Zhejiang Petrochemical starts up phenol and acetone plant in Zhoushan

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chinese private-sector petrochemical producer Zhejiang Petrochemical (ZPC) achieved on-specification production at its Zhoushan phenol/acetone plant earlier this week, said Polymerupdate.

The phenol/acetone plant, with 400,000 t/yr of phenol and 250,000 t/yr of acetone capacity, was fed with its feedstocks propylene and benzene a week ago after a delay of almost two months because of some facility issues.

The phenol/acetone unit is the last to start operations in the first phase of construction at Zhoushan in east China's Zhejiang province. This phase includes a residual fluid catalytic cracker (RFCC) with 280,000 t/yr of propylene capacity, a naphtha cracker with 1.4mn t/yr of ethylene and 700,000 t/yr of propylene capacity, a propane dehydrogenation (PDH) unit with a 600,000 t/yr propylene capacity and full integrated downstream units. The RFCC and naphtha cracker started operations in December 2019. while the PDH unit came on line in mid-July.

ZPC is building a second phase at Zhoushan, which include 300,000 t/yr low-density polyethylene, 450,000 t/yr of high-density polyethylene/linear low-density polyethylene and 900,000 t/yr polypropylene units, which are aiming for a start-up during late 2020 to mid-2021.

As MRC informed earlier, Zhejiang Petrochemical has delayed the shutdown of its polypropylene (PP) unit owing to weather issues. In China informed that, the company has postponed the shutdown of the unit to August 28, 2020. The unit was initially suppose to shut on August 26, 2020 and was expected to remain under maintenance for about 8-10 days. Located at Zhoushan, Zhejiang, China, the PP unit has a production capacity of 375,000 mt/year.

Phenol is the main raw material for bisphenol A (BPA) production, which in turn is used to produce polycarbonate (PC).

According to MRC's ScanPlast, in the first half of 2020, the total estimated consumption of PC granulate in the Russian Federation (excluding imports and exports to Belarus) amounted to 47,300 tonnes against 40,700 tonnes in 2019. Total demand increased by 16%.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Last week, Unilever announced that it will derive 100% of the chemicals used in its cleaning and laundry product formulations from renewable or recycled carbon by 2030, eliminating its use of fossil fuel-derived carbon in the sector, said Chemweek.

This move, like Coca-Cola's, could point to a possible trend emerging among the world's leading consumer brands to reduce their reliance on fossil-fuel based chemicals.

Coca-Cola European Partners (CCEP; Uxbridge, UK), a Coca-Cola subsidiary, says that Coca-Cola in the Netherlands and Coca-Cola in Norway will transition from using bottles made with virgin polyethylene terephthalate (PET), to bottles made from 100% recycled PET (rPET). Coca-Cola in the Netherlands says that from October 2020 it will transition all its locally-produced small plastic bottles to 100% rPET, including brands such as Coca-Cola, Sprite, and Fanta, with large plastic bottles following in 2021. Coca-Cola in Norway will transition to 100% rPET for all plastic bottles that it produces locally during the first half of 2021, it says.

The announcements follow that of Coca-Cola in Sweden in December 2019, which was the first subsidiary to switch to 100% rPET, CCEP says. They support Coca-Cola’s ambition in Western Europe to accelerate toward the use of 100% rPET and the elimination of virgin PET in all its bottles within a decade, the company says. The gradual transition to 100% rPET in Western Europe is expected to contribute to removing a total of more than 200,000 metric tons/year of virgin PET from Coca-Cola’s packaging portfolio, CCEP says.

According to CCEP, the switch to 100% rPET in the Netherlands will eliminate the use of more than 10,000 metric tons of virgin plastic, amounting to a 21% annual reduction in the carbon footprint of its plastic bottles compared with the rPET level before the transition. Its portfolio in the Netherlands already consists of more than 50% recycled PET.

The transition in Norway will remove about 4,300 metric tons of virgin plastic annually, delivering a 28% reduction in the carbon footprint of the company's plastic bottles. Its portfolio in Norway currently consists of 25% rPET, it says.

Coca-Cola in the Netherlands and Coca-Cola in Norway will be the first companies in their respective countries to move their entire portfolio of locally-produced plastic bottles to 100% rPET, CCEP says. Rapidly expanding and effective deposit return schemes operational in the two countries have enabled the production of high-quality rPET resin in those markets, the company says.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PET consumption totalled 367,720 tonnes in the first six months of 2020, up by 19% year on year. Russian companies processed 62,910 tonnes in June. Russian plants reduced their PET output in January-June 2020 by 25% year on year. Overall PET chips production at four Russian plants reached 281,100 tonnes in January-June 2020.

