Korean additives supplier Songwon tied up with a new distribution partner Biesterfeld Spezialchemie

(Plastics Today) -- Korean additives supplier Songwon (Ulsan) has tied up with its new distribution partner Biesterfeld Spezialchemie GmbH (Vienna, Austria) to extend local customer support to processors, compounders, and resin suppliers in Spain, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Slovenia, Macedonia and Croatia.

Matthias Trapmann, Business Manager Biesterfeld Spezialchemie, stated: "We believe that powerful partnerships are the key to adding value to the customers we deliver to in the plastics market. Together with Songwon we will focus on excellence through flexibility and reliability and will continue to invest in our technically skilled sales force to ensure that we can provide support with the highest level of competence."

Dieter Morath, Songwon's Executive Vice President Sales, and Member of the Group Executive Committee, added: "Biesterfeld Spezialchemie has focused on the development of customer specific solutions and is capable of immediate delivery on demand from its regional warehouses. This new partnership will allow Songwon to extend its reach in these countries and add value to an extensive product range through our combined knowledge".

MRC

(Arabian Oil and Gas) -- Employees at Saudi Aramco's wholly owned Yanbu Refinery recently completed a wide-ranging and complex Total Refinery Shutdown (TRS) on schedule and without any safety incidents. The scope of the TRS covered 320 pieces of equipment, 1.000 maintenance work orders and more than 30 projects. The refinery undergoes extensive maintenance every five years to ensure the safety, integrity and reliability of the facility. However, the TRS that ended March 10 was more extensive than previous shutdowns.

The work carried out during this latest shutdown at the refinery included the crude tower trays being upgraded to a new type of high-capacity stainless steel trays, as part of a total revamp to improve the diesel quality and allow a refinery throughput increase to 250.000 bbls per day.

MRC

(Azom) -- Producer of high-tech polymer materials, Bayer MaterialScience now offers a blend of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polycarbonate (PC) called Makroblend GR 235M. The sustainable high-tech material is suitable for the production of automotive bodywork components.

A technical product service specialist dealing in polycarbonate and its blends at Bayer MaterialScience, Eckhard Wenz stated that the Makroblend GR 235M's performance is comparable with virgin materials. Its performance properties matches with that of Makroblend UT 235M, a proven material used in the production of bodywork components, he added.

The Makroblend GR 235M can be used for the production of convertible top compartments, covers for antennas, skirts, trunk lids and spoilers.

The PET used in the Makroblend GR 235M is obtained by recycling beverage bottles made from high-purity PET grade materials that meet the stringent food industry standards. The PC for the new material is obtained by recycling industrial five-gallon water containers.

MRC

(Plastemart) -- Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. has embarked on the planned shutdown of an ethylene unit at its chemical plant in Port Arthur, Texas, according to a filing with state regulators. ⌠Established procedures and practices will be followed to safely shut down the process equipment, the company said in the filing with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Emissions associated with the shutdown began at 10:45 a.m. local time and were expected to end on June 6 at the same time, according to the filing.

MRC

(Plastemart) -- The Control Yuan has found the selected Chaunghua County site unsuitable for a petrochemical complex in view of land subsidence problems in the area. The report states that the available surface water resources in Chaunghua and Yunlin counties of 380 KT/day are not sufficient. Water-intensive industries such as the Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology Co project, which needs 400 KT/day of water, should not be introduced to the region. One problem that could arise from the Kuokuang project is that more groundwater would have to be pumped to maintain a stable water supply during shortages, which would compromise the effectiveness of measures to improve land subsidence problems. The report said the highest rate of subsidence in Chaunghua County had been observed in Dacheng Township, where the nation's second-largest wetland was proposed as the location for the Kuokuang project. The subsidence rate there was 6.9 cm per year in 2006 and 1.6 cm per year in 2009.

The USD 20.34 bln project was initiated by Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology Co., an affiliate of the state-run oil refiner CPC Corp., Taiwan, to expand oil refining capacity and the production of ethylene. Critics said the plan to build the complex in the Dacheng Wetlands in central Taiwan would create losses that outweigh the benefits. The disadvantages include damage to local oyster and eel- farming industries, and health hazards to local residents.

MRC