Mitsui Chemicals, Kemira in Agreement For Acrylamide Bio-Process Technology

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Tokyo- Mitsui Chemicals said it has signed a licensing agreement with Kemira giving Kemira "geographical exclusivity" for the production of acrylamide (AAM) using Mitsui’s proprietary bio-process technology, said Apic-online.

Mitsui noted that its AAM manufacturing technology, which uses bio-catalysts, has been "highly evaluated for its stability in producing high-quality products, when compared with existing copper catalyst chemical processes, and its low burden on the environment."

Separately, Kemira said it has completed a two-year, multi-million euro expansion of its North American polymer production facilities, and added that the agreement with Mitsui will strengthen its polymer product line globally. The expansion resulted in a 60% capacity increase.

As MRC wrote earlier, Mitsui and Dow Chemical have decided to delay construction of a USD1.5 bn sugarcane-to-plastics facility in southeastern Brazil. Dow has chosen to focus on more profitable projects elsewhere, in particular using shale gas reserves in the US as cheap feedstock.

Kemira is a chemical industry group that consists of three main segments. Kemira is headquartered in Helsinki, Finland. Kemira became the world's biggest provider of the pulp and paper chemicals after its acquisition of the pulp and paper chemical operations of Lanxess.

Mitsui Chemicals is a leading manufacturer and supplier of value added specialty chemicals, plastics and materials for the automotive, healthcare, packaging, agricultural, building, and semiconductor and electronics markets. Mitsui Chemicals is a Japanese Chemicals company, a part of the Mitsui conglomerate. The company has a turnover of around 15 billion USD and has business interests in Japan, Europe, China, Southeast Asia and the USA. The company mainly deals in performance materials, petro and basic chemicals and functional polymeric materials.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Saudi petrochemicals industry will lead Middle East's rise as one of the most important petchem hubs in the world. But low natural gas prices in North America could eat into the region's market share, said Zawya.

"Over the next several years, the most rapid growth will occur in the emerging nations of Asia-Pacific, Africa and the Middle East, Emerging Europe, and Latin America," said American Chemistry Council, a trade association. "The most notable growth will occur in China and India. The chemical industries of the emerging nations will increase 4.9% in 2012, 6.8% in 2013, and 7.6% in 2014."

Middle East petrochemicals production will rise 5.1% each year till 2017, according to ACC estimates, beating global output growth of 4%, but below other emerging markets.

However, Saudi Arabia and the Middle East remains the lowest cost petchem hub in the world. Analysts also believe it is the fastest growing sector in the region. But that's about to change.

"One of the key investment debates around the Saudi Petrochemical sector recently has been on future gas price levels," said Nitin Garg, analyst at SICO.

As MRC wrote earlier, Sabic, the world's largest petrochemicals company, mirrored some of the pain in the petrochemicals industry.Net income for the full 2012 reached SR24.7-billion, declining 15.5% year-on-year due to higher cost of sales and lower prices which mitigated the impact of increased volumes and lower finance cost.

Meanwhile, net income in the fourth quarter stood at SR5.8 billion, 8% below consensus of SR6.4 billion.

"SABIC reported a reasonable set of earnings considering soft demand globally, high feedstock cost and continued weakness in Saudi Kayan's operational performance," said NCBC.

Saudi Arabian Yanbu National Petrochemicals, better known as Yansab, also reported a 3.6% year-on-year drop in fourth-quarter profits to 640.8 million Saudi riyal (USD170.8 million), citing lower prices for most products.

SAFCO Q4 earnings also beat analyst expectations, with net income at SR1,146-million.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The leading producer of PET for packaging applications in the Americas and the market's technological leader, Mossi & Ghisolfi (M&G), has signed a USD1 billion engineering, procurement and construction contract with Sinopec Engineering for turnkey construction of planned polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and purified terephthalic acid (PTA) facilities in Corpus Christi, Texas, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

M&G will build the world's largest single-line PET plant with a capacity of 1 million tpy (2.2 billion lb), integrated with the western world's biggest single-line PTA plant with a capacity of 1.2 million tpy (2.6 billion lb), as MRC wrote earlier.

