European Coatings Show 2019: BASF to present new solutions covering the needs of customers

MOSCOW (MRC) -- At the 2019 European Coatings Show (ECS), which is going to take place in Nuremberg from March 19 to 21, BASF experts and specialists from BTC, the European distribution organization of BASF, will present new raw materials for the coatings, paint and construction industries at booth 523 in hall 7A, said the company.

The broad range of products offered by BASF includes dispersions, resins, additives, light stabilizers, antioxidants, pigments, hardeners, cross-linking agents, reactive diluents and solvents.

White coated furniture is becoming more and more popular, especially in living rooms and kitchens. However, in everyday life it can easily happen that colored liquids such as coffee or red wine leave irreversible stains on bright furniture surfaces – a major problem particularly for waterborne coatings. This does not have to be: Due to the new, physically drying resins, the recently launched Joncryl® 95XX series, furniture coatings end up with high levels of chemical resistance against aqueous stains even after 16 hours of exposure (according to DIN 68861-1B); they are also suitable for DIY-applications. Furthermore, Dispex® Ultra PX 4575, a dispersing agent for water-based systems, supports excellent chemical resistance and leads to greatly improved storage stability and anti-sedimentation behavior. For industrial UV applications, where immediate availability of properties is necessary, BASF developed Laromer® UA 9135 Aqua. The UV curable dispersion is designed for the formulation of highly resistant furniture coatings, fulfilling latest regulations and technical properties. It does not contain stenomeric monomers and Bisphenol A (BPA), offers immediate chemical and scratch resistance and is very compatible with mixing components (e.g. acrylic combination partners).

The screeds used in industrial buildings such as warehouses and cellars must withstand high levels of abrasion stress. Therefore, they are often coated with epoxy floor coating systems. From now on, there will be a waterborne alternative to conventional reactive systems: The new dispersion Acronal® 5522 for mineral surface protection combines the required performance with sustainability features. Floor coatings based on this acrylic composite polymer do not require labelling and can be applied easily.

Self-levelling underlayments (SLUs) gain increasing acceptance, when it comes to ensuring smooth and crater-free surfaces for subsequent floor installations. No wonder, as they can be applied easily and offer good mechanical properties compared with conventional methods. Melflux® SELECT 4411 F constitutes a new PCE based superplasticizer that has been specifically designed for classical ternary SLUs. This new superplasticizer in powder form enables longer slump retention and improved temperature robustness as well as compatibility with all kinds of fruit-based acids. Due to a reduced retarder dosage customers benefit from cost savings and achieve better hardening properties.

Universal adhesion performance on various substrates, low solvent demand and formulation robustness combined all in one solution offers Basonol PU 1035 W. This very flexible OH-functional aliphatic polyurethane dispersion (PUD) is suitable for 2K polyurethane (PUR) primer applications ideal for plastic and 1K melamine w/wo blocked polyisocyanate crosslinking primer applications on metal substrates. It does not contain any organic solvents e.g. N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidon (NMP) or N-Ethyl-2-pyrrolidon (NEP) and can be used as universal blending partner for acrylic dispersions.
MRC

AVEVA announces new global agreement with KBR

MOSCOW (MRC) -- AVEVA, a global leader in engineering and industrial software, announced KBR has signed a multi-phase agreement. AVEVA will be an important contributor to KBR’s digital transformation which will help to deliver significant cost savings and to provide service excellence to their clients, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

This enterprise agreement was only made possible due to the expanded, end-to-end solutions, technologies and services now part of the enhanced AVEVA portfolio. This agreement spans all three of KBR’s synergistic global businesses: Hydrocarbon Services, Technology, and Government Services.

"We are excited to work with AVEVA to accelerate our business transformation into being an industry-leading digital enterprise capable of providing even better value-added engineering and procurement services for our customers," said John Thomson, CIO of KBR. "The strength and depth of the AVEVA suite was a good fit for our needs, including their industry knowledge, digital solution expertise and service delivery excellence."

KBR will leverage AVEVA’s engineering and industrial solution portfolio to further digitally transform the delivery of KBR’s technology, value added services, integrated EPC and long-term operations and maintenance services. KBR can extend its Digital Asset delivery expertise by combining the strength of its EPC work with its world class Technology, Consulting and Industrial Services offerings.

"Leveraging 3D enhanced visualization - a Digital Twin - with performance monitoring, is just one example of how KBR can deliver compelling and differentiated value to plant operators and maintenance personnel during a plant’s full lifecycle, from pre-FEED through to decommissioning,” said Steen Lomholt-Thomsen, AVEVA’s Head of Global Sales, “As a result, KBR’s customers can benefit from reduced capital expenditures, faster and safer project delivery, smoother start-up and a single source of data for greater efficiency during project delivery and across operations and maintenance processes.

As MRC wrote before, in July 2018, BASF selected AVEVA to accelerate their strategic Smart Manufacturing programme. BASF will implement AVEVA’s Enterprise Asset Performance Management (APM) solution to improve connectivity of people, processes, and equipment, creating additional value for their customers through greater asset availability and workforce efficiency.

Karpatneftekhim resumes HDPE and PVC production

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Karpatneftekhim (Kalush, Ivano-Frankivsk region), Ukraine's largest petrochemical plant, resumed its polyvinyl chloride (PVC) production after the shutdown for maintenance. The plant's high density polyethylene (HDPE) production is next in turn to be launched, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

The plant's clients said the scheduled turnaround at HDPE and PVC production capacities started on 5 November was quite long. Karpatneftekhim had resumed its PVC production by 7 December, the start-up of its HDPE production began on Monday, 10 December.

