Kaofu Chemical resumes PS production in Taiwan

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Kaofu Chemical has broug on-stream its polystyrene (PS) plant following a turnaround, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in the Taiwan informed that, the company resumed operations at the plant on June 19, 2020. The plant was shut for maintenance on May 28, 2020.

Located in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, the plant has a production capacity of 100,000 mt/year.

As MRC reported before, Kaofu Chemical shut down its PS plant in Kaohsiung plant for approximately a one-month turnaround in June 2019. The exact date of shutdown was not available.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, April estimated consumption of PS and styrene plastics in Russia was 36,170 tonnes, down by 12% year on year. Russia's estimated consumption of PS and styrene plastics totalled 157,110 tonnes in January-April 2020, down by 5% year on year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Invista says the USD250 million retrofit of its Victoria, Texas, adiponitrile (ADN) unit remains on schedule, with completion slated for early 2021, said Chemweek.

"We anticipate all pre-turnaround construction will be completed later this year, and the final tie-ins are to be installed during a regularly scheduled maintenance outage in early 2021 with additional ADN coming online at that time," says a statement from the company.

The retrofit, announced in 2017, will allow the Victoria facility to employ a new Invista process that provides higher ADN product yields while lowering energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and capital intensity than the current process. First scaled up at Invista’s Orange, Texas, facility, the technology has also been deployed at the Chalampe, France, site of Butachimie, Invista’s joint venture with BASF, and it will be implemented in Invista’s new 400,000 metric tons/year ADN project in Shanghai, China, which broke ground earlier this month.

ADN, a key feedstock for nylon-6,6, has been tight in recent years. Three producers—Invista, Ascend, and Asahi Kasei—control the technology used to produce it at commercial scale.

As MRC informed earlier, Invista’s world-scale adiponitrile (ADN) plant began construction on Tuesday in the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park (SCIP) in Jinshan District. The construction is one of Shanghai’s 152 major projects for 2020. Investment in the plant will total more than 70 billion yuan (USD9.89 billion). When completed in 2022, it will supply 400,000 tons of ADN a year to China and the Asia Pacific region.

As MRC informed earlier, Invista technology and licensing group, INVISTA Performance Technologies (IPT), and Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Co., Ltd (Hengli) are pleased to announce that Hengli’s 4th PTA line utilising Invista P8 Process Technology has met all performance guarantees. Hengli’s 4th PTA line of 2.5 million tonnes per annum capacity, located in Changxing Island, Dalian City, Liaoning Province, utilising Invista P8 PTA technology with industry leading variable cost, capital productivity and environmental performance, came online on January 8th, 2020. This PTA line also produces benzoic acid as co-product, utilising INVISTA’s proprietary R2R technology.

Аccording to MRC's DataScope report, April imports amounted to 16,600 tonnes, 26% more than the previous month. External supplies of material were at the level of 14,100 tonnes in April last year. The volume of supplies of bottle grade PET from China to Ukraine over the fur months of the year fell almost three times: from 36,400 tonnes in January-April 2019 to 12,200 tonnes.

Invista is one of the world’s largest producers of chemical intermediates, polymers and fibers. It is owned by Koch Industries, America’s largest privately held company. Since 2014, it has invested more than 4 billion yuan in manufacturing facilities in the Shanghai park.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- ZheJiang Petroleum & Chemical (ZPC; Zhoushan, Zhejiang, China) has selected Axens’ (Rueil-Malmaison, France) catalysts for its pyrolysis gasoline (Pygas) selective hydrogenation units part of the 1,400,000-ton/yr grassroots ethylene plant Phase 1 in Zhoushan City, China, said the company.

The ethylene cracker is part of ZPC’s grassroots integrated refining and petrochemical complex echoing China’s current national economic development plan.

In 2016, ZPC started the first design studies and simultaneously the first technical discussions with Axens. At end of 2019, ZPC Phase 1 steam cracker was started-up and all olefins and aromatics products very rapidly reached the targeted specifications.

Following the successful start-up of Phase 1 Pygas units, ZPC recently selected Axens for the supply of the selective hydrogenation catalysts for the Phase 2 of the project. A new ethylene cracker (two trains) will be added raising the ZPC’s total ethylene capacity to 4,200,000 ton/yr. Axens will supply catalysts for the MAPD (methylacetylene and propadiene) and phenylacetylene hydrogenation units as well as the catalysts for the Pygas first and second stage units.

When completed, the new plant will be the largest steam cracker in China and one of the largest in the world. Axens’ latest generation of high-performance selective hydrogenation catalysts combines state-of-the-art alumina carriers and cutting-edge metal impregnation technologies. High activity, easy regeneration, highly competitive cost-to-fill, are among the key advantages of these catalysts.

As MRC wrote previously, in early December 2012, Zhejiang Petroleum & Chemical Co Ltd launched a 3.8-million-ton-per-year reformer unit, a key processing facility at its new mega refinery and petrochemical complex in east China. The reformer unit, which processes naphtha into aromatics, is the world’s single-largest facility of its kind.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 721,290 tonnes in the first four month of 2020, up by 4% year on year. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments grew partially because of the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 347,440 tonnes in January-April 2020 (calculated by the formula production minus export plus import). Supply exclusively of PP random copolymer increased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China is reviving a USD20 billion petrochemical project in eastern Shandong province as part of efforts to dial up infrastructure spending to support an economy struggling with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, reported Reuters with reference to two China-based industry sources.

