Teijin–SK Chemicals JV begins constructing PPS resin plant

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Teijin Limited announced that it has established a joint venture with South Korean chemical producer SK Chemicals opening a new window to develop and sell polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) resins and compounds in Ulsan, South Korea, said the company in its press release.

Construction of a 12,000-ton per annum PPS resin plant began on October 1. Teijin owns 34% of the new company, INITZ Co., Ltd., and SK Chemicals holds the remaining 66% share. Working in cooperation with Teijin and SK Chemicals, INITZ will start by providing samples to selected customers in the automotive and electronics fields.

Focusing on customers especially in fast-growing Asian markets, it aims to become a world leader in PPS resin and compounds. A global market share of 20% and annual sales of 300 billion KRW (280 million USD) are envisioned by 2020.

INITZ expects to produce the world’s first chlorine- or sodium-free PPS resins utilizing proprietary technologies of SK Chemicals.

PPS resin, a super engineering plastic, exhibits excellent thermal resistance, chemical resistance, mechanical strength and dimensional stability. The demand for PPS resin is expected to grow in line with the increasing popularity of electric and hybrid vehicles and the ongoing expansion of electronics markets in emerging countries.

With conventional PPS resins, chlorine and sodium from raw materials and byproducts remain in the resin, which can lead to the corrosion of molds and functional deterioration of metal parts, such as defective contacts. Also, chlorine has potentially harmful environmental effects if burned.

Following formal establishment of the company on September 1, a groundbreaking ceremony held at the Ulsan plant on October 1 was attended by guests including the mayor of Ulsan and the chairman of the Ulsan city council.

As MRC wrote before, Teijin established a Russian subsidiary, Teijin Rus, as part of its strategy to expand businesses in emerging economies. The new company, which was created 1 October 2013, has absorbed the existing local office that was established in 2006.

Teijin is a technology-driven global group offering advanced solutions in the areas of sustainable transportation, information and electronics, safety and protection, environment and energy, and healthcare. Its main fields of operation are high-performance fibers such as aramid, carbon fibers & composites, healthcare, films, resin & plastic processing, polyester fibers, products converting and IT. The group has some 150 companies and around 17,000 employees spread out over 20 countries worldwide. It posted consolidated sales of JPY745.7 billion (USD 7.4 billion) and total assets of JPY 762.4 billion (USD7.6 billion) in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2013.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- DuPont has increased prices on all of its titanium dioxide (TiO2) products sold in North America, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Latin America and the Asia Pacific regions, reported the company on its site.

The price increase was effective 1 October, 2013, or as contracts allow, as follows:

- USD100 per tonne for DuPont Ti-Pure titanium dioxide grades sold in the Asia Pacific and Latin America regions;

- USD100 per tonne for DuPont Ti-Pure TiO2 grades sold in the dollar markets or EUR EUR75 per tonne in Eurozone markets in Europe, Middle East and Africa region;

- five cents per pound for DuPont Ti-Pure TiO2 grades sold in the North America region with the exception of DuPont RPS Vantage titanium dioxide products sold into paper and paperboard applications, which will be managed separately.

As MRC informed earlier, in late 2012 DuPont reported of investments that the company were making in all its divisions kept on delivering results which were offset by the weakness in titanium dioxide (TiO2) markets. "Excluding the performance chemicals unit, which includes TiO2, the company expects earnings growth of at least high-teens in 2013 versus 2012. Performance chemicals margins are expected to fall six to seven percentage points in 2013," DuPont said.

DuPont Titanium Technologies is the world's largest manufacturer of titanium dioxide, serving customers globally in the coatings, paper and plastics industries. DuPont is also supplying TiO2 to Russia and its share in the Russian market has been growing since 2013.

DuPont is an American chemical company that was founded in July, 1802. The company manufactures a wide range of chemical products, leading extensive innovative research in this field. The company is the inventor of many unique plastics and other materials, including neoprene, nylon, Teflon, Kevlar, Mylar, Tyvek, etc. DuPont was the developer and main producer of Freon used in the production of refrigeration equipment.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Temasek and Sinopec have both approached Repsol over buying its EUR4.7bn stake in Gas Natural as the Spanish oil company seeks to raise cash to increase its investment in oil exploration, said Financial Times.

Repsol, which is working with Deutsche Bank and Citigroup to find a buyer for the domestic gas distributor, has received separate expressions of interest from Temasek, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, and the Chinese state-controlled Sinopec after the summer, people close to the process said.

Repsol’s management, which is aiming to sell 25% of its 30%, views both Temasek and Sinopec’s interest favourably due to their existing ties to the Spanish oil group. Temasek holds 6.3% of Repsol’s shares, having raised its stake earlier this year, while Sinopec has been its partner in its Brazilian oilfields since 2010.

Both potential investors are also viewed favourably by the Spanish government as stable, long-term investors in Gas Natural, while Caixabank, the utility’s biggest shareholder with a 34% stake, has also approved.

However, people close to the deal said that no final decision had been made over a sale; that Repsol had also received interest from other parties; and cautioned that since the company was in no hurry to sell, it would come down to an attractive price being offered. Repsol declined to comment, as did Temasek.

