LyondellBasell offers new pre-colored resins for use in rotomolding

ROTTERDAM (Chempoint) -- LyondellBasell is extending its range of high-performance Lupolen linear high density polyethylene (HDPE) resins to address the diversified requirements of customer rotomolding applications.Lupolen 3621 M RM Black and Lupolen 4021 K RM Black HDPE compounds are the latest additions to the company's recently launched portfolio of resins used in rotomolding.

According to Anna Raquet, LyondellBasell's Business Development Manager, Industrial Packaging & Rotomolding, ⌠Next to natural, black is the most commonly used color in rotomolding applications. With two new resins in our portfolio, we are well-positioned to address the polymer requirements of the rotomolding industry. The new pre-colored resins provide customers with excellent cold temperature impact performance and environmental stress cracking resistance. Typical customer applications include industrial fuel tanks, technical parts, and underground waste and sewage systems.

MRCMRC Reference

LyondellBasell. The share in the Russian market in 2008:
PE - 1.4% (including HDPE - 2.5%, LDPE - 0.3%);
PP - 4.1% (including block-copolymers - 9.5%).

Annual sales growth in Russia, during the recent 5 years:
PE - 27%;
PP - 88%.

The leader in the following polymers processing technologies:

pipe extrusion;

film extrusion;

injection molding

(plastemart) -- Saudi Arabia's Petro Rabigh expects to achieve on-spec production at its fluid catalytic cracker at Rabigh by mid week, as per Platts. Though in the process of restarting, the 900,000 tpa propylene capacity FCC, has yet to attain on-spec production. The FCC (deep catalytic cracker) has been offline since August 2 for repairs and was scheduled to restart about a week ago, but instability due to recent repairs delayed the process.

This shutdown forced a shutdown of the company's 700,000 tpa polypropylene plant. Petro Rabigh uses all its propylene output to make PP and also propylene oxide at its 400,000 tpa plant.

MRC

(plastemart) -- Shell Chemicals announced the successful first turnaround at the CSPCL - "Nanhai" petrochemicals joint venture complex in Guangdong, China. Nanhai is a joint venture with China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC). The turnaround was completed while simultaneously carrying out the debottlenecking of an ethylene cracker and process units. Both were finished ahead of time and within budget. Debottlenecking the ethylene cracker, ethylene oxide/ethylene glycols, and styrene monomer/propylene oxide process units will improve the site's competiveness by increasing capacity and reducing unit costs. After the debottlenecking, the annual ethylene capacity weShell Chemicals successfully completes first turnaround at Nanhaint from 800 kilotonnes per annum to 950 ktpa, with total petrochemical production capacity at the plant increasing from 2.3 million tons to 2.7 million tons.

MRC

(plastemart) -- South Korea's Honam Petrochemical will pay about US$1.25 bln in cash to acquire Titan Chemicals Corporation. Following an initial takeover of 72.6% of the shares held by Titan head and the state-run Permoladan Nasional, Honam plans to squeeze out the remaining shareholders. The takeover propels Honam, the petrochemical division of Korea's Lotte Group into the league of leading Asian ethylene manufacturers. The company's C2 capacity, currently at 1.75 mln tpa will rise to about 2.5 mln tpa as a result, while revenues are expected to increase to EUR 8 bln.

Titan is considered to be Malaysia's largest olefin and polyolefin manufacturer. Since its 2006 takeover of Indonesian polyethylene producer PT Petrokimia Nusantara (PT Peni, Jakarta), the Malay company is widely believed to be South East Asia's second-largest polyolefin manufacturer. Titan operates 10 plants at its Malay production sites in Pasir Gudang and Tanjung Langsat, as well as in Indonesia. Company sales last amounted to US$ 1.64 bln. All in all, Titan has capacities for 1 mln tpa of PE, 480,000 tpa of PP, 100,000 tpa of butadiene and 38,000 tpa of BOPP film.

MRC

(China Knowledge) -- Formosa Petrochemical Corp, the largest petrochemical conglomerate in Taiwan, announced yesterday that its net profit for the first half of this year was NT$21.21 billion, up 36% from the NT$15.56 billion it earned in the same period of last year.

In a statement filed with the Taiwan Stock Exchange, the firm said that earnings per share during the period from January to June were NT$2.23, up from NT$1.63 in the same period of last year.

In the six-month ended on Jun. 30, revenue was NT$410.46 billion, said the firm. But it did not give the comparable figure for the same period of last year.

Formosa Petrochemical realized NT$10.97 billion in net profit for the first quarter of this year.

MRCMRC Reference

Formosa

The share in the Russian market in 2008:
PVC-S - 3.0%;

PP - 0.4%.

Annual growth sales in Russia :
PVC - 79 % (over the last year) ;

PP - 272 % (over the last 3 years).

Supply by processing technologies:
profile extrusion

film extrusion