BASF and SIBUR collaborate to develop innovative polymer solutions

MOSCOW (MRC) -- SIBUR and BASF are collaborating to develop innovative polymer solutions at SIBUR’s PolyLab Research and Development Center located in Moscow, Russia, as per SIBUR's press release.

The signing ceremony of the Memorandum of Cooperation took place on May 30, 2019 at SIBUR’s newly inaugurated state-of-the-art PolyLab at the Skolkovo Innovation Center to seal the strong commitment from SIBUR and BASF.

Both companies will work together to leverage on the digital technologies in production and R&D, and to develop an innovative range of polymers using the plastic additives offered by BASF. In addition, BASF will support with its technical expertise the development of new technology tests at PolyLab, the main R&D hub of SIBUR NIOST, and SIBUR’s production facilities. The companies plan to also jointly develop new high-performance additive solutions, focusing on highly demanding converting conditions for polymers and specifically targeting long term durable goods. They will promote these new solutions at joint technical events to educate SIBUR’s customers and industry players.

"The new agreement extends our strategic partnership with one of the global chemical majors and unlocks new opportunities for all consumers of polymer products. Combining the extensive knowhow from both companies, we will develop modern synthetic materials that are advanced and sustainable," said Pavel Lyakhovich, member of the Management Board and Managing Director, OOO SIBUR.

"SIBUR focuses very strongly on promoting innovative solutions to drive technological advancement in the industries they operate in, supporting circular economy. They have also been our long-term business partner,” said Achim "Sties, Senior Vice President, Performance Chemicals Europe, BASF SE. "At BASF, we are committed to developing additive solutions that perform economically and last longer. I am convinced that this extended partnership with SIBUR will accelerate the goals of both companies to drive long term success through innovative solutions by leveraging on the strong additives know-how of BASF and extensive synthetic polymer experience of SIBUR."

Polymers are well-known synthetic materials that are durable, strong, environmentally friendly to be widely used in construction, utilities, automotive, healthcare, food and other industries. The key priority of SIBUR’s PolyLab is to promote the use of polymers both to manufacture existing products, and to design novel solutions to drive technological advancement for the relevant industries. PolyLab will foster the use of recycled materials and the application of polymers in circular economy. For this purpose, samples of new PE Polyethylene and PP polypropylene grades will be transformed at the Center's pilot manufacturing lines into pipes, medical goods, films, food packaging, canisters and other products. This will provide a deeper insight into polymers’ properties and their impact on the end product quality to further improve the materials and boost production efficiency.

As MRC wrote before, in late May 2019, Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev cut the ribbon of the first domestic R&D centre for the development and testing of polymer products – SIBUR PolyLab located at the Skolkovo Innovation Centre.

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.

BASF is the leading chemical company. It produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF and Nutrien Ag Solutions announced today a digital collaboration to provide their customers with easier access to leading agronomic tools, said the company.

As part of this collaboration, BASF’s xarvio™ SCOUTING application (app), which enables growers and agronomists to instantly and accurately identify weed and disease threats in their fields, will now be offered within the Nutrien Ag Solutions Customer Portal.

"Through our joint efforts, BASF and Nutrien Ag Solutions can help change the industry by providing growers with the products, services and now digital tools to support their success," said Paul Rea, Senior Vice President, BASF Agricultural Solutions North America. "We are proud to have the robust technology of the xarvio SCOUTING app featured on the Nutrien Ag Solutions Customer Portal. In addition, we are exploring further collaboration opportunities with Nutrien, including the xarvio FIELD MANAGER which offers field- and even field-zone-specific independent agronomic advice to optimize crop production."

xarvio SCOUTING allows growers to detect in-field stress with the click of a photo. Among its features, the app can determine weed presence, recognize diseases, and quantify leaf damage. The app is powered by advanced A.I. algorithms that continually improve precision and functionality through machine learning and data sharing.

"In a market place that is extremely complex, collaboration will be critical to providing innovative solutions to meet the needs of growers," said Rea. "xarvio Digital Farming Solutions gives growers more control of their fields and the confidence to make the right choices, at the right time for better yields."

Nutrien Ag Solutions is building an open digital ecosystem that leverages deep agronomic data science and leading-edge technology to help growers achieve the best possible outcomes on their farms. Nutrien Ag Solutions will feature BASF’s xarvio SCOUTING app as part of its digital agronomy offerings, further enabling growers to detect and identify weed and pest pressure as they monitor and protect their crops throughout the growing season.

"We are pleased to further our collaboration with leading agricultural companies such as BASF via our Customer Portal," said Mike Frank, Nutrien's Executive Vice President and CEO of Retail. "Our goal is to become the ag retailer of the future and partnerships with innovators such as BASF’s xarvio Digital Farming Solutions help enable us to provide more value to our customers."

"As we build out our open digital ecosystem, we are constantly developing best in industry tools, both internally, as well as seeking apps and tools from across the industry," said Sol Goldfarb, Vice President Digital Strategy at Nutrien Ag Solutions. "These tools help improve growers’ results and we’re excited to be able to feature the xarvio SCOUTING app on our Nutrien Ag Solutions Customer Portal."