Repsol has been exploring the possibility of selling its Gas Natural holding since it sold its liquefied natural gas unit to Royal Dutch Shell in February.That deal removed the synergies it had previously used to justify the holding in Gas Natural.

The sale of the bulk of the holding would release further funds to invest in exploration assets, with Repsol’s management currently looking to buy assets in politically stable countries. Repsol has earmarked EUR19.1bn of investment between 2012 and 2016 as part of its strategic plan, with 80% of these funds allocated to exploration and production. It aims to increase output by at least 7% a year up to 2016, and to achieve a "reserve replacement ratio" of 120% – meaning that for every five barrels extracted the company will find a further six.

While Repsol has sought to move a greater part of its operations into politically stable jurisdictions, in part due to the traumatic expropriation of its YPF division by the Argentine government, it has also continued to explore in Libya. Initial results from a current exploration programme there are expected as soon as this week.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chevron Phillips Chemical has secured approval to construct the US Gulf Coast (USGC) petrochemicals project, said Refiningandpetrochemicals.

The project includes construction of an ethane cracker at Chevron's Cedar Bayou plant in Baytown and two polyethylene units at a site in Old Ocean, near the company's Sweeny plant.

Chevron has awarded an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to a joint venture between JGC (USA) and Fluor Enterprises to implement the 1.5 million metric tonnes per year ethane cracker portion of the project.

Gulf Coast Partners, a partnership between Technip USA and Zachry Industrial, have secured the EPC contract to construct the polyethylene facilities.

Each polyethylene facility will have a production capacity of 500,000 metric tonnes per year. The polyethylene units will produce a variety of high and linear low density polyethylene products including bimodal and metallocene-based polyethylene polymers.

The facilities will incorporate Chevron's metallocene technology and Advanced Dual Loop bimodal technology.

In August 2013, Chevron secured the cracker's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) greenhouse gas permit and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) air permits necessary to commence construction of both facilities. Construction is anticipated to commence in early 2014 with startup scheduled for 2017.

Chevron Phillips is a chemical producer jointly owned by Chevron Corporation and Phillips 66. The company was formed July 1, 2000 by merging the chemicals operations of both Chevron Corporation and Phillips Petroleum Company. A 50/50 venture, the company continues to be governed by a board of directors composed of two members from each of the parent companies. Chevron Phillips is headquartered at The Woodlands, Texas (a northern suburb of Houston), and is a major producer of ethylene, propylene, polyethylene, polypropylene, K-Resin(r) SBC, ryton polyphenylene sulfide (PPS), alpha-olefins, polyalphaolefins, aromatic compounds and a range of specialty chemicals.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- LUKOIL, Russia's largest private oil company, began commissioning works to resume production of suspension polyvinyl chloride (SPVC) at Karpatneftekhim, the largest Ukrainian polymers producer, as per the company's press release.

LUKOIL intends to begin SPVC production on 1 November, 2013.

As MRC reported previously, Karpatneftekhim resumed production of high density polyethylene (HDPE) on 10 September 2013 after a long outage. The production started on imported ethylene supplied by TVK, Hungary. The plant planned to produce about 4,500 tonnes of HDPE in September, while in October the output is expected to grow up to 6,000 tonnes.

Thus, the resumption of PE and PVC production will fully meet the needs of the Ukrainian market in these products.

As informed earlier, Karpatneftekhim's outage last September was caused by inefficient economic management. Thus, the state owned to the Kalush plant more than USD 1 billion of VAT. To improve operations, Karpatneftekhim was forced to seek support from the government, which resulted in a memorandum signed in April 2013.

LUKOIL, on the other hand, has fulfilled all its obligations, including the increased output and preservation of jobs. Ukraine has also assumed a number of obligations that could contribute to the company's profitable level of production.

However, in case of continued negative trends in the petrochemical market and to maintain the profitability of the plant, LUKOIL will reduce operating costs, including optimization of the company's personnel number, as per the statement.

As MRC wrote previously, according to the memorandum, Ukraine should introduce an anti-dumping duty of 6.5% to reduce SPVC imports from the United States and to support Karpatneftekhim. The decision on this issue should have been made already on 5 October 2013. However, the Interdepartmental Commission on International Trade postponed the dates of the anti-dumping investigation for 16 months starting from 3 October 2013 because of a need for more detailed investigation of certain factors.

LUKOIL is one of the world's biggest vertically integrated companies for production of crude oil & gas, and their refining into petroleum products and petrochemicals. The company is a leader on Russian and international markets in its core business, which accounts for over 20% of Russian oil production and 18% of the total Russian oil refining. LUKOIL also controls two of the largest petrochemical plants in Russia and Ukraine: Stavrolen and Karpatneftekhim.

Karpatneftekhim (Kalush, Ivano-Frankovsk region) is a subsidiary of LUKOIL, the largest polymers producer in Ukraine. Its capacities allow to produce 300,000 tonnes of ethylene, 100,000 tonnes of HDPE, 180,000 tonnes of caustic and 300,000 tonnes of PVC annually.
MRC