Arkema announces new project to produce polyamide 12 in China mid-2020

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Arkema has announced an investment plan to increase by 25% its capacity of polyamide 12 polymers, commercialized under the trademark Rilsamid, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

This new capacity will be added at Arkema’s Changshu platform in China and is expected to come on stream by mid-2020. With this latest investment plan, Arkema continues to reinforce its specialty polyamide business in all three major global regions - Europe, North America and now Asia.

This investment which represents several tens of millions of euros, will support the strong demand in growth applications such as cable protection, lightweighting (metal replacement) in automobiles, improved high performance sports shoes (running, soccer, etc.) and evolving applications in the consumer electronics segment. The mid-term growth rates in these applications are expected to exceed 7% per year in Asia.

With this latest project, the specialty polyamides business will continue to bolster its industrial, commercial and R&D presence in Asia, and confirms its commitment to supply its global customers locally.

"This project announcement is the latest of several major investments in specialty polyamides in Asia to support the momentum of our advanced materials offer in the region" said Julie Zhang, Regional President of Arkema’s Technical Polymers business in Asia. "It’s energizing for our customers to see how quickly we are evolving into a local sourcing supplier, into a world-class manufacturing presence in Asia with R&D and service to match."

This project is complementary to our recent project announcement in the bio-based polyamide 11 chain (monomer and polymer) and is consistent with the Group’s ambitious strategy to significantly step up the development of its advanced materials, which should eventually account for over 25% of sales by 2023, while continuing to further consolidate its presence in Asia.

As MRC reported earlier, in March 2017, Arkema completed the sale to INEOS of its 50% stake in Oxochimie, their oxo alcohols manufacturing joint venture, and of the associated business.

Arkema is a leading European supplier of chlorochemicals and PVC. Kynar and Kynar Flex are registered trademarks of Arkema Inc.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- PolyOne Corporation has announced it expects to begin production of thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs) this summer at its existing facility in Pune, India, reported PRNewsWire.

PolyOne currently produces color and additive concentrates and engineered polymer solutions at the Pune facility. Adding TPE production enables the company to support customers in the country even more quickly and with a broader portfolio of domestically manufactured materials.

"This investment at our facility in Pune answers customers' desire for a domestic supplier able to offer expertise in color, engineered materials and thermoplastic elastomers," said Craig Nikrant, president, Specialty Engineered Materials, PolyOne. "We are the only global company to offer all of these domestically produced materials in India. Customers benefit from shorter lead times due to domestic production, and also from our global network of polymer science expertise."

PolyOne opened a new facility in Pune in 2014, initially focused on the production of colorant and additive concentrates to serve end markets such as transportation, electronics & electrical, healthcare, wire & cable, and packaging. The company expanded manufacturing capability to include specialty engineered materials last year. With the most recent addition of TPE production, PolyOne enables manufacturers to source all of their specialty polymer requirements from a single domestic source.

"We're very excited to build upon our momentum in India with domestic production of TPEs," said Vikas Vij, managing director, India, at PolyOne. "At the same time, we're also increasing our technology and sales personnel to maximize the innovation, collaboration and service we provide to our valued customers."

As MRC informed before, in February 2016, expanding on its global footprint and expertise in thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) innovation and design, PolyOne Corporation announced it has acquired certain technologies and assets from Kraton Performance Polymers, Inc.

PolyOne Corporation is a USD3.2 billion premier provider of specialized polymer materials, services and solutions with operations in specialty polymer formulations, color and additive systems, polymer distribution and specialty vinyl resins.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- ExxonMobil Corporation (XOM) said that it has added 2.7 billion oil-equivalent barrels of proved oil and gas reserves in 2017, replacing 183 percent of production, as per Worldofchemicals.

ExxonMobil's proved reserves totalled 21.2 billion oil-equivalent barrels at year-end 2017. Liquids represented 57 percent of the reserves, up from 53 percent in 2016. ExxonMobil’s reserves life at current production rates is 14 years.

During 2017, proved additions at Upper Zakum in Abu Dhabi totalled more than 800 million barrels of crude oil. Additions from liquids-rich unconventional plays in US, mainly in the Permian Basin, totalled approximately 800 million oil-equivalent barrels. Additions in the Permian are supported by ExxonMobil’s growth plan and increased drilling activity, expected to increase daily production to more than 600,000 oil-equivalent barrels by 2025.

