AkzoNobel to acquire Mapaero

MOSCOW (MRC) -- AkzoNobel has announced its intention to acquire French aerospace coatings manufacturer Mapaero, said the company.

The intended acquisition will strengthen AkzoNobel’s global position in aerospace coatings, notably in the structural and cabin coating sub-segments, and contribute directly towards delivering the company’s 2020 guidance.

Established in 1992 and specializing in sustainable water-based and advanced eco-friendly products, Mapaero operates a production facility in France and has around 140 employees.

“The world class product ranges from both companies have an excellent fit and by combining our expertise we’ll be able to strengthen our global position in the steadily growing aerospace coatings market,” said AkzoNobel CEO, Thierry Vanlancker.

"The transaction will enable us to provide our customers with a much wider portfolio of innovative and sustainable products. It also demonstrates our commitment to continue investing in strategic growth opportunities as we progress further with our Winning together: 15 by 20 strategy and will be accretive towards our 15% return on sales target."

Eric Rumeau, President and CEO of Mapaero, added: “AkzoNobel’s offer is an exciting opportunity. Our activities are complementary to those of AkzoNobel and we are ideally placed to help further improve their existing portfolio and service levels. There’s clearly a strong match in the combination."

AkzoNobel’s offer is subject to customary information and consultation procedures with Mapaero’s employee representative bodies and regulatory approvals. The transaction is expected to be completed in the second half of 2019.

AkzoNobel is a global leader in aerospace coatings, supplying high performance products and technologies for aircraft worldwide.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Panama on Saturday became the first Central American nation to ban single-use plastic bags to try to curb pollution on its beaches and help tackle what the United Nations has identified as one of the world's biggest environmental challenges, reported Rueters.

The isthmus nation of roughly 4 million people joined more than 60 other countries that have totally or partially banned single-use plastic bags, or introduced taxes to dissuade their use, including Chile and Colombia in the region.

Supermarkets, pharmacies and retailers in Panama must stop using traditional polyethylene plastic bags immediately, while wholesale stores will have until 2020 to conform to the policy approved in 2018. Fines can be applied for non-compliance but there are exceptions for the use of plastic bags for sanitary reasons, such as with raw food.

On the streets of Panama City, signs with the phrase "less bags, more life" reminded passersby that the measure had gone into effect.

"This seems like a good measure because you avoid continuing to pollute the streets and the community," said Victoria Gomez, a 42-year-old secretary in downtown Panama City.

Birds, turtles, seals, whales and fish often become entangled or ingest the remnants of plastic bags in Latin America, one of the most biodiverse regions in the world. Along Panama's coast, it is common to see plastic waste littering beaches, especially near populated areas.

Given projected growth in consumption, without new anti-pollution policies oceans are expected by 2050 to contain more plastics than fish by weight, according to the New Plastics Economy report published by Ellen MacArthur Foundation in 2016. The report also found that the entire plastics industry will consume 20% of total oil production by then.

As MRC wrote previously, in April 2019, New York State lawmakers agreed to impose a statewide ban on most types of single-use plastic bags from retail sales, changing a way of life for millions of New Yorkers as legislators seek to curb an unsightly and omnipresent source of litter.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Petronas is in plans to take its low density polyethylene (LDPE) plant off-stream for a brief maintenance, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Malaysia informed that the company is likely to start turnaround at its plant in end-August, 2019. The plant is slated to remain off-line for around end-September, 2019.

Located at Kerteh in Terrenganu, Malaysia, LDPE plant has a production capacity of 255,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed earlier, Petronas plans to build a C6-based metallocene linear LDPE plant and a low density polyethylene (LDPE)/ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) swing plant at its greenfield integrated refinery and petrochemical complex in southern Johor state in 2019. The proposed metallocene LLDPE will have a capacity of 350,000 tpa, while the LDPE/EVA will have a capacity of about 150,000 tpa. The two plants are part of Petronas' planned Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development project in Pengerang at Johor.

