APS adds thermoplastic polyurethanes produced by Huntsman to its distribution portfolio

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Alliance Polymers & Services, LLC (APS) is the newest North American distributor of Huntsman Polyurethanes’ Irogran and Avalon thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU), as per GV.

The materials are available in many grades designed from simple applications to complex engineering products.

APS is a privately owned thermoplastic elastomer distributor with warehouses and independent sales agents throughout North America, under the direction of two of the plastic industry’s leading marketing and technical support executives, Roger Huarng and Stephane Morin, whom have earned a long-standing reputation for providing guidance on thermoplastic elastomer selections, the use of proper additives, and processing insights.

"We are honoured Huntsman recognised our technical and commercial expertise in TPUs and chose us to represent them in the USA and Canada", said Huarng.

APS offers thermoplastic elastomer raw materials (TPE) such as styrenic-based thermoplastic elastomers (TPE-S), thermoplastic vulcanisates (TPV), thermoplastic polyester elastomers (COPE), and fluoropolymers (PVDF).

"Our ability to source materials globally insures we provide quality elastomers at the most competitive pricing", said Morin. APS also manufactures and markets speciality compounds designed to enhance certain properties of the TPEs it sells.

As MRC informed previously, this summer, Huntsman Corp. signed a definitive agreement to acquire Oxid LP, a privately-held manufacturer and marketer of specialty urethane polyols based in Houston, Texas. The polyols are combined with methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) to create polyurethane foam insulation for walls, roofs, refrigerators and other applications.

Huntsman Polyurethanes serves customers in more than 90 countries and operates TPU manufacturing facilities in the USA, Germany, and China.

Huntsman is a global manufacturer and marketer of differentiated chemicals. Its operating companies manufacture products for a variety of global industries, including chemicals, plastics, automotive, aviation, textiles, footwear, paints and coatings, construction, technology, agriculture, health care, detergent, personal care, furniture, appliances and packaging.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A shortage in the domestic market has forced Russian producers to reduce exports of polypropylene (PP) in October. Sales to foreign markets fell by 44% from September, according MRC DataScope.

Scheduled and unscheduled outages at Russian PP plants in September-early October led to the shortage in the domestic market. As a result, local producers cut export sales in October in favor of the domestic market to 5,500 tonnes tonnes from 9,900 tonnes in September.

The main importers of Russian polypropylene are Russia, China and Ukraine. October shipments of Russian polymer to Belarus fell to 1,400 tonnes from 2,400 tonnes in September. October exports to China also dropped by almost half to 3,200 tonnes from 1,900 tonnes in September. Shipments to the Ukrainian market declined less sharply last month and totalled 1,200 tonnes (in the previous month - 1,400 tonnes).

The overall exports of Russian PP rose to 81,400 tonnes in January-October, 2013, from 33,600 tonnes in the same period of 2012. Homopolymer of propylene accounts for more than 95% of the total exports.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russian petrochemical company SamaraNefteOrgSintez (Sanors) has signed a letter of intent to acquire process technology from Taiwanese engineering company Maxiglas Corporation to produce polymethyl methacrylate at Russia’s first modern PMMA plant, as per Plastemart.

The agreement followed licensing negotiations between the companies and a visit by a Sanors delegation to an operating PMMA plant in Shanghai, China. This is run by Shanghai JingQi Polymer Science, a Maxiglas joint venture with Chinese and US investors.

Sanors plans to construct a two line 50,000 tpa PMMA unit to turn out a range of polymer and copolymer products at a larger petrochemicals complex in Russia’s Samara region. This facility, being located at Sanors’s site in Novokuybyshevsk, will also produce the PMMA intermediate methyl methacrylate (MMA).

Sanors is reported to be investing almost EUR300 mln in the joint project to construct the PMMA plant and a 70,000 tpa MMA unit at the complex which are due to be operating by 2018.

Rosneft will hold majority stake in the venture of at least 50%, while Sanors will have a lesser share in the enterprise which is due to construct a new world class petrochemicals complex in Samara. This will produce a range of polymers and other chemicals aimed at meeting demand and substituting imports in Russia. The partners are due to confirm their outline agreement by signing a binding contract by the end of 2013 following detailed talks on the formation of the joint venture.

As MRC wrote previously, Sanors has recently shown interest in Thai PTT's mega refining and petrochemical project in Vietnam's Binh Dinh province. The mega refining and petrochemical project in Vietnam's Binh Dinh province was proposed by Thailand's top energy company PTT in November last year. It expects to complete the feasibility study for the proposed complex in the Vietnamese central province of Binh Dinh in April 2014, which will then be submitted for Vietnamese government's approval.

Russian Sanors produces a wide variety of petrochemical products like phenol, acetone, alpha-methyl-styrene, ethylene, synthetic ethanol. Sanors Group was formed in April 2011 through the merger of three regional petrochemical companies: Novokuibyshevskaya Neftekhmicheskaya Kompaniya (NNK), SamaraOrgSintez and NefteKhimiya. The companies were formerly part of the group Kujbyshevskij.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Petronas Refinery and Petrochemical Corp. (PRPC), a subsidiary of Petronas that is responsible for the proposed Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (Rapid) project, has signed a shareholders' agreement with Versalis for an elastomers joint venture that will be built as part of the Rapid project in Pengerang, Johor, Malaysia, as per Apic-online.

The joint venture, which is for an initial period of 30 years, will be owned 60% by PRPC and 40% by Versalis. It will manufacture, sell and market elastomer products.

"This joint venture will create a unique opportunity for both parties to take our partnership to a new frontier; for PRPC to progressively advance its position in the areas of elastomers, and for Versalis to set a foothold in the Asia Pacific region, where the growth of elastomers is forecasted to be very attractive in years to come," said Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin, Petronas' chief operating officer and executive vice president for downstream business.

As MRC reported earlier, this summer, Petronas signed an agreement with Eni-controlled Versalis to jointly own, develop, construct and operate elastomer plants within Petronas" proposed refinery and petrochemical integrated development (RAPID) complex in Pengerang, Johor.

Headquartered in Milan, Italy, Versalis manages the production and marketing of a wide portfolio of petrochemical products, using a range of proprietary technologies and production systems and a wide-reaching distribution network.

Petronas, short for Petroliam Nasional Berhad, is a Malaysian oil and gas company wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia. The Group is engaged in a wide spectrum of petroleum activities, including upstream exploration and production of oil and gas to downstream oil refining; marketing and distribution of petroleum products; trading; gas processing and liquefaction; gas transmission pipeline network operations; marketing of liquefied natural gas; petrochemical manufacturing and marketing; shipping; automotive engineering; and property investment.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Nippon Shokubai is operating a monoethylene glycol (MEG) plant at curtailed capacity levels, reported Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Japan informed that the plant is presently running at 75% of production capacity.

Located at Chitori in Japan, the MEG plant has a production capacity of 165,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote previously, this summer, Nippon Shokubai received a new "lift of restrictions," allowing the company to resume production at a second acrylic acid unit at its Himeji complex in Japan. Two separate explosions at its Himeji site last September forced the company to stop production of acrylic acid and superabsorbent polymers and resulted in the suspension of most operations at Himeji.

Nippon Shokubai produces one fifth of the global volume of superabsorbent polymers and it is one of the world's biggest makers of acrylic acid, the main ingredient of a resin called SAP, which is used in diapers
MRC