Other significant new proved reserve additions were made in Guyana, where the company funded the first phase of development last year, and in Mozambique, associated with the project funding of the Coral FLNG project in the gas-rich deepwater Area 4.

Offshore Guyana, ExxonMobil has discovered recoverable resources, including current proved reserves and additional resources, estimated to be 3.2 billion gross oil-equivalent barrels prior to the 2018 Ranger discovery. Production from Liza Phase 1 is expected to begin by 2020, less than five years after discovery. In Mozambique, ExxonMobil acquired a 25 percent indirect interest in Area 4, which contains an estimated 85 trillion gross cubic feet of natural gas-in-place.

Reserves additions reflect new developments as well as revisions and extensions of existing fields resulting from drilling, studies and analysis of reservoir performance.

Consistent with SEC requirements, ExxonMobil reports reserves based on the average of the applicable market price prevailing on the first day of each calendar month during the year. As a result of higher prices in 2017 relative to 2016, about 900 million oil-equivalent barrels in North America qualified as proved reserves under SEC guidelines due primarily to the extension of the projected economic end-of-field-life.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Cosmo Films, a global leader in films for packaging, lamination and labeling applications has announced commissioning of its second Cast Polypropylene (CPP) Line and fourth metalizer, both having annual capacity of 7500 MT, as per the company's press release.

With installation of these new lines, the company’s annual CPP films capacity will go from 1800 MT to 9300 MT and the metalized films will increase from 15000 MT to 22,500 MT.

These new lines have been commissioned at company’s existing facility at Karjan, near Vadodara, India which already houses BOPP lines, extrusion coating & chemical coating lines and a metalizer. The 2.85 meter CPP line is five-layered and is designed to produce speciality films (especially barrier films) for various packaging applications. The line has the possibility to have multilayer combinations. The new 2.85 meter metalizer is equipped with advanced control monitoring system and closed loop auto deposition control system. The facility at Karjan has been developed keeping future expansions in mind.

Speaking on the development, Mr. Pankaj Poddar, CEO, Cosmo Films Ltd said, "Apart from being a focussed BOPP player over the years, we have made significant efforts in recent times to become a complete film solution provider with more and more films to offer along with various value added services. Moreover there has been a dearth of organised CPP players in the market and with the expansion of our capacity; we shall be better suited to serve our customers. The new lines are also expected to help increase the overall margins and volumes to some extent."

As MRC wrote previously, in April 2017, Cosmo Films Limited announced plans to install a new production line at Waluj for Speciality Polyester (Biaxially-Oriented Polyethylene Terephthalate) films by Q3 of 2018-19. The new unit is expected to be ready by the third quarter of 2018-19.

Established in 1981, Cosmo Films Limited today is a global leader in speciality films for packaging, lamination and labeling applications. Its films offerings include biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP) films, cast polypropylene (CPP) films and soon to be offered biaxially oriented polyethylene terephthalate (BOPET) films. Today, the company is the largest exporter of BOPP films from India and is also the largest producer of thermal laminating films in the world with plant cum distribution centres in the U.S, Korea & Japan and global channel partners in more than seventy countries.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Covestro AG offers a range of medical-grade materials that help today’s medical device manufacturers meet physical, chemical and environmental requirements, as per Worldofchemicals.

Chemical resistance and flame retardancy are key factors in material selection for medical equipment housings. Makroblend M4000 FR PC+PBT blend offers flame retardancy of V-0 at a thickness of 2 millimetres in the UL94 safety of flammability standard of Underwriters Laboratories, and 5VA at a thickness of 3 millimetres, and has superior chemical resistance.

The material is appropriate for skin contact applications and is biocompatible according to ISO 10993-5 (cytotoxicity) and ISO10993-10 (irritation and sensitization). Other advantages include high toughness, reduced susceptibility to stress cracking, good flowability and high tensile modulus.

Due to these outstanding properties, Merz Pharma, a global aesthetics and neurotoxin company selected Makroblend M4000 FR PC+PBT blend from Covestro for the housing of the motor module of its Cellfina System. It is the only FDA-cleared, minimally invasive procedure shown to improve the appearance of cellulite for up to three years.

“We worked closely with Merz to select high-quality, proven materials for the system by providing chemical data, test plaques and custom colour matching. The motor module is disinfected between uses with aggressive disinfectant wipes and needed the superior chemical resistance provided by the polycarbonate blend. This combined with the flame retardance of the material made it a superior choice for the product,” said Richard Aldrich, business development manager – Southwest region, polycarbonates, Covestro LLC.
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