Clariant closes sale of detergents and intermediates business

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Clariant, a world leader in specialty chemicals, announced the closing of the sale of its Detergents and Intermediates business to International Chemical Investors Group (ICIG), said said the producer in its press release.

The total consideration of the sale amounts to CHF 58 million, out of which CHF 20 million in cash became due at closing. Worldwide, 660 employees were transferred from Clariant to the new ICIG business, which from now on will operate under the WeylChem brand umbrella.

"The successful sale promotes the repositioning of the company's portfolio", says Hariolf Kottmann, CEO of Clariant. "As part of Clariant's profitable growth strategy we will focus on markets with strong growth rates and good perspectives for the future and on businesses with a competitive position, resulting in solid pricing power."

In this context, the company has already divested the business units Textile Chemicals, Paper Specialties and the Business Line Emulsions on September 30, 2013. The divestment of the Business Unit Leather Services to Stahl Holdings B.V. is expected to close in the next few months.

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) -- Sinopec Engineering and its subsidiaries have received a USD3.1-billion engineering, procurement and construction contract from Zhong Tian He Chuang Energy Corp. for what will be "by far the world's largest coal-to-olefin project," reported Sinopec.

Sinopec said the project, to be built in Uxin Banner, Ordos, Inner Mongolia, involves a coal gasification unit, a purification unit, a 3.6-million-t/y synthetic methanol unit, two 1.8-million-t/y methanol-to-olefins units and a 200,000-t/y olefin catalytic cracking unit.

The project also includes a 350,000-t/y polypropylene (PP) unit (loop reactor), a 350,000-t/y PP unit (gas reactor), a 120,000-t/y low-density polyethylene (LDPE) unit (tank reactor), a 250,000-t/y LDPE unit (tubular reactor), a 300,000-t/y linear LDPE unit (gas reactor) and a combined 10,000-t/y methyl tertiary butyl ether and 30,000-t/y 1-butylene unit.

In addition, Sinopec will be responsible for utilities and tankage facilities. The project, which will use methanol-to-olefins technology developed jointly by Sinopec and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., is scheduled for completion by 30 October 2015.

As MRC informed earlier, in October 2013, top Asian refiner Sinopec Corp won initial approval from China's top economic planner for a plan to build a USD10-billion refinery and petrochemical complex in Shanghai. Sinopec has already 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.

China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (SINOPEC) is a large scale integrated energy and chemical company with upstream, midstream and downstream operations. Sinopec is the worlds seventh biggest company by revenue.
Sinopec is China's largest manufacturer and supplier of major petrochemical products. It is the second largest producer of crude oil in China. Its refining capacity and ethylene capacity rank No.2 and No.4 globally.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- PolyOne Corporation, a premier provider of specialized polymer materials, services and solutions, has announced additional realignment actions to better serve customers and to increase utilization of its manufacturing assets in North America, according to the company's press release.

These actions will include aligning assets that were acquired as part of the 2013 acquisition of Spartech with PolyOne's Performance Products and Solutions (PP&S) segment. These assets are primarily located in Ramos, Mexico and will now operate within Producer Services, a business unit of PP&S, which has headquarters in Seabrook, Texas.

"Our multinational customers are increasingly concentrating production in North America and often choose Mexico as a strategic location," said Robert M. Patterson, executive vice president and chief operating officer, PolyOne Corporation. "Under the leadership of our Producer Services team located in Texas, we look forward to expanding our capabilities in Mexico with improved customer service, quality and delivery."

"After nine months, we remain extremely pleased with the Spartech acquisition," said Stephen D. Newlin, chairman, president and chief executive officer, PolyOne Corporation. "We continue to see upside opportunities to expand our portfolio of offerings and better serve our customers, and we remain committed to delivering USD0.50 of EPS accretion from the deal in 2015."

In connection with these changes, a separate facility located in Lockport, New York will also operate as part of producer services, and an administrative office in Washington, Pennsylvania will close as this work is transitioned to Seabrook, Texas. Further, the company has realigned certain resources associated with Spartech's legacy Color and Specialty Compounds segment, based on how these resources will now report within PolyOne's businesses.

As MRC wrote previously, in June 2013, PolyOne completed the previously-announced sale of its vinyl dispersion, blending and suspension resin assets to Mexichem for USD250 million in cash. The sale of PolyOne's last remaining resin production assets marks an important milestone in the company's ongoing specialty transformation that began in 2006, according to top officials.

PolyOne Corporation is a global provider of specialized polymer materials, services, and solutions. PolyOne is a provider of specialized polymer materials, services and solutions with operations in specialty polymer formulations, color and additive systems, polymer distribution and specialty vinyl resins.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Pertamina is in plans to take an aromatics plant off-stream for maintenance turnaround, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Indonesia informed that the plant is planned to be taken off-stream in September 2014. It is likely to remain off-stream for around one month.

The plant has a paraxylene capacity of 270,000 mt/year and benzene capacity of 110,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed before, Thailand’s PTT Global Chemical (PTTGC) intends to sign a joint-venture agreement with Indonesian state-owned energy company Pertamina to set up a petrochemical complex with an investment of around USd4-5 billion (Bt127 billion to Bt158 billion. Both companies will have a 50:50 stake in this downstream-to-upstream project. They will also sign a deal to market products from the project jointly.

Earlier last year, Pertamina signed an agreement to purchase petrochemical products from PTT Global Chemical. The agreement serves as a pre-marketing strategy for Pertamina and PTT’s joint Indonesian petrochemical business. Under the agreement, PTT will deliver at least 5,000 tonnes of polyethylene and polypropylene products each month to Pertamina for sale in Indonesia.

Pertamina is an Indonesian state-owned oil and natural gas corporation based in Jakarta. It was created in August 1968 by the merger of Pertamin (established 1961) and Permina (established 1957). Pertamina is the world's largest producer and exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
MRC