Ferro announces sale of Its North America-based polymer additives business

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ferro Corporation has announced that it has completed the sale of the majority of the assets of its Polymer Additives business to Polymer Additives, Inc., a wholly owned portfolio company of H.I.G. Capital, LLC, for approximately USD154 million in cash, subject to customary working capital and other purchase price adjustments, reported the company on its site.

Assets included in the transaction are the company’s four plants in the United States, its manufacturing operation in Newport, United Kingdom, certain assets at the Company’s former Baton Rouge, Louisiana plant and its polymer additives research and development lab in Independence, Ohio. The sold US manufacturing sites are located in the following communities: Bridgeport, New Jersey; Cleveland, Ohio; Fort Worth, Texas; Walton Hills, Ohio.

The company estimates that cash proceeds, net of cash income taxes and fees, from the sale will be approximately USD143 million, which it plans to use primarily to repay debt under its revolving credit facility and to fund strategic growth opportunities. The asset sale closed concurrently with the signing of the asset purchase agreement.

Excluded from this transaction are the company’s Europe-based Polymer Additives assets, including the Antwerp, Belgium dibenzoates manufacturing assets, and related Polymer Additives European headquarters and lab facilities. These assets are currently being marketed.

Peter Thomas, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ferro, said, "The transaction announced today marks a further step in our plan to harvest the value of assets that are no longer core to our growth strategy and focus resources on our Performance Materials product lines. Earlier this year, we completed the sale of our Specialty Plastics business for USD91 million, and we remain committed to the marketing process for our European Polymer Additives assets. Our strategic vision is to become the premier global functional coatings and color solutions company, building on our core competencies in glass and color technologies. These divestitures align our portfolio with that vision and provide liquidity for strategic growth activities. We believe that continued focus on our core businesses will allow us to deliver increased cash flow and greater shareholder value."

As MRC reported previously, in early December, Ferro Corporation announced today that it has completed the acquisition of tile coating manufacturer Vetriceramici S.p.A. for EUR83 million (approximately USD104 million), subject to customary working capital and other purchase price adjustments .

H.I.G.is a leading global private equity and alternative assets investment firm with more than USD17 billion of equity capital under management.

Ferro Corporation is a leading global supplier of technology-based performance materials, including glass-based coatings, pigments and colors, and polishing materials. Ferro products are sold into the building and construction, automotive, appliances, electronics, household furnishings, and industrial products markets. Headquartered in Mayfield Heights, Ohio, the company has approximately 4,190 employees globally.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chevron Phillips Chemical has plans to build a state-of-the-art polyethylene (PE) pilot plant at its research and technology facility in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The new pilot plant will incorporate Chevron Phillips Chemical’s proprietary MarTECH loop slurry process for polyethylene production and MarTECH ADL (advanced dual loop) technology, a proprietary dual loop process enabling production of bimodal polyethylene resins for advanced applications.

The premier testing site will provide leading-edge polyethylene research, including new catalyst and polymer development, as well as polymer performance enhancements. The construction is scheduled to begin in 2015.

"As a global producer of polyethylene, we strive to support our customers with the latest technological advances and process improvements through the efforts of our research and development personnel," said Don Lycette, vice president of research and technology for Chevron Phillips Chemical.

All MarTECH technology delivers reliable, high-reactor throughput while minimizing capital expense, operating costs and environmental impact, and it is utilized by numerous commercial reactor facilities worldwide.

Completion of the new pilot plant is expected in 2017.

As MRC informed earlier, in July 2014, Chevron Phillips Chemical (CPChem) received approval from its board of directors and obtained an environmental permit from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to expand normal alpha olefins (NAO) production capacity at its Cedar Bayou plant in Baytown, Texas. This investment will provide an additional 100,000 tpy of capacity. Construction completion is anticipated in July, 2015.

Chevron Phillips Chemica, headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas (north of Houston), US,l is one of the world’s top producers of olefins and polyolefins and a leading supplier of aromatics, alpha olefins, styrenics, specialty chemicals, piping, and proprietary plastics. Chevron and Phillips 66 each own 50% of Chevron Phillips Chemical.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Malaysia's state oil company Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) has chosen technology from US-listed LyondellBasell for a 900-tonne a year polypropylene (PP) plant in its USD27 billion refinery and petrochemical integrated development (Rapid) project, reported Reuters.

The plant's engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning (EPCC) phase is scheduled to start in November 2015 and mechanical operations will begin in July 2018.

As MRC wrote before, in August 2014, Malaysia's Petronas awarded several major contracts for its Pengerang Integrated Complex (PIC) project, which comprises the Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (Rapid) complex and associated facilities.

Petronas said the recent awards included an engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning (EPCC) contract to Toyo Engineering Corp. for the steam cracker complex.

A consortium of CTCI Corp., Chiyoda Corp., Synerlitz Sdn Bhd and MIE Industrial Sdn Bhd will handle the EPCC work for the residue fluid catalytic cracking units, the liquefied petroleum gas treating unit, propylene recovery unit and caustic neutralization units.

