(TradingMarkets) -- Akzo Nobel NV, a Netherlands-based manufacturer of paints, coatings and specialty chemicals, has agreed to acquire Prime Automotive Coatings Co., Ltd., a China-based producer of car repair paint, water-based road marking paint, plastic paint, automobile paint and automotive wheel paints.
The transaction enables Akzo Nobel to boost its presence in the Chinese automotive market and opens up an opportunity in the attractive vehicle refinish mid-market segment.
(Reuters) -- China has granted environmental clearance and approved technical review of a US$8.7 bln refinery and petrochemical joint venture between Sinopec and Kuwait. The venture, to be built in southern coastal city Zhanjiang, includes a 300,000 bpd refinery and a 1 mln tps ethylene complex, awaits final state approval.
The venture will be equally owned by Sinopec Group. Kuwait could scout for a second or third foreign partner for joint funding upon final approval. This venture will mark the foray of Kuwait into direct marketing and retail access in China. China, the world's fastest expanding major fuel market which has long been dominated by oil duopoly Sinopec and PetroChina. For China, which now imports over half of its crude requirements, a commitment to receive long-term oil supplies from an exporter such as Kuwait is essential. Kuwait, the world's seventh-largest crude exporter, aims eventually to export 500,000 bpd of crude to China, or double its target for this year.
(plastemart) -- The world's first methanol-to-olefins unit to be operated on a commercial scale has started up in China. The plant using the combined DMTO methanol-to-olefins technology of SYN Energy Technology Co. Ltd. and Lummus Technology has successfully started-up in Baotou, China. The plant is owned by China Shenhua Coal to Liquid and Chemical Company Ltd.
The breakthrough technology enables licensees to produce olefins (ethylene and propylene) from methanol. The plant is designed to produce 600,000 tpa of olefins from methanol. On spec ethylene and propylene product were achieved less than 72 hours after methanol was introduced to the unit.
(plastemart) -- Saudi Aramco, state-owned oil company of Saudi Arabia, and the Houston, Texas, offices of Dow Chemical Company are moving ahead with plans to construct a petrochemical complex in Saudi Arabia. Originally planned for Ras Tanura, which is approximately 400 kms northwest of Riyad, Saudi Aramco and Dow decided to move the project to Al-Jubail for financial reasons. The new site, about 30 kms north of Ras Tanura, is far more developed because of the site's close proximity to Al Jubail Industrial City, which was established in 1975.
Dow and Saudi Aramco, signed a memorandum of understanding in May of 2007, and originally planned to feature two naphtha crackers to be designed by Technip (Paris, France) at the ethylene-based complex, but the idea was deemed overly ambitious, and one of the crackers was scrapped. Nevertheless, development of the Al-Jubail Petrochemical Complex is still on track. Dow and Saudi Aramco have signed contracts with other engineering firms to be involved in the project. In July of 2007, the two companies selected KBR Incorporated as the project management contractor, while earlier this year, the Houston, Texas, office of Jacobs Engineering Group Incorporated was selected to provide Saudi Aramco with program management services for several onshore projects, including the US$7 bln-plus Al-Jubail Petrochemical Complex.
You can discuss that with Dow's CEO in CIS and Eastern Europe at "Russian Polymers Summit - 2010" international conference organized by ICIS and MRC. For more information please refer to http://www.polymersummit.ru/ conference official web page.
(plastemart) -- Formosa Petrochemical Corp. plans to restart a residue processing unit that was shut Sept. 2 at its Mailiao refining complex. A suspected flaw in piping design at the 80,500 bpd No. 1 residue desulfurization unit is being corrected. Formosa halted its 80,500 bpd No. 2 residue desulfurization unit after a fire on July 25. The Mailiao refinery has three crude distillation units, each able to process 180,000 bpd. Formosa Petrochemical shut the 540,000 bps refinery for safety reasons after an oil leak triggered a blaze at the No. 2 residue desulfurization unit. The company is using about one-third of its crude refining capacity, with one crude unit still shut and the other two running at half capacity.
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