Bank of England plans to modernise from paper

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Plastic banknotes with a see-through image of Britannia are likely to replace traditional paper notes from 2016 under plans being drawn up by the Bank of England, said The Gardian.

The Bank said the wipe-clean polymer notes will be less tatty, tougher to counterfeit and last up to six times longer than cotton-paper based notes. They will also be 15% smaller, bringing English notes into line with sizes in other countries, but will remain larger than existing euro notes.

The public will have the chance to look at and feel the new notes at shopping centres across the country in a consultation process that starts immediately, with the new governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, taking a final decision on the go-ahead in December. The Sir Winston Churchill GBP5 note will be the first to be made in polymer and launched in 2016, with the Jane Austen GBP10 note following in 2017. All the notes will continue to feature the Queen and use existing colours.

Plastic notes have been in circulation in Australia for more than two decades and are being rolled out in Canada, Carney's home country, but the Bank said its polymer project began long before the new governor was appointed.

Scotland and Northern Ireland, where seven banks have the right to issue notes, will be free to continue with paper notes, opening up the possibility that cash machines in Carlisle will issue in plastic but across the border in Gretna will continue to supply in paper.

The Bank of England said that in tests, the new plastic notes do not melt until at least 120C and survive washing machines much better than existing paper notes. Despite being made from polymer pellets, the Bank said the notes will be more environmentally friendly as the manufacturing process does not use the same intensity of water as cotton-paper manufacture.

The new notes will cost around 50% more to produce, but the Bank estimates it will save ?100m as it will need to replace the notes far less frequently. But the Bank ruled out importing plastic money from China. The notes will continue to be produced at the Bank's ultra-secure plant in Debden, Essex, although subcontracted to a private company, likely to be either De La Rue, the existing maker, or Innovia, which manufactures most of the polymer notes currently in circulation across the world.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Solvay Specialty Polymers has announced the commercial introduction of new super-fine powder (SFP) and ultra-fine powder (UFP) grades of KetaSpire polyetheretherketone (PEEK) for water-borne coatings, powder coatings, and resin pre-impregnation of continuous fiber composites, said Fibre2fashion.

These new KetaSpire PEEK powders provide excellent strength, durability, and chemical resistance for demanding applications in chemical processing, oil and gas, aerospace, semiconductor, healthcare, transportation, and other industrial uses.

“Since PEEK is a semi-crystalline resin and is very difficult to dissolve in common solvents, the application of coatings from solution is not a viable process option,” explained Jamal El-Hibri, principal scientist for Solvay Specialty Polymers.

In addition to coatings, another major application area for KetaSpire SFP and UFP powders is the solventless pre-impregnation of continuous carbon fiber and other continuous fiber reinforcements, with PEEK resin as a thermoplastic matrix.

This is achieved through an electrostatic powder coating process and the finest possible particle size allows for good coating, even distribution, and uniform melting of the PEEK resin around the reinforcement.

Solvay’s super-fine PEEK powder offering includes KetaSpire KT-880 SFP, a high-flow grade, and KetaSpire KT-820 SFP, a low-flow version. The ultra-fine PEEK powder line includes KetaSpire KT-880 UFP, a high-flow grade, and KetaSpire KT-820 UFP, a low-flow material. All four grades are unreinforced and supplied in a natural color.

As MRC wrote before, Solvay and Ineos Group Holdings, which plan to merge their European vinyl chloride assets in a EUR4.3 billion (USD5.7 billion) deal, may sell a German site to help win regulatory approval. Ineos’s site in Schkopau, with the capacity to make about 150,000 tons of PVC a year, may fetch about 60 million euros.

Solvay Specialty Polymers manufactures more high-performance plastics than any other company in the world. The company supplies over 1500 products across 35 brands of high-performance polymers – fluoropolymers, fluoroelastomers, fluorinated fluids, semi-aromatic polyamides, sulfone polymers, aromatic ultra polymers, high-barrier polymers and cross-linked high-performance compounds – for use in Aerospace, Alternative Energy, Automotive, Healthcare, Membranes, Oil & Gas, Packaging, Plumbing, Semiconductors, Wire & Cable, and other markets.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- PetroChina, the nation biggest energy company, will "vigorously" contest a lawsuit filed by an investor in the U.S. that claims it failed to disclose corruption, exposing it to government investigations, said Bloomberg.

