Perstorp to acquire polyols business from Polioli SpA

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Perstorp, the world leader in Neopentyl Polyhydric alcohols (Polyols), today announces the agreement for the acquisition of Polialcoli Srl from Polioli SpA, said the producer.

The agreement includes the Neo, TMP and TMPDE as well as the associated Formate businesses located at the Vercelli site (Italy). Included in the transaction are also technology, know-how and equipment. The 74 employees who are currently employed in the acquired company, are welcomed to the Perstorp group.

"Polioli SpA has been under receivership for the last four years. We have seen a potential in these products but it has proven increasingly difficult to run these product lines in smaller scale plants. In order to be successful we have come to the conclusion that it makes more sense to operate these assets through a larger company with global reach. It was therefore natural for us to approach Perstorp", says Polioli CEO Federico Ferlin.

"The transaction is fully in line with Perstorp’s strategy to further strengthen our position in the Polyols market. TMP and Neo are both key products in our Polyol portfolio, which is a core business within Perstorp. These product lines have been instrumental in the development of Perstorp as an international company and we are happy to expand our position further to be able to serve a strong demand from the market", Perstorp President and CEO Jan Secher says.

The transaction is scheduled to close on 31 August or at such later date as the required procedures have been completed.

As MRC wrote before, in 2013, Perstorp launched Pevalen as a non-phthalate plasticizer meeting market demand in sensitive applications.

Perstorp is now producing TMP, in addition to Italy, in China, the US and Sweden, and Neo in China and Sweden.

Perstorp is one of the world leaders in various sectors of the specialty chemicals market, it's pioneer in formalin chemistry, plastics and surface materials. Perstorp was founded in 1881 and is controlled by PAI partners,a major European private equity company. The company has around 1,500 employees in with 22 production plants in Europe, Asia and North America.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ellba has declared force majeure on supplies to Shell Chemicals Europe, a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, the world's petrochemical major, as per Plastemart.

"The styrene monomer and propylene oxide plant at the Moerdijk petrochemical complex in the Netherlands is owned by Ellba C.V. (a joint venture between Shell and BASF) and is currently shut down because of an unexpected failure of one of the reboilers in the plant," Shell said.

"As a result, Ellba C.V. has declared force majeure on its ability to supply Shell Chemicals Europe B.V. on June 30, 2017," it added. Shell also said the duration of the force majeure was "unclear" and it was "working hard to minimize the impact from this disruption for its customers".

Shell declined to comment whether SCE had declared force majeure on supplies to its customers. S&P Global Platts heard separately that Ellba had also declared force majeure on supplies to BASF, according to a source close to the company. The source added that BASF had not declared force majeure to its customers or suppliers, but was looking for other solutions to fulfill its contractual obligations.The source did not give any information on the expected duration of the repair work.

As MRC wrote before, oin 17 August 2016, Royal Dutch Shell lifted force majeure on shipments of verious petrochemical products from the company's site at Pulau Bukom (Singapore). According to the company's statement, the Ethylene Cracker Complex at Pulau Bukom Manufacturing Site resumed production. "We have informed our customers and suppliers about the end of the force majeure on our ability to supply a number of chemical products from Singapore, with effect from 17 August 2016. The force majeure had been declared in December 2015," - the company said in its press release.

Royal Dutch Shell plc is an Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the biggest company in the world in terms of revenue and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors". Shell is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sinopec Qilu has resumed operations at its high density polyethylene (HDPE), low density polyethylene (LDPE), linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) plants and HDPE/LLDPE swing plant, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the company has restarted all the PE plants following a maintenance turnaround this week. PE plants were shut in mid-May 2017 for a maintenance turnaround.

Located at Zibo, Shandong province in China, the HDPE plant has production capacities of 140,000 mt/year and the HDPE/LLDPE swing plant has production capacities of 250,000 mt/year. The LDPE and LLDPE plants have production capacities of 140,000 mt/year and 120,000 mt/year respectively.

As MRC informed before, Sinopec group, parent of Sinopec Corp, will invest USD29.05 billion to upgrade four refining bases between 2016 and 2020 to produce higher-quality fuels. Sinopec's upgrades come as China, the world's second-biggest oil consumer, is embracing more stringent fuel standards in its battle against pollution and suffering an overall glut in refining capacity. After the upgrades, the total refining capacity of the four refining sites will reach 130 MMtpy, or 2.6 MMbpd, while ethylene capacity will reach 9 MMtpy.

China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group) is a super-large petroleum and petrochemical enterprise group established in July 1998 on the basis of the former China Petrochemical Corporation. Sinopec Group's key business activities include the exploration and production of oil and natural gas, petrochemicals and other chemical products, oil refining.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The July contract price of propylene in Europe was settled down by EUR50/tonne from June. However, some European producers reduced this month's export PP prices for the CIS countries more significantly than the monomer price, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

Negotiations over July prices of European PP began this week, many market participants said European producers reduced their export PP prices more considerably than the amount of reduction in the propylene price in Europe. Local producers' export quotas increased this month, although some producers still had restrictions on exports.

Deals for July shipments of homopolymer propylene (homopolymer PP) were negotiated in the range of EUR1,000-1,190/tonne FCA, whereas last month's deals were done in the range of EUR1,040 - 1,140/tonne FCA. Some producers said they had sold out all their July quotas of homopolymer PP in the first week of the trades.

Deals for block compolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) were discussed in the range of EUR1,100-1,160/tonne FCA. Negotiations over July shipments of statistical comopolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) were held in the range of EUR1,150-1,230/tonne FCA.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chandra Asri Petrochemical (CAP) has awarded a material supply agreement to CB&I for the revamp of existing furnaces at CAP's naphtha cracker plant in Cilegon, Banten, Indonesia, as per Apic-online.

CAP's project involves increasing ethylene production capacity to 900,000 t/y from 860,000 t/y, propylene capacity to 490,000 t/y from 470,000 t/y, py-gas capacity to 420,000 t/y from 400,000 t/y and mixed C4 capacity to 330,000 t/y from 315,000 t/y. Construction is planned to begin in the third quarter of 2018 and completion is expected in the first quarter of 2020.

The contract, for which a value was not disclosed, fol-lows a basic and detailed engineering services agreement signed between the companies earlier this year.

This past May, CB&I was also awarded a contract from CAP's Petrokimia Butadiene Indonesia subsidiary to provide three proprietary technologies for a butadiene expansion project at the integrated naphtha cracker complex.

Butadiene capacity will be increased by up to 37% from 100,000 t/y currently. Start-up is planned in the third quarter of 2018.

The butadiene plant consumes mixed C4 produced from CAP's olefins facility.

As MRC reported before, in September 2016, PT Chandra Asri Petrochemical (CAP) signed an agreement with Univation Technologies, LLC, located in the United States, to use the UNIPOL PE Progress for a new world scale 400KTA polyethylene (PE) plant at its integrated naphtha cracker complex in Cilegon, Banten. The agreement covers process design package, including licence, to produce linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE), high density polyethylene (HDPE) and metallocene LLDPE (mLLDPE).

Chandra Asri Petrochemical (CAP) is the largest vertically integrated petrochemical company in Indonesia with facilities located in Ciwandan, Cilegon and Puloampel, Serang in Banten Province. CAP is Indonesia's premier petrochemical plant incorporating world-class, state-of-the-art technology and supporting facilities. At the heart of CAP lies the Lummus Naphtha Cracker producing high quality Ethylene, Propylene, Mixed C4, and Pyrolysis Gasoline (Py-Gas) for the Indonesian as well as regional export markets.
MRC