The 400,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery and 3 million ton-per-year ethylene plant in Yantai, Shandong, the country’s hub for independent oil refineries, was proposed years ago but approval has been slowing in coming because of China’s struggle with excess refining capacity.

China’s state planner, the National Development & Reform Commission (NDRC), gave initial approval on Monday for the project, allowing Shandong province to start planning for construction, said the sources with knowledge of the approval.

The investment in the project will be nearly 140 billion yuan (USD20 billion), according to one of the sources. China business registration data seen by Reuters showed Shandong Nanshan Group, a private aluminium smelter based in Yantai, will be the venture’s lead investor, and other investors include chemical group Wanhua and the Shandong provincial government.

A representative for the project, Shandong Yulong Petrochemical, did not immediately comment. The NDRC did not immediately respond to a Reuters’ request for comment.

The two sources declined to be named as they are not authorised to speak to the media.

The project could help cut China’s petrochemical imports but would likely worsen its surplus of refined fuel products.

Analysts expect the massive project to be operational around end of 2024, with revenue underpinned by petrochemicals, demand for which is more resilient than for transportation fuels that has been hit hard by the coronavirus.

"2024 is a good market entry point for Yulong as the global petrochemical industry starts to rebound from a downcycle resulting from previous overbuilds," said Harry Liu, consultant for downstream business for IHS Markit.

The Yulong project will be the latest addition to China's recent wave of petrochemical investments, which have been led by the private sector and drawn global giants like BASF and Exxon Mobil to build complexes in the world's top petrochemical consumer and importer.

A newcomer in the field of oil refining and petrochemicals, Yulong hired in 2018 Luo Qiang, a refinery veteran previously with state giant Sinopec, as its general manager who now heads a project team of over 500 staff, said the source.

Last month Yulong also awarded Sinopec Engineering a 170 million yuan contract for overall design for the complex, the two sources added. Sinopec Engineering declined to comment.

Yulong costs billions more than similar-sized plants, as some 20 billion yuan of the total cost will go to fund closures of small, inefficient plants Shandong province aims to mothball over the next few years to make room for Yulong, said the source.

The Shandong provincial government did not respond to requests for comment.

Shandong - home to more than 60 small plants known as "teapots" and more than one-fifth in China’s total crude oil imports - has become less competitive in recent years after the start-up of large integrated petrochemical projects like Hengli Petrochemical’s Dalian plant and Zhejiang Petrochemical Corp’s Zhoushan complex.

The giant Yulong project too faces headwinds.

"Yulong faces a tremendous challenge of disposing transport fuels... and that challenge could intensify if consolidation does not take place or falls short of expectation," said IHS’ Liu.

As MRC reported previously, Sinopec's greenfield 200,000 b/d Zhongke Petrochemical will not contribute notable throughput until July, although it officially came on stream on June 16, 2020. The Sinopec venture, situated in coastal city of Zhanjiang, comprises a 200,000 barrel per day (bpd) crude oil refinery and an 800,000 tonne-per-year ethylene facility, built at a cost of 44 billion yuan (USD6.2 billion). The cracker is expected to start production in August, 2020.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 721,290 tonnes in the first four month of 2020, up by 4% year on year. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments grew partially because of the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 347,440 tonnes in January-April 2020 (calculated by the formula production minus export plus import). Supply exclusively of PP random copolymer increased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- W. R. Grace has announced the opening of a new colloidal silica plant at its Worms, Germany site, said Chemweek.

The facility doubles the worldwide production capacity of LUDOX, Grace’s colloidal silica product, and significantly enhances the company’s offering to customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and APAC.

Manufacturers in diverse industries use LUDOX colloidal silica in a wide range of applications as a functional ingredient and as a processing aid. Grace’s proprietary manufacturing process produces an extremely narrow particle size distribution and allows the colloidal silica particles to be chemically customized for use in a wide range of challenging applications, the company says.

The new facility expands Grace’s manufacturing center at Worms adding approximately 25 new manufacturing jobs bringing employment at the site to approximately 950. The company’s East Chicago, Indiana colloidal silica plant continues to supply customers in the Americas.

As MRC informed earlier, W. R. Grace & Co. completed the USD416 million acquisition of the Polyolefin Catalysts business of Albemarle Corporation. The acquired business primarily develops and manufactures proprietary and custom-manufactured single-site catalysts as well as metallocenes and activators used in the production of plastic resins. The transaction also includes a comprehensive series of highly optimized Ziegler-Natta catalysts for polyethylene production.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 721,290 tonnes in the first four month of 2020, up by 4% year on year. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments grew partially because of the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 347,440 tonnes in January-April 2020 (calculated by the formula production minus export plus import). Supply exclusively of PP random copolymer increased.

MRC