Lanxess strengthens high-tech plastics production in USA

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Specialty chemicals company Lanxess is expanding its Gastonia, North Carolina, compounding facility for high-tech plastics by adding a second production line, reported the company on its site.

The expansion represents an investment volume of about USD 15 million and will double the existing capacity from 20,000 to 40,000 metric tons annually. Construction for the second line is expected to commence in the second half of 2014 with production scheduled to begin in early 2016.

The Lanxess Gastonia facility produces the high-tech plastics Durethan (polyamide) and Pocan (polybutylene terephthalate), which allow automotive engineers to design lighter-weight plastic components to replace metal parts in cars, contributing to fuel efficiency and reduced emissions.

"The United States is the leading market for high-tech plastics, with the automotive industry at the forefront," said Lanxess Corporation President and CEO Flemming B. Bjoernslev. "Automotive industry sales are at their highest level in almost ten years and by adding the second line in Gastonia, we are underlining our ongoing commitment to our customers."

The investment in North Carolina not only strengthens Lanxess’ global high-tech plastics network but also further improves the balance of the company’s overall polyamide value chain through using more caprolactam for captive use.

As MRC informed previously, in July 2014, a high-tech polymerization plant in Antwerp, Belgium, started up. The world-scale facility is designed for an annual capacity of around 90,000 metric tons and represents an investment volume of roughly USD 100 million.

In addition, Lanxess recently opened a 20,000 metric ton per year high-tech plastics plant in Porto Feliz, Brazil. Other compounding plants are in operation in Dormagen, Germany, Wuxi, China, and Jhagadia, India.

Lanxess is a leading specialty chemicals company with sales of EUR 8.3 billion in 2013 and roughly 17,300 employees in 31 countries. The company is currently represented at 52 production sites worldwide. The core business of Lanxess is the development, manufacturing and marketing of plastics, rubber, intermediates and specialty chemicals.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc sold two natural gas assets in Wyoming and Louisiana for USD2.1 billion plus shale acreage in Pennsylvania, continuing a USD15 billion divestiture plan, said Bloomberg.

Shell, Europe’s largest oil company, sold its Pinedale acreage in Wyoming to Ultra Petroleum Corp. (UPL) for USD925 million and 155,000 acres in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus and Utica shales, the Hague-based company said in a statement today. In a second deal, Vine Oil & Gas LP and its partner Blackstone Group LP (BX) will buy Shell’s properties in the Haynesville area of Louisiana for USD1.2 billion.

Shell Chief Executive Officer Ben Van Beurden, who took over from Peter Voser at the start of the year, is accelerating disposals to win investor support. He returned Shell’s operations to profit in the Americas this year, where the company has about USD61 billion deployed in onshore tight and shale gas and oil projects.

"Perhaps the most surprising feature of the recovery in Shell’s earnings has been the performance of the North American business – a cause of much consternation 12 months ago," Lydia Rainforth, a London-based analyst at Barclays Plc, wrote in a report today before Shell announced the sale.

Van Beurden has already completed about USD8 billion in asset sales this year after announcing plans to dispose of about USD15 billion through 2015. Rex Energy Corp. USD120 million shale acquisition from Shell this week was the latest in a series of deals since the Anglo-Dutch company started divesting North America acreage last year.

"We continue to restructure and focus our North America shale oil and gas portfolio," Marvin Odum, Shell’s Upstream Americas Director, said in the statement. "We are adding highly attractive exploration acreage, where we have impressive well results in the Utica, and divesting our more mature, Pinedale and Haynesville dry gas positions."

As MRC wrote before, Royal Dutch Shell has taken a final investment decision tol increase production capacity at its Singapore petrochemical plant to meet demand for specialized materials used in the automotive and furniture industries.

Royal Dutch Shell plc is an Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the biggest company in the world in terms of revenue and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors". Shell is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading.
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MOSCOW (MRC) - Gazprom neftekhim Salavat has resumed high density polyethylene (HDPE) production following the scheduled maintenance works, as per ICIS-MRC Price Report.

Yesterday, on 14, August, Gazprom neftekhim Salavat started commissioning works for the resumption of HDPE production following a month long turnaround, which began on 15, July.

The producer resumed its low density polyethylene (LDPE) production earlier, on 1, August following scheduled maintenances.

JSC Gazprom neftekhim Salavat is one of Russia's major petrochemical complexes. The history of the Company dated back to 1948 when the construction of Industrial Complex №18 began in the area of the village of Bolshoi Allaguvat (Sterlitamak Region). Initially it was designed as gasoline and diesel fuel production by hydrogenation of coal and fuel oil.

The first batches of high density polyethylene were produced by the company in March 2010. Production of high density polyethylene by suspension method is one of the priority projects of the company. The estimated capacity of HDPE production at the plant is 120,000 tonnes/year, with the possibility to expand to 200,000 tonnes/year.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- SP Chemicals is in plans to shut its vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) plant for maintenance turnaround, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the unit is likely to be shut on August 18, 2014. It is expected to remain off-stream for around one month.

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

As MRC wrote previously, SP Chemicals conducted almost a month-long turnaround at its vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) plant in September 2013. The plant was shut on September 3, 2013, and resumed operations in late September. Located in Jiangsu, China, the plant has a production capacity of 200,000 mt/year.

SP Chemicals, a Singapore-based company is one of the largest ion-membrane chlor-alkali producer and aniline producer in China. The company's products include: aniline, caustic soda, chlorine, chlorobenzene, nitrochlorobenzene, nitrobenzene, vinyl chloride monomer (VCM). SP Chemicals plans to invest approximately RMB1.1 billion in facilities for the production of styrene monomer, an intermediate raw chemical used in making polystyrene plastics, protective coatings, polyesters and resins.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF Venture Capital has invested EUR1 million in the technology company SmartKem, based in St. Asaph, Wales, as per BASF's press release.

The total investment of the financing round was EUR3 million. Further investors with equal terms were Octopus Investments and Entrepreneurs Fund.

SmartKem is a leader in research and development of high performance organic semiconductor inks. These inks are used in printed thin film transistors (TFTs), which drive unbreakable and fully flexible electronics, for example leading-edge flexible OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diodes) displays.

"The future belongs to flexible displays. First flexible smartphones are already in the market. Customers will benefit from a lot of useful lightweight, fully flexible and rollable electronics products based on organic TFTs. Our investment in SmartKem and our extensive Joint Development Program will take us a great step forward in bringing this future-oriented technology faster to the market," said Dirk Nachtigal, Managing Director, BASF Venture Capital.

Steve Kelly, CEO of SmartKem, added: "Groundbreaking advances in material technology will drive the future of printed and flexible electronics. We are happy to join forces in research and development with BASF to progress smart chemistry for the new generation of flexible displays and circuits, which will address future market needs."

As MRC informed before, by acquiring a majority stake in InnovationLab GmbH in May 2014, Merck and BASF, the world's largest petrochemical producer, are increasing their involvement in order to continue the successful scientific work of the Heidelberg-based research and transfer platform for organic electronics in the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region.

SmartKem is a leading supplier of high performance organic semiconductor inks for the manufacture of printed TFTs. SmartKem’s inks can be processed on flexible and lightweight plastic substrates to enable rugged and truly flexible electronics.

BASF Venture Capital GmbH was established in 2001 as a wholly owned subsidiary of BASF New Business GmbH, Ludwigshafen, Germany, with the aim of exploring new growth potentials based on investment in startup companies and funds.

BASF is the leading chemical company. It produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries. BASF had sales of about EUR74 billion in 2013 and over 112,000 employees as of the end of the year.
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