Sabic dissolving Innovative Plastics unit

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Basic Industries Corp is dissolving its Sabic Innovative Plastics unit — the former GE Plastics business that ranks as one of the world’s largest polycarbonate makers - in a move that will also see it close Sabic IP’s office in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, US, said Plasticsnewseurope.

In an 8 October news release, officials with Riyadh, Saudi Arabia-based Sabic said that Sabic IP’s commodity products will be placed in the parent firm’s Chemicals and Polymers unit. Remaining Sabic IP products will be in a new Specialties unit.

"Along with the Performance Chemicals (strategic business unit)… the Innovative Plastics SBU will cease to exist," officials said in the release.

Some of the 300 employees in Pittsfield will transfer to Sabic offices in the Houston area, officials said. The company is still evaluating Pittsfield’s Polymer Processing Development Center and its location.

The business that is now Sabic IP has been based in Pittsfield in some form since 1903, when General Electric Co. bought the Stanley Electric Manufacturing plant there. GE began making phenolic plastic resins there in 1909. GE's employment numbers in Pittsfield peaked at 13,000 in the 1940s.

"Exiting the Pittsfield site was a logical yet very difficult business decision, knowing the important role our business and people have played in this community over the years," Sabic vice president and acting CEO Yousef Al-Benyan said in a news release.

GE Plastics was based in Pittsfield for many years and the business remained there after being sold to Sabic for USD11.6bn (EUR10.24bn) in 2007.

Officials added in the release that one of the drivers of the change is "the differing technology priorities of commodity and specialty businesses."

The new structure is expected to be in place by 1 January.

As MRC informed earlier, Sabic Innovative Plastics will close its compounding plant in Thorndale, Pa. The plant is being shuttered because it is too far away from end users in the Pacific region of the U.S.

SABIC is a diversified manufacturing company, active in chemicals and intermediates, industrial polymers, fertilizers and metals. It is the largest public company in Saudi Arabia. It is the largest company in the Middle East.
SABIC is currently the second largest global ethylene glycol producer and is expected to become number one after the introduction of these new projects. SABIC is the third largest polyethylene manufacturer, the fourth largest polyolefins manufacturer and the fourth largest polypropylene manufacturer. It is also the world's largest producer of mono-ethylene glycol, MTBE, granular urea, polyphenylene and polyether.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Celanese Corporation, a global technology and specialty materials company, has presented innovative uses of ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA), as per the company's press release.

Thus, Celanese exhibited the innovative controlled release pharmaceutical copolymer, VitalDose EVA.

"EVA has been used for years in drug delivery systems," said Dr. Donald Loveday, Celanese strategic marketing manager. "VitalDose EVA is an inert thermoplastic that is expanding design possibilities with its customizable drug release properties. This controlled release excipient is developed for a wide variety of pharmaceutical products with varying routes of administration, including intraoral, intravaginal, ocular, subcutaneous and transdermal."

As MRC reported earlier, in June 2015, Jacobs Engineering Group was awarded an engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) contract from Celanese Corp. for the construction of EVA emulsions production plant at Jurong Island, Singapore. Construction is expected to begin by mid-2015, and the unit is expected to begin production by second half of 2016.

Celanese Corporation is a global technology leader in the production of differentiated chemistry solutions and specialty materials used in most major industries and consumer applications. Based in Dallas, Texas, Celanese employs approximately 7,500 employees worldwide and had 2014 net sales of USD6.8 billion.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Lotte Chemical, a subsidiary of the South Korean Lotte Group, has shut its low density polyethylene/ethyl vinyl acetate (LDPE/EVA) swing plant for a maintenance turnaround, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in South Korea informed that the plant was taken offstream on October 12, 2015. It is likely to remain off-stream for around one month.

Located at Daesan in South Korea, the plant has a production capacity of 135,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote previously, Publicly listed petrochemical company Lotte Chemical Titan, another subsidiary of the South Korean Lotte Group, is studying the possibility of building a USD4 billion upstream plant to reduce imports of raw materials. Around 40% of the total investment needed for the new plant would be taken from the company’s internal cash, while the rest would be from bank loans, Yoon said, adding that all investors would be from South Korea.

