Output of basic products from polymers in Russia grew 8.1% in the first eight months of 2016

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russia's production of some products from polymers decreased in August 2016 after the July growth. Nevertheless, the industry showed a 8.1% increase in the output in January-August, reported MRC analysts.

According to the Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation, last month's output of the key products from polymers dropped by 0.5% from July (the July increase was 3.6% compared to June). Production of plastic pipes, films and non-porous sheets decreased.

The production structure of products from polymers looks the following way.

August output of plastic pipes, hoses and fittings fell to 56,400 tonnes from 60,000 tonnes a month earlier. In January-August 2016, overall production of these products totalled 366,800 tonnes, up by 9.9% year on year.

Last month's production of unreinforced and non-combined films rose to 90,900 tonnes from 87,300 tonnes in July. Output of films increased in the first eight months of 2016 by 4.9% year on year to 620,600 tonnes.

August production of boards, sheets and non-porous films dropped to 25,500 tonnes from 26,700 tonnes a month earlier. Overall output of these products rose to 192,300 tonnes in January-August 2016, up by 8.2% year on year.

Last month's production of boards, sheets and porous polymer films was 21,500 tonnes, compared to 20,300 tonnes in July. Overall output of this polymer production grew in the first eight months of 2016 by 2.9% year on year to 157,100 tonnes.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Lotte Chemical Titan is plans to shut its Low density polyethylene (LDPE) unit for a maintenance turnaround, reported Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Malaysia informed that the company will be taking its unit off-stream in December 2016. The unit is likely to shut in early-December and expected to remian off-line until end-December 2016.

Located at Pasir Gudang, Malaysia, the LDPE unit has a production capacity of 230,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote before, Lotte Chemical Titan 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. Lotte Chemical, which currently has a production capacity of 450,000 tons of polyethylene per year, expects the upstream plant to boost production capacity to 1 million tons by creating ethylene.

Lotte Chemical Titan produces Malaysia's most comprehensive portfolio of olefins and polyolefins which contribute to the enhancement of everyday life. Lotte Chemical Titan's production site in Malaysia consists of eleven process facilities, two co-generation plants and three tank farms. They are located on 2 sites in Pasir Gudang and Tanjung Langsat in the state of Johor. In 2006, Lotte Chemical Titan acquired PT Lotte Chemical Titan Nusantara, Indonesia’s first and largest polyethylene plant in the country. This acquisition boosted the polyolefins capacity by approximately 50%, thus making the company one of the largest producers in South East Asia. Lotte Chemical Titan was acquired by Lotte Chemical Corp., forming part of the Lotte conglomerate of Korea, in 2010. The company thus became one of Lotte Chemical Corp.’s largest overseas subsidiaries.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Celanese Corporation, a global technology and specialty materials company, has presented innovations in ethylene-vinyl-acetate (EVA) polymers, the company's press release.

"Celanese is working with its customers to develop state-of-the-art drug delivery systems using our pharmaceutical material solutions," said Susan Rahe, global business director, Celanese EVA polymers business. "VitalDose EVA polymers offer pharmaceutical companies flexibility in product design to supply excipients that can be formulated to meet demanding release criteria and regulatory requirements."

"Our broad medical and pharmaceutical polymer portfolio is creating comfortable and easy-to-use drug delivery devices and implants," said Kelsey Achenbach, strategic marketing manager for the Celanese EVA polymers business. "Improving patient care has led to recent innovations in our EVA polymer portfolio that are creating broader device and implant design options to meet changing drug delivery needs."

VitalDose EVA - acontrolled-release excipient ideal for use in pharmaceutical drug delivery implants that require a consistent release of active ingredients. VitalDose EVA polymers may be used alone or in combination with other excipients and/or additives to achieve desired release-rate profiles.

As MRC reported previously, Celanese last increased its EVA and LDPE prices on 1 May 2016, as follows: prices of Ateva EVA grew by USD50/tonne for Asia, whereas LDPE prices went up by USD0.04/lg (USD 0.09/kg or USD90/tonne) for North and South America and by USD50/tonne for Asia.

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, Celanese employs approximately 7,000 employees worldwide and had 2015 net sales of USD5.7 billion.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Honeywell UOP is introducing a new software-based service designed to allow refiners and petrochemical and gas processing plants to improve performance, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Honeywell UOP’s new Connected Performance Services (CPS) business leverages the Industrial Internet of Things(IIoT) to tap Honeywell’s process knowledge, design expertise, and understanding of catalysis with next-generation software platforms from Honeywell Process Solutions.

