Arkema opens a new powder coating resins unit in India

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Arkema will inaugurate a new first-class polyester resin manufacturing facility in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra on February 13, 2019, said the company.

This new facility also includes a dedicated laboratory to provide both application development and technical support. The facility will help Arkema better serve customers in the fast growing powder coating market throughout India, as well as the Gulf Region and surrounding countries.

"The Navi Mumbai facility significantly extends our global footprint for this product and allows us to better meet local demand in India and Southeast Asia, where we see strong growth and demand. India is one of the fastest growing markets in the world for these products. This facility will offer formulators in the region reliable supply and the resources they need to easily develop high-performance low-VOC powder coating products."

The new facility will produce polyester powder resins marketed under the REAFREE® trade name.

REAFREE® polyester resins are primarily used to develop low-VOC powder coatings for a wide range of industrial and architectural applications. They are highly versatile and can be formulated to provide benefits such as superior scratch resistance, flow and leveling, and rheology control.

In addition to the new facility in Navi Mumbai, Arkema produces REAFREE® polyester resins and runs powder coating R&D laboratories at its facilities in Sant Celoni, Spain and North Kansas City, Missouri, USA. From these three plants, Arkema can meet customer needs anywhere in the world.

This USD15 M investment supports the Group’s ongoing commitment to remain a leading global supplier to the coating industry, providing customers with all the benefits of cutting-edge technology, local manufacture, and strong technical support.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Praxair, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Linde plc, has announced it will expand production capacity at its Neosho, Missouri air separation plant, said the producer in its press release.

The expansion is in response to the growing demand from customers in southwestern Missouri and neighboring parts of Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kansas in the food, aerospace, electronics, refining, chemicals and other industries. The project is expected to be completed in 2020 and will double capacity at the company’s Neosho facility.

"This investment will strengthen supply reliability and help us meet the future demands of our liquid oxygen and nitrogen customers," said Andy Sarantapoulas, South Region Vice President of Praxair’s US industrial gas business. "We are proud to be part of the Neosho community and look forward to growing our presence in this region."

"Our most valuable economic partners are always those companies that have made a long-term commitment to Neosho, and Praxair is just such a company," said Michael Franks, CEO of Grow Neosho Economic Development. "That commitment made it easy for us to work with Praxair on this expansion project that delivers new capital investment and new jobs to the Praxair facility in the Neosho Industrial Park."

“We are excited to have Praxair as a long-standing customer and happy they chose Neosho as the location for expanding their operations. Adding jobs and increasing investment in our communities is important to the success of the Neosho area,” said Brent Baker, Vice President of National Customer Experience at Liberty Utilities.

As MRC informed before, in summer, 2017, Praxair, Inc. started up a new air separation plant to supply 700 tons per day of nitrogen to Samsung’s display manufacturing complex in Tangjeong, South Korea.

Praxair, Inc., a Fortune 300 company, is a leading industrial gas company in North and South America and one of the largest worldwide. The company produces, sells and distributes atmospheric, process and specialty gases, and high-performance surface coatings. Praxair products, services and technologies are making our planet more productive by bringing efficiency and environmental benefits to a wide variety of industries, including aerospace, chemicals, food and beverage, electronics, energy, healthcare, manufacturing, primary metals and many others.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- SIBUR has decided to launch an investment project aimed at enhancing polybutadiene rubber (Nd-BR) production efficiency at its Voronezh facility (Voronezhsintezkauchuk), as per the company's press release.

The project will involve a large-scale upgrade to boost operational efficiency of the existing facility and ensure a consistently high quality of the manufactured goods. A 13 ktpa capacity ramp-up will increase total capacity to 48 ktpa and enable the Company to meet the strong demand for Nd-BR in the target markets of the CIS and Europe.

Currently, the project is at the design stage, with completion slated for 2021.

NIPIgaspererabotka, a leading Russian centre for facility design, supply, logistics and construction, was selected as the general designer for the project. Russian contractors will also be engaged for the construction and commissioning works.

In addition to boasting enhanced durability and wear resistance, Nd-BR is an environmentally friendly and energy-efficient grade, which guarantees a better quality of rubber products, does not contain harmful oligomers and can be used as an up-and-coming feedstock for the production of eco-friendly tires. In 2018, Nd-BR rubber from SUBUR’s Voronezh facility won a prize at the XXI Voronezh Quality contest (regional stage of the 100 Best Goods of Russia nationwide competition) in the nomination for Industrial and Technical Goods.

As MRC wrote before, in June 2018, SIBUR said its plans to build a gas chemical complex in Russia's Far East will require preliminary investments of up to USD8 billion and it is still looking for Asian partners. SIBUR said a year ago that it had been in talks with a number of Chinese investors about participating in the project to build the complex in Amur.

SIBUR is a uniquely positioned vertically integrated gas processing and petrochemicals company. We own and operate Russia’s largest gas processing business in terms of associated petroleum gas processing volumes and are a leader in the Russian petrochemicals industry. As of 31 March 2014, SIBUR operated 27 production sites located all over Russia, had over 1,400 large customers engaged in the energy, chemical, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), automotive, construction and other industries in approximately 70 countries worldwide and employed over 27,000 personnel.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- ALPLA, plastic packaging specialist based in Austria, acquires all shares of Zamil ALPLA. The acquisition is expected to be closed within the first quarter of 2019, said Eppm.

ALPLA and Zamil founded a joint venture in 2008, of which ALPLA previously held a 49 per cent share.

After ten years of close collaboration as part of a joint venture, ALPLA has acquired all the shares of Zamil ALPLA. The buyer will continue to run the company as before, and with all employees, under the name ALPLA. Around 390 employees produce preforms and packaging made from HDPE and PET at three locations in Dammam, Jeddah (both Saudi Arabia) and Dubai (United Arab Emirates).

All three locations in the Middle East will continue operations as usual. The acquisition was signed on 27 December 2018 and will be completed in the first quarter of 2019. The contracting partners have agreed not to disclose any of the details of the agreement.

ALPLA is one of the leading companies involved in plastic packaging, producing custom-made packaging systems, bottles, closures and moulded parts at 178 sites across 46 countries.

The packaging is used in a wide range of areas, including for food and drinks, cosmetics and care products, household detergents, washing and cleaning agents, pharmaceutical products, engine oils and lubricants.

ALPLA operates its own recycling plants with a PET Recycling Team in both Austria and Poland, and in the form of collaborations in Mexico and Germany.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi International Petrochemical (Sipchem) on Wednesday reported a 75.67% year-on-year decline for the fourth quarter of 2018, recording SAR 40 million from SAR 164 million, as per English.mubasher.

On the other hand, Sipchem reported a net profit of SAR 583 million for fiscal year 2018, 33.3% up from SAR 437 million in 2017, according to a statement to the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul).

The company has attributed the hike in annual profits to an increase in revenue due to the rise in average selling prices of the company’s products.

The petrochemical maker’s revenue rose by 12.9% to SAR 5.035 billion last year, compared to SAR 4.459 billion in 2017.

Earnings per Share (EPS) amounted to SAR 1.59 in 2018, compared to SAR 1.19 a year earlier.

In October, Sipchem posted a 98.9% growth in net profits after calculating zakat and tax for the first nine months of 2018, registering SAR 543 million, versus SAR 273 million in the corresponding period of 2017.

As for Q3-18, the Saudi company’s net profit jumped 48.27% to SAR 180.3 million from SAR 121.6 million in Q3-17.
MRC