Philippine energy major Petron is investing at its refinery complex in Limay

(ICIS) -- Philippine energy major Petron is investing USD 1.8bn (EUR 1.24bn) at its refinery complex in Limay, Bataan, to beef up its capacity to produce high-margin products, including propylene (C3), a company official said on Wednesday. Petron will upgrade the conversion capabilities of its refinery to yield more liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), gasoline, diesel, and petrochemicals, the official said.

Its current propylene production will be tripled, based on the company's plan unveiled on 6 April. The company runs a 140 KTa propylene recovery unit at its Bataan production site.

The refinery expansion called RMP-2 is expected to be completed by the end of 2014, the Petron official said.

South Korea's Daelim Industrial was tapped to help out in the construction, having received an order for an oil-refining plant projects worth USD 318m from Petron.

The Bataan complex, located 150 kilometres southwest of Manila, houses a 180.000 bbl/day refinery, a Petro Fluidized Catalytic Cracking (PetroFCC) unit that has a conversion capacity of 19.000 bbl/day, as well as an aromatics facility that can produce 150 KTa of benzene, 22.8 KTa of toluene and 220 KTa of mixed xylene.

MRC

(SABIC) -- SABIC Innovative Plastics continues to lead in the plastics industry with the announcement of its latest polycarbonate (PC) sheet technology for stadium roofing. New ultra-stiff Lexan Thermoclear sheet builds on the company's impressive three decades of success in delivering state-of-the-art materials to help stadium architects and designers improve safety, durability and enable design freedom.

Lexan Thermoclear sheet helps contribute to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification by providing natural light and possible recycled content. Solar Control infrared (IR) grades reduce build-up of interior heat in arenas while increasing natural light transmission. Another important benefit of Lexan Thermoclear sheet is its light weight, which makes it cost effective to transport and easier to handle and install compared to heavy glass panes. Also, the material can be used with a lighter supporting steel framework than glass requires, which can reduce material and shipping costs.

MRC

(Styron) -- Styron, the leading global materials company established in June 2010, has announced plans to change its company name to Trinseo. The name change will be fully effective in all countries later in 2011; the company will continue to do business as Styron until that time.

To select the name, the company engaged Landor Associates, a leading global branding and design firm. ⌠We chose Trinseo because it has the word intrinsic' at its root. For a company that creates materials used inside customer products, it's absolutely relevant, said Ken Runkel, executive director in Landor's New York office.

Styron is a leading global materials company. Styron's unique product portfolio brings together plastics, rubber and latex businesses that share feedstocks, operations, customers and end users. Styron has approximately USD 5 bln in revenue (2010), with 20 manufacturing sites around the world.

MRC

(CENS) -- Driven by inventory-restocking orders, two Taiwanese companies in the photovoltaic sector, Gigastorage Corp. and Giga Solar Materials Corp., both posted encouraging revenues in March. Gigastorage, a maker of optical discs and multi-crystalline solar wafers, posted NT$236 million in March sales, up 43% from February, with the growth mainly fueled by raised output of silicon crystal which totaled 30-40% after the new plant was activated.

To expand deployment, the company plans to build over 40 production lines of silicon wafers with output of 300 megawatts of solar cells by the end of this year, aiming to achieve 80% of corporate sales with such business in the year.

Giga Solar, a globally top-three aluminum and silver paste supplier, saw its sales rebound strongly to beat a record high of NT$339 million in March, 27% over a month earlier that is due to customer`s inventory restocking. Unfazed by seasonal factors, the company posted NT$938 million in first quarterly revenue, edging up 1% to hit an all-time high. The supplier remains confident of seeing growing second-quarter revenues despite pessimistic outlook among peers.

MRC

(ICIS) -- The European polyvinyl chloride (PVC) industry has met its environmental commitments as laid out by the Vinyl 2010 volunteer programme, a report said on Tuesday. According to the final progress report on Vinyl 2010 - the ten-year voluntary commitment launched in 2000 to enhance the sustainable production and use of PVC - European PVC companies have met, or exceeded, all targets set by the industry. The report highlights the advances made by the industry during the past decade in waste management, innovative recycling technologies, stakeholder engagement and responsible use of additives.

According to the report, 260.842 tonnes of unregulated post-consumer PVC waste were recycled by Vinyl 2010's network of European recyclers in 2010 - well above the goal of 200 KTa.

Other achievements include the ongoing development of technologies to increase PVC recycling and the launch of multi-stakeholder platforms to promote sustainable resource management, the report said.

MRC