Russian EuroChem to invest USD30 mln in fertilizer plant in China

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russian fertilizer producer EuroChem will invest nearly USD30 million in the construction of a fertilizer plant in China, which will be launched in 2014, said PRIME, citing Director for Finance and Economy Andrei Ilyin.

"Investments amount to nearly USD30 million," he said. Earlier, the company said that the plant will be built jointly with Chinese potash fertilizer producer, Migao Corporation.

According to Ilyin, the plant will produce up to 60,000 tonnes of potassium nitrate and up to 200,000 tonnes of non-chlorine NPK fertilizers a year.

The plant will be focused on the Chinese market, where EuroChem is already selling more than 200,000 tonnes of specialized NPK fertilizers.

The company has not made a final decision on the construction of a USD1.5 billion plant for the production of ammonia and carbamide in the U.S.

Ilyin said that the company must analyze the project’s prospects and profitability.

"There are numerous floating factors – the gas price, the workforce cost, and the balance of supply and demand on the market. We must analyze quite a lot of factors," he said.

As MRC wrote before, EuroChem announced that the Northwestern Federal District Centre of Laboratory Analysis and Technical Metrology has completed the testing of effluent samples taken at its Phosphorit phosphate plant in Northwest Russia. The results and conclusions of the testing confirm Phosphorit’s internal laboratory results and effectively rule out any direct link between the plant’s activity and the increases in the phosphorous levels of the Luga River and Baltic Sea.

EuroChem is a top ten agrochemical company globally by nutrient capacity, producing primarily nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers, as well as certain organic synthesis products and iron ore.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Solvay announces that its Aroma Performance business unit has won the ICIS Best Product Innovation Award 2013 for its Govanil flavor whose revolutionary long-lasting and intensity of taste allows for a lower use of fat and sugar in pastry, bakery and chocolate food products, said the producer in its press release.

Solvay Aroma Performance has developed a new generation of vanilla flavours named Govanil that provides at least 20% more overall flavor intensity than standard vanilla flavors. Govanil enables fat and sugar reduction in recipes, providing taste reinsurance, strong cost reductions for industrial producers as well as health improvements for final consumers.

"My team and I are honored to have been awarded this beautiful prize which crowns 6 years of intense research in a strongly developing area: that of true taste intensity and of healthy food," said Matthieu Helft, head of Research and Innovation at Solvay Aroma Performance. "Vanilla is among the world’s most sought after and best loved flavors due to its unique sensory qualities and ability to bring out the best in other flavors. The Govanil range represents a qualitative leap forward, setting the benchmark for vanilla flavors."

Govanil is a global patented innovation integrating Solvay’s expertise in chemical and process engineering (using a new CRF technology), food applications (new advanced functional formulations) and marketing within the growing aroma ingredients business. It resulted from a 6-year research and innovation program in Solvay’s Vanil’Expert center that gathers 15 searchers from different backgrounds, including food technologists who assist food customers in developing their new formulas.

Designing vanilla flavors since 1884, the Aroma Performance business unit was the first to synthesize and produce the vanillin molecule on an industrial scale. Solvay is the only producer mastering the whole manufacturing chain in each of its facilities in both Saint-Fons (France) and Baton Rouge (USA) and soon will be operating in China.

ICIS is a leading global provider of news and information for the chemical and energy sectors.

As MRC wrote before, Solvay Specialty Polymers and Rhodia Engineering Plastics have announced progress on a new EUR 21 million compounding plant, which will come on-stream in Changshu, Jiangsu province. It will serve the Chinese markets for electrical and electronics, wire and cable, automotive, consumer, and industrial applications.

Solvay is an international chemicals and plastics company. Solvay, with a market share 27%, is the second largest PVC manufacturer in Europe, after Kerling with 29% of the market. The group is headquartered in Brussels, employs about 29,000 people in 55 countries and generated 12.4 billion euros in net sales in 2012. Solvay SA SOLB.BE) is listed on NYSE Euronext in Brussels and Paris.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Far Eastern Textile has shut its polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plant for maintenance turnaround, reported Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the plant was shut on October 21, 2013. The duration of the closure could not be ascertained.

Located in Guanyin, China, the plant has a production capacity of 220,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote previously, "Plant of New Polymers Senege", one of the Russian producers of PET (polyethylene terephthalate) chips, shut down its production for unscheduled maintenance works on 4 October. According to preliminary data, the maintenance works will last more than three weeks, and may be dragged to November. Sources said that the same technical problems also occurred in August, which led to a twenty-days outage of the plant.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Dow Elastomers, a business unit of The Dow Chemical Company unveils a breakthrough compatibilization technology that offers a tuneable range of new-to-the-world, highly effective solutions for combining both non-polar and polar polymers with polypropylene, said Dow in its press release.

