IVL announces completion of expansion of PTA capacity in Europe

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited (IVL), a global chemical producer, has announced the completion of the brownfield expansion of its Purified Terephthalic Acid (PTA) plant, resulting in the total PTA capacity of 700,000 tonnes per annum at Rotterdam and totally over 1 million tons together with Spain, said the producer in its press release.

Currently, the Rotterdam facility produces 380,000 tonnes per annum of PTA which is entirely used as a major feedstock of the site’s integrated Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) production, a recyclable packaging material. The expanded plant is undergoing final stages of start-up with expected commercial production in middle August 2017.

Commenting on this expansion, Aloke Lohia Group CEO of Indorama Ventures, said, "With this low cost proven technology and nearly double the PTA production capacity, the expansion will bring cost synergies to the site. The Rotterdam facility is well positioned to support the continued growth as its location allows access to the whole of Europe."

"This additional production will replace purchased PTA and significantly improve European profitability. We now look forward to the start-up of our gas cracker in Louisiana, USA in end of the year. These two landmark projects will enhance earnings and the competitiveness of IVL substantially," Mr. Lohia concluded.

As MRC informed before, in Q 1 2016, BP PLC sold its petrochemical complex in Decatur, Alabama, to Indorama Ventures Public Co. Ltd. (IVL.TH), for an undisclosed sum, as part BP's plan to restructure its global petrochemicals business. The divestment is in line with BP’s global petrochemicals strategy of pursuing a competitively advantaged portfolio through world-scale, low-cost facilities that utilize BP proprietary technology, including the production of purified terephthalic acid, or PTA, a key raw material in the production of polyester.

Indorama Ventures is a leading producer in the polyester value chain in Thailand with strong global network and manufacturing across Asia, Europe and North America. Its products serve major players in diversified end use markets, including food, beverages, personal and home care, health care, automotives, textile, and industrial. The company’s main products are PTA, PET and polyester fibre, which are distributed across the world.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Working closely with the oil and gas industry, Borouge has focussed strongly on innovation when it comes to plastics solutions. Innovation is an integral part of its business and Dr. Thorsten Loehl, Vice President Innovation, at Borouge will be speaking at this year’s Abu Dhabi International Downstream Summit about how Borouge, using this business model, delivers new solutions to meet the evolving market demands, said Refiningandpetrochemicals.

Those visiting the summit will learn how Borouge creates a continuous pipeline of development with ongoing rejuvenation of its product portfolio. They will also be given an insight into how Borouge focuses on unmet customer needs and tackles some of the very specific challenges faced by numerous different industries. For example, in pipeline infrastructure there is a clear need for low sagging pipe extrusion. The challenge is to reduce the volume of material required while maintaining or improving the material properties for the application.

Packaging is another area where Borouge has great success in re-defining benchmarks for excellence. Whether for consumer or industrial use, creating materials that have a lower gauge than traditional solutions while still meeting required stretching, impact resistance, etc. characteristics, means customers can save millions in packaging and shipment costs. Sustainability is another important consideration for packaging solutions where Borouge is helping many customers move away from complex, multi-material package solutions to practical, single material ones that can be easily recycled.

Other current innovations include light-weighting of material through foaming techniques. This interesting area of the plastics business offers benefits in applications from packing to automobiles. Having a good idea, however, is not enough on its own. A complete solution is required to address specific industry challenges – and this is an area where the Borouge way of working ensures a final, saleable, beneficial outcome from its R&D pipeline.

Borouge’s experience and innovation means it has many exciting insights to share that can be applied across many different market sectors. Dr. Loehl is looking to inspire many different conversations and ideas with his talk at the Abu Dhabi International Downstream Summit which runs from 18th-19th September 2017.

As MRC informed earlier, Austrian chemical company Borealis is carrying out feasibility studies for a polypropylene (PP) unit and a mixed-feed steam cracker at Borouge, the petrochemicals complex it owns jointly with Abu Dhabi's state-owned Adnoc in Ruwais, UAE.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Praxair has started up a new air separation unit (ASU) in Nanjing, China, to supply industrial gases to Nanjing Jinling Huntsman New Materials Co. (Jinling Huntsman) for a new propylene oxide (PO) and methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) facility, according to Apic-online.

Jinling Huntsman, a joint venture of Sinopec Jinling and Huntsman, earlier said it would invest USD750-million in a project to produce 550-million lbs/yr of PO and 1.6-billion lbs/yr of MTBE, based on Huntsman technology.

The new 900-t/d ASU will supply on-site oxygen in the Phase II (Yudai area) of Nanjing Chemical Industrial Park (NCIP), and through a long-term contract, will supply oxygen to Jinling Huntsman's PO/MTBE plant.