PetroChina and individual defendants named in the suit haven’t received any formal documentation of the complaint, the company said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange yesterday. It will "closely follow the progress of the complaint and disclose the relevant information in a timely manner in accordance with regulatory requirements," according to the statement.

The former chairman of the state-owned company, Jiang Jiemin, who left PetroChina in March, was removed from his post as head of the state assets regulator and is under investigation, the official Xinhua News Agency said Sept. 2. Five days earlier, PetroChina said it removed four senior managers after authorities started a probe.

PetroChina’s stock fell the most in two years on Aug. 28 in Hong Kong after China signaled it had widening its anti-corruption campaign to include executives at the company.

Johan Broux, an investor in Belgium, filed the complaint in Manhattan federal court on Sept. 4, seeking to represent all buyers of PetroChina securities from April 26, 2012, to Aug. 27 of this year.

In addition to PetroChina, the complaint identifies as defendants Chairman and President Zhou Jiping, Chief Financial Officer Yu Yibo, and two former company executives -- ex-CFO Zhou Mingchun and former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jiang Jiemin. Broux seeks unspecified damages.

The company’s operations "are not affected" by the legal action, according to the statement.

As MRC wrote before, PetroChina Company, and INEOS Group, a UK-based chemicals group, have formed trading and refining joint ventures (JV) between PetroChina International (London) Company and INEOS Investments (Jersey). The JVs have been formed to manage the trading and refining operations at INEOS' Grangemouth refinery in Scotland and Lavera refinery in France. PetroChina paid USD1.015bn in cash for the shares in the joint ventures.

PetroChina Company Limited, is a Chinese oil and gas company and is the listed arm of state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation, headquartered in Dongcheng District, Beijing. It is China's biggest oil producer.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ineos is considering closing its Grangemouth facility in what has been described by union representatives as a "shocking" attempt to browbeat the workforce ahead of pension talks, said Plasticsnews.

Company chairman Jim Ratcliffe described the plant as "expensive", citing "old-fashioned pensions" as a being a prime cause for concern. He was quoted as saying: "To have a future, it needs cheap feedstocks and a sensible cost structure. If we can’t resolve those issues it would need to shut down."

Pat Rafferty, Scottish secretary of Unite, said: "We are disappointed in this blatant attempt by Jim Ratcliffe to position the workforce ahead of scheduled talks on pensions and future site investments."

Unite represents around 1,200 workers at the Grangemouth facility. The union threated strike action earlier this year over the suspension of a member of staff accused of having been involved in Falkirk candidate-selection political scandal.

Inoes purchased the site from BP’s Innovene subsidiary in 2005 for GBP5.7bn.

As MRC wrote before, Solvay and Ineos Group Holdings, which plan to merge their European vinyl chloride assets in a EUR4.3 billion (USD5.7 billion) deal, may sell a German site to help win regulatory approval. Ineos’s site in Schkopau, with the capacity to make about 150,000 tons of PVC a year, may fetch about EUR60 million.

INEOS Group Limited is a privately owned multinational chemicals company consisting of 15 standalone business units, headquartered in Rolle, Switzerland and with its registered office in Lyndhurst, United Kingdom. It is the fourth largest chemicals company in the world measured by revenues (after BASF, Dow Chemical and LyondellBasell) and the largest privately owned company in the United Kingdom.

MRC

MOSOCW (MRC) -- Formosa Plastics will be shutting its vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) plant, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Taiwan informed that the plant will be shut on September 16, 2013. It is likely to remain off-stream for around one month.

Located in Mailiao, Taiwan, the plant has a production capacity of 800,000 mt/year.

As MRC reported earlier, Formosa Plastics Corp (FPC) is in plans to shut a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plant for maintenance turnaround. A Polymerupdate source in Taiwan informed that the plant is likely to be shut in September 2013. The plant is expected to remain off-stream for around two weeks. Located in Mailiao, Taiwan, the plant has a production capacity of around 500,000 mt/year.

Formosa Plastics Corporation is a Taiwanese company based in Taiwan that primarily produces polyvinyl chloride (PVC) resins and other intermediate plastic products.
MRC