Clariant launches new masterbatches production facility to capture growing demand in China

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Clariant has launched a new facility in Guangzhou, China, dedicated to the manufacturing and supply of specialty black masterbatches that are in high demand in a great number of consumer goods sectors, to specially address the fast-growing China market, as per the company's press release.

Officiating the opening ceremony on May 24 were Clariant customers and company leaders, and Clariant pledged its continued commitment to local customers in China.

With Black PET/PA masterbatches for fiber already developing into a sizable business in China and some other Asian countries, the new production facility in Guangzhou will supplement existing supply from Clariant’s facility in Taiwan, which has been already fully utilized, to jointly deliver product and service excellence in its Greater China Region.

Ever since 1995, Clariant Masterbatches has established its production presence in Guangzhou focusing on products for fiber, consumer goods and packaging applications. In 2017, to better satisfy a growing demand for Engineering Plastics (EP) and High Temperature Resins (HTR) with local capabilities, Clariant expanded its Shanghai facility to support China’s E&E market with high-performance and reliable compound masterbatches solutions. With the previously mentioned Taipei site, Clariant has altogether 3 masterbatches production sites in the Greater China region.

"Since 2016, we’ve been increasing our investments in equipment upgrade and facilities expansion to boost capacities and capabilities of the Clariant plants in China, Singapore and the US. The expanded new production line here in Guangzhou, with a CHF 5 million of investment volume, will enhance our full range service in supplying specialty black masterbatches products for the market of packaging, consumer goods, fiber, automotive and E&E. It also allows us to better serve local expectations and continue our committment to main local customers in the segments," said Bernd Hoegemann, Clariant’s Head of Business Unit Masterbatches.

Together with this new production facility, a state-of-art workshop and an upgraded advanced lab were also newly established with customized services to echo unique performance requirements from its main customers in the special segments, as part of Clariant’s long term solutions and commitments for customer centricity in the China market. These newly added facilities, with Clariant’s existing capacities, will help the company further consolidate its position as a leading player in the masterbatches field in China today.

"The new facilities here and additional projects in the pipeline in China are enabling us deliver on our corporate vision of bringing China further from the fringe to the core of our development at Clariant, a strategy we call Fringe to Core (F2C)," said Fu Cai Wang, Clariant’s China President. "The new workshop, the lab and the added production line are helping us better satisfy the needs of our local customers and further establish our footprints in the market, which is anticipated to sustain near-term growth in the foreseeable future."

As MRC informed earlier, in March 2017, Clariant was awarded a contract by Dongguan Grand Resource Science & Technology Co. Ltd. to develop a new propane dehydrogenation unit in cooperation with CB&I. The project includes the license and engineering design of the unit, which is to be built in Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, China.

Clariant AG is a Swiss chemical company and a world leader in the production of specialty chemicals for the textile, printing, mining and metallurgical industries. It is engaged in processing crude oil products in pigments, plastics and paints. Clariant India has local masterbatch production activities at Rania, Kalol and Nandesari (Gujarat) and Vashere (Maharashtra) sites in India.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- LyondellBasell, one of the largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies in the world, has announced it has ended discussions with Odebrecht S.A. concerning the potential acquisition of Braskem, as per the company's press release.

Odebrecht S.A. is the controlling shareholder of Sao Paulo-based Braskem.

"The combination of LyondellBasell and Braskem is compelling because of the companies' complementary strengths, product portfolios and operational footprints. However, after careful consideration, we jointly decided not to pursue the transaction. We want to thank the teams at Odebrecht and Braskem for their cooperation during the entire process," said LyondellBasell CEO Bob Patel.

"We remain focused on advancing our disciplined, value-driven growth strategy. In addition, we intend to expedite our share repurchase program, which currently allows for the repurchase of up to 37 million of our outstanding shares. Our strong cash flows, ample liquidity, and healthy balance sheet allow us to deliver a growing, top-quartile dividend, advance organic growth, and maintain optionality for M&A opportunities while executing these significant opportunistic share repurchases," said Patel.

As MRC wrote previously, in August 2016, LyondellBasell made the final investment decision to build a high density polyethylene (HDPE) plant on the US Gulf Coast. The plant will have an annual capacity of 1.1 billion pounds (500,000 metric tons) and will be the first commercial plant to employ LyondellBasell's new proprietary Hyperzone PE technology. The start-up of the new plant is scheduled for 2019.

LyondellBasell is one of the largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies in the world. Driven by its 13,000 employees around the globe, LyondellBasell produces materials and products that are key to advancing solutions to modern challenges like enhancing food safety through lightweight and flexible packaging, protecting the purity of water supplies through stronger and more versatile pipes, and improving the safety, comfort and fuel efficiency of many of the cars and trucks on the road. LyondellBasell sells products into approximately 100 countries and is the world's largest licensor of polyolefin technologies.

Braskem S.A. produces petrochemicals and generates electricity. The Company produces ethylene, propylene, benzene, toluene, xylenes, butadiene, butene, isoprene, dicyclopentediene, MTBE, caprolactam, ammonium sulfate, cyclohexene, polyethylene theraphtalat, polyethylene, and polyvinyl chloride (PVC).
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- AVEVA, a global leader in engineering and industrial software, announced that Covestro, one of the world’s largest high-tech polymer companies, has signed a multi-million Euro agreement to help digitally transform Covestro’s entire process engineering workflow, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Covestro chose AVEVA’s SimCentral Simulation Platform as a single solution to replace legacy systems across the plant lifecycle to increase efficiency and allow its engineers to focus on innovation and develop new solutions to complex problems.