The two companies plan to expand their collaborations and are actively exploring further digital tools, such as the agronomic intelligence currently featured in the xarvio FIELD MANAGER. This solution would give growers further access to timing and variable rate map applications in various crops for weed, disease and better pest management.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- UK-based Pennon Group (Exeter; www.pennon-group.co.uk) has announced a project to power its new GBP 65m (EUR 73m) plastics recycling plant using electricity produced from plastics waste, said the Plasteurope.

The company says this move will create true circular economy energy park at its site in Avonmouth near Bristol, which is the biggest multi-polymer plant in the UK.

Once operational, the new facility will divert 320,000 t/y of non-recyclable plastics waste away from landfill. In its first year of operation, the plant will produce 60,000 t/y of recycled plastics using 81,000 t/y of feedstock made from 1.6 bn bottles, pots, tubs and trays. By the third year of operation, this figure is set to rise to 89,000 t/y of feedstock producing 63,000 t/y of recycled plastics.

Chris Loughlin, the group's CEO, said that by using non-recyclable waste to create low carbon electricity, the company is creating a resource and energy-efficient waste management solution. There is a clear ambition from both UK consumers and politicians to improve recycling rates and reduce the amount of waste which is sent to export. Our research shows that 80% of people believe the UK should find a way to deal with its own recycling without having to ship it to other countries.

By its own account, Pennon is one of the UK's largest environmental infrastructure groups. It owns water and wastewater company South West Water (Exeter; www.southwestwater.co.uk) and recycling company Viridor (Taunton / UK; www.viridor.co.uk), which is a member of the UK Plastics Pact launched by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap, Banbury / UK; www.wrap.org.uk) and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF, Cowes / UK; www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org) in 2018.. The group has a workforce of 5,000 and in 2018 posted sales of GBP 1.48 bn.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Haitian's (Ningbo, Zhejiang / China; www.haitian.com) US subsidiary Absolute Haitian (Worcester, Massachusetts / USA) has expanded its North American operations with the opening of a new production unit in Moncks Corner, South Carolina / USA near Charleston, said Plasteurope.

A grand opening celebration with a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on 30 May 2019, including a tour of the new facility for customers, suppliers, public officials and other guests.

The new 11,000 mA? facility provides additional capacity to support Haitian Internationala€™s product lines for injection moulders in the US and Canada. It complements existing facilities in the US, in Massachusetts, Ohio and Illinois plus warehousing in southern California. The proximity to Charleston's port allows the company to easily supply customers in the US states of Michigan, Ohio and Indiana.

The facilitya€™s drive-in dock enables flatbed trucks to move fully loaded onto the floor for more convenient unloading. a€?All of these features position us well to reduce lead times on delivery and enhance support to our customers,a€? said Mike Ortolano, co-owner of Absolute Haitian. a€?The expansion of the automotive sector, presence of white goods manufacturing and fast regional growth in the southeast were major considerations,a€? added co-owner Nate Smith.

Absolute Haitian is the exclusive sales and service partner in the US and Canada for Haitian, which is the worlda€™s largest supplier of plastics injection moulding machinery, shipping more than 35,000 machines in 2017. Ita€™s products are sold in more than 130 countries. In 2018, the injection moulding machinery manufacturer's revenues rose by 6.5% to about RMB 10.9 bn (EUR 1.43 bn).
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Westlake Chemical company’s WLK unit - Royal Building Products - has completed the acquisition of DaVinci Roofscapes, L.L.C., according to MarketScreener.

DaVinci has a leadership position as a supplier of premium composite siding and roofing. The company operates from Lenexa, KA. Moreover, it has a solid reputation for addressing customer needs with superior product quality, technology and operating excellence.

Notably, its products will continue to be sold under the DaVinci brand. The buyout complements Royal Building’s existing premium products such as Celect, Zuri and Cedar Renditions.

"We are very excited about the addition of DaVinci, which brings an impressive business with a strong leadership position in the composite roofing industry," said Scott Szwejbka, vice president - exteriors. "DaVinci has an outstanding reputation for meeting customer needs with superior technology, product quality, and operating excellence. We are pleased to welcome this talented team into the Westlake family."

As MRC informed previously, Westlake Chemical Corporation has recently announced that it will expand capacities for the production of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) at three of its chemical facilities. Two of the plants are located in Germany (Burghausen, Gendorf) and one is located in Geismar, Louisiana. The expansions in Burghausen and Geismar are expected to be completed in 2019. The Gendorf expansions are expected to be completed in 2020 and 2021.

Westlake Chemical Corporation is an international manufacturer and supplier of petrochemicals, polymers and building products with headquarters in Houston, Texas. The company's range of products includes: ethylene, polyethylene, styrene, propylene, chlor-alkali and derivative products, PVC suspension and specialty resins, PVC Compounds, and PVC building products including siding, pipe, fittings and specialty components, windows, fence, deck and film.

Royal Building Products, a Westlake Chemical company (NYSE: WLK), manufactures and distributes leading materials for the home remodeling, building and construction markets. For nearly 50 years, the company’s commitment to quality, innovation and customer relationships has attracted the loyalty of a growing number of building professionals, homeowners, architects, engineers and distributors to its products. With operations throughout Canada and the United States, Royal Building Products offers the renovation, remodeling and new construction industries a broad range of innovative products including siding, trim, accessories, soffit, rainware, mouldings and decking.
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