BASF and Styrolution end forces majeures on styrene monomer and styrenics

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF South East Asia lifted its force majeure on styrene monomer (SM) supply from Singapore on Monday, reported Apic-online with reference to a company spokeswoman's statement.

The halt in SM supply to customers followed its Singapore-based joint venture Ellba Eastern declaring a force majeure on SM supply from the 550,000 mt/year SM/propylene oxide plant to partners BASF and Shell on September 16.

Ellba lifted its force majeure on Friday.

Among BASF's customers is Styrolution, a 50:50 joint venture between BASF and INEOS, with acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) and polystyrene (PS) plants in South Korea, Thailand and India.

Styrolution has also ended the force majeure it had declared on September 18 to customers in India and South Korea, a spokeswoman for the company said Tuesday.

As MRC informed previously, on 23 September, Ellba Eastern declared force majeure on SM supply to its owners Shell and BASF. This led BASF, which holds a 50% stake in Ellba Eastern, to declare force majeure on SM supply from Singapore to its customers.

BASF is the leading chemical company. It produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industrie
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The styrenics business of Ineos (Rolle / Switzerland) has appointed German-based Biesterfeld Plastic (Hamburg) for the global distribution of PS-based microgranulates from its Dutch production site in Breda, said Plasteurope.

PS-based microgranulates are used in many segments including flame protection masterbatches and compounds, colour masterbatches, talcum and calcium carbonate-filled polystyrene masterbatches and styrene-based moulding compounds.

As MRC wrote earlier, Ineos and Solvay agreed to merge their chlorvinyls activities into a EUR 4.3 billion (USD5.6 billion) 50-50 joint venture. The combination would form a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) producer that will rank among the top three worldwide. The combined business would have around 5650 employees across nine countries and would pool each company's assets across the entire chlorvinyls chain. This includes PVC, which is the third most-used plastic in the world, caustic soda and chlorine derivatives.

INEOS ChlorVinyls is one of the major chlor-alkali producers in Europe, a global leader in chlorine derivatives and Europe's largest PVC manufacturer.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Thailand's PTT Global Chemical is in the porcess of raising the run rates at its No. 1 cracker, reported Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Thailand informed that the run rates will be raised to 90% of production capacity this week. The plant is presently running at 85% of production capacity.

Located in Map Ta Phut, Thailand, the cracker has a production capacity of 515,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote previously, PTT Global Chemical plans to reduce its petrochemical processing rate to 85% due to a shortage of feedstock after a shutdown of its parent's gas separation plant unit 5 for three to five months.

We remind that in June 2013, Indonesian state-owned energy company Pertamina signed an agreement to purchase petrochemical products from Thailand’s PTT Global Chemical. The agreement serves as a pre-marketing strategy for Pertamina and PTT’s joint Indonesian petrochemical business. Under the agreement, PTT will deliver at least 5,000 tonnes of polyethylene and polypropylene products each month to Pertamina for sale in Indonesia.

PTT Global Chemical is a leading player in the petrochemical industry and owns several petrochemical facilities with a combined capacity of 8.45 million tonnes a year. PTTGC is 49% owned by state-controlled parent PTT Pcl, and uses ethane and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from the gas plant as feedstock for its I4-2 olefins plant.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Polymershapes division of Sabic (Riyadh / Saudi Arabia) has opened a new US branch in Austin, Texas, to give local customers better access to its plastics and associated products, said Plasteurope.

Pete Arvan, senior director, Polymershapes, said: "This will enable us to provide materials on a same-day basis more often, which is a critical success factor for many of our customers."

As MRC wrote before, Sabic is studying investment opportunities in the US as the economic slowdown in Europe and China hurt its second-quarter sales. Sabic plan for US investments comes as the economic slowdown in Europe and China ebbed demand from clients and affected earnings at the company and its affiliates.

Sabic said Polymershapes is the world’s largest distributor of plastic sheet, rod, tube and film, serving more than 35,000 customers. Its distribution network comprises more than 75 branches throughout the US, Canada, Mexico and Chile.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Dutch plastics, chemical and refining major LyondellBasell (LBI, Rotterdam) has permanently shuttered one of its HDPE production lines at its German site in Wesseling – a step it said it would achieve in Q3, as per Plasteurope.

The line, which had a capacity of 100,000 t/y, was the smallest and least efficient at the production site. Earlier in May, LBI had announced its plans to close the line and communicated to customers that nothing would change in terms of the supplying of HDPE.

LyondellBasell is the largest polyolefin producer in Europe with a total capacity of roughly 4.5m t/y. For HDPE in Wesseling the production capacity is at 770,000 t/y even after the shutdown of the small production facility.
MRC