Sasol to build ethylene tetramerization unit in Lake Charles

(Downstream Today) -- Sasol on Thursday announced plans to construct the world's first commercial ethylene tetramerization unit, capable of producing more than 100,000 metric tons per year of combined 1-octene and 1-hexene, at its Louisiana production site in Lake Charles.

This first-of-a-kind unit will be built in Southwest Louisiana and will be located inside Sasol's existing Lake Charles Chemical Complex. The tetramerization unit will expand the facility's workforce by nearly 10%.

Construction will commence in 2011, and the plant will reach beneficial operation in mid-2013.

MRC

(Hindu Business Line) -- India has imposed anti-dumping duty of up to $323.5 a tonne of polypropylene, for making woven sacks used for carrying cement, foodgrains, sugar and fertiliser, from Oman, Singapore and Saudi Arabia to protect the domestic industry from cheap imports.

The restrictive duty, which would range from $28.49 a tonne to $323.5 a tonne, was imposed on the recommendation of the Directorate General of Anti-Dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD), a notification by the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) said.

The DGAD, under the commerce ministry, had found that due to imports of the product from the three nations, the domestic industry suffered ⌠material injury, it said.

MRC

(Arabian Oil and Gas) -- With a US$20 billion price tag, ChemaWEyaat is the largest pure play downstream project in the Middle East today. As part of its plans to develop the downstream sector, the government of Abu Dhabi launched Abu Dhabi National Chemicals Company (ChemaWEyaat) in November 2008, as part of Abu Dhabi 2030 vision.

The purpose of the company is to better utilise the Emirate's vast resources, simultaneously enhancing the development of the petrochemicals industry in Abu Dhabi.

The first wholly-owned subsidiary of ChemaWEyaat will be Tacaamol. The project will produce 6.2 million t/y of marketable petrochemicals, its aromatics unit will have a capacity of 1.4 million t/y of paraxylene, which is used in the production of plastic bottles, and 850 000 t/y of benzene, a key raw material used for the production of polystyrene and polycarbonate. The unit will also produce the liquefied petroleum gases propane and butane, along with light naphtha.

MRC

(PRW) -- Smithers Group has purchased Pira International, a provider of conferences and reports to firms in the packaging, paper and print industries, and their supply chains. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Smithers bought UK-based Pira from BASF, which acquired Pira as part of its 2009 purchase of Ciba Specialty Chemicals. Pira employs about 120 at five facilities in the UK and the US.

MRC

(ICIS) -- EU chemicals production in September increased by 6.5% year on year, but the sector is still below the pre-crisis levels reached in 2007, chemical industry association Cefic said on Thursday.

Third-quarter data indicated that Poland and Belgium were above pre-crisis production levels for the first time, while the aggregate EU chemicals sector was still 5.6% below, Cefic said.

EU production data for the first nine months showed that Germany's output was ahead of other countries in Europe, with a rise of nearly 20% compared with the same period last year.

The EU external trade surplus for chemicals improved 9.7% during the first eight months compared with the same period the year before.

Cefic said the specialty chemicals sector was the main contributor to the additional surplus. External demand from the rest of Europe, Latin America and emerging Asia drove the EU trade surplus spike during the first eight months.

Prices rose by 5% during the first three quarters, compared with January-September 2009.

MRC