SK Innovation OKs SK IE Technology stake sale to PEF

MOSCOW (MRC) -- SK Innovation announced on Sept. 22 that it plans to hire more than 1,000 skilled American workers by the end of 2021 as it prepares for initial production at the first of two electric vehicle (EV) battery plants in Georgia, the United States, said Businesskorea.

SK Innovation's EV battery plant is one of the largest economic projects in Georgia’s history. The company affirmed its long-range investment plans for the facility that would make Georgia one of the largest hubs of EV battery manufacturing in the world.

SK Innovation, through SK Battery America, its battery business subsidiary in the U.S., recently reached a hiring milestone with the on-boarding of its first 60 employees at the plant site in the city of Commerce. These employees include production supervisors, production/process/electrical engineers and quality/logistics specialists who will set up, work and serve as the trainers for the EV battery production workforce at the two SK Battery America plants.

SK Battery America’s EV plants will directly create more than 2,600 permanent jobs in the Jackson County area by 2024. The company began initial hiring and training employees at the Georgia site with plans to have more than 150 employees by the end of this year. In addition, about 900 employees are expected to be recruited next year. The new jobs will include a range of technical roles from production operators to senior engineers focused on manufacturing highly sophisticated lithium-ion battery cells at scale. To help begin the process of hiring and training workers, SK Battery America has signed a partnership agreement with Quick Start and Lanier Technical College in Georgia.

As MRC reported earlier, SK Global Chemical, a subsidiary of SK Innovation, plans to shut down its production processes for ethylene and ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) within its naphtha cracking center in Ulsan, South Korea. The 200,000-t/y naphtha cracker, which started commercial operation in 1972, and the EPDM unit, which began commercial operation in 1992, will be mothballed from December 2020 to shift the company's focus to high-value added chemicals.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's overall PE production totalled 1,712,400 tonnes in the first seven months of 2020, up by 58% year on year. Linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) accounted for the greatest increase in the output. At the same time, 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.

SK Innovation also recently achieved key construction milestones at the Georgia site with the completion of the exterior of its first manufacturing plant and groundbreaking on the second plant at the same site. The two EV battery plants at Georgia are part of SK Innovation’s USD2.6 billion investment in its U.S. battery business. The first plant is scheduled to begin initial operations in 2021 with mass production in 2022, and the second one is expected to begin mass production in 2023. Together, the two SK Battery America plants will have total annual capacity of 21.5 GWh, which is enough to power more than 300,000 electric vehicles. As the market for EVs continues to grow, SK Innovation is committed to making Georgia a world leader in EV battery manufacturing.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Lummus Technology, LLC (Houston) announced that it has been awarded a contract for technology licensing, process design package, training and advisory services, and proprietary catalyst and equipment supply by Duqm Refinery and Petrochemical Industries Company LLC (DRPIC), a joint venture between OQ S.A.O.C (OQ) and Kuwait Petroleum Europe B.V., said Chemengonline.

"Our customers benefit from our comprehensive technology portfolio, as we provide them with multiple technologies for one project, combining and integrating these technologies, proprietary equipment, catalyst and services,” said Leon de Bruyn, President and Chief Executive Officer of Lummus Technology. “This helps our customers reduce their capital and operating costs and assures them that they are working with an aligned project team that minimizes interfaces."

The contract is for the planned new petrochemical complex in Oman with multiple units, including the largest natural gas to liquids unit licensed by Lummus to Oman Oil Facilities Development Company LLC a wholly owned subsidiary of OQ with a capacity of 48 MMSCMD, one of the world’s largest ethylene units with 1,600,000 metric tons per year (m.t./yr) ethylene capacity, a butadiene extraction unit with 161,000 m.t./yr butadiene capacity, and a CDMtbe unit (145,000 m.t./yr of MTBE) and 1-Butene separation (51,000 m.t./yr of 1-butene capacity) licensed to DRPIC. The arrangements also include the supply of Lummus’ proprietary catalyst and SRT (Short Residence Time) cracking heaters to the Duqm Petrochemicals Project.

The units are part of the Duqm Petrochemicals Project, which is the second stage of DRPIC’s integrated refinery and petrochemical complex, and will be located at Duqm on the Arabian Sea coast of Oman, approximately 600 km south of Muscat. Other technology licensors on the Duqm Refinery project include OQ Chemicals and LyondellBasell.

As MRC informed earlier. Haldia Petrochemicals (HPL), a flagship company of The Chatt­erjee Group (TCG), alo­ng with its international partner Rhone Capital has acquired US-based Lummus Technology at an enterprise value (EV) of USD2.725 billion (around Rs 20,590 crore) from McDermott International. In the joint acquisition, HPL’s share is at 57 per cent, the balance would be held by Rhone Capital. Under the new dispensation, Lummus Technology wou­ld function as a ‘standalone’ autonomous entity.

