MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF has completed the first phase of its methylene di-para-phenylene diisocyanate (MDI) expansion project in Geismar, Louisiana, starting up a new synthesis unit and shutting down an older unit, said Chemweek.
The immediate increase in MDI production capacity will be “limited,” the company notes. The second phase of the project, scheduled for completion in the second half of 2021, will expand several upstream units, allowing the Geismar complex to increase its overall MDI output by about one-third, says BASF. A potential final phase, which BASF aims to complete in the mid-2020s, would bring MDI capacity at Geismar to roughly 600,000 metric tons/year, the company says.
MDI is a polyurethane feedstock. Major producers in North America are BASF, at Geismar; Covestro, at Baytown, Texas; Dow, at Freeport, Texas; and Huntsman, at Geismar.
We remind that BASF restarted its No. 1 steam cracker following a maintenance turnaround on September 30, 2019. The plant was shut for maintenance in mid-August, 2019. Located at Ludwigshafen in Germany, the No. 1 cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 235,000 mt/year and a propylene production capacity of 125,000 mt/year.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,760,950 tonnes in the first ten months of 2020, up by 3% year on year. Only high density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 978,870 tonnes in January-October 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports plus imports minus producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply of exclusively of PP random copolymer increased.
BASF is the leading chemical company. It produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries.
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