Additionally, Praxair said it will build a pipeline in the NCIP to meet the industrial gas requirements of other customers, and will also supply liquid products to the market in Jiangsu province.

As MRC wrote before, in mid-July 2017, Praxair, Inc. announced the start-up of a new air separation plant to supply 700 tons per day of nitrogen to Samsung’s display manufacturing complex in Tangjeong, South Korea. Samsung’s Tangjeong complex, the world’s first and largest sixth-generation flexible Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLED) panel plant, is expanding to meet increasing demand for future generations of displays. OLEDs are used in a variety of products including televisions, mobile devices, digital cameras, virtual reality headsets and laptops. Praxair’s nitrogen is being used for cooling and purging applications in Samsung’s manufacturing process.

Praxair, Inc., a Fortune 300 company with 2016 sales of USD11 billion, is a leading industrial gas company in North and South America and one of the largest worldwide. The company produces, sells and distributes atmospheric, process and specialty gases, and high-performance surface coatings. Praxair products, services and technologies are making our planet more productive by bringing efficiency and environmental benefits to a wide variety of industries, including aerospace, chemicals, food and beverage, electronics, energy, healthcare, manufacturing, primary metals and many others.
MRC

MOSCOW (Market Report) -- SayanskKhimplast (Irkutsk region) began a gradual shutdown at its polyvinyl chloride (PVC) production capacities for a scheduled turnaround, according to the ICIS-MRC's Price report.

The plant's representative said the process of shutting down PVC production started on 24 July. The outage at SayanskKhimPlast will be quite long and will last for about 30 days.

Complex tests, which confirmed the possibility of producing 350,000 tonnes of PVC, 216,000 tonnes of caustic soda and 183,600 tonnes of chlorine per year, were completed at all SayanskKhimplast's production facilities in June.

This was the second scheduled shutdown for maintenance at Russian PVC plants this year. Bashkir Soda Company (the plant's annual production capacity - 240 tonnes) took off-stream its production capacities for maintenance on 15 July.

JSC "Sayanskkhimplast" (Irkutsk region), established in 1998, is a complex of large-capacity chlororganic production facilities connected in a single production cycle. SayanskKhimPlast produces PVC, caustic soda and bleach. After commissioning of RusVinyl's PVC production (Nizhny Novgorod region), SayanskKhimPlast became Russia's second largest PVC producer.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Production of polypropylene (PP) in Russia increased to 715,800 tonne in first six months of this year, up 4% year on year, compared to the same period of 2016. The decrease in PP production accounted for only two producers, according to MRC ScanPlast.

June PP production in the country decreased to 124,100 tonnes, compared with 126,800 tonnes in May. Total PP production in Russia reached 715,800 tonnes in Jan-June 2017 against 689,400 tonnes, an increase showed all producers, except Nizhnekamskneftekhim and Neftekhimia.

Structure of PP production over the reported period looked as follows.

The largest producer of PP in Russia - SIBUR Tobolsk in June produced about 44,000 tonnes against 46,700 tonnes a month earlier. SIBUR Tobolsk's PP production reached 264,500 tonnes in January-June 2017, up 14% year on year. Such a serious increase in production was a result of the absence of a shutdown for scheduled maintenance.

June production at Poliom were about 17,900 tonnes, while a month earlier this figure was 18,600 tonnes. Total PP production at the plant over the reported period was about 106,600 tonnes, up 4% year on year.

June PP production at Ufaorgsintez was about 11,000 tonnes, which was equal to the level in May. The producer's PP output at Ufaorgsintez increased to 63,200 tonnes in January-June 2017 compared with 58,100 tonnes year on year.

Stavrolen (LUKOIL) in June increased capacity utilisation, during the first month of the summer 10,900 tonnes of propylene polymers were produced against 10,600 tonnes a month earlier. Overall PP production at the plant exceeded 59,800 tonnes in January-June, up 4% year on year.

Tomskneftekhim decreased production volumes in June, and the final production of propylene polymers was 17,800 tonnes against 12,400 tonnes in May. Total PP production at Tomskneftekhim over the reported period reached 70,700 tonnes, compared with 66,600 tonnes year on year.

June PP production at Nizhnekamskneftekhim reached 17,800 tonnes from 18,100 tonnes a month earlier. The producer's PP production in January-June decreased by 1% from last year's level to 108,500 tonnes.

Neftekhimia (Kapotnya) has been actively increasing capacity utilisation following the turnaround in March-April. June PP production at the plant grew to 10,800 tonnes against 9,300 tonnes in May. The producer's PP output in the first six months of the year reached 42,500 tonnes, down 33% year on year.


MRC