Formosa Chemicals plans maintenance No.1 and No.2 SM plants

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp (FCFC) is likely to undertake maintenance at its No.1 and No.2 styrene monomer (SM) plants in September 2017, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Taiwan informed that the company has planned maintenance at both of the plants in mid-September 2017. Both the plants are expected to remain off-line for around 3-4 weeks.

Located at Mailiao in Taiwan, the No.1 SM plant has a production capacity of 250,000 mt/year and No.2 SM plant has a production capacity of 350,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed before, in 2015, Formosa Plastics unveiled plans to build a monoethylene glycol (MEG) plant and another polyethylene (PE) unit at its Point Comfort complex in Texas, according to air-permit applications. The initial pages of the applications do not list the capacity of the plants or the grade of the PE. Construction on the second PE plant started in Q4-2015, and it should start operations in December 2017. Construction on the MEG plant started in November 2015, and operations should start in September 2017.

Formosa Petrochemical is involved primarily in the business of refining crude oil, selling refined petroleum products and producing and selling olefins (including ethylene, propylene, butadiene and BTX) from its naphtha cracking operations. Formosa Petrochemical is also the largest olefins producer in Taiwan and its olefins products are mostly sold to companies within the Formosa Group. Among the company's chemical products are paraxylene (PX), phenyl ethylene, acetone and pure terephthalic acid (PTA). The company's plastic products include acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) resins, polystyrene (PS), polypropylene (PP) and panlite (PC).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) — South Korea's imports of Iranian crude oil increased 40.2% in August from the same month a year earlier, with its refiners snapping up competitively priced cargoes from the Middle Eastern nation, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

South Korea, the world's fifth-biggest crude importer, brought in 1.55 MMt of Iranian crude last month, or 365,641 bpd, compared with 1.1 MMt in the same month in 2016, customs data showed on Friday. Iran has been boosting oil production since Western sanctions over its nuclear program were lifted last year, aiming to increase crude output to 4.5 MMbpd within 5 yr.

In the first eight months of 2017, South Korea's oil imports from Iran were 12.22 MMt, or 368,529 bpd, up 46.7% from 8.33 MMt during the same period the year before, the data showed. South Korea, one of Iran's major Asian clients, mainly purchases an ultra-light oil, also known as condensate, from the country, but a breakdown of imports is not available. It uses condensate to produce more expensive fuels like naphtha.

For Asian buyers, Iran set the official selling prices of its light and heavy grades at 18 cents and USD1.17 respectively below the Oman/Dubai average for August, while it raised September Iranian Light oil prices 20 cents higher than those in August.

While the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) members and some non-members strive to curb their production to clear a global oil glut, Iran is not capping its output as it was excluded from the OPEC-led supply cut deal to reduce their production by around 1.8 MMbpd until next March.

Meanwhile, South Korea imported 4.05 MMt of crude, or 957,283 bpd from Saudi Arabia, up 9.8% from 3.69 MMt a year ago, the data showed.

Overall, South Korea's total crude imports in August rose 17.7% to 13.55 MMt, or 3.20 MMbpd, according to the data.

In January–August of 2017, South Korea shipped in 98.23 MMt of crude, or 2.96 MMbpd, up 3.9% from 94.55 MMt over the same period last year.

State-run Korea National Oil Corp (KNOC) is set to release South Korea's final data for August crude imports later this month.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Clariant, a world leader in specialty chemicals, has announced the signing of a Joint Venture contract with Tiangang Auxiliary Co., Ltd., a privately owned producer and leading supplier of UV Light Stabilizers in China, accoridng to the company's press release.

Subject to merger control clearance, the contract shall become effective. The multi-million CHF investment of Clariant’s Performance Additives business and Tiangang will establish a world-class production facility in China to meet the growing local demand for process and light stabilizer additives in various growing industries such as textiles or automotive.

