HC Petrochem to complete construction of a new PX unit

(Plastemart) -- South Korea’s HC Petrochem is expected to complete the construction of a new 800,000 tonne/year paraxylene (PX) unit at Daesan in South Korea by the end of this year.

HC Petrochem manufactures and markets paraxylene. The company was founded in 2009 and is based in Seosan Si, South Korea. HC Petrochem is a joint venture between Cosmo Oil and Hyundai Oilbank.
MRC

(Plastemart) -- Reliance Industries Ltd has posted its third consecutive drop in quarterly profit. Net profit for the June quarter of Reliance Industries (RIL) fell 21% to Rs 4470 crore on dwindling margins in all its business segments - refining, petrochemicals and oil & gas production.

However, sales rose to Rs 91,875 crore due to higher petrochemical volumes when compared to Rs 83,869 crore year on year. Its petrochemicals business posted a 19% rise in revenue on higher demand and prices, but margins declined on narrower spreads.

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is an Indian conglomerate company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. The company operates through three business segments: petrochemicals, refining, and oil and gas, other segment of the company includes textile, retail business, special economic zone (SEZ) development and telecom/broadband business. RIL is one of the largest publicly traded company in India by market capitalisation and is the second largest company in India by revenue after Indian Oil Corporation.It is also India's largest private sector company by revenue and profit.
MRC

(Plastemart) -- Samsung Total restarted its Daesan petrochemical complex on Saturday following an unexpected shutdown last Friday due to a power failure.

The complex has a steam cracker with a design capacity of 1 mln tpa of ethylene, 600,000 mtpa of propylene and 114,000 mtpa of butadiene, and an aromatics unit which can make 610,000 mtpa of paraxylene and 470,000 mtpa of benzene. Other downstream units at the complex include two SM units with a combined capacity of 950,000 mtpa.

In Taiwan, Formosa Chemicals & Fiber Corp. aims to bring its 350,000 mtpa No. 2 SM plant at Mailiao up to 100% of operating capacity in about a week after it was restarted over the weekend, a company source said Monday.

As it was mentioned earlier by MRC, Formosa resumed production at 54 out of the complex's 66 units at its petrochemical complex in Yunlin County in early July, shut down due to a power failure.
MRC

(Plastemart) -- Williams announced today that it is exploring building a propane dehydrogenation (PDH) facility in Alberta, Canada. A new PDH facility, which would be the first in Canada, would allow Williams to significantly increase its production of polymer-grade propylene from its Canadian operations.

Williams' proposed PDH facility in Canada would have an annual capacity of approximately 1 billion pounds. The company estimates capital expenditures of approximately USD600-800 mln that would be funded primarily with international cash on hand.

Williams is the only company in Canada producing polymer-grade propylene, a valuable petrochemical feedstock used in plastics manufacturing.

"Building a PDH facility would further build on the value and expertise that we've built in Canada and serve the booming North American petrochemical market," said David Chappell, president of Williams Energy Canada.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - In H1 2012 the output of bottle grade polyethylene terephthalate (PET) rose by 42,000 tonnes, year on year, and made 233,600 tonnes. Russian plants keep to increase production volumes for the third consecutive year, according to MRC ScanPlast.

This year, the Russian plants increased significantly their volume of production of the material. First of all, this result was achieved due to the new market players activity. Consequently, the volume of imported feedstock declined amid growing output from domestic producers. In January-June, imports of PET to Russia fell by 54%, compared with a year earlier and made about 90,000 tonnes.

Kaliningrad factory Alco-Naphtha was a leader in the production of PET in the Russian Federation. The share of the company made 30% of all domestic production this year. In H1 2012, the plant produced about 78,500 tonnes of PET of Ekopet80 grade.

The company did not load its capacity utilization by 100% (220,000 tonnes/year). If company's share in export markets in Western Europe grows, the company’s capacity utilization will increase to the rated output. Polief, Bashkir maker of PET granulate in January-June 2012 produced 70,300 tonnes of the polymer.

At the present, the company’s production volumes did not changed. In 2011 the company produced 69,800 tonnes of PET. At the same time, Polief’s capacity utilization exceeds 100%.

Company Senezh (Solnechnogorsk) produced 48,700 tonnes of PET granulate. Sibur-PETF’s (Tver) output reached 36,200 tonnes of material, under the grade TverPET.

Summing up the H1 2012, it should be noted that, despite the fall in total consumption of PET in Russia (from 368,500 tonnes in January-June 2011 to 288,800 tonnes in January-June 2012), the domestic production volume even increased by 22%.MRC