Arkema appoints new Chief Financial Officer

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Effective 1st June 2018, Marie-Jose Donsion is joining Arkema as Group Chief Financial Officer, replacing Thierry Lemonnier who is taking retirement, as per the company's press release.

Marie-Jose Donsion will also sit on the Executive Committee.

Marie-Jose Donsion is currently CFO and a member of the executive committee of Alstom. She previously held a number of operational finance posts at Alstom in France and around the world.

A French and Spanish national, she is a graduate of the ESCP Europe business school.

In November 2016, Marie-Jose Donsion joined Arkema’s Board of Directors and became Chairwoman of its Audit Committee.

Earlier MRC said Arkema announced a 37.2% year-on-year increase in net income in the first quarter of 2018.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- INVISTA’s technology and licensing group, INVISTA Performance Technologies (IPT), and Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Co.,Ltd. (Hengli) have reached an agreement to license INVISTA’s latest purified terephthalic acid (PTA) process technology for Hengli’s fourth PTA line, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Hengli’s first three PTA lines, the first of which began operation in 2012, also utilize INVISTA’s technology and have a combined capacity of 6.6 million metric tonnes per year. The fourth line will have a design capacity of 2.5 million metric tonnes per year and will be installed at Changxing Island, Liaoning Province of China.

Mike Pickens, IPT president, commented, "We are honored that Hengli selected our advanced, industry-leading P8 technology for their next PTA investment. We look forward to the continuation of our close relationship with Hengli chairman, Mr. Chen Jianhua, and his very capable team."

This is another significant milestone in the evolution of INVISTA’s PTA technology following 2017, which saw the successful start-up of both Oriental Petrochemical (Taiwan) Company Limited ’s third INVISTA PTA Line (capacity of 1.52 million metric tonnes per year) and the first P8 technology deployment with Jiaxing Petrochemical Co., Ltd (capacity of 2.2 million metric tonnes per year).

INVISTA’s latest industry-leading PTA technology is available as a license package from INVISTA Performance Technologies.

As MRC wrote before, in April 2017, LyondellBasell announced Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Chemical Co., Ltd. had selected LyondellBasell Hostalen ACP polyethylene (PE) process technology. The technology will be used for a 400 KTA high density polyethylene (HDPE) unit to be built in the Hengli Petrochemical Industrial Park (HPIP) on Changxing Island in Dalian, Liaoning Province, China.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Oriental Energy Co., China's largest liquefied petroleum gas importer, plans to invest about CNY2.5 billion (USD398 million) to enlarge its polypropylene plant in Ningbo in southeastern China’s Zhejiang province to supply rising demand for industrial plastics, as per Yicaiglobal.

The Ningbo unit of Nanjing-based Oriental Energy, Oriental Energy New Materials Co., will set up the project in the Ningbo Daxie Development Zone to produce homopolymer and random copolymers, the parent announced.

China consumes more than 15 percent of the world's propylene, a plastic which has many applications from car parts to textiles and packaging, and the demand is growing more than 4 percent per year, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

The project will include two production lines, which will apply US-based W. R. Grace & Co.’s gas-phase, fluidized bed reactor technology, and targets an annual output of 400,000 tons each. The construction period is two years. The company's storage capacity and Ningbo's port will feed the plant’s raw material needs.

Oriental Energy will set up another polypropylene plant in Lianyungang in east-central China’s Jiangsu province, as well two other petrochemical facilities in port cities in Jiangsu -- one in Lianyungang and the other in Zhangjiagang -- with an annual output of 400,000 tons of the thermoplastic polymer resin, it said.

Polypropylene has a higher melting point than other plastics and is thus ideal for food containers since it withstands high temperatures, such as in microwave ovens and dishwashers. It can be dyed without degrading its quality and does not absorb fluids or deteriorate from mold or bacteria. Shatter-resistant and sturdy, it is also lightweight and flexible.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The European Commission approved on April 30 the acquisition of parts of Bayer’s business by fellow German chemical major BASF, after a pledge by the German pharmaceutical giant to sell some of its assets to address competition concerns raised by Brussels, according to NewEurope.

Bayer had agreed on April 26 to sell some more parts of its crop-science business for EUR1.7 billion, with BASF having already agreed to acquire a EUR5.9 billion remedy package of crop science businesses last October.

The Bayer Divestment Business includes Bayer’s entire vegetable and broad acre seed businesses, including its R&D organisation. A number of Bayer non-selective herbicide assets, in particular Bayer’s global glufosinate business assets and three lines of research, as well as Bayer’s nematicidal seed treatment assets and products (sold under the Poncho, VOTiVO, COPeO and ILeVO brands), and Bayer’s global digital agriculture assets and products are subject to a temporary licence from BASF to Bayer).

"Since BASF does not currently sell seeds or non-selective herbicides and has only recently started to develop a limited offering in digital agriculture, the Commission did not identify competition concerns with most parts of the transaction," said the Berlyamont.

Concerns remain, however, regarding reduced innovation competition in the European Economic Area (EEA) for the development of certain non-selective herbicides and potential competition for the production of nematicidal seed treatments. To address this, BASF has committed to divest one of its overlapping lines of research for the development of non-selective herbicides and a pipeline nematicidal seed treatment product with the branded name Trunemco.

The Commission has suggested that its recent decision "will not prejudge the outcome of that separate assessment," as this is an ongoing process for the EU Competition watchdog.

As MRC informed earlier, on 10 April 2018, Bayer shares jumped nearly 5% following a media report that the US Justice Department will allow the German drugs and pesticides group to acquire Monsanto in a USD62.5 billion deal.

Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the fields of health care, agriculture and high-tech polymer materials. As an innovation company, it sets trends in research-intensive areas. Bayer's products and services are designed to benefit people and improve their quality of life. At the same time, the Group aims to create value through innovation, growth and high earning power. Bayer is committed to the principles of sustainable development and to its social and ethical responsibilities as a corporate citizen.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Petronas has restarted its low density polyethylene (LDPE) unit following a maintenance turnaround, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Malaysia informed that the company has resumed oprations at the unit end-April 2018. The unit was taken off-line for maintenance in mid-April, 2018.

Located at Kerteh in Terrenganu, Malaysia, LDPE plant has a production capacity of 255,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed before, in late March 2018, Petronas Chemicals secured a USD1-billion bridge loan from various local and international banks, fulfilling one of the conditions of its planned divestment of a 50% stake in PRPC Polymers to Aramco Overseas Holding Cooperatif (AOHC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Saudi Aramco.

Petronas, short for Petroliam Nasional Berhad, is a Malaysian oil and gas company wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia. The Group is engaged in a wide spectrum of petroleum activities, including upstream exploration and production of oil and gas to downstream oil refining; marketing and distribution of petroleum products; trading; gas processing and liquefaction; gas transmission pipeline network operations; marketing of liquefied natural gas; petrochemical manufacturing and marketing; shipping; automotive engineering; and property investment.
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