INTUNE PP-based Olefin Block Copolymers from Dow offer highly effective solutions for combining polyethylene (PE), polyolefin elastomers (POE) and polar materials such as ethylene vinyl alcohol (EVOH) and polyamide (PA) with polypropylene (PP) to provide the best benefits of each material, while minimizing individual trade-off properties.

"Truly breakthrough and game-changing innovations like INTUNE PP-based OBCs underscore Dow’s industry-leading material and formulation science capabilities and reinforce our position as the go-to innovator in the plastics industry," said Kim Ann Mink, Business President, Dow Elastomers, Electrical & Telecommunications. "INTUNE will enable us to offer enhanced performance at lower systems cost for customers across a multitude of end-markets, including packaging, consumer durables, transportation, construction, hygiene, and wire and cable, among others."

The diverse material and formulation options enabled by INTUNE PP-based OBCs create opportunities for unique blends and multi-layer structures that offer tuneable combinations of attributes and enable processors to achieve enhanced performance targets and lower overall systems cost.

"INTUNE PP-based OBCs enable the creation of unique solutions that display the most desired mechanical, chemical and optical properties of PP with PE, POEs and polar materials, fundamentally changing the way the industry thinks about combining polar and non-polar polymers," said Karen Fennessy-Ketola, Global Director, New Business Development, Dow Elastomers, Electrical and Telecommunications. "As the latest development in Dow’s rich innovation pipeline and the second generation of solutions derived from our proprietary olefin block copolymer technology, INTUNE PP-based OBCs also underscore our ability to continue to deliver groundbreaking solutions for a myriad of applications."

As MRC wrote before, Dow Elastomers, a business unit of The Dow Chemical Company, will begin the production of AFFINITY GA Polyolefin Elastomers (POEs) for hot melt adhesives in Tarragona, Spain. This is a milestone for Dow, as it is the first time the production of AFFINITY GA POEs will take place in Europe.

The Dow Chemical Company is an American multinational chemical corporation headquartered in Midland, Michigan, United States. Dow is a large producer of plastics, including polystyrene (PS), polyurethane, polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), and synthetic rubber. In 2012, Dow had annual sales of approximately USD57 billion. The сompany's more than 5,000 products are manufactured at 188 sites in 36 countries across the globe.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- In Q3 Czech downstream oil group Unipetrol posted EBITDA f CZK 235m (-80% y/y), including positive contribution of petrochemical and retail segments, according to the company's press release.

Revenues reached CZK 24.859bn in Q3 (-12% y/y). Results were negatively influenced by worse refining macro, problems in petrochemical production resulting in lower sales, lower refining margins and higher renewable surcharges (POZE). Stable good level of petrochemical margins and better sales in retail segment mitigated these negative factors.

"The overall macro situation is weaker than everyone on the market expected, it was probably 7th quarter in a row of Czech economy recession in 3Q13. We also hoped that tax fraud legislation could be implemented faster and also expected some relief on OZE (renewable power charges), which did not happen this year. Last but not least we had some unexpected production problems this year. Having said that, our financial targets for 2013 will be tough to achieve," said the Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of Unipetrol, Marek Switajewski. "On the other hand, we see positive development within retail segment sales and petrochemical segment. Both recorded good profitability within the last quarters, which is promising for our future results."

In the refinery segment, the volume of crude processed in Q3 reached 902 kt (-14 % y/y), due to scheduled complete turnaround of Kralupy refinery in September (and October) within 4-year cycle and two steam cracker shutdowns.

EBITDA LIFO in the petrochemical segment amounted to CZK +361m in 3Q13. The results of the segment were negatively affected by unplanned shut-downs of production, which resulted in lower sales y/y. On the other hand positive impact was visible from very solid level of petrochemical margins, higher positive inventory revaluation y/y and development of FX – stronger EUR vis-a-vis USD. Company recorded sales decrease of petrochemical products to 366kt in Q3, mainly due to June floods in the Czech Republic, negatively impacting supplies of ammonia to Lovochemie and ammonia and ethylene to Spolana, and two steam cracker shutdowns, first starting in the middle of July and second in the middle of September.

As MRC reported previously, in early October Unipetrol signed a license agreement with INEOS, based on which it acquired the right to use a production process and technology for the new polyethylene unit (PE3). Purchase of the license is the first achieved milestone and represents the official start of the project's execution. Now Unipetrol is ready to take further steps and create a detailed schedule of this project. The first task is to choose a general contractor, which should be done in the first half of 2014.

Unipetrol , a.s. is a group of companies operating in the petrochemical industry in the Czech Republic. In 2005 Unipetrol became a part of the PKN ORLEN Group, the largest oil processor in Central Europe. The UNIPETROL Group is oriented mostly towards oil processing, fuel distribution and petrochemical production. In all of these business areas the Unipetrol Group is among the key players both in the Czech Republic and on the Central European market. The Group ranks among the leading firms in the Czech Republic in terms of its revenues, and employs almost 4,000 people.
MRC