This was virtually the first shutdown for maintenance after a period of more than a year of the plant's operations.

As reported earlier, Karpatneftekhim resumed operations on 9 June 2017, after a five-year outage.

Karpatneftekhim is one of the largest enterprises of Ukraine's petrochemical complex. Currently, the plant can produce annually 300,000 tonnes of PVC, 200,000 tonnes of caustic soda, about 180,000 tonnes of chlorine, as well as 250,000 tonnes of ethylene and 100,000 tonnes of polyethylene.
MRC

December prices of European PE dropped for CIS countries

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The December contract price of ethylene was agreed in Europe down by EUR110/tonne from November. However, European producers were ready to reduce their export polyethylene (PE) prices for this month's shipments to the CIS markets, but not proportionally to the amount of the decrease in monomer prices, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

Negotiations over December PE shipments from Europe to the CIS countries began last Monday. A reduction of EUR110/tonne in the contract price of ethylene in the region suggests a similar decrease in the cost of PE production. However, despite the situation in the monomer market, European producers were trying to prevent a reduction in export PE prices for this month's shipments to the CIS countries by more than EUR70/tonne.

Thus, negotiations over December high density polyethylene (HDPE) shipments were held in the range of EUR1,020-1,095/tonne FCA, down by an average of EUR50-70/tonne from November. Some producers still had restrictions on exports.

December deals for European low density polyethylene (LDPE) were discussed in the range EUR980-1,035/tonne FCA, whereas last month's deals were done in the range of EUR1,020-1,080/tonne FCA.
MRC

Sipchem and Sahara enter binding merger agreement

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi International Petrochemical Company (Sipchem) and Sahara Petrochemical Company has announced that they have entered into a legally binding agreement for a business merger, as per TradeArabia.

Sipchem and Sahara said they propose to implement a business merger of equals by way of Sipchem making a recommended offer to acquire all of the issued shares in Sahara in exchange for the issue of new shares in Sipchem in accordance with the applicable rules and regulations of the Capital Market Authority (CMA).

Under the terms of the deal, Sipchem will issue for every one Sahara share 0.8356 new Sipchem shares. Based on the exchange ratio, the total consideration payable by Sipchem to Sahara shareholders will be the issue of 366,666,666 new Sipchem shares.

The deal is valued at SR8.25 billion (USD2.2 billion) and the merger is expected to create an SR16 billion chemicals company. Both Sipchem and Sahara have the Zamil Group, one of the kingdom’s most prominent family businesses, as a significant shareholder, along with the Saudi Arabian government.

Upon completion of the transaction, all of the Sahara shares will be delisted from the Tadawul and Sahara will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sipchem.

The companies had entered into a non-binding memorandum of understanding on merger on October 3, 2018.

Assuming the transaction and the capital increase are approved by Sipchem shareholders at the Sipchem EGA and the transaction is approved by the Sahara Shareholders at the Sahara EGA and that all the other conditions are satisfied (or, where appropriate, waived), Sahara shareholders will hold 50 per cent of the enlarged issued share capital of Sipchem (being the aggregate of the issued share capital of Sipchem as at the date of this firm intention announcement and the new Sipchem shares to be issued to Sahara shareholders), the Sipchem statement said.

The transaction will result in Sipchem having an increased share capital of 733,333,332 Sipchem shares, of which 366,666,666 Sipchem shares, representing 50 per cent of Sipchem’s increased share capital, will be held by Sahara shareholders and 366,666,666 Sipchem shares, representing 50 per cent of Sipchem’s increased share capital, will be held by Sipchem shareholders, it said.

The exchange ratio and the resulting ownership split has been agreed as a result of an extensive mutual due diligence and valuation exercise, it added.

The merger is expected to provide synergy potential, from both a revenue and cost
perspective, which is expected to drive value for shareholders. It is also expected to deliver benefits to the combined workforce, and local and international business partners.

The chief executive officer of the combined group will be Engineer Ahmed Al-Ohali, who is currently the CEO of Sipchem. The chief operating officer will be Engineer Saleh Bahamdan, who is currently the CEO of Sahara.

The registered office of the combined group shall be located in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia at Al Ma’athar District, King Fahad Branch Road, Cairo Square, Almashariq Tower.

The name of the combined group shall be changed to "Sahara International Petrochemical Company (Sipchem).

As MRC wrote before, in March 2018, Sipchem said it was planning to resume proposed merger talks with Sahara Petrochemical in a deal that could create a 14.7 billion riyals (USD3.9 bln) chemicals company. The two companies called off a planned merger in 2014, citing an inadequate regulatory framework in the kingdom for the collapse.

Established in 1999, Saudi International Petrochemical Company (Sipchem) manufactures and markets methanol, butanediol, tetrahydrofuran, acetic acid, acetic anhydride, vinyl acetate monomer. Besides, it has launched several down-stream projects to manufacture ethylene vinyl acetate, low density polyethylene, ethyl acetate, butyl acetate, cross linkable polyethylene, and semi conductive compound that are scheduled to start in 2013.

Sahara Petrochemical is involved in building and operating petrochemical projects, especially propylene, polypropylene, ethylene and mixed polyethylene industries.
MRC