OMPL to shut aromatics plant for maintenance in August

MOSCOW (MRC) -- India's ONGC Mangalore Petrochemicals Ltd., or OMPL, will shut its aromatics plant for maintenance of "approximately seven days starting the second week of August," as per Apic-online with reference to a source close to the company.

The turnaround period will be spent performing standard maintenance works on its aromatics plant, which has a nameplate production capacity of 900,000 mt/year of paraxylene and 300,000 mt/year of benzene.

During the turnaround, the Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd.'s 15 million mt/year (300,000 b/d) refinery, from which OMPL procures its feedstock, will continue to operate.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Production of unmixed polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in Russia increased to 551,800 tonnes in the first seven months of this year, up 4% compared to the same period of 2017. All producers increased production volumes over the reported period, according to MRC ScanPlast.

July output of unmixed PVC decreased to 67,200 tonnes against 83,900 tonnes a month earlier, the low indicator of July was a result of a scheduled maintenance works at SayanskKhimPlast. Overall PVC production reached 551,800 tonnes in January-July 2018, compared to 530,800 tonnes a year earlier. All plants raised their production, with Bashkir Soda Company accounting for the greatest increase in the output.

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

RusVinyl (JV of SIBUR and SolVin) produced about 27,800 tonnes of PVC in July, with emulsion polyvinyl chloride (EPVC) accounting for 2,500 tonnes, compared to 28,800 tonnes a month earlier. RusVinyl's overall production of resin reached 183,600 tonnes in the first seven months of 2018, up 2% year on year.

SayanskKhimPlast shut its capacity for scheduled 30-day scheduled maintenance works from 15 July, so the final production of suspension PVC was only 13,100 tonnes, while in June this figure reached the level of 27,000 tonnes. The Sayansk plant managed to produce more than 162,800 tonnes of resin in the first seven months of the year, compared to 156,000 tonnes a year earlier.

Baskhir Soda Company produced about 18,400 tonnes of SPVC in July, against 21,300 tonnes a month earlier. The Bashkir plant's overall production of PVC exceeded 151,000 tonnes in January-July 2018, up by 7% year on year. Such a high increase in production was largely a result of the lack of a scheduled shutdown this year, whereas last year the company shut its capacity in mid-July.

Kaustik (Volgograd) in July slightly increased SPVC production, exceeding 8,000 tonnes, compared with 6,900 tonnes in June. The plant's overall production of resin exceeded 54,500 tonnes over the stated period versus 53,600 tonnes a year earlier.


MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Taiwan Styrene Monomer is likely to restart its styrene monomer (SM) plant following a maintenance turnaround, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Taiwan informed that the company has resumed operations at the plant on August 8, 2018. The plant remained under maintenance for a period of around two weeks.

Located at Lin Yuan in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, the plant has a production capacity of 160,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed before, PetroChina Jinxi Petrochemical (part of PetroChina) brought on-stream its SM unit in end-July 2018, following a maintenance turnaround. The unit remained under maintenance for around two months. Located in Huludao in Liaoning province, China, the unit has a production capacity of 60,000 mt/year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mexican conglomerate Alfa said that its net profit more than doubled in the second quarter compared to the year-earlier period, helped by a record quarter at its petrochemicals unit Alpek, reported Reuters.

Alfa, which has units in industries such as food packaging and car parts, said net profit was 3.59 billion pesos (USD180 million) between April and June, compared to 1.37 billion pesos last year. Revenue rose 19 percent to 93.7 billion pesos.

The results were helped by petrochemicals unit Alpek, which benefited from higher oil and raw materials prices, as well as the consolidation of Brazil’s Petroquimica Suape and Citepe, the company said.

Alpek’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) hit a record high, according to the company.

Earlier this year, the company said it had teamed up with Thailand’s Indorama Ventures (IVL.BK) and Taiwan’s Far Eastern to buy a chemical plant in Corpus Christi, Texas, as well as other assets.

Alfa said it was in the process of getting government approvals for the operation.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- KBR, Inc. announced that it has been awarded a license and engineering and a proprietary equipment supply contract by China Pingmei Shenma Group (PMSM) to build two new polycarbonate plants in Kaifeng and Pingdingshan in the Henan Province in China, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Under the terms of the contracts, both 100,000 metric tonnes per annum plants will utilize KBR's proprietary phosgene-based interfacial polycarbonate technology PCMAX™. As part of its overall polycarbonate strategy, PMSM intends to expand its total production capacity to 800,000 metric tonnes per annum.

KBR's unique PCMAX™ technology produces a wide range of high-quality polycarbonate product grades with minimal capital investment.

"KBR is a world-leading technology licensor," said Yang Jianguo, General Manager of PMSM. "The polycarbonate project using KBR's advanced PCMAX™ technology is the largest technology import project for PMSM in recent years. This project supports China's requirement for advanced and high-quality developments as well as PMSM's corporate vision of industrial transformation and upgrading."

"KBR is excited to be part of this major investment project. Growing demand for polycarbonate products in China presents an attractive opportunity for PMSM," said John Derbyshire, President, KBR Technology. "KBR's superior PCMAX™ technology will empower PMSM to be a market leader in the polycarbonate business."

KBR globally licenses and designs polycarbonate synthesis and compounding plants as well as complementary phenolic technologies, including phenol/acetone, and bisphenol-A (BPA). KBR's integrated phenolics offering provides advantages in raw material, utility, OPEX and maintenance costs.

Estimated revenue associated with this project was booked into backlog of unfilled orders for KBR's Technology Business Segment in the second quarter of 2018.
MRC