Petronas, short for Petroliam Nasional Berhad, is a Malaysian oil and gas company wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia. The Group is engaged in a wide spectrum of petroleum activities, including upstream exploration and production of oil and gas to downstream oil refining; marketing and distribution of petroleum products; trading; gas processing and liquefaction; gas transmission pipeline network operations; marketing of liquefied natural gas; petrochemical manufacturing and marketing; shipping; automotive engineering; and property investment.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- OMV has made the decision to invest USD72.17mn in the construction of an ISO C4 plant – the building phase is now imminent, said Refiningandpetrochemicalsme.

Construction of the new plant will begin in summer 2019 at the Burghausen Refinery, with operations planned to start in September 2020. From this point onwards, high-purity isobutene will be produced in Burghausen using a brand new technology.

The idea behind the innovative method for heat integration came about through a collaboration by OMV and BASF and was jointly filed for a global patent by both companies. As a supplier of catalysts and licensor of petrochemicals technologies, BASF offers a catalyst system that intrinsically fulfils all process requirements.

The new unit for the production of high-purity isobutene will be integrated into the existing metathesis plant at the OMV Burghausen Refinery, which is responsible for the energy-efficient manufacturing of propylene for the plastics industry. One major advantage here is the exceptional energy efficiency of the planned ISO C4 unit.

The strategy developed by OMV for heat integration allows up to 80% of the heating energy required by the new process to be met by waste heat from existing facilities. The ISO C4 unit will have a production capacity of around 60,000t/a.

Isobutene is part of the C4 hydrocarbons group and is produced from crude oil components by means of thermal cracking. The isobutene produced will complement the current OMV product portfolio and will be used for manufacturing glues, grease and other chemicals such as antioxidants, as well as in the production of vitamin C.

The new ISO C4 unit is a further element that highlights OMV's talent for innovation. This exceptionally efficient and innovative technology has allowed us to raise the bar yet again in the petrochemicals sector following on from our metathesis plant that has been operational since 2007."The new ISO C4 unit is a further element that highlights OMV's talent for innovation. This exceptionally efficient and innovative technology has allowed us to raise the bar yet again in the petrochemicals sector following on from our metathesis plant that has been operational since 2007. In the medium- to long-term, the demand for fossil fuels will change, which will also affect the refining business. That is why the strategic focus of the OMV downstream business lies in petrochemicals. We want to achieve long-term, sustainable growth and continue to strengthen our competitive position", said Thomas Gangl, OMV executive board member for refining and petrochemical operations.

As the global market leader for process catalysts, we serve as a development partner for our customers and are proud to support OMV in becoming even more successful"With this seminal new technique for producing a key chemical, BASF is helping its customers to achieve more energy-efficient production. As the global market leader for process catalysts, we serve as a development partner for our customers and are proud to support OMV in becoming even more successful," said Detlef Ruff, senior vice president, process catalysts at BASF.
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MOSCOW (MRC) - The European Investment Bank wants to stop funding new fossil fuel-reliant projects by the end of 2020, a draft of the EU lending arm's new energy strategy, said Reuters.

The development bank proposed phasing out support to energy projects that were "reliant on fossil fuels: oil and gas production, infrastructure primarily dedicated to natural gas, power generation or heat-based on fossil fuels."

"These types of projects will not be presented for approval to the EIB Board beyond the end of 2020," the proposals said.

The EIB board, which is made up mostly of EU finance ministers, is expected to discuss the proposals at a meeting in September, though a final decision could take longer.

Resistance could potentially come from coal-reliant eastern European Union members or countries such as Italy where the EIB is helping fund the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline for gas.

"This long-term transition (to greener energy sources) is profound. Solidarity is required to ensure that potentially vulnerable groups or regions are supported," the EIB proposal document said.

The bank said it would provide extra support to those member states or regions with "a more challenging transition path".

Incoming President the European Commission, Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen, has called for the EIB to spend half of the roughly 70-80 billion euros-a-year it invests on green projects, suggesting turning parts of it into a "climate bank".

The EIB estimates that under 5% of its lending currently goes on fossil fuel projects. According to non-governmental group CEE Bankwatch Network it spent 12 billion euros ($13 billion) in the area between 2013 and 2017.

"The bank’s board must now approve the plan without delay," Greenpeace EU tweeted.

Xavier Sol, Director of NGO Counter Balance which campaigned for the move with 70 NGOs, think tanks and academics at an EIB meeting at its Luxembourg headquarters in June added it was "very good news".
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