As MRC informed earlier, in late March 2020, India's private-sector Haldia Petrochemicals (HPL) shut its naphtha cracker after ports in the country declared force majeure to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's overall PE production totalled 1,712,400 tonnes in the first seven months of 2020, up by 58% year on year. Linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) accounted for the greatest increase in the output. At the same time, 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.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The European Commission says it has proposed today, in the fourth revision of its carcinogens and mutagens directive, the introduction of new limit values for acrylonitrile and nickel compounds, and a revised downward limit value for benzene, to limit further the exposure of EU workers to cancer-causing chemicals, said Chemweek.

The proposal is the first initiative of the Commission's commitment to fight cancer under the upcoming Europe's Beating Cancer plan, it says. The proposal will now be negotiated by the European Parliament and European Council. "A workplace should be a safe place and yet cancer is the cause of half of the deaths linked to work. Today's update to the carcinogens and mutagens directive is one of the first steps in our ambitious plan to beat cancer. It shows that we are determined to act and will not compromise on workers' health,” says Nicolas Schmit, EU commissioner/jobs and social rights.

Each year, about 120,000 work-related cancer cases occur in the EU as a result of exposure to carcinogens, leading to approximately 80,000 fatalities annually, the Commission says. Introducing new or revised occupational exposure limits for acrylonitrile, nickel compounds, and benzene will prevent work-related cases of cancer and other serious illnesses, it says.

Estimates show that more than 1.1 million workers in a wide range of EU sectors will benefit from improved protection thanks to the new rules, the Commission says. The proposal is also expected to benefit companies by reducing costs caused by work-related ill health and cancer, such as absences and insurance payments, it says.

"Today we are taking an important step to protect our workers from the exposure to hazardous substances in the workplace and start our work under our upcoming Europe's Beating Cancer plan. With the plan, we will aim to tackle the main risk factors of cancer for everyone, but also to guide patients at every step of their journey and contribute to improving the life of those affected by this disease," says Stella Kyriakides, EU Commissioner/health and food safety.

The carcinogens and mutagens directive is regularly updated in line with new scientific evidence and technical data, and this new initiative has been developed in close collaboration with scientists and with representatives of workers, employers, and EU member states, the Commission says. Trade unions and employers' organizations were also involved through a two-phase consultation, it says.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's overall PE production totalled 1,712,400 tonnes in the first seven months of 2020, up by 58% year on year. Linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) accounted for the greatest increase in the output. At the same time, 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.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Nanjing?Thyssenkrupp has won an order from an unnamed client to build a new polylactide (PLA) plant in South China based on its patented PLAneo technology, according to Apic-online.

The facility, scheduled to begin operation in fall of 2021, will produce 30,000 t/y of PLA, a compostable bioplastic made from 100% renewable biomass, making it an "eco-friendly, low-carbon dioxide and economic alternative" to conventional oil-based plastics, Thyssenkrupp noted.

Thyssenkrupp will be responsible for designing the plant and supplying the key components.

Value of the contract was not given.

As MRC wrote before, this summer, Thyssenkrupp and BASF said that they had signed a joint development agreement to expand their cooperation on the STAR dehydrogenation process. The proprietary technology developed by Thyssenkrupp produces propylene from propane feedstock, or iso-butylene from iso-butane feedstock. Under the collaboration, the partners aim to significantly increase the resource and energy efficiency through targeted improvements in catalyst and plant design. Thyssenkrupp will focus on process and BASF on catalyst development. The aim is to lower plant investment and operating costs and to reduce CO2 emissions in the in the future.

Propylene is the main feedstock for the production of polypropylene (PP).

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.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Grangemouth, UK, petrochemicals plant operated by Ineos will shut down at the beginning of October, reported Chemweek with reference to sources with links to the plant Tuesday.

The shutdown of the petchems facility in Scotland is planned to last between five and six weeks and has been pushed back from a provisional mid-September start date, those local sources say.

Turnarounds at the nearby 210,000-b/d Petronineos-operated refinery as well as the petchem plant were originally scheduled for April this year, but the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic scotched those plans. One source told OPIS that a short period of maintenance work on a 110,000-b/d crude distillation unit at the refinery was about to end, and so many workers engaged in that project will be redeployed to work on the forthcoming petchems plant shutdown.

A spokesman for Ineos said that the company does not comment on its day-to-day operations at Grangemouth.

OPIS is an IHS Markit company.

As MRC informed previously, Ineos, one of the world’s largest manufacturing companies, has undertaken an unplanned shutdown at its No. 1 olefins unit at Texas cracker. The company halted operations at the cracker for maintenance on September 18, 2020 owing to technical issues. Further details on duration of the shutdown could not be ascertained. Located at Chocolate Bayou in Texas, the No. 1 Olefins unit has an ethylene production capacity of 1.07 million mt/year and propylene production capacity of 235,000 mt/year.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's overall PE production totalled 1,712,400 tonnes in the first seven months of 2020, up by 58% year on year. Linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) accounted for the greatest increase in the output. At the same time, 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.

Ineos is a global manufacturer of petrochemicals, specialty chemicals and oil products employing 22,000 people. It has 34 businesses, with a production network spanning 183 manufacturing facilities in 26 countries.
MRC