Reliance Industries announces polymer price revisions

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Reliance Industries has announced the following price revisions for December PE delivery, as per the company's press-release.

Decrease in HDPE & LDPE prices by Rs 2000/MT
Decrease in LLDPE prices by Rs 2000/MT except Rotomoulding and Octene grades where there is no change in prices.
Decrease in prices of EVA by Rs 3000/MT.
Change in DE Prices as per circular attached.

Earlier price protection is withdrawn & new price protection is announced wef 11 Dec 2014 The price protection is applicable on HDPE & LLDPE but not on LDPE, EVA and Deemed exports.

As MRC informed previously, Reliance Industries (RIL) will invest up to USD700 mln in its shale gas venture in the current fiscal and also ramp up spends under the USD13 bln capex programme in the petrochemical and refining business.

Reliance Industries is one of the world's largest producers of polymers. The company's polymer production in 2010-11 (polypropylene, polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride) made 4,094 kilo tonnes.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- UOP LLC, a Honeywell company, announced that UOP C3 Oleflex process technology started up and has been successfully operating in Russia, producing high-quality propylene to help meet the global supply shortage of the valuable plastics building block, said the company in its press-release.

Russia's OOO Tobolsk-Polymer facility, which became the largest Oleflex production unit in the world, is meeting design capacity of 510,000 metric tons annually (MTA) of propylene at its facility in Western Siberia.

Global propylene demand is growing at about 4 to 5% per year. Russia is expected to be a large contributor to propylene production due to the country's diversification into the petrochemicals sector, which has seen substantial investment in the polyethylene and polypropylene industries, according to GlobalData.

The C3 Oleflex process uses catalytic dehydrogenation to convert propane to propylene. Compared with competing processes, UOP's C3 Oleflex technology provides the lowest cash cost of production, the highest return on investment and the smallest environmental footprint. This superior performance is characterized by low capital cost, high propylene yields, low energy and water consumption, and use of a fully recyclable platinum alumina-based catalyst system. In addition to the C3 Oleflex process, UOP also licenses its C4 Oleflex technology, a butane dehydrogenation process to convert isobutane to isobutylene.

OOO Tobolsk-Polymer, a subsidiary of SIBUR Holding JSC, produces a wide range of high-quality polypropylene used to manufacture goods in Russia and abroad. The facility is located in Tobolsk in the Tymen region of Russia.

UOP LLC is a leading international supplier and licensor of process technology, catalysts, adsorbents, equipment, and consulting services to the petroleum refining, petrochemical, and gas processing industries. UOP is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Honeywell International, Inc. and is part of Honeywell's Performance Materials and Technologies strategic business group, which also includes Honeywell Process Solutions, a pioneer in automation control, instrumentation and services for the oil and gas, refining, petrochemical, chemical and other industries.

Honeywell is a Fortune 100 diversified technology and manufacturing leader, serving customers worldwide with aerospace products and services; control technologies for buildings, homes, and industry; turbochargers; and performance materials.

SIBUR is a vertically integrated gas processing and petrochemicals company, which operate Russia’s largest gas processing business in terms of associated petroleum gas processing volumes and are the leader in the Russian petrochemicals industry.

LLC "Tobolsk-Polymer" is a subsidiary of SIBUR and Russia's largest construction project of a modern PP complex with the production capacity of 500,000 tonnes per year. It is located in the industrial zone of Tobolsk, at the production site of Tobolsk-Neftekhim.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- French chemicals group Arkema has announced a successful completion of the EU350 million share capital increase related to the proposed acquisition of Bostik, reported the company in its press release.

Thus, the share capital increase with preferential subscription rights launched by Arkema on 19 November 2014 as part of the financing of the proposed acquisition of Bostik has been successfully completed.

The gross proceeds of the issue amounts to EUR350,451,024, corresponding to the issue of 9,102,624 new shares.

Therefore, the deal would be financed by a EUR350-million share capital increase; the issuance of hybrid securities of EUR600-700 million; and a senior bond issuance for the rest, EUR500–600 million, Arkema says.

As MRC wrote befire, in late September 2014, Arkema offered to buy oil major Total's adhesives business Bostik, which makes Blu-Tack, for EUR1.74 billion (USD2.24 billion).

Total, under pressure from shareholders to improve its cash flow and raise dividends, has embarked on a major divestment program. A sale of Bostik at that price would increase its announced disposals this year to near USD20 billion - at the top of its target range of USD15-USD20 billion.

