Husky union workers call strike at Ohio refinery

(hydracarbonprocessing) -- Union workers have called a strike at Husky Energy’s refinery in Lima, Ohio, leaving the refiner's management to run the 150,000 bpd plant, the union said Friday.

About 235 members of the United Steelworkers union walked off the job after failing to reach a contract agreement.
The union filed 23 unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board against the company, national USW spokeswoman Lynne Hancock said.

A Husky spokesman was not immediately available.
The refinery produces about 2 billion gal/year of refined fuel, including about a quarter of the gasolineconsumed in the state of Ohio. The local union "still believes there is room to negotiate," Hancock said.


MRC

(hydracarbonprocessing) -- Joint venture partners Sumitomo Chemical and Saudi Aramco are moving ahead with phase two of their Petro Rabigh integrated refinery and petrochemicals expansion in Rabigh, Saudi Arabia, the companies announced on Friday.

A recently-completed study has confirmed the feasibility of the Rabigh II project, after which the companies finalized various project elements, they said.

Those include agreements for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) and other project contracts, as well as project financing.

Each plant will be brought on stream as it becomes available for operation, beginning the first half of 2016, the companies said.
It is envisaged that, subject to the necessary corporate authorization procedure at PetroRabigh, Petro Rabigh will serve as the project company for the Rabigh II Project.
The total investment is projected to reach USD7 billion. Sumitomo Chemical and Saudi Aramco each have a 37.5% stake in Petro Rabigh.

The Rabigh II project’s main products will be ethylene propylene rubber (EPDM), thermoplastic polyolefin (TPO), methyl methacrylate (MMA) monomer, polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), low density polyethylene/ethylene vinyl acetate (LDPE/EVA), paraxylene/benzene, cumene and phenol/acetone.

Capacity information was not disclosed.


MRC

(chemmonitor) -- Consumption of rubber in the global market is likely to increase to almost 27 million metric tons in the existing year.

The hike in demand for the product will result from the growing urban population, green mobility and modern requirements for synthetic rubber used in green tires production. By the way, the new requirements will be effective from November 2012.

The total number of cars in the world is forecast to reach about 3 billion in about twenty years.

MRC

(chemmonitor) -- India and China-based polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film companies will continue obtaining lower profit from their operations in South Korea as local government decided to prolong anti-dumping duties on the material coming from the above mentioned countries.

The duties are 15.6 percent on average. They act as a measure required to improve financial performance of PET manufacturers from South Korea.

Same duties effective during a three-year period were imposed in October 2008. They expired last year.

MRC

(chemmonitor) -- A large number of ethylene production units in April and this month in North America created increased availability of the material.

This affected performance of downstream polyethylene (PE). The PE market was also impacted by the purchasing activity downturn as local users had previously built their inventories. Lower crude quotes influenced PE operations in May, as well.

North America PE traders could maintain price stability through the first week of the month.

MRC