Sinopec Engineering Group received EPCC contracts for the crude distillation, atmospheric residue desulphurization and hydrogen collection and distribution units.

Polypropylenes are used in everything from automotive to household products.

Petronas, short for Petroliam Nasional Berhad, is a Malaysian oil and gas company wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia. The Group is engaged in a wide spectrum of petroleum activities, including upstream exploration and production of oil and gas to downstream oil refining; marketing and distribution of petroleum products; trading; gas processing and liquefaction; gas transmission pipeline network operations; marketing of liquefied natural gas; petrochemical manufacturing and marketing; shipping; automotive engineering; and property investment.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LP, wholly-owned subsidiary of Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LLC, one of the world’s top producers of olefins and polyolefins, has completed ethylene expansion at its Sweeny complex in Old Ocean, Texas, said Fibre2fashion.

Construction on the expansion began in 2013, and it has been completed with the addition of a tenth furnace to ethylene unit 33 at the Sweeny complex, the company said in a statement.

The latest expansion is expected to increase annual ethylene production at the Sweeny complex by 200 million pounds.

The Sweeny complex is one of the world’s largest single-site ethylene facilities and its capacity has now increased to roughly 12 million pounds of ethylene per day, or 4.3 billion pounds annually.

"This represents the next increment of expansion to our ethylene business. We’re building toward the start-up of the US Gulf Coast Petrochemicals Project in 2017 and supporting incremental growth of our olefins derivative businesses," said Dave Smith, olefins and natural gas liquids vice president for Chevron Phillips Chemical.

Chevron Phillips Chemical’s US Gulf Coast Petrochemicals Project includes the construction of an ethane cracker at the company’s Cedar Bayou plant in Baytown, Texas and two polyethylene units in Old Ocean, Texas near the Sweeny complex.

As MRC reported earlier, in July 2014, Chevron Phillips Chemical (CPChem) received approval from its board of directors and obtained an environmental permit from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to expand normal alpha olefins (NAO) production capacity at its Cedar Bayou plant in Baytown, Texas. This investment will provide an additional 100,000 tpy of capacity. Construction completion is anticipated in July, 2015.

Chevron Phillips Chemica, headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas (north of Houston), US,l is one of the world’s top producers of olefins and polyolefins and a leading supplier of aromatics, alpha olefins, styrenics, specialty chemicals, piping, and proprietary plastics. Chevron and Phillips 66 each own 50% of Chevron Phillips Chemical.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Equate Petrochemical Company, Kuwait’s first international petrochemical joint-venture, has announced that it will soon be in the final stages of its plant maintenance (Turnaround), reported the company on its site.

In a statement to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), Equate President & CEO Mohammad Husain said, "Equate has successfully entered its final stage of the Turnaround’s operations relevant to a number of industrial units for ethylene, polyethylene and ethylene glycol."

Husain noted, "Every phase and step of the Turnaround are implemented in coordination and cooperation with Kuwait’s Environment Public Authority (EPA) by complying with all relevant guidelines. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude and appreciation to the EPA’s management and employees for their support and collaboration that they are extending to all industrial entities. This acknowledgement is also addressed to all public and private bodies which have played a great role to ensure the community’s overall security and safety, especially in the environmental field."

Husain added, "Currently, Equate is preparing to enter the stage of conducting the plants’ return to operations (RTO) after the turnaround. As one of the environmental requirements for the RTO, the flares were operated within a controlled and precise manner as part of the industrial safety guidelines when executing an RTO. All of these practices are global measurements that are applied by all petrochemical plants and within the regulations of relevant regulatory bodies in Kuwait, as well as in accordance with international environment, health and safety standards, especially as stipulated by the EPA."

As MRC informed earlier, in line with The Dow Chemical Company's prior announcement of its intention to rationalize its investments in certain joint ventures, Dow will reconfigure and reduce its equity base in the MEGlobal and Greater Equate joint ventures, including The Kuwait Olefins Company (TKOC) and The Kuwait Styrene Company (TKSC), through a divestment of a portion of the company’s interests in these ventures.

Dow expects such transaction(s) to be completed by mid-2015. While Dow will retain a substantial stake in these long-term partnerships, this effort will open opportunities for new investment in these successful and growing enterprises. Dow remains committed to maximizing the overall value of both MEGlobal and the Greater Equate joint ventures to further enhance their already demonstrated strong value and performance.

Established in 1995, EQUATE Petrochemical Company is an international joint venture between Petrochemical Industries Company (PIC), The Dow Chemical Company (Dow), Boubyan Petrochemical Company (BPC) and Qurain Petrochemical Industries Company (QPIC). Commencing production in 1997, EQUATE is the single operator of a fully integrated world-scale manufacturing facility producing over 5 million tons annually of high-quality petrochemical products which are marketed throughout the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Europe.
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