Dow to invest in Flexible Alkoxylation Facility on U.S. Gulf Coast to meet growing demand

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.
MRC

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.

MRC

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.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Lubrizol has presented new product solutions and applications from its Estane TPU portfolio, according to GV.

Among the highlights were the benefits of the plasticiser-free TPUs in applications such as paint protection, graphics vehicle wraps, automotive interiors, graphics media, signage, flooring, wind energy, architectural, and consumer goods.

Applications benefitting from the Estane ALR series of aliphatic TPUs include the rapidly growing market of graphics vehicle wraps. The TPUs provide a non-vinyl, plasticiser free combined surface protection and print media solution that provides good durability and ease of use during installation and removal. Lubrizol said that compared to traditional vinyl solutions, the Estane TPUs provide exceptional performance for weathering resistance and longer lasting physical and aesthetic advantages, benefitting both the integrity of the film surface and the underlying vehicle surface. Low temperature flexibility allows for stretching and conformability at temperatures much lower than plasticised vinyl, while wettability provides compatibility with inks and a range of printing technologies.

A few weeks earlier at Chinaplas 2018 in April the company launched the Pearlbond 700 series for the hot melt adhesive market. These products are said to provide good adhesion to both rigid and flexible substrates. According to the company, very good bonding strength can be obtained with substrates such as cotton, nylon, polyester fibres and many others. Also, this new offering stands out in terms of good wash (high temperature), chemical (dry cleaning) and hydrolytic resistance. The range can be applied in a multitude of demanding applications including aerospace, automotive, apparel, construction and hose + tube, said Lubrizol.

Another highlight at Chinaplas was Lubrizol’s portfolio of conductive and dissipative polymer products, marketed under the brand names of Stat-Rite and Carbo-Rite TPU. The range is available with a variety of host polymers, fillers, and forms, tailored to customer requirements. In consumer electronics, Lubrizol offers a portfolio of polymer solutions to improve the performance and aesthetics of mobile devices, wearables, electronic wire and cables, and other devices.

The new Estane SKN series is a range of low blooming and high transparency polyester-based TPU that provides good aesthetics, impact protection and processability, engineered specifically for phone case, mobile and electronics device customers.

As MRC wrote earlier, in February 2018, Lubrizol launched two thermoplastic polyurethane resins for hot melt adhesives (HMAs). The products belong to the plasticiser-free Pearlbond 300 TPU series that stands out for its low activation temperatures and good bonding properties to various substrates.

The Lubrizol Corporation, a Berkshire Hathaway company, is an innovative specialty chemical company that apart from its production develops and supplies technologies to customers in the global transportation, industrial and consumer markets. Lubrizol is providing innovative solutions for its customers high-performance application needs and remains committed to ongoing investment in its CPVC capabilities that support future growth. With headquarters in Wickliffe, Ohio, Lubrizol owns and operates manufacturing facilities in 17 countries, as well as sales and technical offices around the world. Founded in 1928, Lubrizol has approximately 8,000 employees worldwide.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Arlanxeo, a global leader in performance elastomers, raises its prices for ethylene propylene diene rubber grades (EPDM), as per the company's press release.

Thus, prices for the mentioned abouve product increases, as follows:

- in Europe, Middle East and Africa effective as of June 18th, 2018 up to 125 euro per metric ton;
- in Latin America effective as of June 18th, 2018 up to 150 USD per metric ton.

Arlanxeo distributes EPDM under the brand name Keltan.

EPDM products are used in applications like automotive, building & construction, plastics modification, consumer goods, cable & wire, and tubes.

As MRC wrote previously, in September 2017, Arlanxeo presented its solutions from the TSR business unit for the first time. Thanks to its good adhesion, aging resistance and low air permeability, the product X_Butyl is the ideal polymer for numerous adhesive applications, such as transparent adhesive tapes, sealants for double glazing, high-quality hot melt pressure-sensitive adhesives, vinyl floor adhesives and even sealants for roofing membranes. X_Butyl is also used for self-fluxing, semiconducting electrical splicing tapes, thereby avoiding the need for separate layers of adhesives.

Arlanxeo was established in April 2016 as a joint venture of Lanxess - a world-leading specialty chemicals company based in Cologne, Germany - and Saudi Aramco - a major global energy and chemicals enterprise headquartered in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. The two partners each hold a 50-percent interest in the joint venture. The business operations of Arlanxeo are assigned to the High Performance Elastomers and Tire & Specialty Rubbers business units.
MRC