Slow recovery of petrochemical facilities in France

(Plastemart) -- France's Fos-Lavera petrochem terminal has been cleared after 33 days of strike that paralyzed the country's petrochem industry. The protest at the Fos-Lavera oil terminals at Marseille stranded 38 crude carriers and 20 product tankers.

Protests broke out at France's ports on September 27 and escalated over President Nicolas Sarkozy's pension reform. As a result, France, the second-biggest refining center in Europe after Germany, was forced to halt production from at least 9 of 11 active facilities in France and one in Switzerland.

France's 11 active refineries can process 1.84 million barrels of oil a day, according to Bloomberg data. Oil companies began to halt production as early as Oct. 10 because of the strike actions. As union tensions started to ebb, petrochemical players in France are slowly restarting their plants.

MRC

(Arabian Oil and Gas) -- The Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical Company (Petro Rabigh) in Saudi Arabia has resumed operations at its refinery after a power outage caused the complex to shutdown on Saturday 23 October. The company said that it had begun the process of restarting the cracker and derivative units.

The shutdown is the second in 10 days, and follows a problem at its polyethylene unit number one, caused by a compressor malfunction. The company resumed work at the unit after 24 hours.

Petro Rabigh has for the first time this week announced detailed financial statements of its sales. The disclosure reveals that its refining sector posted gross losses of US$418 million during the first nine months 2010, whereas its petrochemical division posted gross profits of $538 million.

MRC

(Arabian Oiland Gas) -- Saudi based Sahara Petrochemical Company has completed the performance tests at its polypropylene plant in Jubail through its subsidiary Al Waha Petrochemical Company, according to a statement by Sahara.

Al Waha had successfully produced the ⌠HECO grade of the polypropylene, which is classified as the purest grade of polypropylene that can be produced through Spherizone technology.

The ⌠HECO grade is generally characterised by its high quality and high cost, according to the company. Al Waha has conducted three different successful tests to produce different grades of polypropylene.

MRC

(Plastics News) -- In its first year of implementation, New York's expanded beverage container deposit law, known as the ⌠Bottle Bill, the state has collected more than $120 million in unclaimed deposits and has helped boost plastic recycling rates nationally.

The Bottle Bill, which went into effect Oct. 31, 2009, added water bottles to the list of beverage containers requiring a minimum 5-cent refundable deposit. Under the new law, beverage companies are now required to transfer 80% of the unredeemed deposits to the state General Fund. Previously, beverage companies kept all the unclaimed deposits.

Susan Collins, executive director of the Container Recycling Institute, noted that 2009 was a year of excellent growth in recycling rates in the container deposit-refund programs around the country.

MRC

(Plastics News) -- The Solvin awards for PVC innovation were presented at K 2010, Dusseldorf. They honoured the most impressive innovators among 141 contestants representing the whole vinyl value chain.

In this fourth competition, the jury was looking particularly for projects which highlight the decisive contribution of vinyl to sustainable development, combining environmental efficiency, creativity in design and improvement to the quality of life.

The Gold Solvin Award (with a prize of ┬50,000) went to Georg Fischer Deka (Germany) for its photo-bioreactors based on 100% transparent PVC pipes and fittings, designed for growing micro-algae.

The Silver Solvin Award (┬25,000) went to Rohm and Haas (France) for SureCel, a development in processing aid technology aimed at a 20% material saving in manufacturing foamed PVC profiles.

The Bronze Solvin Award (┬10,000) went to Alkor Draka (France) for its stretched PVC ceiling system, combining optimal fire resistance with zero smoke emission.

The Recycling Solvin Award (┬7,500) was won by Profine (Germany) for its ⌠KBE System_88 mm - a window and door configuration using up to 50% recycled PVC, for which spectacular energy savings are claimed. KBE System_88 mm should be of particular interest in ⌠passive house design.

The jury was so impressed by the sophisticated processes used by Molusk (France) to create and decorate its wide range of ⌠Aquatic jewellery, that they made a Creative Design award (┬7,500) to Molusk rather than the usual Industrial Design award.

MRC