Petronas to delay USD19 bln petrochemicals project to 2018

MOSCOW (MRC) - State oil firm Petronas will start up its USD19 billion petrochemicals complex in Malaysia in 2018, the company told Reuters on Tuesday, signalling a further delay in the country's largest-ever infrastructure project, said Reuters.

A delay to the project in southern Johor state could deal a potential blow to the economy of the Southeast Asian nation as well as local oil and gas services firms hoping for work on the massive complex.

A source familiar with Petronas' business strategy told Reuters the project had been complicated by a need to secure water supplies as well as cater for proposed international partners.

Petronas had already put back the project from late 2016 to early 2017 in June and revised the final investment decision (FID) to the first quarter next year, citing state government problems in relocating villages and graves from the 2,000 hectare-site, five times the size of New York Central Park.

"As a result of the revised FID date, the RAPID refinery is scheduled to be ready for start-up in Q4 2017 and the remaining plants within the complex is scheduled to be commissioned in 2018," Petronas said in a statement to Reuters on Tuesday.

This is at least six months later than market expectations after local media had cited Petronas CEO Shamsul Azhar Abbas in June as saying the start date for phase one of the RAPID project had been pushed back to early 2017.

Petronas, Malaysia's only Fortune 500 company, has signed heads of agreements with Italy's Versalis SpA, Japan's Itochu and Bangkok-listed PTT Global Chemical to build speciality chemical plants.

Germany's Evonik also stepped in to the project after rival BASF - the world's top chemicals group - pulled out after differences in business strategy.

Petronas, short for Petroliam Nasional Berhad, is a Malaysian oil and gas company wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia. The Group is engaged in a wide spectrum of petroleum activities, including upstream exploration and production of oil and gas to downstream oil refining; marketing and distribution of petroleum products; trading; gas processing and liquefaction; gas transmission pipeline network operations; marketing of liquefied natural gas; petrochemical manufacturing and marketing; shipping; automotive engineering; and property investment.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- In early 2013, Evonik Industries began operating a pilot plant for amino lauric acid (ALS) in Slovenska Lupca, Slovakia. The effort represents Evonik’s next step forward in the production of sustainable high-performance plastics, said the producer.

The biobased amino-lauric acid is an alternative to petroleum-based laurin lactam (LL). ALS replaces the monomer LL in the manufacture of sustainable high-performance plastics and yields an identical compound polyamide 12 (PA 12). The pilot plant is the result of intensive research and advances the process development effort to an industrial scale.

Development of the process was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The biotechnological process relies on renewable resources and is unique the world over. Palm oil, which Evonik has already been using as a base for various other chemical products, is the starting material. Over the long run, the entirely new process has the potential to complement the butadiene-based production of PA12.

With a second conventional, petroleum-based polyamide 12 plant in Singapore in the planning stage, Evonik is in a strong position to be a global market and technology leader in PA12 production technology. "In the long term, this new, alternative raw material makes us less dependent on limited fossil resources and provides our back-integrated production a second pillar to stand on," says Gregor Hetzke, head of Evonik Performance Polymers Business Unit.

Whether in automobiles, sports, crude oil production or photovoltaics, Evonik produces a complete range of polyamide products with customized properties that have been continuously adapted for more than 40 years in close cooperation with its customers to meet the requirements of innovative, premium applications.

As MRC wrote earlier, the international rating agency Moody's has upgraded the credit rating of the German speciality chemicals group Evonik Industries AG from Baa3 with a positive outlook to Baa2 with a positive outlook.

Evonik, the creative industrial group from Germany, is one of the world leaders in specialty chemicals. Its activities focus on the key megatrends health, nutrition, resource efficiency and globalization. Evonik benefits specifically from its innovative prowess and integrated technology platforms. Evonik is active in over 100 countries around the world. In fiscal 2012, the company generated sales of around EUR13.6 billion and an operating profit (adjusted EBITDA) of about EUR2.6 billion.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Beverage packaging equipment supplier Sidel (Le Havre/France) has developed a PET bottle base for still drinks, which is says is stronger, lighter and cheaper to produce, said Plasteurope.

