Saudi Aramco board to reportedly meet for Sabic bond approval

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Aramco's board will reportedly meet this week to approve the issuance of a bond which could help the company finance its planned acquisition of a controlling stake in Sabic, according to a report by Reuters, which cited anonymous industry sources.

The bond is expected to be issued in the second quarter of 2019. Saudi Aramco Chairman and Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said in January 2019 that the company could issue a $10bn bond to fund the Sabic deal. Reuters reports that Aramco has already picked a group of banks to arrange the bonds, with Saudi Arabia's National Commercial Bank, HSBC, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and Citi among them.

In January 2019, al-Falih told Reuters that "the bond issue is intended to give Aramco multiple sources of capital," but that even without the deal, with Saudi Aramco's "capital program and its capital spend going to be from USD40bn to USD50bn a year-- it's very prudent they have access to the capital market."

The deal would see Saudi Aramco purchase a 70% stake in Sabic from the Public Investment Fund, allowing it more liquidity while strengthening Saudi Aramco's downstream portfolio; a key strategy for the company.

“Our downstream business ventures will provide a reliable destination for Saudi Aramco’s future oil production, and diversify both the company’s business portfolio and the Kingdom’s economy,” Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said in his keynote address at the Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA) Forum in November 2018.

He told Bloomberg in November 2018 that the company has USD100bn earmarked for downstream developments in the coming 10 years, and USD160bn for natural gas, and important feedstock for the downstream segment.

Saudi Aramco had to pause its planned stock market listing due to the Sabic acquisition, and expects the listing to go through by 2021.
MRC

Arkema and Hexcel open a joint research and development laboratory in Les Avenières

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Arkema and Hexcel have announced that they will open a joint research and development laboratory in Les Avenieres (Isere), France in April, said the company.

This follows the companies’ previous announcement in March 2018 that they were forming a strategic alliance to develop thermoplastic composite solutions for the aerospace sector, combining the expertise of Hexcel in carbon fiber and Arkema in PEKK.

The companies’ objective at this new lab is to develop carbon fiber-reinforced thermoplastic prepreg tapes to enable lightweight parts to be produced for future generations of aircraft.

These solutions will provide lightweight and cost effective technologies including faster production cycles for customers in the aerospace and the space and defense sectors.

Thanks to Hexcel and Arkema’s close collaboration, an initial industrial pilot line will be installed in the new lab in the coming weeks. The companies expect to start supplying carbon/thermoplastic UD tapes from this pilot line to customers for evaluation beginning in Q3 2019.
MRC

Lomont Molding is moving the operations of its subsidiary Total Source Molders

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Lomont Molding LLC is moving the operations of its subsidiary Total Source Molders from a leased 50,000-square-foot facility in Reinbeck, Iowa, to the company's headquarters about 130 miles southeast in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, as per Plasticsnews.

As part of the consolidation, the injection molder filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining notice Feb. 15, laying off TSM's 38 employees effective April 30. All 38 employees have been offered full-time positions, covering a range of job roles across production, at the Mount Pleasant location.

"We're very conscious of relationships with our employees," Carl Frank, Lomont's director of communications, said in a Feb. 28 phone interview. "We're trying to make this as painless as possible." In a letter sent to customers, Lomont Molding said the move will allow the company "to better position itself strategically on a geographical basis without duplicating … efforts of two facilities in Iowa."

"It was basically a strategic move on our part to consolidate assets and resources," Frank said, adding that the Mount Pleasant facility was recently expanded by 65,000 square feet. The expanded area — now bulking up the headquarters to a total of 160,000 square feet — will be used to house TSM operations, including 12 injection molding machines ranging from 75-940 tons. With TSM, the Mount Pleasant site will have 310 employees.

"It's kind of like bringing [TSM's] facility into our facility in a way, so that they're completely integrated together," Frank said. Lomont ranks No. 97 on Plastics News' annual listing of North American injection molders, generating sales of $80 million in 2017. Since 2014, the company has been owned by Summit Equity Group, a private investment firm in Des Moines, Iowa.

The company's capabilities cover a wide range of plastics processes, including structural foam molding, profile extrusion, gas-assist molding and overmolding as well as in-mold decorating and a variety of assembly and secondary services.

Lomont also produces parts for two proprietary product lines: Lomont In-Mold Technologies, which includes safety signage and identification products; and Paragon Products, which specializes in concrete and rebar accessories used in commercial, highway and precast construction markets.

TSM specializes in high-pressure injection molded parts for agricultural and construction markets.

In 2017, Lomont added blow molding to its capabilities with the acquisition of R&D Molders Inc. in Georgetown, Texas. R&D employs around 165 at its facility, which also does some molding for the Paragon proprietary line. The company ranks No. 73 on PN's listing of North American blow molders, with 2017 sales estimated at USD12.5 million.
MRC

DuPont investing USD220 million at specialty films plant in Ohio

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chemical maker DuPont will spend USD220 million to build new production assets at its specialty films plant in Circleville, Ohio, as per Canplastics.

In a statement, Wilmington, Del.-based DuPont said that the new assets will expand production of its Kapton-brand polyimide film and Pyralux-brand flexible circuit materials to meet what it calls "growing market demand in automotive, consumer electronics, telecom, and defense."

DuPont expects the new assets to be operational by 2021.

"This investment is a reflection of our strong commitment to our customers around the world," said Jim Fahey, president of DuPont’s electronics and imaging division. "Our new production assets will position us well to support the growing need across many sectors for our advanced high-reliability materials for innovations in areas such as 5G, automotive, flexible displays and artificial intelligence."

DuPont has been making Kapton polyimide films for over 50 years.

DuPont’s electronics and imaging business is part of the new specialty products division of DowDuPont, and was created by the 2017 merger of Dow and DuPont, and is a combination of Dow’s electronic materials and DuPont’s electronics and communications businesses.
MRC

PVC production in Russia increased by 3% in January-February 2019

MOSCOW (MRC) - Russian producers of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) kept high capacity utilisation in the first two months of the year, despite the low season in the domestic market. Total production of PVC reached 169,500 tonnes in January-February, up 3% year on year, according to MRC ScanPlast.

February production of unmixed PVC in Russia was 81,700 tonnes from 87,800 tonnes a month earlier, several producers decreased capacity utilisation. Overall PVC output was 169,500 tonnes in the first two months of 2019, compared to 165,200 tonnes a year earlier.

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

RusVinyl (JV of SIBUR and SolVin) produced about 28,600 tonnes of PVC in February, with emulsion polyvinyl chloride (EPVC) accounting for 2,000 tonnes, compared to 29,500 tonnes a month earlier. Overall PVC production at RusVinyl exceeded 58,000 tonnes in January-February 2019, up by 8% year on year.

SayanskKhimPlast produced 25,100 tonnes of suspension PVC (SPVC) last month, whereas this figure was only 27,700 tonnes in February.
The Sayansk plant managed to produce about 52,800 tonnes of resin in January-February, compared to 52,000 tonnes a year earlier.

Baskhir Soda Company produced about 21,500 tonnes of SPVC in February, against 23,000 tonnes a month earlier. Total SPVC production at Baskhir Soda Company increased to 44,400 tonnes in the first two months of this year, compared to 43,800 tonnes in the same period in 2018.

Kaustik (Volgograd) produced 6,600 tonnes of SPVC in February, compared with 7,600 tonnes in January. Thus, Kaustik's overall production of SPVC reached 14,200 tonnes in the first two months of 2019 versus 15,500 tonnes a year earlier.


MRC