PP exports from Russia surged by 68% from January to October 2014

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Exports of polypropylene (PP) from Russia increased by 68% over the first ten months of 2014 and totalled about 138,000 tonnes. China is the key importer of Russian PP, according to MRC ScanPlast.


October PP exports from Russia rose to 11,500 tonnes from 7,100 tonnes in September. Overall, Russian plants exported about 138,000 tonnes of propylene polymers to foreign markets from January to October 2014 versus 82,000 tonnes over the same period of 2013. China accounted for the largest export quantities. The five largest importers of Russian PP also include Belarus, Ukraine, Turkey and Kazakhstan.

Such a significant increase in export sales of Russian producers was achieved by a launch of production at new plants in Omsk (Poliom) and Tobolsk (Tobolsk-Polymer) in 2013. To date, Russia's total PP production capacities are about 1.4 million tonnes per year.

Tobolsk-Polymer with the share of around 46% in the total exports became the key exporter over the stated period, while Tomskneftekhim and Poliom follow the leader.

MRC

CNOOC division signs contract with Genoil to build a USD700 mln Refinery

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Hebei Zhongjie Petrochemical Company Ltd., which operates as a subsidiary of CNOOC, signed a contract for a 1 million 200000 tpa refinery, utilizing the Genoil Upgrading Process, as per Plastemart.

The Refinery will produce finished products for sale in the local Chinese market.

The previous engineering work and feasibility study done by the Chinese Petroleum Engineering Co, Ltd - Dalian Company, which is a division of Chinese National Petroleum Company (CNPC), will be the base for this new project. Genoil has already invested a substantial amount in the millions of dollars for this engineering work.

Hebei Zhongjie Petrochemical Company will make a 30% direct investment in the project. The profits are to be shared on a 50%-50% basis between Genoil and Hebei Zhongjie Petrochemical Company for the life of the project.
It has been the intention of CNOOC to significantly expand the annual refining capacity of Hebei Zhongjie Petrochemical Company's refining operation. "Genoil is excited to be participating in their expansion plans" says David Lifschultz, CEO of Genoil.

As MRC wrote before, CNOOC Oil and Petrochemicals Co. (CNOOC) has selected the LyondellBasell Spherizone technology for a 400 KT per year polypropylene (PP) plant planned to be built in Huizhou, China.


MRC

M&G wins final GHG permit for Texas PET project

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued two final greenhouse gas (GHG) Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) construction permits to M&G Resins to build a new chemical process plant and utility support facility, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The facility will be located in Corpus Christi, Texas.

"EPA will continue working with companies to ensure they have the permits they need,” said EPA regional administrator Ron Curry. “We are working to help Texas businesses take advantage of growth opportunities while building greener facilities with better controls for greenhouse gas emissions."

M&G Resins plans to build a new polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resin manufacturing complex along with a collocated combined support system for heat and power utility generation. The support system will be used for steam and electrical demands.

As MRC wrote before, M&G plans to use Alpek's IntegRex technology for the PTA unit, but will use its own technology for the PET unit. Alpek has purchased a USD350m multi-year sourcing agreement for rights to 400,000 tonnes/year of the plant's PET production.

The project will emit up to 1,178,441 tpy of CO2.

The additions will bring over USD1 billion in capital investments, create 3000 construction jobs, 250 long-term operations jobs and 700 support positions in the local area, according to the EPA news release.

M&G Group is a family owned chemical engineering and manufacturing group headquartered in Tortona, Italy. M&G Group operates in the PET resin industry in the Americas through its wholly-owned holding company, Mossi & Ghisolfi International S.A. (M&G International). M&G International is presently a leading producer of PET resin for packaging applications in the Americas, with a production capacity in 2012 of approximately 1.6 million tons per year. Thanks to its proprietary Easy-up PET Technology M&G International currently owns the world's largest single line PET plants in Altamira, Mexico (single line of 490,000 MT/year nominal capacity) and Suape, Brazil (single line of 650,000 MT/year nominal capacity).

MRC

Arkema joins Together for Sustainability initiative

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Arkema says it has become the ninth member of the Together for Sustainability (TfS) initiative, founded in 2011 by BASF, Bayer, Evonik Industries, Henkel, Lanxess and Solvay, as per the company's press release.

The goal of TfS is to develop and implement a global assessment and audit program to evaluate and improve sustainability practices in chemical industry supply chain. For this purpose, TfS members involve EcoVadis (Paris), a company specialized in corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance assessment, to measure the commitment of their registered suppliers.

For this purpose, TfS members involve EcoVadis, a company specialized in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) performance assessment, to measure the commitment of their registered suppliers. Independent audit companies are also conducting supplier audits on many criteria aiming at improving sustainability practices.

"The value of this approach is to share assessments and audits results between all TfS members on a web-based platform, instead of doing all of them separately on our own. Therefore it relieves both suppliers and customers from redundant audit workload. The platform is also a very convenient way to highlight CSR best practices" emphasizes Louis Schmidtlin, Goods and Services Procurement Vice-President.

As MRC informed before, Arkema announced the launch of a share capital increase with preferential subscription rights of shareholders for an amount of around EUR350 million, whose principle had initially been announced on 19 September 2014. This rights issue is part of the refinancing of the projected acquisition of Bostik.

Arkema is a leading European supplier of chlorochemicals and PVC. Kynar and Kynar Flex are registered trademarks of Arkema Inc.

MRC

Saudi Kayan signs 2 Islamic financing deals totalling USD700 mln

МОSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Company , an affiliate of Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) , has signed two Islamic financing deals totalling SR 2.63 bln (USD700 mln), as per Reuters.

It signed a 1.5 billion riyal agreement with National Commercial Bank, the kingdom's largest lender by assets, for up to 15 years, and a 1.13 billion riyal facility with Samba Financial Group, another Saudi Arabian lender, for up to 10 years.

Both deals are under a Murabaha arrangement, a cost-plus sale arrangement which is commonly used in many parts of the Islamic world.

As MRC wrote earlier, Saudi Kayan, Sadara Chemical and Saudi Acrylic Acid Company (SAAC) have joined forces to establish a new company, which will build the first butanol plant in the Middle East and the largest in the world. The Saudi Butanol Company, which will produce butanol to support the growth of the paints and coatings industry in Saudi Arabia, will be located at Tasnee Petrochemicals Complex in Jubail Industrial City and operated by Tasnee.

Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Company is a manufacturing affiliate of the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic).
MRC