"The partnership with Tiangang is another successful step toward strengthening Clariant’s position in China. It provides us with a stronger local footprint to better position our innovative solutions in the growing Asia region, especially in China. Furthermore, by cooperating with a leading Chinese company like Tiangang, we can exchange best practices and valuable market insights in order to deliver ever-more tailored solutions to our customers," said Christian Kohlpaintner, Clariant's Executive Committee Member residing in China.

China is one of the key markets for high-end process and light stabilizers, which include the state-of-the-art Nylostab S-EED chemistry, invented by Clariant. To support the growing demand of customers in China, Clariant and Tiangang will jointly manufacture process and light stabilizers and plan to install a new production site in the Cangzhou National Coastal-Port Economy and Technology Development Zone, Hebei province. Production is scheduled to come on stream in the first half of 2019. The JV also plans to expand its offering of solutions for the automotive industry in the future.

Commenting on the joint venture, Stephan Lynen, Head of Clariant BU Additives, said: "The production joint venture with Tiangang significantly strengthens our ability to serve the strongly growing demand for high-end additives solutions in Asia. Having local production with a well established and trusted partner improves proximity to our customers and to our raw material suppliers. This will enable us to accelerate response times and shorten supply lead times."

Gang Liu, Vice President, Tiangang comments: "Established in 1991, Tiangang has been a trusted supplier for the polymer industry with a complete range of light stabilizer products and solutions. By partnering with Clariant, a world-leading innovative pioneer in additives development, we look forward to combining the rich technology and production knowledge of both companies to provide the best value-adding solutions and products to the polymer industry with world-class quality and services."

The joint venture with Tiangang is the latest move to expand the local footprint of Clariant’s Additives business in China. It follows the announcement in May 2017 of an investment in Zhenjiang, China which will create a state-of-the-art production facility for AddWorks, synergistic additive solutions and Ceridust®, micronized waxes serving the plastics, coatings and inks industries. It is scheduled to come on stream in the second half of 2018.

As MRC informed earlier, in March 2017, Clariant announced that it had been awarded a contract by Dongguan Grand Resource Science & Technology Co. Ltd. to develop a new propane dehydrogenation unit in cooperation with CB&I.

Clariant AG is a Swiss chemical company and a world leader in the production of specialty chemicals for the textile, printing, mining and metallurgical industries. It is engaged in processing crude oil products in pigments, plastics and paints. Clariant India has local masterbatch production activities at Rania, Kalol and Nandesari (Gujarat) and Vashere (Maharashtra) sites in India.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) — Unipec, the trading arm of China’s state-owned Sinopec, is shipping its first very large crude carrier (VLCC) of diesel from China to Europe, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The company is loading the vessel with 10 parts-per-million (ppm) diesel from its refinery in the northern port city of Tianjin, near Beijing, in second-half September to head to the Mediterranean or northwest Europe, one of the sources said.

It will also match the more stringent winter specifications required by Europe, the source said.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Korea Petrochemical Industry Co (KPIC) has reduced run rates at its naphtha cracker mid this week owing to technical issues, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in South Korea informed that the cracker is presently running at around 65% of production capacity rates.

The cracker was operating at near full capacity early this week following an unplanned shutdown that lasted for two days last week.

Located at Onsan city in South Korea, the cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 800,000 mt/year and propylene capacity of 500,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed previously, in June 2017, KPIC finilized the expansion of its ethylene production capacity. Thus, KPIC started commercial operation at its Ulsan-based Naphtha Cracking Center (NCC) from Jun 23, 2017. Earlier, KPIC produced about 470,000 mt/year of ethylene from its Ulsan-based NCC. With the expansion, the company added 330,000 mt/year of ethylene, and its combined ethylene capacity reached 800,000 mt/year.

KPIC is one of the key producers of ethylene in South Korea. The company’s ethylene capacity accounted for about 6% of total ethylene production in South Korea before the expansion was completed, and now the company’s market share will be increased to nearly 10%.
MRC