Bostik is the third-largest adhesives company and generated sales of EUR1.53 billion in 2013. Total has granted Arkema an exclusivity period to pursue the offer. The proposed transaction is subject to approval by the relevant antitrust authorities.

The acquisition would strengthen Arkema’s position in specialty chemicals and continue the development of its high-performance materials segment, which would account for 42% of total sales following the Bostik deal, Arkema says.

Bostik develops high-performance and high-value-added bonding and sealing products for the nonwoven, industrial, construction, and consumer markets. Bostik employs about 4,900 people across 48 production facilities - 18 in Europe, 10 - in North America, 8 - in Asia, 6 - in Australia and New Zealand, 2 - in Africa, and 4 - in South America.

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

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Engineers increasingly are using Tepex performance composites from Lanxess subsidiary Bond-Laminates to significantly improve the mechanical strength of components made of fiber-reinforced thermoplastic compression molding compounds, as per Lanxess' press release.

The latest example is a cover on the rear muffler of the BMW i8. It is fabricated in a direct long fiber thermoplastic (DLFT) process from a polypropylene compression molding compound reinforced with long glass fiber rovings. An insert made of Tepex dynalite 104-RG601 is used as the surface layer.

Tepex also is an attractive option for locally reinforcing components made of other thermoplastic compression molding compounds and forming materials. For example, the mechanical properties of Tepex-reinforced DLFT polypropylene materials are on par with glass-mat-reinforced and glass-fabric-reinforced thermoplastic systems (GMT and GMTex) based on polypropylene.

As MRC informed previously, in October 2014, at Composites Europe, Lanxess presented new multi-axial Tepex semi-finished products from its subsidiary Bond-Laminates. Bond-Laminates can produce them continuously in an industrial-scale process that enables the continuous fiber layers to be oriented at almost any angle in the thermoplastic matrix. It is even possible to achieve quasi-isotropic lay-ups. The hybrid technology using Tepex with polyamide 6 as an overmolding material has already conquered a large number of series applications in the lightweight design of automobiles. Durethan BKV 55 TPX, a new polyamide 6 reinforced with 55 percent short glass fibers and optimized for overmolding Tepex.

Lanxess is a leading specialty chemicals company with sales of EUR 8.3 billion in 2013 and roughly 17,000 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.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF, the world's petrochemical major, and Omya, a Switzerland-based global provider and distributor of specialty chemicals, are working jointly on coater-ready barrier solutions for paper and cardboard packaging, reported BASF on its site.

This cooperation is their response to the growing demand for these products. In future, this will provide a service for customers who for capacity and plant technology reasons cannot prepare formulations and mixtures independently. Coater-ready solutions consist mainly of pigments, additives and functional barrier dispersions.

BASF's and Omya's contributions to the partnership complement each other ideally. BASF supplies barrier dispersions, while Omya provides the pigments and experience to manufacture these products and produces them in its own facilities. Thanks to their technical know-how and knowledge of the market, the two partners can guarantee an optimal solution for the paper and cardboard packaging manufacturers. Marketing will be carried out through the sales channels of Omya in Europe. A first commercial product will be available in Q1.

The upcoming Mineral Oil Ordinance of the German Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV) is increasing interest in water-based barrier solutions for paper and cardboard packaging. BASF's comprehensive portfolio of barrier solutions includes polymers applied by extrusion, coextrusion or lamination at converters (e.g. ecovio PS 1606 or Ultramid) as well as water-based dispersions used in paper finishing on coating machines and in printing processes (Epotal). Through this cooperation, BASF's portfolio is supplemented by this new coater-ready barrier formulation.

Together with packaging manufacturers, BASF has developed various barrier solutions which are now already being successfully used in the market for various packaging applications.

As MRC wrote before, in May 2014, BASF offered high performance Ultramid (polyamide), which is derived from renewable raw materials with certified biomass. The resulting Ultramid, which is produced according to the so called mass balance approach, is identical in terms of formulation and quality but associated with lower green house gas emissions and saving of fossil resources.

Omya is a leading global producer of industrial minerals - mainly fillers and pigments derived from calcium carbonate and dolomite - and a worldwide distributor of specialty chemicals. The company’s major markets are forest products (fiber based products such as paper, board and tissue), polymers, building materials (paints, coatings, sealants, adhesives and construction) as well as life sciences (food, feed, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, environment and agriculture). Founded in 1884 in Switzerland, Omya has a global presence extending to more than 180 locations in over 50 countries with 8,000 employees.

BASF is the largest diversified chemical company in the world and is headquartered in Ludwigshafen, Germany. BASF 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 EUR72.1 billion in 2012.
MRC