Formosa expands capacity at Mailiao refinery

(Argus) -- Taiwanese private sector refiner Formosa Petrochemical has restarted 80,000 barrels per day residual desulphurization unit and raised operating rates at its 540,000 barrels per day Mailiao refinery after a week long disruption.

The increased output has done little to boost sentiment the Asian gasoil market that is already well supplied, exacerbated by poor arbitrage economics to Europe or the US.

Formosa restarted the residual desulphurization unit on September 9th 2010, while runs rates at two of its three 180,000 barrels per day capacity crude distillation units were raised to around 95%. The residual desulphurization unit was shut a week ago to allow Formosa to carry out further investigations and make design corrections at the refinery following a fire in late July 2010.

Russian polymers' market prospects are going to be discussed at Russian Polymers Summit on October 14, 2010 organized by ICIS and MRC. For more information please refer to http://www.polmersummit.ru/ Summit official web page.

MRC

LONDON (ICIS) -- A planned six to seven week maintenance turnaround is underway at BP Refining & Petrochemicals' (BPRP) No 4 cracker at Gelsenkirchen, Germany, a company source said on Wednesday.

The cracker, which has the capacity to produce 525,000 tonnes/year of ethylene and 260,000 tonnes/year of propylene, according to ICIS data, is one of two owned and operated by BPRP at the site.

It had started to ramp down operations last week and was one of a number of other European crackers which were down for maintenance in the September-October time frame.

Russian polymers' market prospects are going to be discussed at Russian Polymers Summit on October 14, 2010 organized by ICIS and MRC. For more information please refer to http://www.polmersummit.ru/ Summit official web page.

MRC

(PlastEurope) -- Baerlocher has launched a Ca/Zn stabiliser for use in the manufacture of plastisols for PVC flooring, which that it claims greatly reduces VOC emissions in flooring systems. ⌠Baerostab LOW-VOC Ca/Zn solid and paste products retain the performance benefits of traditional liquid stabilisers in PVC flooring applications, the company said.

They are free from solvent, phenol and ethylhexanoic acid and are claimed to achieve plastisol viscosity properties equal to those seen with traditional liquid stabilisers. They are suitable for use in filled, pigmented and transparent plastisols and have been developed primarily for application in the stabilisation of topcoat flooring.

Russian polymers' market prospects are going to be discussed at Russian Polymers Summit on October 14 2010 organized by ICIS and MRC. For more information please refer to http://www.polmersummit.ru/ Summit official web page.

MRC

(prw) -- US-based compounder Teknor Apex is acquiring the Sarlink TPV unit from DSM for an undisclosed sum. The deal includes the Sarlink compounding facilities in Belgium and the US, as well as offices the Netherlands, Shanghai and Singapore.

Teknor Apex will continue to sell TPVs under the Sarlink name.

⌠Teknor Apex is a natural fit for the Sarlink group and the synergies from our combined people and resources will benefit the customers of both, said Bertram M Lederer, executive VP of Teknor Apex.

Russian polymers' market prospects are going to be discussed at Russian Polymers Summit on October 14, 2010 organized by ICIS and MRC. For more information please refer to http://www.polmersummit.ru/ Summit official web page.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The latest MRC Annual report "Polyethylene in Russia 2010" is available in English - the company said on Wednesday.

This Annual Report presents the in-depth analysis of the polyethylene market in Russia. In this Report we are offering a new format of analytics. The text of the Report contains the most important considerations (bullet points) written by our analysts, while the appendix represents all market statistics that could be generated. The Report describes the key trends in the polyethylene market in the context of technologies, sectors and types of finished goods. Forecast has been made by sectors and processing technologies. A great attention has been paid to analysis of investments into production and polyethylene processing.

The Report includes analysis of consumption, production, exports and imports of PE in Russia by types, processing technologies, consumers, producers and their grades, as well as detailed statistics on operations of all large market players (producers, traders, equipment suppliers and converters) in each processing sector. All data refer to the period of 2000-2009. Furthermore, we present forecast till 2026. We continue to provide sales rating of the top 40 PE producers and top 40 PE grades. The Report includes profiles of top 20 PE suppliers in Russia, as well as the rating of top 50 PE converters.

For more information about the report click here.

Russian polymers' market prospects are going to be discussed at Russian Polymers Summit on October 14 2010 organized by ICIS and MRC. For more information please refer to http://www.polmersummit.ru/ Summit official web page.

MRC