Turkmenistan to build US $ 1 billion chemical plant in Mary province

(Turkmenistan) -- Turkmenistan will build a new industrial complex worth US $ 1 billion in Mary province with the assistance of the Japanese and Turkish experts. The official ceremony of laying the foundation stone took place on 25 January. The complex will produce ammonia and urea. The facility will be built by Turkish company ⌠Renaissance Holding.

The Framework Agreement on the construction of factories for the production of ammonia and urea in the town of Mary was signed in December 2009 as part of the 8th joint meeting of the Turkmen-Japanese and Sino-Turkmen economic cooperation committees.


As the President of Turkmenistan said, a project for the construction of the new industrial complex in the town of Mary is ⌠the beginning of the great joint work serving the interest of both sides.


MRC

(ICIS) -- Spot prices in the southern Africa polymers markets climbed by $50-100/tonne (┬37-73/tonne) for February business, as importers raised their offers on stronger sentiment and high feedstock costs, sources said on Wednesday.

The strongest increases overall were seen in the globally short polypropylene (PP) market, although low density polyethylene (LDPE), the tightest of the three polyethylene (PE) grades, also came under strong upward pressure on limited supply.

Homopolymer PP prices rose by $70-100/tonne to reach $1,500-1,600/tonne CFR (cost and freight) southern Africa, according to ICIS, while the even shorter availability of copolymer PP forced values up by $100/tonne, leaving the range at $1,650-1,700/tonne CFR southern Africa.

There was a general expectation that import prices of both PE and PP would continue to climb throughout February, as South African producers which were offering aggressive prices into the region had announced their intention to raise their competitive prices in the coming month, market sources said.

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(European Plastics ) -- Austrian injection machinery maker Engel has teamed up with mouldmaker Hummel-Formen and welding technology specialist KVT-Bielefeld to develop a new in-mould technique for production of hollow items such as automotive manifolds, pipes and ducting.

The JoinMelt process integrates moulding of the two shells of a component with heating of the weld surfaces and final positioning of the two shell parts within the injection moulding process.

In the JoinMelt process, the two half-shells are injected simultaneously in a single mould. Once the cooling phase is complete, the mould is opened. One half-shell stays in the moving half of the mould and the other in the fixed half of the mould.

"This removes the need for additional welding equipment. Part take-off and re-insertion are no longer needed, as the finished product can simply be taken off directly out of the mould, said Franz Fureder, who head's up Engel's automotive business unit.

MRC

(Plastics Today) -- The IAC Group has selected KraussMaffei as the system supplier to equip the automotive components supplier's new plant in Bals, Romania. As sole contract partner for plastics processing equipment, KraussMaffei will supply the new production facility with 28 injection molding machines, systems for polyurethane foaming and punching, and the required PUR tooling.

IAC Group announced early this week it would build a ┬58 million,15,0002 meter facility in Bals. The facility will produce instrument panels, door panels, headliners and other interior trim components to support Ford Motor Company's production of two new passenger cars at its plant in Craiova, Romania.

MRC

(Arabian Oil and Gas) -- CB&I announced that Lummus Technology has been awarded a contract by Formosa Chemicals and Fibre Corporation (FCFC) for the license and engineering design of a grassroots cumene and phenol plant to be built in Ningbo, China. This is a fourth quarter 2010 award.

The plant, which is expected to start up in 2013, will use Lummus Technology's Polimeri Europa/Lummus cumene and phenol technologies to produce 450,000 metric tonnes per annum (MTA) of cumene and 300,000 MTA of phenol.

Cumene is used to make phenol, which is mainly used in the manufacture of liquid and solid resins.

MRC