CCEP is the sole licensed bottler for Coca-Cola products in Andorra, Belgium, France, Germany, Iceland, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the UK.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Stavrolen, a major producer of polyolefins in Russia, had resumed its polypropylene (PP) production by the beginning of this week after a long forced shutdown, reported MRC analysts.

The plant's clients said Stavrolen resumed its PP production last weekend after the forced outage due to technical issues. In fact, the plant did not produce PP since 16 July. At the same time, it should be noted that the plant's capacity utilization does not exceed 90%.

Stavrolen's (part of Lukoil) annual capacity of PP and high density polyethylene (HDPE) production is 120,000 and 300,000 tonnes, respectively.

It is also worth noting that Ufaorgsintez intends to shut its production capacities for a three-week turnaround on 12 September.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- It is reported that a fire broke out at a hydrotreating unit belong to IRPC Public Company Limited, a PTT Plc subsidiary, in Map Ta Phut, Thailand on 3 September 2020, according to CommoPlast.

The unit screens sulfur before going to the RDCC (Residual Deep Catalyst Cracking) that produces ethylene, propylene, butadiene, and naphtha products.

At the moment, it is unclear how much the incident impacts the downstream naphtha cracker and polypropylene (PP) production, however, market participants in Thailand informed that the producer is still supplying allocation to distributors but stop accepting direct orders from converters immediately.

IRPC is currently investigating the cause of the fire and assessing the potential impact.

The company has five PP production lines in Thailand with a combined annual capacity of 775,000 tons.

Regional buyers are monitoring the development very closely now that the import homo-PP market has been firming up on the back of surging demand in the nearby China market. Any possibility of IRPC taking off-stream any of the PP production line would fuel the uptrend further.

As MRC informed earlier, in late October, 2019, IRPC unexpectedly shut down its upstream propylene unit due to an unspecified technical issue. As a result, the company had to lower the operation rate at the downstream PP plant.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, overall PP production in Russia increased in January-July 2020 by 24% year on year to 1,063,700 tonne. ZapSibNeftekhim accounted for the main increase in the output.

PTT Global Chemical is a leading player in the petrochemical industry and owns several petrochemical facilities with a combined capacity of 8.45 million tonnes a year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The 66,500-square-meter facility is scheduled to be completed by the third quarter of 2022, and will combine the company's extrusion business activities under one roof, said Canplastics.

Processing machinery maker KraussMaffei officially laid the foundation stone for the construction of a new production plant for extrusion systems in Laatzen’s eastern industrial park located in the Hannover, Germany region.

The 66,500-square-meter facility is scheduled to be completed by the third quarter of 2022, and will have an expected 750 employees in production, assembly, and administration. The new address will replace the former KraussMaffei site in Hannover-Kleefeld that did not allow any further expansion.

In a Sept. 3 statement, KraussMaffei officials described the new plant as an “ultra-modern premises” that will combine KraussMaffei’s extrusion business activities under a single roof. “Special focus is placed on the new InnovationCenter that will be available for challenging and complex preliminary tests under realistic production conditions to customers from the plastics and rubber industries before they actually order a new machine from KraussMaffei,” the statement said. “On a floor area of around 10,000 square meters, the InnovationCenter will comprise 20 state-of-the-art machines and lines – from small laboratory facilities up to production-scale machines – to be used for trial purposes."

As MRC informed earlier, in July Krauss Maffei opened its new plant in Jiaxing, with which the company plans to double its production capacity in China. More than 600 customers and partners came to the opening ceremony of the new Chinese plant. In an exhibition, they saw ten different machine types and 16 different applications. These included machines that are developed and manufactured in China for the Chinese market, such as the PX Agile series of electrical injection molding machines, the ZE GP-Agile twin-screw extruders and a mixing and dosing machine. Among the processes presented were LSR processing, colorform and metal injection molding as well as special applications such as precision injection molding, optical lenses and freely sprayed high-gloss surfaces.

As MRC informed earlier, Russia's output of chemical products rose by 4.4% year on year in May 2020 . Thus, production of basic chemicals increased year on year by 5.4% in the first five months of 2020. According to the Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation, polymers in primary form accounted for the greatest increase in the output in January-May. Production of benzene was 110,000 tonnes in May 2020, which equalled the figure a month earlier. Overall output of this product reached 615,000 tonnes over the stated period, up by 1.7% year on year.

Krauss Maffei, the world's only provider of turnkey equipment for injection molding, extrusion and reaction technology, has merged its business divisions as well as the former brands KraussMaffei, KraussMaffei Berstorff and Netstal, under the auspices of the single brand KraussMaffei.
MRC