Eastman finishes retrofit of newly-acquired plasticizer plant in Texas

(hydrocarbonprocessing) -- Eastman Chemical has completed the retrofit and startup of its non-phthalate plasticizer manufacturing facility in Texas City, Texas. Eastman, which purchased the former Sterling Chemicals plant in mid-2011, said further capacity additions were possible with minimal investment.

Eastman Chemical says it has completed the retrofit and startup of its non-phthalate plasticizer manufacturing facility in Texas City, Texas.Eastman acquired the former Sterling Chemicals plant in mid-2011 as part of its USD100 million purchase of the company.

The facility, which will primarily produce Eastman 168 non-phthalate plasticizer, will increase the overall capacity of Eastman 168 by approximately 60%, the company said.

Further capacity increases are possible with minimal investment at the Texas City site as demand for non-phthalate plasticizers continues to grow, Eastman said.

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(chemmonitor) -- Polypropylene (PP) market in Asia will witness a rise in supply in a couple of months. In the Indian and Chinese markets, the inventories of PP are likely to increase by about 2 million tons annually in line with new units startups.

The Chinese PP market is predicted to boost the output of the product by around 900,000 tons per year by late Q2 2012.

The China-based power producer Datang International Power Generation Company will implement tests at its new methanol-to-olefins unit with the annual output of 461,000 tons.

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(arkema) -- Arkema Coating Resins, a business unit of Arkema, has announced the sale of the Peninsula Polymers business, a national distributor of coatings raw materials headquartered in North Kansas City, MO. The business has been purchased by an investment group led by the current management team; terms of the sale were not disclosed.

The distributor was acquired by Arkema Inc. as part of the purchase of the coating resins business of Cook Composites and Polymers in 2011. Peninsula Polymers will continue to represent certain Arkema Coating Resins lines in North America.

"We are pleased to announce the sale has been closed, and that Peninsula Polymers will continue to distribute our products," said Richard D. Jenkins, global group president for Arkema Coating Resins. "We believe that the change of ownership will be smooth and seamless, and is in the best long term interest of our customers now being served by Peninsula Polymers."

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(borealisgroup) -- The pipe grade polypropylene (PP) from Borealis, a leading provider of chemical and innovative plastics solutions, was chosen for a recently completed upgrade and enlargement of a sewage network in the Czech Republic for bordering municipalities Ivancice and Oslavany.

The sewage network owners aimed to reduce leakages and the risk of groundwater pollution from the existing system. The project involved the replacement of 26 kilometres of ageing concrete pipes which were corroded and cracked, as well as an extension of the waste water network to connect an additional 15% of households.
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(basf) -- BASF announced its plans to build a world scale production plant for formic acid at its integrated "Verbund" site in Geismar, Louisiana.

The new plant will create 20 new jobs and have an annual capacity of more than 50,000 tons. It will be the only formic acid production plant in North America and will allow BASF to better serve strategic markets in North and South America including applications for pharmaceuticals, energy, animal nutrition, leather and cleaning products. Start-up of the new plant is expected in the 2nd quarter 2014.

BASF currently operates two formic acid production plants located at the company's integrated Verbund sites in Ludwigshafen, Germany, and Nanjing, China, with a total annual capacity of more than 255,000 tons.

BASF's customers use formic acid as an eco-friendly solution in a wide range of applications such as in animal feed where it provides protection of the feed and supports the health of the animal itself. Potassium formate, a salt of formic acid, is an environmentally friendly and highly efficient de-icing agent used on roads and airport runways. It is easily biodegradable thereby protecting aquatic wildlife in nearby rivers and watersheds.


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