Formosa Plastics to restart steam cracker at Point Comfort, Texas

MOSCOW (MRC) -- US petrochemicals producer Formosa Plastics is in the process of restarting its Olefins No 2 steam cracking unit at its complex in Point Comfort, Texas, as per company sources in Plastemart.

The emissions event associated with the startup was to be completed by Wednesday morning. The steam cracker was shut after a process upset, market sources said last week.

As MRC wrote before, Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp (FCFC), a subsidiary of Formosa Plastics Group, a week ago restarted its No. 1 styrene monomer (SM) plant. A Polymerupdate source in Taiwan informed that the No.1 plant restarted in early January 2015. It was shut in mid-December 2014 on account of weak market conditions. Located at Mailiao in Taiwan, the plant has a production capacity of 250,000 mt/year.

Formosa Petrochemical is involved primarily in the business of refining crude oil, selling refined petroleum products and producing and selling olefins (including ethylene, propylene, butadiene and BTX) from its naphtha cracking operations. Formosa Petrochemical is also the largest olefins producer in Taiwan and its olefins products are mostly sold to companies within the Formosa Group. Among the company's chemical products are paraxylene (PX), phenyl ethylene, acetone and pure terephthalic acid (PTA). The company's plastic products include acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) resins, polystyrene (PS), polypropylene (PP) and panlite (PC).
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- DuPont Co. is working with EcoStrate SFS Inc. to create a post-consumer recycling program for carpet made from the company’s Sonora renewably sourced, corn-based fiber, as per Plasticsnews.

The program will develop products made from used commercial and residential carpet containing the DuPont fiber.
EcoStrate makes signs, promotional items and mud flaps and will explore making flooring, shipping crates, pallets and building materials from the recovered carpet fiber. EcoStrate also will consider the use of the fiber in ballistics testing.

"While post-industrial recycling of DuPont Sorona has been practiced for years, we also have focused on identifying post-consumer recycling solutions for carpet made with DuPont Sorona. We believe that EcoStrate has an innovative program and our collaboration will be a benefit to both the carpet and recycling industries," said John Lyons, global business development manager for Sorona.

The Sonora polymer, which includes 37% renewable plant-based ingredients, is made in Kinston, N.C., and facilities in China, according to Wilmington, Del.-based DuPont.

As MRC reported earlier, Borealis AG is buying out DuPont Co.’s two-thirds share in their Specialty Polymers Antwerp NV joint venture. No purchase price was disclosed. Wilmington, Del.-based DuPont will continue to sell ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) and acrylate copolymers made at the JV’s plant, which is in Zwijndrecht, Belgium.

DuPont is an American chemical company that was founded in July, 1802. The company manufactures a wide range of chemical products, leading extensive innovative research in this field. The company is the inventor of many unique plastics and other materials, including neoprene, nylon, Teflon, Kevlar, Mylar, Tyvek, etc. DuPont was the developer and main producer of Freon used in the production of refrigeration equipment.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- UAE-based Borouge, a manufacturer of polyoleofins, has opened part of its new packaging facility at Abu Dhabi’s Khalifa Port, which would enhance the company’s exports to the rest of the world, as per Technical Review.

The new facility was designed and constructed after a joint agreement was signed between Borouge and Abu Dhabi Terminals (ADT) in June 2014, revealed officials from Borouge.

Abdulaziz Alhajri, CEO of Abu Dhabi Polymers Company (Borouge), said, "Operating our new packaging facility at Khalifa Port embodies our commitment to ensure better, safer and faster distribution of our products and reflects the importance of this advanced packaging solution, which Abu Dhabi Terminals has provided us."

Khalifa Port is a major trade gateway in the UAE, through which a majority of Borouge products are shipped. The port has a capacity of 385,000 metric tonnes, meant to enhance the company’s existing supply chain network.

Wim Roels, CEO of Borouge, said the new packaging facility and services provided at Khalifa Port provides more flexibility to serve customers better and achieve business targets all over the world, in addition to the existing packaging facilities in the Ruwais plant and in the company’s regional hubs in China and Singapore.

As MRC wrote before, Borouge has recently introduced three new solutions for advanced packaging, baby care and toy market at Arabplast 2015.

Borouge is a joint venture between the Abu Dhabi National Oil company and Borealis.

Borealis is a leading provider of innovative solutions in the fields of polyolefins, base chemicals and fertilizers. Borealis is headquartered in Vienna, Austria, and operates in over 120 countries with around 5,300 employees worldwide, generating EUR7.5 billion in sales revenue in 2012.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- MATHESON has entered into an agreement with Sasol to supply tonnage oxygen and nitrogen to Sasol’s world-scale ethane cracker, which is part of Sasol’s USD8.1 billion expansion in Lake Charles, Louisiana, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

MATHESON’s new Air Separation Unit (ASU) will augment existing operations, supplying both Sasol and existing customers while also providing for additional expansion in the Lake Charles area. "This ASU reflects the drive by MATHESON to further develop and reinforce our existing coast-to-coast bulk industrial gas network in the Sunbelt of the US," said Scott Kallman, CEO of MATHESON.

The ASU and pipeline will be constructed, owned and operated by MATHESON. The ASU distillation columns, often referred to as the ‘cold box,’ will be engineered and manufactured utilizing the technology and facilities of MATHESON’s parent company, Taiyo Nippon Sanso Corp. (TNSC) in Japan. There have been 7 TNSC cold boxes installed in the US in the past 10 years.

According to the Louisiana Economic Development (LED), over 130 new direct and indirect jobs in Louisiana will be traceable to the MATHESON project. These jobs are in addition to the jobs created by the Sasol expansion project itself.

MATHESON’s ASU complex is scheduled for completion in 2016, while Sasol’s ethane cracker and derivatives complex is scheduled for startup in 2018.

Sasol Limited is an integrated energy and chemical company based in Johannesburg, South Africa. It develops and commercialises technologies, including synthetic fuels technologies, and produces different liquid fuels, chemicals and electricity.

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