Milliken additive innovations for polyolefins

(Milliken) -- At Arabplast 2011, Milliken will showcase additives for polyolefins (PO) offering pioneering possibilities in optical enhancement, performance improvement, and more cost-effective and sustainable processing, to meet the key challenges and demands of converters in the Middle East.

Milliken specializes in developing and producing additives for plastics. Its additives support the development of differentiated grades of polyolefins that address needs across a wide range of end-applications, including packaging and durable household items.

Key innovations will include Millad clarifying agents that achieve aesthetic properties never seen before in polypropylene (PP) and energy savings. Also featured will be new opportunities to address the critical problems facing manufacturers involved in many PP and polyethylene (PE) moulding processes through the significant advances in performance, processing and efficiency.

MRC

(Sabic) -- At the inaugural AddFilm 2010 (Warsaw, Poland) technical conference for the film and plastics industry, Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) highlighted its broad portfolio of materials for BOPP, cast, blown, stretch and multi-layer films.

SABIC's expanding array of innovative high-density, low-density and linear low-density polyethylene (HDPE, LDPE, LLDPE) and polypropylene (PP) resins will be detailed in six presentations by the company's dedicated Poland team. The company offers Polish converters a reliable source of supply from its logistical hub in Kutno, and provides developmental product assistance and other technical expertise from its office in Sittard, The Netherlands.

SABIC is a major partner in the new AddFilm conference, demonstrating its strong committment to Poland and its rapidly expanding film industry.

MRC

(ICIS) -- Shell will restrict US ethylene deliveries to 90% in December following the shutdown of one of its Norco crackers in Louisiana, market sources said on Wednesday. The company said the cracker was taken off line on 27 November because of a ruptured steam line. The duration of the outage was not yet known, a Shell spokesperson said.

Shell has two crackers at the site with a combined ethylene capacity of 1.4m tonnes/year. Market participants said the unit affected was the smaller cracker, GO-1, which has 558,000 tonnes/year of capacity. One market source estimated the unit could be down for 4-6 weeks, depending on the extent of the damage. Shell did not provide details except to say that more information would be available after an inspection of the unit is completed.

MRC

(Businessweek) -- LyondellBasell Industries NV said operating conditions in a ⌠process unit caused flaring at its chemical complex in Channelview, Texas.

The complex has two olefin units at its north side facility that manufacture ethylene, propylene, butadiene and benzene, according to the company website. The south-side operation uses many of those to produce gasoline-blending products and other chemicals, according to the website.

MRC

(ICIS) -- Spot prices of styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) in Asia may remain on an uptrend, possibly breaching $3,000/tonne (┬2,280/tonne) in January 2011, as demand continues to outstrip supply, industry sources said on Tuesday.

Non-oil grade 1502 SBR prices are currently hovering at around $2,800/tonne CFR (cost and freight) Asia, up $200-300/tonne from late October, according to ICIS.

Taking into account the strong demand and limited supply, producers hiked their spot offers for non-oil grade SBR 1502 by $100-200/tonne to $2,900-3,000/tonne CFR (cost and freight) Asia for December and January shipments, market sources said.

Demand was being fuelled by downstream tyre makers switching to the use of SBR from the more expensive natural rubber in tyre production, according to SBR producers.

TSR 20 natural rubber grade prices for January delivery was at $4,200/tonne at the close of trading on Monday, after rising to as high as $4,420/tonne on 10 November, according to data from the Singapore Commodity Exchange (SICOM).

Natural rubber and SBR are substitute raw materials in the production of tyres for the automotive industry, and their prices tend to move in the same direction.

MRC