Westlake subssidiary completes acquisition of LASCO Fittings

Westlake subssidiary completes acquisition of LASCO Fittings

MOSCOW (MRC) -- North American Pipe Corporation (NAPCO), a subsidiary of Westlake Chemical Corporation has announced that it acquired LASCO Fittings LLC, a Brownsville, Tennessee-based, leading designer, engineer and manufacturer of injected-molded polyvinyl chloride (PVC) fittings, from Aalberts, NV, according to BusinessWire.

“We are pleased to complete this important strategic acquisition and to welcome LASCO Fittings and its talented team into the Westlake family of companies,” said Andre Battistin, vice president, NAPCO Pipe & Fittings. “By adding LASCO Fittings to our product mix, NAPCO will expand into additional markets, particularly as LASCO specializes in half-inch to four-inch fittings and serves the plumbing, pool and spa, industrial, irrigation and retail markets in the United States. LASCO’s product mix is very complementary to our existing range of pipe and fittings products primarily with diameters of four or more inches and will bring additional fittings products to NAPCO’s offerings.”

LASCO Fittings will continue to operate a 48-acre, 500,000 square foot manufacturing and distribution facility in Brownsville, Tennessee, northeast of Memphis. It also has eight regional distribution facilities strategically located throughout the United States. The company employs about 560 employees.

As MRC reported before, earlier this month, Westlake Chemical Corporation announced plans for one of its subsidiaries to acquire the parent company of Dimex LLC, from Grey Mountain Partners, a private equity firm. Based in Marietta, Ohio, Dimex produces a variety of consumer products made from post-industrial-recycled (PIR) PVC, polyethylene (PE) and thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) materials, and has annualized sales of approximately USD100 million. These consumer products include landscape edging; industrial, home and office matting; marine dock edging; and masonry joint controls.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's overall production of unmixed PVC totalled 580,500 tonnes in the first seven months of 2021, up by 4% year on year. At the same time, one producer reduced its output.

Westlake Chemical Corporation is an international manufacturer and supplier of petrochemicals, polymers and building products with headquarters in Houston, Texas. The company's range of products includes: ethylene, polyethylene, styrene, propylene, chlor-alkali and derivative products, PVC suspension and specialty resins, PVC Compounds, and PVC building products including siding, pipe, fittings and specialty components, windows, fence, deck and film.
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Cruide oil prices continue sliding towards three-month lows as the Delta variant spreads

Cruide oil prices continue sliding  towards three-month lows as the Delta variant spreads

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Oil prices fell for a seventh straight session on Friday towards three-month lows as investors became less bullish about fuel demand due to a surge in cases of the COVID-19 Delta variant that is hitting travel, reported Reuters.

Brent crude fell USD1.03, or 1.6%, to USD65.42 a barrel by 11:55 a.m. EDT (1555 GMT), near its lowest since May and down about 7% for the week.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for September, due to expire on Friday, fell USD1.07, or 1.7%, to USD62.62 a barrel and was down almost 8% for the week.

China, the world's largest crude importer, has imposed new restrictions with its "zero tolerance" coronavirus policy which is affecting shipping and global supply chains. The United States and China have also imposed tit-for-tat flight capacity restrictions.

"They are acting severely for minimal outbreaks which is a direct threat for the demand profile there," said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital LLC in New York.

Several US firms, meanwhile, have delayed return-to-office plans as Delta cases spike and countries across Asia are reimposing lockdowns.

The US dollar hit a nine-month high on signs the US Federal Reserve is considering reducing stimulus this year. Oil prices move inversely to the US currency, making oil more expensive for foreign purchasers when the dollar rallies.

Oil demand could also fall as the period of peak US gasoline demand nears its end and European summer holidays come to a close.

Lockdowns in other in major economies around the world have likely harmed the economic activities and growth forecasts in the months to come, said Margaret Yang, a strategist at Singapore-based DailyFX.

As MRC informed previously, crude oil stockpiles fell modestly in early August, while gasoline inventories dipped to their lowest level since November, according to the US Energy Information Administration. Crude inventories fell by 447,000 barrels in the week to Aug. 6 to 438.8 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.3 million-barrel drop. Overall crude inventories have been on the decline for several weeks due to increased demand.

We remind that US crude oil production is expected to fall by 160,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2021 to 11.12 million bpd, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a monthly report, a smaller decline than its previous forecast for a drop of 210,000 bpd.
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Evonik strenghtens its position in polyurethane industry with new spray foam emissions testing facility in Pennsylvania

Evonik strenghtens its position in polyurethane industry with new spray foam emissions testing facility in Pennsylvania

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Evonik has reinforced its emission management leadership position in the polyurethanes industry with a new best-in-class spray foam emissions testing facility at its laboratories in Allentown, Pennsylvania, as per the company's press release.

With its innovation focus on zero-emission and more environmentally preferred additive solutions, this latest milestone further demonstrates Evonik’s commitment to supporting the Spray Polyurethane Foam (SPF) industry to meet its sustainability targets and maintain growth.

As a green product with excellent thermo-insulation properties, buildings constructed with SPF using Evonik additives can significantly reduce energy consumption and lower the carbon footprint. With as much as 40% of a building’s energy loss due to air leaks in roofs and walls, in addition to its excellent thermal performance, SPF also helps to seal gaps preventing air leakage.

As the American Chemistry Council’s Spray Foam Coalition states: up to 33 billion US dollars in energy costs could be saved each year, if the 113 million family homes in the United States each used SPF insulation. SPF is more effective than alternative insulation materials such as fiberglass or mineral wool, which has helped the polyurethane foam-based industry in North America experience double digit growth over recent years.

