Gulf stabilizers to increase its NDB capacity

(Arabian Oil and Gas) -- Gulf stabilizers industries is expecting to commissioning its fourth expansion project of its non dust blends (NDB) plant during the first half 2011, according to Baker Khan, general manager of Gulf Stabilizers Industries, the only producer of antioxidants and NDB in the Middle East.

Currently, the company produces 10,000t/y of NDB, and is adding 6000 t/y by 2011. ⌠Upon completion, our total capacity will reach 16,000 tonne per year of NDB, said the general manager of the Saudi based company.

The antioxidants are added to various polymerization processing units along with other desired additives. Meanwhile, NDB is a blend of antioxidants and other desired additives.

MRC

(Arabian Oil and Gas) -- India has suspended its anti-dumping taxes on the import of Saudi polypropylene products, according to Mohamed Al Mady, CEO of SABIC.

The move follows intense efforts made by the Saudi Ministry of Commerce and Industry in collaboration with Saudi exporting companies to change the Indian stance on the matter.

India recently imposed a tax of over 22% on Saudi polypropylene. India made the decision to levy the tax in June 2009 on a preliminary basis and in August 2010 on a final basis.

MRC

(Sibur) -- Today the company Sibur-Khimprom held a ceremonial launch for three interrelated products - Alphapor ethylbenzene, styrene and expandable polystyrene. The total investment in the renovation and construction of new capacity was more than 8 billion rubles.

The reconstruction of the styrene production facility gave an increase in productivity of 100,000 tonnes per year to 135,000 tonnes per year. During reconstruction, production was transferred to vacuum dehydration thereby reducing consumption of the raw material - ethylbenzene, as well as reducing energy consumption.

The new production of Alphapor expandable polystyrene with a capacity of 50,000 tonnes was built by the Austro-Norwegian technology company Sunpor. The new product of European quality will be produced in Russia for the first time.

All the brands of expandable polystyrene meet stringent European standards for fire safety, grain composition, density and physical-mechanical characteristics. The brands of expandable polystyrene designed for the manufacture of building insulation will necessarily contain flame retardants preventing the spread of fire.

MRC

(Plastemart) -- Sinopec Zhenhai Refining & Petrochemical Co. Ltd. (ZRCC) has launched a new ethylene oxide/ethylene glycol (EO/EG) plant in China utilizing the revolutionary METEOR EO/EG process.

Licensed through The Dow Chemical Company, the Most Effective Technology for Ethylene Oxide Reaction (METEOR) process integrates process simplicity, inherent safety and superior catalyst technology into a single reactor design.

The ZRCC Plant, which first started up in April 2010, is the second plant in China to utilize the METEOR process. The first, operated by Sinopec-SABIC (Tianjin) Petrochemical Co. (SSTPC), began production in February 2010. Together, these METEOR plants attain significant reductions in feedstock consumption and greenhouse gas emissions when compared to industry averages.

MRC

(Plastemart) -- Petrobras has delayed the start-up of its Petrochemical Complex of Rio de Janeiro (Comperj) refinery and petrochemicals project to 2016-2017. The global economic downturn and lower than expected resins demand is being held responsible for the delay. Polymer demand is not as high as it was when the project was planned in 2005. Also the economic downturn led to longer than expected time taken for negotiations with partners for the downstream units. The industry is expected to recover by 2017-2018.

Petrobras now plans to start up the steam cracker at the end of 2016, with the downstream units for polyolefins, styrene and monoethylene glycol (MEG) scheduled to start up at the beginning of 2017. The cracker will have a capacity of 1.07 mln tpa, but the capacities of the downstream polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), styrene and MEG units have not yet been defined.

MRC