Dutch Ambassador visited DSM in North Carolina

(RedOrbit) -- Royal DSM, the global Life Sciences and Materials Sciences company, hosted Her Excellency the Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the United States Ms. Renee Jones-Bos at its Greenville, North Carolina facilities on March 28, 2011. Ambassador Jones-Bos met with DSM's management from their pharmaceuticals business and Dyneema-Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene fiber operations, and toured their sites to gain insight and understanding into DSM's business, and the Greenville community.

DSM is one of Greenville's, and Pitt County's, largest employers with nearly 1.200 employees working at its Greenville Pharmaceutical and Dyneema facilities, which operate at the same location. DSM has additional operations in North Carolina in Stanley, and has 28 operating sites in the United States with nearly 4.000 employees; and 22.000 employees world wide.

DSM has been in continuous operation for more than 100 years, originating in the Limburg Province of the Netherlands as a coal mining company. It has transformed itself into a well established Life Sciences & Material Sciences company, focused on creating brighter lives for people today and generations to come.

MRC

(Plastics Today) -- With nine extruders that can be configured to provide numerous stripe and layer combinations, Welex (Blue Bell, PA) says its new five-layer sheet-extrusion system for multicolored food packaging sets a new mark for the number of extruders on one die. Built for a European custom-sheet manufacturer for use in thermoformed yogurt cups, the system has already been shipped and is expected to begin production in April.

The five-layer sheet construction includes a crystal PS gloss layer, a five-color custom-configurable stripe layer, a white layer, a scrap foam layer, and a white bottom layer. The scrap foam layer is produced via a proprietary gas-blown foam process. Welex notes that the system can also run polypropylene with no equipment changes.

Each mobile-mounted extruder includes a slide-plate screen changer and gear pump for high-precision output. The machines feed into a valve-distribution block before the multi-manifold and feed-block-equipped die for easy control of the individual component's destinations.

The sheet extrusion line's Welex Evolution individual roll drive sheet take-off system also has automatic roll-gap controls and a set of water-flow-driven secondary cooling rolls to promote uniform sheet temperature at the end of the line prior to winding onto jumbo rolls.

MRC

(Plastemart) -- In a bid to capitalize on the advantaged feedstock position that shale gas resources could bring to the US chemical industry, Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LP is advancing a feasibility study. The feasibility study is for a project to construct a world-scale ethane cracker and ethylene derivatives unit at one of its existing facilities in the U.S. Gulf Coast region using advantaged feed sources expected from development of shale gas reserves. "We are finalizing our evaluation of potential sites and advancing discussions with EPC contractors," said Tim Taylor, COO for Chevron Phillips Chemical. ⌠Our company is already a leading light cracker operator in the U.S. Gulf Coast region and an established supplier of olefins, polyolefins, and alpha olefins globally. Our technology portfolio, organizational capability, integration with our parent companies, and petrochemical infrastructure make us uniquely suited to execute this potential investment.

MRC

(ICIS) -- Freight rates for chemical shipping from the Middle East to Asia are expected to hover higher around USD 60/tonne (EUR 43/tonne) in April and May, mainly driven by the tight tonnage situation, industry sources said on Tuesday.

This reflects an increase of USD 5-10/tonne from January and early February, when freight rates for 10.000-15.000 tonnes of chemicals from the Middle East to northeast Asia were quoted at around USD 50-55/tonne, said two shipowners based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Vessels were available at that time in the Middle East and Indian regions for prompt shipments, and were bolstered by a large number of palm oil ships arriving at the west coast of India with early-to-mid January shipments from southeast Asia.

However, stronger crude palm oil prices (CPO) in February and March led to fewer shipments of CPO from southeast Asia to the Middle East and Indian regions. This resulted in a reduction of available vessels for prompt shipments from the Middle East to Asia.

MRC

(ICIS) -- US ethylene contracts for March could rise by at least 4 cents/lb (USD 88/tonne, EUR 62/tonne), market sources said on Monday, citing higher production costs and a jump in spot prices. The 8% hike would be the second in as many months, as February ethylene settled at 49.00 cents/lb, up by 3.75 cents/lb from January. Market sources said ethane and spot ethylene were both lending support to the contract side.

Spot ethylene for March traded last week in a range of 58.500-60.625 cents/lb, rising from deals done at 50.750-52.000 cents/lb four weeks earlier.

Meanwhile, production costs rose as ethane, which accounts for more than half of US cracker feedstocks, posted a 7.6% gain in the period.

Mont Belvieu ethane ended Friday at 71 cents/gal, rising from 66 cents/gal in the week ended 4 March.

Major US ethylene producers include Chevron Phillips Chemical, ExxonMobil, INEOS, LyondellBasell and Shell Chemicals.

MRC