The 'StarLite' base, which is particularly suited to water and juices, uses two proprietary PET designs: the 'Edge Beam', a groove structure that improves stiffness, and the 'Smart Disc' that reinforces the base to prevent deformation.

Sidel says the base can be retrofitted into existing bottle designs and shapes and into production lines using its 'StarLite' mould bases. All of Sidel’s blowing platforms and output speeds can use the new design, including its 'Matrix' system for liquid packaging, and regular, ultra clean, and aseptic filling solutions.

Tests carried out by Sidel’s packaging experts demonstrated a 30% increase in top-load dent resistance on pallets and up to a 55% enhancement in side-load resistance. The bottle also lasted up to 25 days without deformation in temperatures of 50°, and saw up to a 50% drop in base rollout under frozen conditions. Increased lightweighting possibilities, aided by the base’s compatibility with nitrogen drop technology, and lower blowing pressure also led to significant cost savings.

Vincent Le Guen, Sidel’s vice president for packaging & tooling, notes: “The new base enables you to both reduce package weight and blowing pressure, and actually increase base resistance to deformation."

As MRC wrote before, Olympos Dairy turned to Sidel to design and install a new bottling line at its facility in Brasov. The installation of the Ultra Clean production line has enabled the company to create a niche within the Romanian food market: Extended Shelf Life milk. The product has a 45-day shelf life; a 50% improvement on the existing product.

Sidel is a manufacturing company providing packaging for liquids such as water; carbonated and non-carbonated soft drinks; and sensitive beverages like milk, liquid dairy products, juices, nectars, tea, coffee and isotonics; as well as edible oil, beer and other alcoholic beverages. Sidel manufacturers and services equipment that enables other companies to package such liquids using one of three main materials: plastic (especially PET, and also HDPE and PP).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Belgian chemical and plastics maker Solvay SA (SOLB.BT) Wednesday flagged a poor business outlook after recording a 38% fall in second-quarter net profit, said The Wall Street Journal.

"Solvay continued to face challenging trading conditions during the second quarter," the company said in a statement. "While we see some weak signs of improvement, this has yet to be confirmed in our order book," it said.

The company also appointed Karim Hajjar as chief financial officer. Outgoing CFO, Bernard de Laguiche, is stepping down for personal interests and will stay on as a non-executive board member, Solvay said.

Second-quarter net profit fell to EUR148 million (USD196 million) from EUR239 million a year earlier. Temporary destocking and customers delaying investment decisions had weighed on several businesses, the company said.

Solvay said it is confident in generating a Rebitda--recurring earnings before taxes, interest, depreciation and amortization--in 2013 that's comparable to last year.

Rebitda was EUR2.07 billion in 2012. It was EUR487 million in the second quarter, down 14% against an especially strong figure in the comparable period last year.

Meanwhile, the company said it expected to close its joint venture with Ineos by the end of this year, pending anti-trust clearance.

Solvay S.A. is a Belgian chemical company founded in 1863, with its head office in Neder-Over-Heembeek, Brussels, Belgium. Solvay Chemicals is a world leading producer of essential chemicals including soda ash, caustic soda, hydrogen peroxide and special chemicals such as fluorinated products, ultra-fine fillers, high purity barium and strontium.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China's Xinjiang Tianye Group is in plans to start a new monoethylene glycol (MEG) plant, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the plant is planned to be started in August 2014.

To be located in XInjiang province, China, the plant will have a production capacity of 250,000 mt/year.

We remind that, as MRC reported earlier, Xinjiang Tianye Group Co started up a new 400,000 tonne/year carbide-based polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plant in China's northwestern Xinjiang province in 2010 and achieved on-spec production on 6 October. With the start-up of the new plant, Xinjiang Tianye’s PVC production capacity has increased from 700,000 tonnes/year to 1.1m tonnes/year, making it the largest PVC producer in China.
MRC