"This is the largest PET investment ever in the western world and probably one of the largest investments recently announced in the US in the private sector," said Marco Ghisolfi, CEO of M&G's polymers business.

M&G's engineering arms, Chemtex Global S.a r.l. and M&G Finanziaria S.r.l., will provide critical equipment and services on a subcontracting basis to turnkey contractor Sinopec, according to the company.

The completion of construction of the plants, including the time required to obtain necessary permits, is expected to occur within 36 months. M&G will be the sole owner of the plants and solely responsible for their operation.

M&G Group is a family owned chemical engineering and manufacturing group headquartered in Tortona, Italy. M&G Group operates in the PET resin industry through its wholly-owned holding company Mossi & Ghisolfi International S.A. (M&G International). M&G International is one of the largest producer of PET resin for packaging applications in the Americas, with a production capacity in 2012 of approximately 1.6 million tons per annum.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - In 2012, Russia's production of bottle PET increased by 55,700 tonnes, up 14% year-on-year, and hit a new historical record, according to MRC DataScope.

In 2012, Russian producers continued to increase the output of bottle PET. Thus, the annual production of bottle PET in Russia amounted to 452,000 tonnes, up 14% from 2011 and reached new record. The PET production grew due to several factors. Firstly, in 2011 Alco-nafta (Kaliningrad) launched PET production in late February, which affected the output voulumes last year. During the year, the company has been producing the PET for all 12 months. Secondly, in 2011, the turnaround of Senezh, Solnechnogorsk (from late September to late November) resulted in the decrease of output by 15,000 tonnes of PET, than in 2012.

Alco-Naphtha is still the largest producer of PET in Russia. In 2012, it produced 145,500 tonnes of PET granulate. Though, the company is still not working at full capacity. Polief, the second largest PET plant in Russia, last year produced 132,900 tonnes of bottle PET granulate. The production of Senezh, Solnechnogorsk and Sibur-PETF, Tver made 98,900 tonnes and 75,300 tonnes of material, respectively.

The average annual capacity utilization of the Russia's producers of PET amounted to about 87%. It is expected that in 2013, Russian plants will increase their production. These forecasts are based on increase production capacity of Polief, Bashkir in the second half of 2013, and plans of Alco-Naphtha to reach its 100% of capacity utilisation. The increase of production is possible only if the situation on export markets will be fauvorable. Since Russian plants can not replace imports completely, the increase of PET production will lead to increased competition in the domestic market.

MRC

MOSCOW (ICIS-MRC) -- Producers of North American PVC announced another increase in export prices for February. The high price level makes many buyers refuse from purchasing the material, including companies from the CIS countries, according to ICIS-MRS Price report.

Amid good demand from domestic and export markets, as well as planned outages for maintenance at some production sites in January - February, PVC producers in the U.S. have announced a further increase in export prices for February shipments. This week, PVC price offers for February were voiced in the range of USD980-1,000/tonne, FAS Houston. Such a high price level makes many consumers refuse from February purchases. Companies from the CIS countries are no exception.

Deals for November shipments of PVC from the U.S. by companies from the CIS countries were concluded in the range of USD870-930/tonne, CFR St Petersburg, and USD900-920/tonne, CIF Odessa. But already by the end of the month, export prices had risen by USD40-60/tonne on keen demand. The fabourable situation both in the domestic and foreign markets, as well as limited export quotas, allowed US producers to get a major rise in export prices. Over the past three months, export quotations of North American PVC grew by USD160-200/tonne.

Price offers for PVC from the US for February shipments are voiced in the range of USD1,075-1,105/tonne, CFR St Petersburg, and USD1,060-1,090/tonne, CIF Odessa. Many companies from the CIS countries reported that they were not ready to buy PVC at such high prices. The similar announcements are being heard from companies from Turkey, India and China.
MRC