Jacobs wins contract from Eastman Chemical

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Jacobs Engineering has won a contract from Eastman Chemical to provide capital construction, maintenance and turnaround services at Eastman sites in Longview, Texas, and Kingsport, Tennessee, said the company.

The contract includes additional maintenance services scope at the Kingsport facility where Jacobs previously provided capital construction services. At the same time, Jacobs will expand its delivery to maintenance and construction at Eastman's Longview facility, it said.

"Our execution approach drives increased productivity while delivering cost efficiencies through resource and program operations synergies," said Jacobs Construction, Maintenance and Turnarounds Senior Vice President and General Manager Stephen Hillier. "This enterprise-wide delivery model allows us to create value for Eastman, which they can use to drive their innovation and sustainability efforts."

Jacobs has been working with Eastman since 2010. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Jacobs leads the global professional services sector delivering solutions for a more connected, sustainable world. With USD15 billion in fiscal 2017 revenue when combined with full-year CH2M revenues and a talent force of more than 77,000, Jacobs provides a full spectrum of services including scientific, technical, professional and construction- and program-management for business, industrial, commercial, government and infrastructure sectors.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Toray Industries, Inc. (headquarters: Chuo-ku, Tokyo) has announced in its press release titled "Toray to Purchase TenCate Advanced Composites Holding B.V." issued on March 15, 2018 that it had reached an agreement with Koninklijke Ten Cate B.V. (headquarters: Netherlands) to purchase the entire share of its subsidiary TenCate Advanced Composites Holding B.V. (headquarters: Netherlands, a Dutch carbon fiber composite material manufacturer), said the producer in its press release.

Following the completion of the discussions with the Works Council, as stipulated by Dutch laws, Toray announced that it concluded the share purchase agreement with KTC on July 8th, 2018.

The completion of the acquisition is based on the premise of receiving approval from the relevant regulatory authorities and Toray plans to announce it once all procedures are completed without delay.

Toray is acquiring the business from Koninklijke Ten Cate BV.

The acquisition is still subject to regulatory approvals.

It was earlier said, Toray Industries, Inc. announced that it decided to enhance the production capacity of polyolefin foam TORAYPEF. It will add a production facility with a capacity of about 2,000 tons a year at its Shiga Plant (Otsu, Shiga Prefecture), which will start operation in October 2019. The move will expand the Toray Group’s TORAYPEF production capacity around the world to 13,000 tons a year.

Toray Industries is a multinational corporation headquartered in Japan that specializes in industrial products centered around technologies in organic synthetic chemistry, polymer chemistry, and biochemistry. Its founding business areas were fibers and textiles, as well as plastics and chemicals. Toray Group Malaysia companies are involved in four main businesses -- polyester fibres, textiles, plastic resins and polyester films.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Linde and Praxair will win approval regulatory clearance for their planned USD83 billion merger after pledging to sell Praxair’s assets to boost a Japanese rival in Europe, said Reuters.

German company Linde and U.S. rival Praxair announced their merger plan in June last year, with the aim of ousting French competitor Air Liquide as global leader in gas distribution, but the European Commission opened a full-scale investigation in February.

The Commission warned that the deal could reduce competition in the supply of crucial gases such as oxygen, which has multiple uses, and helium, which is essential for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners.

The EU competition enforcer also worried that high investment costs could deter the entrance of new players in a sector with only four major companies globally.

But Praxair’s offer this month to sell its European assets to Taiyo Nippon Sanso Corp (4091.T) for 5 billion euros will be sufficient to address the European Commission’s concerns, the two sources said.

The assets include Praxair’s industrial gases businesses in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Britain, and include approximately 2,500 employees.

Both the Commission, which is scheduled to rule on the deal by Aug. 24, and Linde declined to comment.

The companies are also planning to divest assets to a consortium of German gases company Messer Group and funds advised by CVC to secure regulatory clearance in the United States and elsewhere.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- India’s SRF Ltd is building a new bi-axially oriented polyethylene terephthalate (BOPET) film line and a resin plant in Thailand as its aims to find a position among the top-10 global film players, as per Plasticsnewseurope.

The USD60m facility will be built at SRF’s current production site in Rayong, Thailand, where its subsidiary – SRF Industries (Thailand) Ltd – is operating the plant.

The new unit is scheduled to start operation in two years, with the new line adding an extra capacity of 40 kilotonnes per annum (ktpa).

The facility will house a 10.6m wide Dornier make line, which SRF claims to be the widest and latest technology machine available worldwide.

In addition, the company is installing direct film casting at the plant in order to save costs and increase competitiveness.

In direct film casting, the BOPET film stretching lines bypass the main extruder as the poly-condensation installation is connected directly to the film stretching line.

The investment, SRF expects, will help the company strengthen its presence in the buoyant South East Asian market.

SRF also believes that the colocation with the existing plant would create “significant synergies” and shorten production lead-times.

Thailand, specifically, offers a strong customer base and a favorable tax and duty structure for SRF, according to managing director Ashish Bharat Ram.

"Thailand presents itself as the best location for us to set up this new film line," he noted.

With this investment, SRF says it will be placed amongst the top 10 polyester film producers across the globe. SRF Ltd announced another very similar investment in June, marking the building of its first European manufacturing site in Hungary.

The company has earmarked EUR60m for the new facility, which will house an “ultra-modern” 10.4m wide BOPET film line capable of producing 40 ktpa.

The company expects to complete the European project by the end of next year. With addition of the two facilities, SRF’s total production capacity for BOPET and BOPP films will reach 260,000 ktpa, with manufacturing sites in four countries - India, Thailand, South Africa and Hungary.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Independent Chinese refiner, Shandong Haiyou Petrochemical Group, has no definite plan to reopen its crude oil distillation unit (CDU) after shutting it down sometime in late May, reported Reuters with reference to two industry sources with knowledge of the plant's operation.

The plant, in the city of Rizhao in Shandong province, owns a CDU with a capacity of around 70,000 barrels per day (bpd), which it shut down after a local government order to cut down pollution ahead of a regional summit in June, the sources said.

Haiyou, however, will keep open its 1 million tonne-per-year delayed coker, a unit that processes residual fuel oil into lighter refined products such as diesel and gasoline, said one of the sources.

Falling profit margins following Beijing's move to tighten tax rules for independent oil refiners and blenders could be one reason for Haiyou's extended shutdown, the two sources said.

Haiyou's large debt burden could be another reason as the plant struggles to secure financing for oil purchases, said the second source, who has knowledge of the plant's financial status.

Haiyou has an annual crude oil import quota of 3.2 million tonnes.

Both sources declined to be named as they are not authorized to speak to press. Multiple calls to the company went unanswered.
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