US caustic soda exports brisk

(ICIS) -- Caustic exports from the US Gulf Coast were rapidly moving in wake of the Japanese disaster, sources said on Friday. Earlier last week, one US trader noted anxiety from buyers trying to source material. By Friday, demand for caustic was high as enquiries from Australia were now surfacing for US Gulf caustic. By one estimate, the global caustic supply was now short of 100 KT per month as a result of the Japanese outages.

Japan's Asahi Glass Co (AGC) has shut its caustic soda plants at Chiba and Kashima after they were damaged in the massive earthquake on 11 March.

One US producer said inventories were shedding quickly through the export market and expected prices to rise by next week.

A US source said China and Korea both were out of export material, leaving the previously tight to balanced US caustic market up for grabs.

US caustic export prices were currently assessed at $345-380/dmt.

MRC

(ICIS) -- Some petrochemical plants in Japan restarted operations on Thursday, slowly ramping up production almost a week after the deadly quake and tsunami struck, but the country is beset by bigger problems - the Fukushima nuclear crisis and a consequent shortage of fuel and electricity. With four crackers still down, olefins shipments of at least 25 KT for March had to be cancelled, according to traders.

The shut crackers have a combined ethylene capacity of 1.81m tonnes/year, representing about 23% of Japan's total.

Meanwhile, the restart of Kyokuto Petroleum's 145.000 bbl/day refinery in Chiba slightly increased Japan's refining capacity, which was cut by 22% after the quake-related shutdowns at five refineries. The other four refineries, including Cosmo Oil's 220.000 bbl/day facility that burned for days after the quake, have yet to restart.

There is no available assessment yet on losses to the country's petrochemical industry, but it could be huge given significant damage to infrastructure in the northeastern regions.

MRC

(JCN Network) -- Teijin Limited announced today that it has established the world's first mass production technologies for carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP), achieving a significant reduction of the cycle time required for molding automobile cabin frame to less than one minute. The breakthrough overcomes one of the biggest challenges in the industry and represents a long stride toward the use of carbon fiber for the mass production of automobiles and other products.

Teijin's new technologies include intermediate materials made of thermoplastic resin instead of conventional thermosetting resin for molding-use CFRP. Teijin also developed technologies for welding thermoplastic CFRP parts together and for bonding CFRP with materials such as steel, both of which will help to reduce the use of metal in manufacturing processes.

Going forward, Teijin intends to develop mass production applications for CFRP in automobiles and many other items that require certain levels of structural strength, such as machine tools and industrial robots.

Based in Tokyo and Osaka, Japan, Teijin is a global technology-driven group operating in eight main fields: aramid fibers, carbon fibers, polyester fibers, plastics, films, medical & pharmaceuticals, fiber products marketing and IT businesses.

MRC

(Plastics Today) -- S&E Specialty Polymers of Lunenburg, MA, is rebounding from a near fatal crisis through application of a technical focus and investments in more efficient processing equipment. At the end of 2004, S&E Acquisition bought the assets of compounder Gitto Global Corp. in U.S. Bankruptcy Court after officers of Gitto allegedly participated in financial fraud. "We lost $6 million in the first six months because people had such a sour taste for the previous administration," says Duane Shooltz, who became chief operating officer of S&E Specialty Polymers in 2008 after serving as a divisional president for Smith PLC, a large multinational company.

Sales have been rising 25% annually since 2009, but two-thirds of the plant's capacity of 65 million pounds annually remains unused.

Technical officers at the company say they are starting to score some big hits, however, with proprietary new compounds.

A highly filled polyolefin-based compound called TufFill is being used in a new Chrysler Jeep grille. The compound is designed for high flexural modulus and great impact resistance in injection molded parts for automotive, battery, and electronics applications.

Last year, the company expanded its research and development department with a 28mm twin-screw extruder from Steer America. This year, a new gravimetric system from K-Tron will be installed on two of its six extrusion lines.

MRC

(Japan Today) -- About 25% of domestic production of ethylene, a key material for petrochemical products, has been halted following last week's devastating earthquake in Japan, the head of the petrochemical industry body said Thursday.

One-quarter of domestic manufacturing capacity of ethylene has stopped,'' Kyohei Takahashi, chairman of the Japan Petrochemical Industry Association, said at a press conference.

Takahashi, also chairman of Showa Denko KK, suggested that the halt in ethylene production will have effects on a wide range of industries.

Mitsubishi Chemical Corp has been forced to halt operations of its plant with Japan's largest ethylene production capacity in Ibaraki Prefecture due to damage caused by the earthquake that hit northeastern and eastern Japan.

MRC