Mitsui Chemicals to establish a new company to produce thermoplastic elastomers

(GV) -- Mitsui Chemicals set up a new company for functional polymeric materials - Mitsui Chemicals Functional Composites (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., in the Jinshan District Shanghai, China. The new company is expected to serve as the group’s compound base and future base for automotive polypropylenes in the area.

The new company will manufacture and distribute Milastomer and Admer. Milastomer is a thermoplastic olefinic elastomer used in glass run channels for automobile windows and in sheathing applications, and Admer is a polyolefin used as an adhesive for automobile fuel tanks and food packaging.

Mitsui said in a statement that in China, demand for Milastomer has grown in line with increased use of cross-linked thermoplastic elastomers in glass run channels of automobiles and demand for more luxurious automobile interior materials. Similarly, the market for Admer has grown along with wider applications of resins in automobile fuel tanks and spreading awareness of food safety resulting in the increased use of barrier food packaging materials. To respond to this growing market demand, the company established a new supply base in Shanghai. The production capacity will be 11,000 t/y. It will be established in November 2012, commercial operation is planned to start in October 2014.

Mitsui Chemicals is a Japanese-based producer of petrochemicals, polymers, industrial chemicals, fine chemicals and engineering materials.
MRC

(plastopedia) -- The Hermosa Beach City Council has officially approved a ban on polystyrene food packaging, which includes restaurants and grocery stores.

So, another California city has put the lid on expanded polystyrene packaging. And now California is going forward with a statewide referendum to ban them altogether. SB 568, by Sen. Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach), would prohibit a food vendor or restaurant on or after Jan. 1, 2016 from dispensing prepared food to a customer in a polystyrene foam food container. The compliance date for public schools is July 1, 2017.
MRC

(plastemart) -- Total plans to invest over 1 billion euros at its Belgian refining and petrochemical complex to boost its diesel-making capacity and create cost-cutting synergies, as per Reuters.

This investment could bring Europe's largest refiner extra cash of USD500 mln a year. Total wants to focus on investing in its larger, integrated petrochemical and refining plants to maximize synergies, while keeping investment at other European plants to a minimum.

Total S.A. is a French multinational oil and gas company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world. Its businesses cover the entire oil and gas chain, from crude oil and natural gas exploration and production to power generation, transportation, refining, petroleum product marketing, and international crude oil and product trading. Total is also a large-scale chemicals manufacturer.
MRC

(lanxess) -- LANXESS has opened its first production plant for high-tech plastics in the United States. With the new facility in Gastonia in the U.S. state of North Carolina, the company will help to meet the growing demand for premium, lightweight plastics. The amount of the company's investement in the new facility makes USD 20 million (EUR 15 million). The new plant will initially operate with a capacity of 20,000 metric tons a year.

Lanxess' highly innovative materials (Durethan and Pocan brands) help to build much lighter plastic parts that can replace metal ones in motor vehicles, helping to reduce fuel consumption and emissions. Furthermore, the materials enable automobile manufacturers and suppliers to achieve more freedom in design and considerable savings in production.

The new LANXESS site in Gastonia is on the fringe of the so-called "auto belt" in the southern USA. Numerous car manufacturers - including a number of German companies - and auto suppliers have settled in the states of North and South Carolina. And around a quarter of North American auto suppliers - including many LANXESS customers - operate manufacturing facilities in North Carolina.

Demand for high-tech plastics is being driven, above all, by the trend towards lighter automobiles and rising car production. The global demand for high-tech plastics is expected to increase by roughly seven percent per year through 2020. In addition, the plastic content of any car can amount to 20 percent - a figure that is showing an upward trend. The USA is the largest market for high-tech plastics, with the automotive industry at the forefront.

LANXESS is a leader in specialty chemicals. Its core business comprises the development, manufacture and sale of plastics, rubber, specialty chemicals and intermediates.
MRC

(plastemart) -- Westlake Chemical Corp announced plans to perform planned maintenance and an expansion of the Petro 2 ethylene unit at its complex in Lake Charles, LA in the first quarter of 2013.

This expansion will increase ethane-based ethylene capacity by approximately 230-240 mlnlbs annually in support of the Company's ethylene integration strategy. The unit is expected to be down approximately 50 days for the work to be completed.

Westlake Chemical is a vertically integrated manufacturer and marketer of basic chemicals, vinyls (PVC), polymers (PE) and fabricated products.
MRC