The Lotte Group currently has a presence in Indonesia via its subsidiary, Honam Petrochemicals, which acquired Malaysia’s polyolefin major Titan Chemicals in July 2010. Included in the acquisition was Titan’s Indonesian subsidiary - PT Titan Petrokimia Nusantara (TPN), which has a polyethylene (PE) production capacity of 450,000 tonnes/year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Linde Group officially opened the new Linde Pilot Reformer research facility at Pullach near Munich – Linde’s largest location worldwide. The event was attended by customers, partners and employees, said the conpany in its press release.

Linde has invested approximately EUR 5 million in total to expand Pullach’s research and development capacity. The Linde Pilot Reformer will be used to refine steam reforming technology for the production of synthesis gas – a mixture consisting of hydrogen (H2) and carbon monoxide (CO). The carbon feedstock for synthesis gas can be in the form of natural gas, liquid petroleum gas (LPG), naphtha or even carbon dioxide (CO2).

“Inventiveness and innovation are ingrained in Linde’s DNA. The official opening of the pilot reformer provides further proof of our customer-centric approach to development and sends a strong signal confirming Germany’s role as an innovation hub,” commented Dr Wolfgang Buchele, Chief Executive Officer of Linde AG.

“Linde intends to use this pilot facility to test and optimise all kinds of approaches to reforming. The insights we gain will help us further improve reforming processes and concepts for our customers,” adds Dr Christian Bruch, Member of the Executive Board of Linde AG and responsible for Technology and Innovation as well as the Engineering Division.

Tests in the pilot reformer are currently focused on the dry reforming. This innovative process was developed by Linde in cooperation with its partners BASF and hte (responsible for catalyst development), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology / KIT (responsible for simulations) and DECHEMA (supplier of materials). The pilot project has been awarded funding by the German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) of just under one EUR1 million.

The production of synthesis gas (a mixture of H2 and CO) through dry reforming of natural gas means that carbon dioxide (CO2) can be used on an industrial scale as an economical feedstock. The process is also significantly more energy efficient than the conventional method of reforming. The synthesis gas can be used to produce valuable downstream products such as base chemicals or fuels.

One such example is dimethyl ether (DME). The DME produced through dry reforming offers an improved energy balance and lower CO2 emissions.

The dry reforming process also offers cost efficiencies relative to partial oxidation – the conventional method used up to now to produce CO-rich synthesis gases. These would be of particular interest to small and medium-sized plants. If the dry reforming pilot proves successful, there are plans to commercialise the process when the funded project comes to an end in 2017 and build a reference plant for a Linde customer.

As MRC informed earlier, SIBUR, a Russian gas processing and petrochemicals company, and Linde Group, a German Technology company, have signed agreements to build and operate new air separation units in Dzerzhinsk, the Nizhny Novgorod Region.

The Linde Group is a world-leading gases and engineering company with around 62,000 employees in more than 100 countries worldwide.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- German plastic automotive parts producer Kayser Automotive Systems has launched a new factory in Jaszkowa Dolna, in Poland’s southern part, said Plasticsnewseurope.

The new facility was opened three months after the firm secured the permission to launch its investment in Poland. Kayser Automotive invested close to PLN 11.5m (EUR2.75m) at the plant, and says it will be operated by at least 80 workers, with plans to increase this to as much as 120.

The plant was built in the Walbrzyska special economic zone (WSSE), enabling the company with preferential tax treatment for its manufacturing project. The investor located its production facility on a site of some 29,973 square metres, located in the municipality of Klodzko.

The firm’s product range consists of a wide range of automotive components made with the use of plastics. These include canisters, cables, connectors, pipes, valves, reservoirs and other parts. Kayser Automotive provides its output to a number of leading car producers, such as Volkswagen Group, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and DAF, according to data released by the company.

The Polish plant is operated by the firm’s local subsidiary Kayser Automotive Systems Klodzko sp. z o.o. Its output will be supplied, among others, to Volkswagen’s factory in Wrzesnia, in western Poland.
MRC