Qapco polyethylene output to hit 700,000 tonnes by end-'11

(Gulf Times) -- Qatar Petrochemical Company's polyethylene production will scale up to 700,000 tonnes per year (tpy) by 2011-end, Qapco general manager Dr Mohamed Yousef al-Mulla has said. ⌠The production boost is achieved through the LDPE 3 plant, which is being set up at Mesaieed, al-Mulla told Gulf Times yesterday. Qapco's two existing low-density polyethylene (LDPE) production lines account for about 400,000 tpy.

Al-Mulla said Qapco's ethylene production capacity would also scale up to 1.4mn tpy following the expansion. Currently, Qapco produces 800,000 tpy of ethylene.

Qapco is one of the leading ethylene and polyethylene producers in the Middle East, and was established in 1974 as a joint multinational venture to utilise the associated and non-associated ethane gas from Qatar's petroleum production.

MRC

(Arabian Oil and Gas) -- Turkish distributor of petrochemicals and refined products Bayegan Group has set up a new branch in Dubai to boost its presence in the region, according to a senior executive of the company. The company which is based in Istanbul has established various offices worldwide, in the past it has made an agreement with Egyptian company, Oriental Petrochemicals to distribute its products in Turkey, Russia and the CIS countries.

Bayegan has been performing in the petroleum and petrochemical industry since 1940. It gives support to manufacturing companies in their raw material purchases. Bayegan has a wide range of products, among them - PVC, polypropylene, copolymers, polyethylene, etc.

MRC

(Plastemart) -- Maruzen Petrochemical Co Ltd plans to skip scheduled maintenance on its sole naphtha cracker in 2011, with capacity to produce 480,000 tpa of ethylene, as per Reuters.

The company's Keiyo Ethylene unit also plans to skip maintenance at its cracker with capacity to produce 690,000 tpa of ethylene. Keiyo Ethylene Co is 55% owned by Maruzen Petrochemical and 22.5% owned by each Mitsui Chemicals Inc and Sumitomo Chemical Co.

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(Plastemart) -- Japan's Mitsubishi Chemical Corp plans to conduct planned maintenance at its three naphtha crackers in 2011, as per Reuters.

Kashima 1, with capacity to produce 375,000 tpa of ethylene, Kashima 2, with capacity to produce 453, 000 tpa of ethylene and Mizushima with capacity to produce 450, 000 tpa of ethylene will be shut sometime in May-July.

MRC

(Platts) -- South Korea's SK Energy plans to restart its long-idled No. 1 naphtha-fed steam cracker at Ulsan on November 20, a company source said Monday. The steam cracker is able to produce 200,000 mt/year of ethylene and 140,000 mt/year of propylene.

The cracker has been shut since November 2008 due to negative margins amid a sharp decline in petrochemical demand. Despite negative ethylene margins, SK Energy has decided to restart the No. 1 cracker as margins for other olefins -- such as propylene -- are strong.

Meanwhile, SK Energy started running its No. 2 steam cracker, also located at Ulsan, at 100% from Sunday. The cracker was restarted last Thursday after a turnaround from October 1. The No. 2 cracker is able to produce 660,000 mt/year of ethylene and 360,000 mt/year of propylene.

MRC