Tetra Pak announces Saudi joint venture for recycling used beverage cartons

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Switzerland-headquartered global food packaging company Tetra Pak and Saudi paper manufacturer Obeikan Paper Industries have entered into a joint venture to recycle used beverage cartons, said Recyclingtodayglobal.

Tetra Pak's Sustainability Director for Greater Middle East & Africa Rodney Reynders told a media round table in Cairo that the company will invest about USD1 million in the recycling unit, which will convert beverage cartons into value-added products.

The recycling plant, he continued, would be the first of its kind in the region with an annual capacity of 8,000 tonnes, adding that commercial operations will start by end-2019 and the plant is expected to achieve 50 percent capacity utilisation by end-2020.

"Tetra Pak is investing €80 million in development of paper straws, tethered caps, and other solutions that replace fossil-fuel based plastics straws during the period from 2019 to 2021," he disclosed.

He said in the Middle East and Africa region, 60,000 tonnes of used beverage cartons were recycled in 2018, and the company intends to expand its work even more in the future

He also pointed out that Tetra Pak's approach to sustainability reporting has evolved significantly over the past two decades from a focus on environmental commitments and actions in its first report in 1999 to evaluating every part of the business and its impact, including societal and supplier governance.

In 2010, Tetra Pak had set a goal to double its recycling rate to 40 percent by 2020, according to the company website.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Arkema completed the acquisitions of Prochimir, manufacturer of high-performance adhesive films, and Lambson, specialized in photoinitiators for photocure resins, said the company.

With sales of around EUR30 million, Prochimir completes Bostik’s range of technologies in industrial adhesives.

Lambson, with sales of approximately €45 million, enables Sartomer to offer its customers in the electronics, 3D printing, composites, inks and coatings markets, a larger and perfectly complementary range.

These two acquisitions will contribute to further strengthening the share of specialties in the Group’s portfolio, in line with its long-term ambition to achieve more than 80 % of sales in these businesses.

As MRC informed earlier, Arkema announced a project to increase its linear mercaptans production capacities to support the demand growth of polymers for transportation and electronics markets.

Arkema is a leading European supplier of chlorochemicals and PVC. Kynar and Kynar Flex are registered trademarks of Arkema Inc.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Ufaorgsintez (UOS, Bashneft's petrochemical asset) has resumed operation of part of its PP production facilities after stopping for scheduled maintenance works, according to ICIS-MRC Price Report.

The plant's customers said Ufaorgsintez fully resumed its PP production after the scheduled maintenance on Monday, 30 September. The outage was short and lasted 12 days. The plant's PP capacity is 120,000 tonnes/year.

It is also worth noting that this is the third Russian producer, which in September shut its facilities for turnaround and resumed production after the maintenance works. In the previous two weeks, Tomskneftekhim and Poliom resumed their work after the shutdowns.

PJSC Ufaorgsintez produces phenol, acetone, synthetic ethylene-propylene rubber, high and low pressure polyethylene, polypropylene, more than 30 types of petrochemical products and over 25 consumer products.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Iran is building a USD1.8 billion oil pipeline to its port of Jask outside the mouth of the Gulf, the country’s oil minister said, as part of plans to protect its exports against potential problems in the region and to boost shipments of Caspian oil, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Iran has been planning since at least 2012 to set up the terminal on the Gulf of Oman, just outside the Strait of Hormuz.

Tehran has threatened to block the vital Gulf oil shipping route during its standoff with the United States, after Washington last year withdrew from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and reimposed sanctions, including on Tehran’s vital oil exports.

“The project would transform the region as various oil storage facilities, export jetties, wave breakers and single buoy mooring systems would be built in Jask,” Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh said on the ministry’s Twitter account.

Zangeneh added that two refineries, as well as petrochemical facilities, were also planned in the region.

“Zangeneh said the country was building a USD1.8 billion oil pipeline project from Goreh to Jask Port, of which $700 million alone would be spent on developing the port,” the ministry tweeted.

Industry sources told Reuters that Iranian crude exports had dropped in June to 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) or less after Washington tightened sanctions on the country’s oil exports in May. In April 2018 exports stood at more than 2.5 million bpd.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The national hydrocarbons company Sonatrach officialized the launch of its huge petrochemical plant project in Adana, Turkey, with its partner, Ronesans, at an investment cost of USD1.4 billion, that will be financed by 70% through bank loans and 30% by the project shareholders, said Plasticsnewseurope.

A statement from Sonatrach, which copy was received by Echorouk, said it signed, Thursday, through its subsidiary Sonatrach Petroleum Investment Corp. (SPIC) and the Turkish company CPEY of Ronesans in Istanbul, a series of contracts to launch engineering studies for a petrochemical complex to produce propylene and polypropylene (PP-PDH), which will be completed in the Turkish region of Seyhan in the southern province of Adana.

The statement explained that the parties had launched on August,19, 2019, a joint venture company under Turkish law, as the company’s capital is estimated at 34% for the Algerian party and 66% for the Turkish party.
The large project’s company will undertake the design, engineering, construction and utilization of a production capacity of 450,000 tons per year of polypropylene in Turkey’s Seyhan industrial zone for petrochemical development.

The project will allow Sonatrach to secure an Algerian propane gas market for a long period up to 2040 with an estimated amount of 540,000 tons per year and to generate financial returns as a 34% shareholder in the project.

As it was informed earlier, Sonatrach's petrochemicals joint venture with Total has selected Honeywell UOP's C3 Oleflex technology for its proposed 565,000 tonne/year polymer-grade propylene project in Arzew, Algeria. The catalytic dehydrogenation technology converts propane into propylene.

Propylene is a feedstock for producing polyprolypele (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 796,120 tonnes in January-July 2019, up by 11% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.
MRC