Dow plans maintenance at Texas polyethylene plant

MOSCOW (MRC) -- An estimated 1,000 pounds of ethylene was released Friday at Dow's Freeport, Texas, site, the company said in a filing with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, as per Plastemart.

The release occurred when workers were performing maintenance on the plant's Polyethylene 4 unit, the company told TCEQ. The incident lasted one minute.

As per Dow, the maintenance was necessary to purge the reactor prior to restarting. It was unclear if the reactor had been restarted Monday or if any production had been lost as a result of the maintenance.

The Freeport facility has a total polyethylene capacity of 1.4 bln lbs, producing 445 mln lbs/year of low density polyethylene, 562 mln lbs/year of linear low density polyethylene and 410 mln lbs/year of high density polyethylene.

As MRC reported earlier, in March this year, Dow Chemical signed a long-term ethylene off-take agreement with a new Japanese joint venture that will allow the chemical producer to enhance its performance plastics franchise. The joint venture is being formed between Japanese companies Idemitsu Kosan and Mitsui & Co. to construct and operate a Linear Alpha Olefins unit on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Dow - the world's second-largest chemical producer by revenue - is a large consumer of linear alpha olefins and utilizes them within its performance plastics franchise for the production of high-performance materials.

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 company's more than 5,000 products are manufactured at 188 sites in 36 countries across the globe.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Kaliningrad plant Alco-Naphtha, Russia' largest plant for the production of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), shut down its production of PET chips for a scheduled turnaround on 11 November, 2013, according to MRC price report.

The plant's plans to shut down its production became known on 18 October, they were also stated on the company's official site, however, the exact dates of the outaged were not disclosed. According to preliminary information, the maintenance works will last for two-three weeks. It should be noted that all the contractual obligations for shipments of material will be carried out in time because of the already built up stocks of PET chips, sources at the plant said.

To date, Alco-Naphtha is the largest PET plant in Russia. The plant's annual production capacity is 220,000 tonnes.

At the moment, already three plants in the CIS countries are shut down for maintenance, two of which are situated in Russia (Alco-Naphtha and Senege) and one is in Belarus (Mogilevkhimvolokno).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ningbo-based Keyuan Petrochemicals has announced plans to build a new S-SBR production ­facility and expand its existing ethylene-styrene copolymer plant, according to GV.

Keyuan, citing increased demand for S-SBR in the tyre market, said it is building a 150,000 t/y facility that will utilise its own production technology.

The project, for which location and construction schedule were not given, is estimated to have a cost of USD 99.5 million. Additionally, Keyuan is expanding the capacity of its ethylene-styrene copolymer plant to 200,000 t/y from 80,000 t/y, allowing for the sale of 120,000 t/y to down-stream petrochemical producers. This ­facility can be considered the bridge between original products and high-value added products and will complete the integration of internal resources, Keyuan said.

As MRC wrote previously, Regarding Keyuan’s previously announced plans for a new 400,000-t/y acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plant in China’s Guangxi Province, the company said it is currently going through the government approval process and design phase. Keyuan now expects the first phase of the project to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2014.

Keyuan Petrochemicals, Inc., established in 2007 and operating through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Keyuan Plastics, Co. Ltd., is located in Ningbo, China and is a leading independent manufacturer and supplier of various petrochemical products. The company is located in Qingshi Industrial Park, Ningbo, China and has annual petrochemical manufacturing design capacity of 720,000 metric tons for a variety of petrochemical products, including BTX aromatics, propylene, styrene, MTBE and other chemicals.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Exports of PC chips from Russia in January-October, 2013, fell by 39% year on year and totalled 2,400 tonnes, according to MRC DataScope.

China is the main export destination. 11,400 tonnes of PC chips were exported to China in January-October, 2013, down by 37% year on year.

The countries in the European Union accounted for 13% of the total exports of PC chips, which also declined by 56% year on year and totalled about 1,800 tonnes.
Injection moulding grades for the production of electrical components accounted for 82% of PC chips exported from Russia. The share of construction grades for the production of PC sheets was about 7% (920 tonnes).

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Imports of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) to Russia fell by 7% (down by 11,400 tonnes) to 146,600 tonnes in January-October 2013 year on year, according to MRC ScanPlast.

Total imports of PET chips to Russia decreased by 9% to 140,000 tonnes in the first ten months of this year. PET imports have been increasing for the second consecutive year because of increased production in the domestic market.

Supply of domestic PET chips increased by 18,400 tonnes to 314,000 tonnes in January-September 2013, compared with the same period a year ago.
Imports fall traditionally in the fourth quarter on the back of a seasonal decline in market of drinks, beer and water. The situation is exacerbated by the significant stock inventories despite the long shutdowns of PET chips plants. That is why MRC analysts do not expect sales to change significantly this year, with the trend of import substitution remained. According to MRC estimates imports of PET chips to Russia will be about 166,000 tonnes in the end of 2013.

The consumption of recycled PET has grown in 2013. The main importers of PET flex in Russia were the producers of polyester fibers. Imports of recycled PET increased by 55% (up by 2,400 tonnes) to 6,800 tonnes in January-October 2013.

MRC