Air Products completes upgrade in China of Asia technology center capabilities

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Shanghai?Air Products has concluded upgrades to its Asia Technology Center in the Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park in Shanghai, China, as per Apic-online.

The enhanced center, equipped with state-of-the-art research and development capabilities, represents the company's recent investment to accelerate innovation to support the fast-paced development of the China and Asia markets through its advanced applications technologies, Air Products noted.

The center houses seven laboratories serving a wide range of high-growth markets in China and across Asia, including chemicals, new energy, environment, pharmaceuticals, advanced electronics, food and beverage and glassmaking.

"The upgraded Asia Technology Center speaks volumes about our long-term commitment to bringing innovative and sustainable solutions to the region's unique and pressing needs with speed," said Wilbur Mok, president of industrial gases for Asia at Air Products.

As MRC informed before, in May 2018, Air Products announced that it had inaugurated its new world-scale industrial gas complex within the Integrated Refinery Expansion Project (IREP) of the BPCL Kochi Refinery located in Kochi, India.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Naphtha flows fixed to the US from the Baltic region for June currently total around 60,000 mt on one vessel, data from S&P Global Platts trade flow software cFlow showed Thursday, remaining low after only 74,000 mt made the journey in May, down from 363,000 mt in April, as per Apic-online.

The BW Nile loaded in the Russian Baltic port of Ust-Luga around May 22 and is destined for discharge in New York in the first decade of June.

Only two vessels made the journey in May. The Ance loaded in mid to late April in Tallinn, Estonia and arrived in Houston in the first decade of May. The Seychelles Patriot also loaded in the first half of May in Karsto, Norway and arrived in New York Harbor May 26, cFlow shows.

The lower exports from Europe in May and June reflect weaker demand for light virgin naphtha on the trans-Atlantic route due in part to the grade's high-RVP blending properties, which is more expensive to blend down to meet summer-grade gasoline specifications.
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MOSCOW (MRC) – The Dow Chemical Company (Dow) announced today its plan to invest in an alkoxylation facility on the U.S. Gulf Coast, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Upon completion, this new facility will support global growth in Dow’s core end-markets related to infrastructure and home and personal care, as well as additional end-markets where Dow continues to strengthen its position for the TRITON™, TERGITOL™, ECOSURF™ and CARBOWAX™ SENTRY™ brands.

"We continue to see strong demand, well ahead of global GDP, across multiple consumer, industrial and manufacturing sectors,” said Ester Baiget, Business President for Dow Industrial Solutions. “These investments will build on Dow’s recent U.S. Gulf Coast investments; they will expand production capacity and enable Dow to meet customer and value chain needs for alkoxylate products."

The new alkoxylation facility is expected to come online by the end of 2021. This expansion is in addition to various incremental debottlenecking projects being conducted across Dow’s global alkoxylation production units. These projects will support growing customer demand across the Americas, Europe and Asia.

As MRC informed earlier, as part of DowDuPont Materials Science Division’s ongoing commitment to provide customers with greater access to expertise and products, the company announced that the technologies of Dow Corning Polyurethane Additives (PUA) will be incorporated into the Dow Polyurethanes portfolio under the Vorasurf polyurethane additives brand name.

The Dow Chemical Company is an American multinational chemical corporation. Dow is a large producer of plastics, including polystyrene, polyurethane, polyethylene, polypropylene, and synthetic rubber.
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Some Russian producers increased their capacity utilisation in May, the total output of unmixed PVC was 78,500 tonnes versus 75,400 tonnes a month earlier. Overall PVC production reached 400,800 tonnes in January-May 2018, compared to 386,500 tonnes a year earlier. All plants raised their output, except for RusVinyl.

The structure of PVC production by plants looked the following way over the stated period.

RusVinyl produced 21,500 tonnes of PVC in May, with 2,200 tonnes accounting for emulsion polyvinyl chloride (EPVC), compared to 20,900 tonnes a month earlier. The Nizhny Novgorod producer shut down its production for a scheduled turnaround in the third decade of April. The maintenance was finished in early May. RusVinyl's overall production of resin reached 127,000 tonnes in the first five months of 2018 versus 130,400 tonnes a year earlier.

SayanskKhimPlast also increased its capacity utilisation last month, the plant's total production of suspension polyvinyl chloride (SPVC) reached 26,600 tonnes, whereas this figure was 24,300 tonnes in April. The Sayansk plant managed to produce 122,800 tonnes of resin in the first five months of the year, compared to 109,400 tonnes a year earlier.

Baskhir Soda Company produced about 22,300 tonnes of SPVC in May, which virtually corresponded to the previous month's figure. The Bashkir plant's overall production of resin was 111,400 tonnes in January-May 2018, up by 3% year on year.

Kaustik (Volgograd) increased its production last month, the plant's overall SPVC output was 8,100 tonnes versus 7,900 tonnes in April. The plant's overall production of resin exceeded 39,500 tonnes over the stated period versus 38,300 tonnes a year earlier.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Finland said it would sell 12.8 million shares in oil refiner Neste, representing about 5 percent of the company, as per Reuters.

After completion of the sale, Finland's holding in Neste will fall to 44.7 percent from 49.7 percent, the Finnish state said in a statement.

The oil refiner's shares will be offered to Finnish and international institutional investors via an accelerated bookbuild, the statement said.

The Finnish state said it would declare results of the share sale around June 13.

Earlier in the year, Finland gave up control of the oil refiner by donating shares to a charitable foundation when it donated shares worth 50 million euros (USD58.79 million) to a Finnish foundation. This cut the government's stake in Neste to 49.7 percent from 50.1 percent.

The government last year got the parliament's mandate to cut the Neste stake to 33.4 percent as it seeks funds for potential investments in new growth companies.
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