Emission testing has become much more sophisticated with stricter environmental and worker safety regulations. In addition to the environmental benefits of reduced greenhouse gases, low or zero emission products are now an industry requirement to reduce worker re-entry and building re-occupancy times after spraying. The new emissions testing facility will help Evonik’s customers to establish formal measurement and testing protocols to meet current environmental, and future emissions and American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM) standards.

The new testing facility was commissioned and approved by the Spray Foam Coalition, an organization of companies that produce and sell polyurethane spray foam insulation systems, chemicals and equipment. Another key feature of Evonik’s new testing facility is the cold chamber which enables extremely low temperature spray tests down to 0-degree F for cold weather adhesion testing. These harshest low temperature tests make it possible to mimic real world conditions during any time of the year, helping to speed up formulation development time and improve product performance.

As a leader in supporting each blowing agent transition, Evonik’s solutions for the latest HFO blowing agents have helped to significantly reduce the spray foam industry’s global warming footprint relative to the previous HFC blowing agents. These are typically used in polyurethane foam applications that require high insulation properties such as spray foam insulation, refrigerator/freezer insulation, and panel insulation for building structures.

As MRC informed earlier, in February, 2020, Dow and Evonik entered into an exclusive technology partnership. Together, they plan to bring a unique method for directly synthesizing propylene glycol (PG) from propylene and hydrogen peroxide to market maturity.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market were 727,160 tonnes in the first six months of 2021, up by 31% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased. Supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.

Evonik is one of the world leaders in specialty chemicals. The focus on more specialty businesses, customer-oriented innovative prowess and a trustful and performance-oriented corporate culture form the heart of Evonik’s corporate strategy. They are the lever for profitable growth and a sustained increase in the value of the company. Evonik benefits specifically from its customer proximity and leading market positions. Evonik is active in over 100 countries around the world with more than 33,000 employees.
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Khabarovsk Pipe Insulation Plant launched production of pipes with foam polymer insulation

Khabarovsk Pipe Insulation Plant launched production of pipes with foam polymer insulation

MOSCOW (MRC) - Khabarovsk Pipe Insulation Plant (KhTZI) announced the expansion of its product line and entering new sales markets, the company said.

This year the plant has launched the production of pipes with foam insulation. "This technology is used in the West, in the central part of Russia. We decided to try our hand here, in the Far East, and we succeeded. We bought equipment, we made some of the tooling required for production ourselves. This year we have already won two tenders for the supply new products ", - said the general director of KhZTI Andrey Bobrov.

By the end of the year, the enterprise also plans to launch production of corrugated pipes used in electrical work. For this, an extrusion production line from China was purchased and installed, on which test samples of products have already been made.

The company's message says that the sales market for the plant's products covers almost the entire Far East. Over the entire period of work, according to the head, about 1 thousand km of pipes for heating networks and about the same amount of removable thermal insulation made of polyurethane foam (PPU) were supplied to customers.

"Unfortunately, today there are not so many orders compared to previous years. The main reason is that there has been a very serious increase in prices for raw materials and materials. Nevertheless, we expect that the situation will change soon. it is planned to build a plant for the production of liquefied gas in De-Kastri, and the Ministry of Industry of the Khabarovsk Territory assisted us to be included in the register of potential suppliers for such a large project, " - said Andrei Bobrov.

Earlier it was reported that in January 2020 Timashevsky Pipe Insulation Plant LLC, registered in Krasnodar, acquired the property complex of Pipe Insulation Plant LLC, registered in Timashevsk.

According to the ICIS-MRC Price Report, there is still a shortage of supply on the domestic market of expandable polystyrene in Russia, and the demand for the material is high. Russian manufacturers have significantly increased the price of their material this month. The spot price of EPS produced by Sibur-Khimprom and Plastik (Uzlovaya) in August was agreed at the level of Rb185,000-195,000/tonne, CPT Moscow, including VAT.

Khabarovsk Pipe Insulation Plant (KhZTI) has been operating since 2014, and today the company's production area occupies about 5 thousand square meters. The plant specializes in the production of thermal insulation for networks, removable thermal insulation in the form of polyurethane foam pipes and pre-insulated pipes of two categories, as well as in the production of pipes and fittings in polyurethane foam insulation.
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NPP POLYPLASTIC plans to launch two compounding lines in Engels

MOSCOW (MRC) - NPP POLYPLASTIC, the largest Russian manufacturer of thermoplastic composite materials, plans to commission two compounding lines in Engels this year, the company said.

Investments in equipment amounted to EUR3.3 mn euros (Rb286 mn). After reaching the design capacity by 2022, these lines will produce 20,000 tonnes of material per year in addition to the volume that is already being produced today, and in 2023 it is planned to build a plant in the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) of the Volga region.

The report notes that in August 2021, NPP POLYPLASTIC celebrates its 30th anniversary. The company has produced 2 mn tonnes of thermoplastic compounds in three decades.

Earlier it was reported that RPC "POLYPLASTIC" plans to increase the volume of exports several times in the near future.

NPP "POLYPLASTIC" plans to modernize 50% of production lines by 2025 in terms of automation of the control system and traceability of production process data.

NPP "POLYPLASTIC" produces more than 250 grades of polymer compounds, providing localization of plastic materials in such industries as the automotive industry, household and electrical engineering, cable and construction industries. The company supplies materials for the manufacture of plastic auto components for models of leading car manufacturers: AvtoVAZ, UAZ, GAZ, Volkswagen, Hyundai, Skoda, Kia, and others. Global brands-manufacturers of white household appliances - Indesit, B / S / H, LG, BEKO - are also partners of the Russian compounder.
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