoil plans to produce as much as 19 billion cubic meters (119.5 million barrels) of gas a year at peak from deposits in Uzbekistan, Fedun said in June last year. The company provides volumes to the Uzbek state, which has a sales agreement with China, he said.

Sales in the Central Asian nation last year generated USD18 of net income per barrel of oil equivalent compared with USD11 for western Siberian crude, according to a presentation he gave late last month in London.

MRC

(plastemart) -- Market players report some improvement in domestic polymer demand in India at the start of March.

Domestic producers opened the month with some increases for PP and PE and these increases did not prevent distributors from reporting an increased number of buying inquiries. PVC continues to be stable. In the PVC market, domestic producers elected not to change their prices at the start of March after producers had achieved some increases in the month of February.

"We elected to purchase some domestic PVC k67 as we found domestic materials to be more competitively priced when compared with the prevailing offer levels in the import market," as per a PVC pipe manufacturer. "We are seeing better demand for our end products today and we believe that demand will remain strong over the next few weeks. We are building some stocks these days and making most of our purchases from the Domestic PP producers opened the month of March with further increases following the significant increases implemented by producers over February."

"We are seeing good demand from the local market for now and supply is a bit limited," commented a source at an Indian producer. "We are seeing greater buying activity these days even after producers' most recent price hikes," stated a distributor.

Domestic producers also opened the month of March with increases on their HDPE, LLDPE and LDPE prices after achieving February increases for HDPE and LLDPE. "We are seeing better demand from the local market at the start of this month even after the most recent price increases and have been receiving a greater number of inquiries from our customers recently," a distributor stated.


MRC

(chemmonitor) -- Lukoil headquartered in Russian has not resumed operations at its polypropylene (PP) production facility yet despite previously announced intention to restart the unit by March.

The plant located in Budyonnovsk (Russia) has been out of line since December of the preceding year following an emergency situation at upstream manufacturing units.

As a result of the accident, a propylene facility and an ethylene unit were closed and supply of feedstock propylene was violated.

MRC