Concern Stirol stopped PS production for a month on feedstock shortage

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Concern Stirol (Gorlivka) suspended its polystyrene (PS) production in late October, having stopped its capacities for a month long maintenance works, according to MRC analysts.

The plant was shut down because of the shortage of styrene monomer (SM), the main feedstock. Sources at the company said that the producer has not purchased SM yet. The sources also noted the company is not going to produce PS in November.

The outage of Stirol will enhance the ongoing shortage of expandable polystyrene (EPS) in the first half of November further.

Traders have already reported the deficit of EPS in Ukraine, which is complicated by the shipment disruptions of Russian and European EPS, which is more expensive.

Concern Stirol is the only Ukrainian producer of polystyrene. The company produces expandable polystyrene (EPS), general purpose polystyrene (GPPS) and high impact polystyrene (HIPS). Stirol's production capacities of HIPS and GPPS are 25,000 tonnes/year. EPS capacities of the plant are 50,000 tonnes/year.

MRC

MOSCCOW (MRC) -- Husky Injection Molding Systems Ltd. continues to build its mold-making stable, purchasing Schottli Group, a Swiss maker of molds for medical parts such as syringes, closures and food packaging, said Plasticsnews.

Both firms have worked together, said Husky President and CEO John Galt. Husky, which makes injection molding machines, robots and hot runners, is based in Bolton, Ontario. Schottli, based in Diessenhofen, Switzerland, has plants and service facilities at its headquarters and in San Dimas, Calif, and Suzhou, China.

As MRC wrote before, Husky Injection Molding Systems Ltd. announced plans to build a new facility in China. The area of land is located in the Suzhou New District and is a Greenfield site that has significant opportunity for further expansion beyond the existing land area. The site, to be built on 53,000 square meters of land, is expected to be fully operational in 2014.

Husky is buying the mold maker from Swiss industrial investor CGS Management, a private equity firm. Husky is owned by Berkshire Partners LLC and Omers Private Equity Inc.

Terms were not disclosed. The deal is expected to close in early December.

CGS bought a majority stake in Schottli AG in 2008 from owner Martin Schottli, and together they made add-on acquisitions in China and the U.S., growing the company into a global player in molds.

Schottli's medical molds turn out products like syringes, infusion/transfusion products, diagnostic systems and feminine-care items.

"We see Husky as the right organization to take Schottli forward," said Martin Schottli, a member of the board at the mold maker, in a prepared statement.

Husky officials say Schottli is a good fit with Husky's expertise in hot runners, controllers and injection molding presses.

"Through this acquisition, we will be able to work with the many skilled people at Schottli as one team to deliver more value to customers, particularly in the medical and closures markets," Galt said.

Husky made thin-wall molds for years, but exited in-house production in the mid-1990s to focus on its growing PET mold and hot-runner operations. In 2011, Husky bought Austrian closure-mold specialist KTW Group.
Now picking up Schottli brings a broader mold focus, but one that is still within Husky's sweet spot of thin-wall, fast-cycling parts.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Clariant, a world leader in specialty chemicals, has opened its new EUR100 million innovation center (CIC) in Frankfurt, Germany, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The center, which will be the company’s new global hub for research and development (R&D), is based at the "Industriepark Hochst." It will be the home of Clariant’s competence centers in chemical research and process technology as well as application laboratories for several business units and analytical labs.

The CIC will also house the departments for intellectual property management and new business development. As the corporation’s global hub, the CIC will ensure the coordination of Clariant’s world-wide R&D network, which includes centers across Europe, North America, Brazil, Japan, India and China.

Located at Clariant’s largest manufacturing site, the CIC will benefit from existing infrastructure as well as industrial and academic links offered by the Rhein-Main region.

"The CIC will open up a new dimension in the way Clariant connects its R&D departments internally as well as how Clariant engages external partners", said Martin Vollmer, chief technology officer.

"Within the CIC we have established an 'Open Lab' in order to work on innovation projects with customers and other development partners under one roof. This will enable us to translate market needs into innovative product solutions in a fast, flexible and efficient way."

As MRC reported previously, in October 2013, Clariant announced the grand opening of ColorWorks North America, the newest in a global network of co-creation centers built to bring color into the early stages of plastic product and packaging design.The opening culminates nearly three years of planning and renovation and represents a major investment by Clariant in support of customers in the USA and Canada.

Earlier this year, Clariant opened a new center of excellence lab for its Oil Services business in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, building on the company’s commitment to providing innovative technologies and products to customers globally.

