PVC production in Russia dropped by 3% from January to May 2014

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The overall production of suspension PVC (SPVC) in Russia dropped by 3% over the first five months of 2014, according to MRC ScanPlast.

May SPVC production in Russia decreased to 52,200 tonnes (53,200 tonnes in April). The overall output of resin by Russian producers fell to 258,900 tonnes from January to May 2014 from 267,200 tonnes a year earlier. The final shutdown of production at SIBUR-Neftekhim in late April and reduced capacity utilization at SayanskKhimplast affected negatively production figures.

The structure of suspension PVC production over the stated period looks the following way.

SayanskKhimplast, Russia’ largest SPVC producer, reduced its production in May to 25,600 tonnes from 27,100 tonnes in April. The plant’s overall output of resin totalled 124,800 tonnes from January to May 2014, down by 2% year on year.

Bashkir Soda Company, the second largest producer of PVC in Russia, produced 18,200 tonnes of PVC last month (18,100 tonnes in April). The Bashkir plant produced about 94,000 tonnes of suspension PVC over the first five months of the year, up by 4% year on year.

Kaustic (Volgograd) increased its May PVC production to 8,400 tonnes versus 8,000 tonnes in April. The Volgograd plant’s overall output totalled about 40,000 tonnes over the first five months of 2014, up by 2 year on year.

As reported earlier, SIBUR-Neftekhim completely shut down its PVC production in early April 2013 because of the launch of new production at RusVinyl (a joint venture of SIBUR and SolVin) with the total capacity of 330,000 tonnes per year. The start-up of the new PVC production at this site is expected in late July - early August of 2014.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Shenhua Baotou Coal Chemical is still in plans to shut its linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE)/ high density polyethylene (HDPE) swing plant, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the plant is likely to be shut in July 2014. It is expected to remain shut for around one month.

Located in Shenhua, China, the plant has a production capacity of 300,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed previously, Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical shut its HDPE plant on March 26, 2014 owing to feedstock issues. A restart date for the plant could not be ascertained. Located in Shanghai, China, the plant has a production capacity of 250,000 mt/year.

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

Sinopec Corp. is one of the largest scale integrated energy and chemical companies with upstream, midstream and downstream operations. Its refining and ethylene capacity ranks No.2 and No.4 globally. The Company has 30,000 sales and distribution networks of oil products and chemical products, its service stations are now ranked third largest in the world.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Effective August 1, 2014 Dr. Adrian Percy, currently Senior Vice President of Global Regulatory Affairs within Bayer CropScience will take over the position as Global Head of Research & Development (R&D), said the producer in its press release.

In his new role, Dr. Percy will also become member of the Bayer CropScience Excecutive Committee. Currently Adrian Percy (49) has responsibility for regulatory activities across the Bayer CropScience technology platforms, including Seeds & Traits, Crop Protection and Environmental Science globally. He began his career in 1991 as a Toxicologist with Rhone-Poulenc in France. Since then, he has held numerous positions in the Research and Development departments of Bayer CropScience and its legacy companies in France, Germany and the USA.

Dr. David Nicholson, currently Head of R&D has decided to leave the company to pursue other career opportunities outside of Bayer, effective July 31, 2014. “We thank Dr. Nicholson for his valuable contributions to the company and wish him all the best for the future”, says Bayer CropScience CEO Liam Condon.

As MRC wrote before, following a successful test phase and promising market analysis, Bayer MaterialScience (BMS) plans to invest EUR 15 million in the construction of a production line at its Dormagen site, which will use CO2 to produce a precursor for premium polyurethane foam. The line will have an annual production capacity of 5,000 metric tons.

Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the fields of health care, agriculture and high-tech materials. Bayer CropScience, the subgroup of Bayer AG responsible for the agricultural business, has annual sales of EUR 8,819 million (2013) and is one of the world’s leading innovative crop science companies in the areas of seeds, crop protection and non-agricultural pest control. The company offers an outstanding range of products including high value seeds, innovative crop protection solutions based on chemical and biological modes of action as well as an extensive service backup for modern, sustainable agriculture. In the area of non-agricultural applications, Bayer CropScience has a broad portfolio of products and services to control pests from home and garden to forestry applications. The company has a global workforce of 22,400 and is represented in more than 120 countries.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Foster Wheeler has signed an engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCm) services agreement with BOC, a member of The Linde Group, for the installation of replacement heat exchangers at BOC’s Teesport facility in northeast England, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The Foster Wheeler contract value was not disclosed and was included in the company’s first-quarter 2014 bookings.

Under this agreement, Foster Wheeler will provide project management, front-end engineering design, detailed engineering design, procurement services, construction supervision and quality assurance for the replacement of existing aluminium plate fin exchangers in the 1,300 tpd air separation plant.

Installation is scheduled for completion in the fourth quarter of 2014.

The Teesport facility provides oxygen and other gases to industrial facilities in the region.

As MRC reported earlier, last summer, Foster Wheeler announced that a subsidiary of its global engineering and construction (E&C) group was awarded a contract by Dow Chemical to provide services for the LA-3 crack more ethane (CME) project at Dow’s Plaquemine petrochemical complex in Louisiana. The services include detailed engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCm) work. The objective of the project is to improve the plant's ethane flexibility to take advantage of low-cost feedstock.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Petainer, the leading supplier of plastic packaging, has launched the petainerJar, a PET jar that offers significant cost and sustainability benefits over jars made from other materials, reported the company on its site.

The new petainerJar can be supplied with short lead times either as a fully blown jar or as a PET wide mouth preform, ready to be blown by food manufacturers on their own premises as and when needed. This two stage process offers inbound freight savings of up to 90%, and, significantly reduces costs.

The petainerJar is more cost effective and sustainable than jars made from other materials because it weighs much less, which means more can be carried on a truck without breaching weight restrictions whilst making maximum use of the load space. In turn, this saves dramatically on freight costs and fuel consumption. Transporting jars in preform format improves environmental performance since many more can be transported in fewer shipments, further cutting down on road miles. Preforms additionally offer operational benefits because they require less storage space.

Petainer manufactures the petainerJar creating a highly engineered preform made from our PET blend that offers significant benefits over standard PET, including superior barrier technology for extended shelf life (if required), and maximised weight reduction in design saving materials, thus reducing costs. The PET petainerJar is also made from material that is fully recyclable.

The petainerJar is available in sizes ranging from 300ml to 7.6 litres, with standard neck sizes from 63 to 120mm, with the most prominent current sizes of 100mm, 110mm and 120mm. Petainer offers a portfolio of jars and is able to work with individual customers to create a range that meet their exact requirements.

Petainer is a supplier of PET preform bottles, kegs and water coolers to the beverage industry. The addition of the petainerJar to its packaging portfolio means the multiple advantages of PET can now also be enjoyed by companies in the food industry.

As MRC informed before, in February 2014, England's Petainer opened a new site in Russia producing recyclable PET beer kegs and water cooler bottles for the local market. The factory, which is located 40 miles from Moscow in Klin, is equipped with a state-of-the-art SIDE blowing machine capable of manufacturing 700 kegs per hour, up to a maximum keg size of 50kg. The facility is currently supplying 20 and 30-litre PetainerKegs to customers in Russia, as well as Belarus and the Ukraine.

Petainer is a specialist engineering and technology business, an industry leader in the development, design and manufacture of PET (polyEthylene terephthalate) plastic containers.
MRC