New range of polyolefins incorporating post-consumption recycled material

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Repsol has carried out the industrial production of its Repsol 50RX2805 grade for the manufacturing of bundle shrink film, putting on the market its first material resulting from its Reciclex Project, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The material's formulation consists of a low density polyethylene (LDPE) compound into which a 50% post-consumer plastic waste is incorporated, which ensures the consistency of the material and its functionality for the final application.

This grade is the first derived from its Reciclex Project to become part of Repsol's new polyolefins portfolio incorporating a percentage of post-consumer plastic waste. The new material offers new solutions to boost the circular economy, enabling to incorporate recycled plastic on a commercial scale in an application where its presence was merely testimonial; and it unfolds new uses, without compromising the final application technical requirements.

Repsol 50RX2805, used in bundle shrink films as secondary packaging for transport packs of cans, bottles, bricks or cardboard boxes, allows the converter to incorporate between 25-30% post-consumer recycled content in the formulation of the final film, without altering its mechanical properties Repsol 50RX2805, used in bundle shrink films as secondary packaging for transport of multi-packs of cans, bottles, cartons or cardboard boxes, allows the converter to incorporate between 25-30% post-consumer recycled content in the formulation of the final film, without altering its mechanical properties.

With these new materials, Repsol advances its commitment to the circular economy and its value chain, putting into the market new solutions that will generate additional demand for plastic recycling, in line with its pledge in the Circular Plastics Alliance (CPA), launched by the European Commission in December 2018.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China has issued more crude oil import quotas for refiners that will allow them to bring in an additional 56.85 million tonnes for the remainder of 2019, a document reviewed by Reuters showed.

This will bring the total quotas issued this year to 151 million tonnes of crude oil. That is equivalent to 3.02 million barrels per day (bpd), Reuters calculations showed.

As MRC informed earlier, China issued its first batch of crude oil import quotas for 2019 at a lower volume than for the same batch a year ago though expectations are for the volumes to climb later this year. The Ministry of Commerce granted quotas totaling 89.84 million tonnes to 58 companies in its first allowances for 2019.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Polymer maker Synthomer Plc said it has agreed to buy Omnova Solutions Inc (OMN.N) for an enterprise value of USD824 million in a bid to strengthen its global position, said Reuters.

Synthomer is offering Omnova USD10.15 for each share, a premium of 58% to Omnova’s closing price on Tuesday. Shares of Synthomer fell 5% to 352.4 pence, making them the top loser on the FTSE 250 index.

Acquiring Omnova will help Synthomer bolster its footprint in Europe and Asia and help penetrate into China, Synthomer said in a statement.

The deal will be financed through a rights issue of up to USD257 million and is likely to be completed by late 2019 or early 2020.

Upon completion, Synthomer expects the deal to add to its earnings in the first financial year and expects an annual pre-tax cost savings of USD29.6 million by the end of the third year.

Separately, Omnova said its second-quarter profit fell over 33% to USD5.6 million, hurt by volatile markets and challenging economic conditions, it said in a statement.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The specialty chemicals company LANXESS envisages an extensive range of potential applications for blow-molded components made from technical plastics in automobiles, said the company.

On the one hand, the global trend toward more turbocharged combustion engines that are both efficient and climate-friendly is continuing. This is leading to increased demand for air management components, especially blow-molded charge air pipes, with Asia in particular being a major growth market because the market share of turbocharged engines here is still comparatively low. On the other hand, the number of natural-gas-powered vehicles is increasing all the time, and fuel cell technology is being heralded as a new growth technology. Blow-molded polyamide liners are already used in compressed natural gas and are also best choice for hydrogen tanks.

These trends motivated the High Performance Materials (HPM) business unit at LANXESS not only to set up a global team tasked with developing blow-molding materials and their applications in modern powertrains, but also commissioning a state-of-the-art blow-molding system at the technical center in Dormagen. “Having our own processing equipment ensures that our blow-molding product types possess excellent processing properties,” said Dr. Klaus Kusters, who is responsible for developing the blow-molding business field at HPM. “Our customers benefit directly from in-depth processing expertise. The new system will also allow us to offer targeted assistance, for example during troubleshooting or at the start of series production."

LANXESS is a leading specialty chemicals company with sales of EUR 7.2 billion in 2018. The company currently has about 15,500 employees in 33 countries and is represented at 60 production sites worldwide. The core business of LANXESS is the development, manufacturing and marketing of chemical intermediates, additives, specialty chemicals and plastics. LANXESS is listed in the leading sustainability indices Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI World and Europe) and FTSE4Good.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Shandongis in plans to shut its No. 2 propylene unit for maintenance, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China, informed that, the company is likely to halt operations at the unit on July 13, 2019. The unit is expected to remain under maintenance for about four weeks.

Located at Dongying, in Shandong province of China, the No. 2 propylene unit has a production capacity of 100,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed before, in March 2018, Dongming Hengchang Petrochemical selected Spheripol polypropylene (PP) technology from LyondellBasell for implementation at a plant in Heze City, Shandong Province, China. The plant will be capable of producing 200,000mt of PP per year. Grades of PP produced using the Spheripol process are often used to make film for the safe storage of food and plastic pipes for the delivery of drinking water, as well as wastewater removal and sterile syringes in the healthcare sector.
MRC