Styrolution to streamline its operations in Europe

(chemweek) -- Styrolution has announced a program to streamline its operations in Europe and add capacity in emerging markets. Roberto Gualdoni, Styrolution CEO said that the company will terminate its agreement with Ineos to offtake styrene and polystyrene (PS) from Ineos's Marl, Germany site. This will lead to the closure of the complex after the agreement runs out at the end of this year. The complex is designed to produce 350,000 m.t./year of styrene and 180,000 m.t./year of PS.

Styrolution, meanwhile, will upgrade its styrene copolymers capacity at Ludwigshafen. ⌠We will have an independent state-of-the-art logistics center within our complex at Ludwigshafen, Gualdoni says. That will result in separating, and making independent, the production and logistics processes. The plants, producing Styrolution's Luran styrene acrylonitrile copolymer (SAN), Luran S acrylonitrile styrene acrylate (ASA) copolymers, Terluran acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), and Terlux methyl methacrylate ABS copolymers, will be expanded in the process. The company does not disclose its copolymers capacity but says that capacity will increase overall by 20%-30%.

Separately, Styrolution is in the process of selling its Tarragona, Spain acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plant under a previously announced plan. The facility, operating under the name Elix Polymers, will be acquired in the next few weeks by private equity firm Sun Capital Partners, Gualdoni says.

The program involves two separate capacity expansions in Asia. Styrolution is building a 40,000-m.t./year ASA plant at Ulsan, Korea that is due to start up at the beginning of July this year. The facility will complement similar plants in Europe and North America. ⌠We are trying to focus on emerging markets and out of Korea we are supplying practically all of Asia, mainly focusing on China and on specialty areas of our portfolio, Gualdoni says. ASA copolymers are used in the automotive and construction industries.

Styrolution, meanwhile, is increasing capacity at its ABS specialties plant at Vadodara, India. Capacity will rise from 80,000 m.t./year, to 110,000 m.t./year by 2014. The project will be achieved through debottlenecking, which involves the installation of a styrene acrylonitrile resins facility and expansion of compounding capacity.

MRC

(chemtura) -- Chemtura, a manufacturer and supplier of agrochemicals, specialty chemicals, homecare, pool and spa products, has expanded the production potential of its Vibrathane or Adiprene range of polyurethane prepolymers at the Latina Scalo plant located in Italy.

Investment in additional Adiprene(R) / Vibrathane(R) polyurethane prepolymer production capacity at Chemtura's Latina Scala, Italy, manufacturing facility.The company has completed the engineering work at the Latina location and has also begun further production.

According to Stephen Lewis, Chemtura Urethanes' EMEA business director, the increasing requirement of the Vibrathane or Adiprene prepolymers has resulted in the company increasing its capacity in Europe. This demand was initially driven by the commercialization of MDI-based product lines. Local production capacity is significant for the Urethanes business. The clients require capacity to efficiently and rapidly react to demand in the local market and to satisfy the lead-time demands of their own customers. The capacity expansion at Latina will offer the flexibility to the customers.

Chemtura Urethanes' president, Matthew Hellstern commented that this investment has strengthened the Urethanes business's strategic growth in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) regions. The company is planning to improve Latina-based EMEA technical development centre that will enable the team to provide better technical support capacities for the clients in the region.
MRC

(romania-insider) -- Romanian construction materials producer AdePlast plans to build a third factory in Romanian city, Roman this year, according to the company. Investment will amount to over EUR 10 million for a production site for mortars, polystyrene and paint. Through the new production facility, the company aims to cover the Eastern and Northeastern part of the country with lower costs, and also to serve customers in Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova.

"For 2012, in the optimistic budget scenario, we planned an increase of over 20 percent. The growth is perfectly plausible if taking into account that in 2011 AdePlast increased by over 12 percent on a numbed market governed by price decreases, said Marcel Barbut, owner AdePlast. The company has already increased its prices by 5 percent, and for the first part of the second quarter of 2012 ⌠ a further 5 percent will be added to our product prices," added Marcel Barbut.

AdePlast has also appointed its consultants for 2012, namely Deloitte for auditing and LinksPR for communication.

AdePlast was founded in Oradea, in 1994. The company now owns two production units, at Oradea and Ploiesti. Their annual capacity reaches 700,000 tonnes of mortar and 800,000 tonnes of tincture, decorative coating and special humid adhesives.

MRC

(fibre2fashion) -- The Indian Government has extended the levy of anti-dumping duty on various types of yarn imports for a further period of six months till August 20, 2012.

The anti-dumping duty on imports of all Fully Drawn or Fully Oriented Yarn/Spin Draw Yarn / Flat Yarn of polyester, originating in, or exported from, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan was first imposed in February 2007 by the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance. These yarns are used in weaving and knitting to make fabrics.

The duty was imposed after the Directorate-General of Anti-Dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD) found that low-price imports of yarn from the four Asian nations were harming the domestic industry.

The DGAD had sought extension of the duty for a period of another one year. But the latest notification issued by the Department of Revenue says the anti-dumping duty shall remain in force up to and inclusive of August 20, 2012, unless the notification is revoked earlier.

As per the procedure, while the DGAD has the power to recommend the imposition of anti-dumping duty, it is the Department of Revenue which actually imposes it.
MRC

(plasteurope) -- In a move aimed at improving the way the current polystyrene price is settled - a process it says "presents a number of inefficiencies ranging from incorrect pricing to time-consuming accounting adjustments" - Styron Europe (Horgen / Switzerland) has proposed that the monthly PS price be fixed in the first week of each month and no later than the 10th working day.

Europe sales manager Murat Orhon said that, ⌠In the past three years the contracts were mostly fixed only at month's end. Under present practices orders are placed and delivered before the PS contract has been fixed."

MRC