Clariant AG is a Swiss chemical company and a world leader in the production of specialty chemicals for the textile, printing, mining and metallurgical industries. It is engaged in processing crude oil products in pigments, plastics and paints.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Top Asian refiner Sinopec Corp won initial approval last month from China's top economic planner for a plan to build a USD10-billion refinery and petrochemical complex in Shanghai, reported Reuters with reference to two company officials' statement.

China, the world's largest net importer of oil, is likely to add 3 million barrels per day, or a quarter of new refining capacity, between 2013 and 2015 to fuel economic growth, industry officials and Chinese media estimate.

Sinopec has started formal planning for the 400,000 barrels-per-day refinery and a 1 million tonnes-per-year ethylene project in a plan to curb pollution by shifting an old plant to Shanghai's southern edge, the officials told Reuters this week.

The new Sinopec plant, designed to process mostly imported crude oil, will be built in the Caojing industrial park, some 50 km from the centre of Shanghai.

"The initial approval allows us to start planning work," said a company official, adding that Sinopec had agreed with Shanghai authorities in 2011 to shift some of the facilities at its Gaoqiao refinery to the new site once it was ready.

The plan for Sinopec's Shanghai refinery includes a new crude oil terminal with the capacity to receive a 300,000-tonne very large crude carrier.

The whole refinery and petrochemical project could cost more than 60 billion yuan (USD9.84 billion), domestic media have said.

Near the site of the new plant, Sinopec operates a similar complex, Shanghai Petrochemical Corp, with a 320,000-bpd refinery and an 850,000-tpy ethylene plant.

As MRC informed previously, in late 2012, Sibur, a Russian gas processing and petrochemicals company, and Sinopec International (Hong Kong) Co. Ltd, the wholly owned subsidiary of Sinopec, signed an agreement that will see Sinopec purchase 25% + 1 share of Krasnoyarsk Synthetic Rubbers Plant JSC (KSRP). Sibur and Sinopec are also discussing projects on setting up a joint venture to produce nitrile and polyisoprene rubbers in Shanghai.

Sinopec Corp. is one of the largest scale integrated energy and chemical companies with upstream, midstream and downstream operations. Its refining and ethylene capacity ranks No.2 and No.4 globally. The Company has 30,000 sales and distribution networks of oil products and chemical products, its service stations are now ranked third largest in the world.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee and Dmitry Konov, Chief Executive Officer of SIBUR signed today at the Gazprom headquarters a Memorandum of Cooperation while constructing a gas processing plant and a gas chemical complex in Belogorsk, Amur Region, said Yourpetrochemicalnews.

According to the document, the parties will join their efforts as part of the potential creation of a powerful complex for processing multicomponent gas from fields of the Yakutia and Irkutsk gas production centers being currently formed by Gazprom within the Eastern Gas Program.

Gazprom is planning to construct a gas processing plant in Belogorsk with the annual capacity of up to 60 billion cubic meters, where ethane and other valuable components will be stripped from natural gas. SIBUR, in its turn, intends to create a gas chemical complex technologically connected with the gas processing plant for the purpose of processing ethane, obtaining monomers and subsequent manufacturing of polymers.

The Memorandum outlines general pricing mechanisms for ethane supplies, projects synchronization and a synergetic effect assurance.

"The efficient and reasonable use of all the valuable components of natural gas from eastern fields is a priority of Gazprom's comprehensive activities in Russia's East. The partnership with SIBUR is a sample model of Gazprom's cooperation with other investors within the Eastern Gas Program: Gazprom creates a resource base and facilities for production, transmission and initial processing, while our partners construct capacities for chemical processing and manufacturing of value added products. The joint activities will result in a considerable economic effect and become an extra incentive for developing Eastern Siberia and the Far East," said Alexey Miller.

"SIBUR constantly looks into new possibilities of developing the petrochemical sector to enhance its leadership position in Russia and enter new target export markets. The cooperation with Gazprom will make it possible to unlock the potential of interaction among manufacturers and processers to create highly competitive capacities for advanced processing of hydrocarbon feedstock into valuable petrochemical products. The implementation of such large-scale projects in new gas production regions requires accurate synchronization and detailed study of all parameters," said Dmitry Konov.

As MRC wrote before, Gazprom Neft, a subsiduary of Gazprom, SIBUR will collaborate in the polymer road materials production and marketing. SIBUR will deliver styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS) polymers to the facilities of Gazprom Neft. The materials are applied in the polymer-bitumen binders (PBB) manufacturing to improve the quality characteristics of the road surface and extend its service life. Moreover, the parties are ready to carry out a joint research to develop the utilization of road materials based on polymers, in particular, to work up SBS polymers brands.
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