Invista to build major nylon 6/6 feedstock plant in China

MOSCOW (MRC) -- To combat a global shortage of nylon 6/6 resin, materials firm Invista will build a USD1 billion plant in Shanghai making adiponitrile, a key nylon 6/6 feedstock that’s been in short supply, as per Plasticsnews.

Construction on the plant would begin in 2020, with production starting in 2023, officials with Wichita, Kan.-based Invista said in an Aug. 8 news release. They added that they’ve started the project “to satisfy the strong, local demand for the nylon 6/6 intermediate chemical."

Engineering work for the plant is underway. The plant will have a USD1 billion price tag and annual production capacity of at least 660 million pounds of ADN.

Invista Intermediates Vice President Kyle Redinger has accepted a newly created role dedicated to meeting China’s long-term needs for ADN through capital investments, asset development and commercial arrangements.

"Given China’s strong demand for ADN and its commitment to advanced, energy-efficient technologies, Invista’s butadiene-based ADN is the best choice for capital investment in the region," he said in the release.

Invista "supplies more of the merchant market than any other ADN producer, so we want to ensure those customers have the best technology available," he added.

The last world-scale ADN plant was built more than 35 years ago, according to Redinger, so “this is a special time for the industry, and I’m extremely proud to lead Invista’s efforts to deliver this new facility."

ADN is used to make nylon resins, fibers and other specialty materials such as hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI) for coatings. Invista Intermediates president Bill Greenfield added that officials “are pleased by the feedback we have received in the market and are confident we will reach agreements with selected partners over the next few months."

Officials added that, over the past five years, Invista has invested more than USD600 million in China to support the nylon market, including a 475 million pound capacity HMD plant and a 330 million pound capacity resin plant, at the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park.

Invista ranks as one of the world’s largest producers of fibers and related specialty chemicals and resins.

Higher-than-expected demand for nylon 6/6 — which is used in many automotive parts — and lack of investment in new ADN capacity has created global tightness for nylon 6/6. This in turn has led to higher selling prices for the material, longer delivery times and in some cases has led processors to consider using replacement materials.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mitsui Chemicals has brought on-stream its naphtha cracker following a maintenance turnaround, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Japan informed that the company has completed turnaround at the cracker last weekend. The cracker was shut for maintenance in mid-June, 2018.

Located in Osaka, Japan, the cracker has an ethylene capacity of 450,000 mt/year and a propylene capacity of 280,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote before, in March 2016, Mitsui & Co., Ltd. and Hankuk Carbon Co., a company listed on the Korea Exchange, entered into a strategic alliance agreement to engage in collaborative business activities relating to the processing of composite materials.

Mitsui Chemicals is a leading manufacturer and supplier of value added specialty chemicals, plastics and materials for the automotive, healthcare, packaging, agricultural, building, and semiconductor and electronics markets. Mitsui Chemicals is a Japanese Chemicals company, a part of the Mitsui conglomerate. The company has a turnover of around 15 billion USD and has business interests in Japan, Europe, China, Southeast Asia and the USA. The company mainly deals in performance materials, petro and basic chemicals and functional polymeric materials.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- On the heels of two previous purchases of thermoformed packagers, private investment firm Graham Partners is buying Nuconic Packaging LLC of Vernon, Calif., another maker of thermoformed packaging, as per Canplastics.

The terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

Nuconic makes thermoformed PET packaging for the food industry, including containers and lids in a variety of shapes and sizes.

"Nuconic has experienced strong growth driven by a strategic market focus and strong customer relationships," said Adam Piatkowski, managing principal at Philadelphia, Pa.-based Graham Partners, in a statement. “We have identified significant synergies due to the expanded geographic coverage and capabilities of the combined platform. Nuconic, with expertise in product and tool design, will offer a combined platform to deliver a wide range of solutions to the market. Nuconic has decided to expand the combined company’s footprint to the West Coast, a potential key growth area."

"With the new investment and Nuconic’s innovative approach and customer focus, [we] will be able to pursue our strategy to build a nationwide, top tier, mid-sized packaging provider taking Tray-Pak and EasyPak along with it,” the statement continued. “Nuconic supplies thermoformed PET plastic packaging serving the food market that is a complementary product of EasyPak and Tray-Pak."

Graham Partners’ acquired both Tray-Pak Corp. of Reading, Pa., and EasyPak LLC of Leominster, Mass., within the last year.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Iraq has signed a USD369 million contract with Petrofac to build a new crude-processing facility in the giant Majnoon oilfield, a senior oil executive told Reuters.

Under the deal terms, work to build the new facility which has a capacity to produce 200,000 barrels per day, should be completed in 34 months, said Ihsan Abdul Jabbar, head of the state-run Basra Oil Company.

Once the new oil facility is operational, Majnoon's production will rise to around 450,000 barrels per day (bpd). The field iS now producing around 230,000 bpd, said Abdul Jabbar.

Iraq plans to invite service companies soon to compete for a tender to drill new 80 oil wells in Majnoon as part of a development plan to boos output from the field, said the BOC chief.

In June, Royal Dutch Shell exited the Majnoon oilfield in southern Iraq and handed over its operations to the state-run Basra Oil Co.

As MRC reported before, in March 2018, Shell EP Middle East Holdings B.V. completed the sale of the entire share capital of Shell Iraq B.V (SIBV), which held its 19.6% stake in the West Qurna 1 oil field, for USD406 million, to a subsidiary of ITOCHU Corporation. The purchaser has also assumed debt of USD144 million as part of the transaction. The West Qurna 1 venture will continue to be operated by ExxonMobil. Shell’s other businesses in the country are not affected by this divestment.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- The global market for plastic injection molding is expected to reach USD233 billion in 2023, reflecting an 11 per cent compound annual growth rate, according to the report published by U.S.-based market research firm BCC Research, as per Canlastics.

The study, entitled Injection Molding: Global Markets and Technologies through 2023, also notes that the global market for plastic injection molding was valued at USD117 billion in 2017.

According to the report, rising demand across several vertical industries such as packaging and food and beverages is expected to drive growth. "One robust segment is the medical device space, which accounts for 18.7 per cent of the plastic injection molding market and is expected to see strong growth over the forecast period as healthcare becomes an increasingly integral part of household expenditures, especially in more developed countries with aging populations," the report said.

Another important sector for injection molding is automotive – in particular automotive innovations and the continued replacement of metal components with plastic parts – and this is expected to continue in the upcoming years, the report said.

Additionally, advances such as “smart surfaces” and 3D-printed tooling, as well as external autonomous driving sensors, will also help growth in the injection molding industry.

"As the market for injection molding of plastics continues to grow, so will innovations in resin selection, injection molding machinery and processing guidelines,” said Christopher Maara, BCC research analyst and author of the report. “With the emergence of new resins with improved properties, molders can process polymers to fabricate new designs with different properties in a more energy and cost-efficient manner."
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