"This cloud-enabled service makes plants smarter and more responsive," said Zak Alzein, vice president for CPS. "Problems that caused plants to be less efficient or less productive and went undetected for weeks or months now can be resolved quickly and proactively. Decisions that used to take days now can be made in hours. For many plants, the avoidance of downtime, suboptimal performance and better agility can be worth millions of dollars per year."

The CPS offerings include applications to address critical challenges for refineries and petrochemical and gas processing plants, including better asset utilization, unplanned downtime, energy efficiency, and gaps in expertise as plants becomes more sophisticated and experienced engineers retire. The CPS offerings are part of the larger IIoT ecosystem being built by Honeywell to allow end users to harness IIoT technology to tap the deep expertise of Honeywell UOP and other leading suppliers and partners.

At the heart of the CPS offering is a cloud-based software service that continuously monitors streaming plant data and applies advanced analytics and machine learning, leveraging UOP process models and best practices to find latent or emerging underperformance, alert plant personnel and make specific operational recommendations. The system runs continuously with user-friendly digital dashboards that provide highly intuitive context and actionable understanding of a plant’s performance. The same dashboards are reported simultaneously to a dedicated Honeywell UOP process advisor who also monitors performance and can provide additional direction and resources.

In addition to identifying underperforming assets and anticipating equipment failures and process issues, Honeywell can monitor and help manage energy use to support compliance with stricter regulatory standards, and also can bridge knowledge gaps among personnel who may not be fully experienced with their equipment. Roughly half of the industry’s most highly-tenured staff are expected to retire in the next seven years.

"The unique feature to this solution is the combination of customer operating data and UOP expertise that provides plant personnel with early-stage warnings that identify performance improvements," Alzein said. "Advancements in software, instrumentation and big data capabilities have finally converged, which makes it possible for the first time to offer a cloud-based IIoT solution that brings the connected plant to the oil and gas industries. That combination is made even more powerful by UOP’s century-long knowledge of process technology, equipment, catalysis and commercial best practices."

Honeywell UOP’s CPS platform is designed around the user experience, providing a practical interface that is easy to read and understand and that provides quick and easy analysis and recommendations.

By leveraging powerful embedded root cause analysis models, it puts critical performance information at the user’s fingertips to improve performance and offers predictive insights to identify issues well before they could result in costly problems.

As MRC informed previously, in 2015, Honeywell opened a new manufacturing facility in China to produce catalysts used to make components for plastics production. This new site in Zhangjiagang City, Jiangsu Province, has begun production of catalysts used to covert propane to propylene as traditional sources for this product shrink. The catalysts are used in the Oleflex process developed by Honeywell’s UOP, a global leader in technology for the oil and gas industries. Over the past four years, UOP says it has licensed its Oleflex technology to 30 producers globally, including 25 in China. The first two of these new plants came online in China last year.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Celanese Corporation, a global technology and specialty materials company, has announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Celanese US Holdings LLC, priced a public offering of EUR750 million aggregate principal amount of its 1.125% Senior Notes due 2023, as per the company's press release.

The Notes will be guaranteed on a senior unsecured basis by the company and, initially, certain of the Issuer's U.S. subsidiaries.

The company intends to use the net proceeds from the offering to repay amounts outstanding under its existing senior unsecured revolving credit facility of EUR367 million (as of July 15, 2016). We intend to use the excess proceeds for general corporate purposes.

The Notes are being offered pursuant to the company's existing shelf registration statement filed with the securities and exchange Commission. A prospectus supplement, together with the accompanying prospectus, describing the terms of the offering will be filed with the SEC.

As MRC wrote before, Celanese Corporation increased list and off-list selling prices for low density polyethylene (LDPE) polymers in North and South America. The price increase was effective September 1, 2016, or as contracts allow. Thus, LDPE prices will grow by USD0.05/lb (USD0.11/kg or USD110/tonne) for North and South America.

Besides, earlier, Celanese Corporation raised its list and off-list selling prices for Ateva ethylene-vinyl-acetate (EVA) and LDPE polymers in North and South America on July 1, 2016. Prices of Ateva EVA and LDPE rose by USD0.05/lg (USD 0.11/kg or USD110/tonne) for North and South America.

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.
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