Sealed Air and Kuraray cooperate on bio-based resins

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sealed Air Corporation has entered into an agreement with Kuraray America, Inc. (Kuraray), a Japanese chemical company, to offer food packaging materials derived from its Plantic bio-based resins, as per Sealed Air' press release.

"We are expanding our portfolio of sustainable solutions with Plantic’s bio-based materials. This solution enables us to offer a renewable packaging option and continue helping the industry address food waste by extending the shelf-life and freshness of food," said Karl Deily, President of Sealed Air Food Care.

Through this new cooperation with Kuraray, Sealed Air will offer Plantic materials to package perishable foods such as poultry, beef and seafood in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The materials provide a highly effective oxygen barrier that is also cost competitive with traditional rollstock barrier films.

"This investment not only accelerates Sealed Air’s commitment to renewability, recyclability and innovation, it is also an important pivot point for expanding the market leadership of the Cryovac and Bubble Wrap® brands," said Ted Doheny, Sealed Air President and Chief Executive Officer.

"This agreement with Sealed Air expands the options for sustainable bio-based barrier packaging that will benefit consumers, retailers and processors equally,” stated Robert Armstrong, General Manager of EVAL and Plantic, Kuraray America, Inc. “Plantic materials set a new standard for bio-based barrier packaging performance, provide unmatched sustainability metrics and can be recycled through traditional streams in some countries including Australia."

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Saudi Aramco has named six new heads of departments including its finance unit after a government reshuffle last week saw several executives at the oil giant moving to other state posts, sources familiar with the matter said, as per Reuters.

Khalid al-Dabbagh was named acting service line head for finance, strategy and development at the world's largest oil producer, taking over on an interim basis from Abdallah al-Saadan, who was senior vice president of the department, the sources said.

In his post, Saadan was effectively chief financial officer of Aramco, overseeing preparations for its initial public offering (IPO), which is expected to take place in 2019 and be the world's biggest.

Aramco also appointed Motassim al-Maashouq, who is vice president of IPO development, to the additional post of vice president of treasury, the sources said.

Aramco confirmed the new appointments. In the government reshuffle announced on Saturday under royal orders from King Salman, Saadan was named chairman of the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu, a government body formed to manage and oversee the development of those two cities.

Saudi Arabia also named a prominent businessman as labour minister and several new deputies to the Energy, Industry and Minerals Ministry.

The Aramco appointments also include Mohammed Shammary, who becomes vice president for procurement and supply chain management, replacing Abdulaziz al-Abdulkarim, the sources said.

Abdulkarim was appointed on Saturday to the post of deputy energy minister for industry affairs.

Nabeel al-Jama' was named vice president for corporate affairs, replacing Nasser al-Nafisi, who was appointed to the position of assistant energy minister, while Nabil al-Dabal now heads the human resources department, the sources said.

Salah al-Harkey was also named as an acting executive head and a financial controller.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Brunei Methanol Co (BMC) has undertaken an emergency shutdown at its methanol plant early this week, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Brunei informed that the company has halted operations on June 5, 2018 owing to technical issues. The plant is likely to remain off-line for about 5-7 days.

Located at Sungai Liang Industrial Park in Brunei, the plant has a production capacity of 850,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed before, BMC took off-stream its methanol plant at the Sungai Liang industrial park for a 8-10 day turnaround in the first half of April.

Besides, in early April 2018, Salalah Methanol Co (SMC) took off-stream its methanol plant for maintenance. The plant is expected to remain under maintenance for around 6 weeks. Located in Salalah, Oman, the plant has a production capacity of 1.3 million mt/year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Trinseo, a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex binders and synthetic rubber, and its affiliate companies in Europe have announced price increases for all polystyrene (PS), acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) and SAN grades, as per the company's press release.

Effective June 1, 2018, or as existing contract terms allow, the contract and spot prices for the products listed below increased as follows:

- STYRON general purpose polystyrene grades (GPPS) - by EUR80 per metric ton;
- STYRON and STYRON A-Tech high impact polystyrene grades (HIPS) - by EUR80 per metric ton;
- MAGNUM ABS resins - by EUR95 per metric ton;
- TYRIL SAN resins - by EUR80 per metric ton.

As MRC informed before, Trinseo last raised its prices for all PS, ABS and SAN grades on 5 March 2018, as stated below:

- STYRON GPPS grades - by EUR70 per metric ton;
- STYRON and STYRON A-Tech HIPS grades - by EUR70 per metric ton;
- MAGNUM ABS resins - by EUR50 per metric ton;
- TYRIL SAN resins - by EUR50 per metric ton.

Trinseo is a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex and rubber. Trinseo's technology is used by customers in industries such as home appliances, automotive, building & construction, carpet, consumer electronics, consumer goods, electrical & lighting, medical, packaging, paper & paperboard, rubber goods and tires. Formerly known as Styron, Trinseo completed its renaming process in 1Q 2015. Trinseo had approximately USD4.4 billion in net sales in 2017, with 16 manufacturing sites around the world, and approximately 2,200 employees.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Toray Industries, Inc.announced that it has decided to establish a production facility for nylon and PBT resin compounds at its Indian subsidiary Toray Industries (India) Private Limited (TID), as per the company's press release.

The resins, with their superior heat and chemical resistance properties and mechanical strength, are used in electrical components of automobiles and in electrical and electronic connectors. The facility, with an annual production capacity of 5,000 tons, will be set up at TID’s base in Sri City in Andhra Pradesh State and the company is aiming to start operations of the plant from September 2019. India’s economy is expected to grow at a high annual rate of 6% from 2016 through 2030 and is a promising market. Demand for premium goods and value-added goods such as automobiles and home electronic devices is expanding on the back of rising income levels.

Especially, the automobile market is expected to have a high annual growth rate of 7% towards 2025, and demand is expected to grow for engineering plastics for automobile applications. In particular, with the recent trends in strengthening of environmental regulations, the customer requirements have become increasingly sophisticated primarily in automobile applications and it is safe to say that the demand for highly functional materials, which Toray specializes in, will increase. The establishment of the new facility is in response to the above trends and is aimed at offering stable supply and shorter lead time through local production and at strengthening the development capability on-site and the functions of storage and delivery.

"India is a region where we can expect the market to grow. The establishment of the new facility this time is the first such base in India for Toray’s resin business, and we’re quite excited about it. We would like to capture this rapidly growing market without fail and strongly pursue business expansion,” said Takashi Endo, who is general manager, Resins Division. Going forward, Toray plans to make the TID business base in Sri City not only to cater to the demand inside India but also as a base for its global operations targeting South Asia. Toray will continue to enhance its overseas bases and strongly pursue global business expansion through further strengthening of organic collaborations with them.
MRC