Process simulation is the virtual modeling of production processes designed to help engineers understand their operations better and enable them to predict performance and optimize processes with a high degree of accuracy.

With AVEVA SimCentral Simulation Platform, Covestro employees will be able to collaborate seamlessly across projects, engineering disciplines and locations with the potential to drive further productivity and efficiency gains. It is the first process simulation platform developed from the ground up to support steady-state, fluid-flow and dynamic modeling. It also integrates with engineering design tools in a single easy-to-use environment that spans the entire plant lifecycle.

"AVEVA’s SimCentral Simulation Platform will help us to fundamentally change the way we use process simulation software from conceptual design to the engineering and operation of our plants. It’s a key part of our journey to digitally transform our production," said Dr. Frank Dobert, Head of Production and Technology, Coatings, Adhesives and Specialties at Covestro. "AVEVA has the right technology, the right people, the right understanding of our industry and business and the right business mindset to be a valuable global strategic partner." Learn how Covestro uses next-generation process simulation to push the boundaries of digital transformation.

Covestro provides its high-quality polymer materials for a wide range of applications ranging from insulation for refrigerators and entire buildings, laptop and cell phone cases to scratch-resistant and fast-drying vehicle coatings and soft foams for furniture and car interiors. By replacing traditional materials with durable, light, environmentally-compatible and cost-effective equivalents, Covestro’s materials and application solutions are being used in nearly every area of modern life.

Amish Sabharwal, Global Head of Engineering Business at AVEVA, added: "A global leader in its field with a commitment to innovation and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible, Covestro’s approach to doing business is closely aligned with our own. Covestro is one of the most dynamic, forward thinking businesses in the industry and recognizes the growing importance of digital solutions in a changing world. Covestro’s engineers realized the potential of SimCentral Simulation Platform early on and after extensive testing we are delighted that Covestro has chosen to partner with us to meet a crucial objective in their digital transformation strategy."

As MRC reported earlier, in May 2018, Bayer Group sold 28.81 million shares representing a 14.2 percent interest in Covestro at a price of 75.50 euros per share. The proceeds of this sale totaled 2.2 billion euros. Bayer AG now holds just 6.8 percent of Covestro shares to repay the exchangeable bond that matures in 2020. Bayer AG acquired these shares from Bayer Pension Trust, which now no longer holds any Covestro shares.

We also remind that on 1 September, 2015, Bayer MaterialScience became known as Covestro. The plans for the carve-out of Bayer MaterialScience were announced in September 2014.

Covestro (formerly Bayer MaterialScience) is an independent subgroup within Bayer. It was created as part of the restructuring of Bayer AG from the former business group Bayer Polymers, with certain of its activities being spun off to Lanxess AG. Covestro manufactures and develops materials such as coatings, adhesives and sealants, polycarbonates (CDs, DVDs), polyurethanes (automotive seating, insulation for refrigerating appliances) etc.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Henan Shuncheng Group has entered into an agreement with Carbon Recycling International (CRI) for a carbon dioxide (CO2)-to-methanol facility in Anyang City, Henan Province, China, as per Apic-online.

The plant, which will be based on CRI's Emissions-to-Liquids process, will recycle about 150,000 t/y of CO2, with other waste gases, to produce 180,000 t/y of low-intensity methanol and liquefied natural gas. The project, estimated to cost around $90-million, is expected to be commissioned by the end of 2021.

CRI's majority owned joint venture with local partners in China established the project with Shuncheng; however, CRI is responsible for the design of the process, engineering and project execution.

"An agreement with a large Chinese chemical manufacturer such as Shuncheng Group shows CRI's global technology leadership in the CO2 capture and utilization (CCU) industry and how we enable energy companies and chemical producers to recycle waste into products, reducing pollution while supporting a circular economy," said CRI Chief Executive Sindri Sindrason.

We remind that, as MRC wrote before, Sinopec Zhongyuan Petrochemical restarted its methanol-to-olefins (MTO) plant following an unplanned outage in mid-February 2019. The plant was shut on November 5, 2018 owing to bearish market conditions. Located at Henan in China, the MTO plant has an ethylene and propylene capacity of 100,000 mt/year each.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- LG Chem Ltd has restarted its Deasan cracker following an unplanned outage, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in South Korea informed that the company was likely to resume operations at the cracker on June 4, 2019. The cracker was shut on June 2, 2019 owing to technical glitch.

Located at Daesan in South Korea, currently the cracker has an ethylene capacity of 1.27 million mt/year and propylene capacity of 650,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed before, LG Chem is planning to spend USD2.4-billion to expand its naphtha cracking center (NCC) and polyolefin (PO) plant in Yeosu, South Korea. The project, which will expand the NCC and PO facility by 800,000 t/y each, is expected to be completed in the second half of 2021.

LG Chem Ltd., often referred to as LG Chemical, is the largest Korean chemical company and is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. According to ICIS report, it is 15th biggest chemical company in the world in 2011. It has eight domestic factories and global network of 29 business locations in 15 countries. LG Chem is a manufacturer, supplier, and exporter of petrochemical goods, IT&E Materials and Energy Solutions.
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