Plaskolite buys Bayer's PETG sheet business

(plasticsnews) -- Plaskolite Inc. has purchased the North American Vivak polyester sheet business from Bayer MaterialScience LLC. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, except that all Bayer employees involved in the business will remain with Bayer.

Vivak is a glycol-modified copolymer PET sheet used in point-of-sale displays, vending machines, promotional signage, and food packaging.

Dennis Duff, managing director of Bayer’s sheet business in the NAFTA region, said in a news release that the deal will allow his company to focus on its Makrolon polycarbonate sheet business, “and this sale will free up additional capacity for strengthening this focus further.”

BMS has a sheet production plant in Sheffield, Mass. The company expanded its PC sheet business earlier this year when it acquired the Tuffak name and PC sheet production assets in the U.S. from Arkema Inc.

Mitchell Grindley, vice president of sales for Columbus-based Plaskolite, said Vivak has excellent mechanical properties, and that it is stocked by leading sheet distributors.
MRC

(hydrocarbonprocessing) -- KBR has been awarded a contract for engineering and procurement services for DuPont’s first cellulosic ethanol plant in Nevada, Iowa.

KBR will provide front-end engineering, detailed engineering and procurement services to DuPont’s industrial biosciences group for this first-of-a-kind plant to be constructed in the Midwest US.

The ethanol facility is designed to process 1,300 tpd of corn stover and produce 27.5 million gal/year of ethanol, officials said.

The cellulosic ethanol product will be used as a blending component in gasoline by fuel manufacturers and will enable them to meet US EPA-mandated requirements for ethanol derived from cellulosic sources.

KBR is executing the project from its operations center in Wilmington, Del. Groundbreaking is scheduled for the second half of 2012 with a 12-18 month construction period.

“KBR and DuPont have a long-standing partnership and a history of successful project execution,” said David Zelinski, president of KBR’s downstream segment.

“This award further affirms and solidifies KBR’s 20-plus year partnership with DuPont in the safe and efficient development and execution of capital projects, and reinforces KBR’s position as an EPC leader in biofuels projects.”

Financial terms were not disclosed.
MRC

(chemmonitor) -- International polyethylene (PE) traders were afraid of possible price falls last week as a result of continued estimates’ decrease in the upstream market for naphtha both in Asia and Europe.

Petroleum nominations also trended lower.

Brazil-based sellers demonstrated the highest degree of concern as overseas vendors had considerably cut their prices for local players this year.
MRC

(hydrocarbonprocessing) -- US prices for chemical building block ethylene recovered somewhat at the end of June from the lowest level in 20 months as short-term supply concerns briefly resurfaced, according to PetroChem Wire, a daily pricing newsletter.

The spot ethylene price touched 39.5 cents/lb on June 13, extending its drop from a seven-year high of 75.12 cents/lb on April 5 after unplanned plant outages and scheduled maintenance caused supply to fall short of demand, according to the pricing service.

The June 13 price was the lowest since October 22, 2010.

"After dipping briefly below the 40-cent level, spot ethylene prices appeared to have found their floor," said Kathy Hall, PetroChem Wire's chief editor.

"Also, several key ethylene plants that had been shut for scheduled maintenance were expected to be back in service by the end of the month, and their restarts were delayed.

“That, combined with some unexpected plant outages, cast some uncertainty about short-term supply availability, and prices popped back above 40 cents.”

PetroChem Wire's ethylene price is used to settle daily contracts for the chemical traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The contract for June delivery expired June 29 at 42.25 cents/lb. Prices have dropped 22% so far this year.
MRC

(Canadian Plastics) -- Specialty chemical supplier Lanxess Corporation, the North American business unit of specialty chemicals, plastics and rubber maker Lanxess AG, will have a new president and CEO by August.

Effective July 31, Flemming B. Bjornslev will succeed outgoing president and CEO Randy Dearth at the helm of the Pittsburgh-based company. Raymond Newhouse, CFO of Lanxess Corporation, will serve as the acting CEO in the interim.

Dearth will leave the organization to head Calgon Carbon Corporation. Dearth was named president and CEO of Lanxess Corporation in 2004 when the company was carved-out of Bayer Corporation.

Bjornslev has been with the company for 22 years and is currently the CEO of Lanxess Central Eastern Europe s.r.o. He began his career with Bayer AG in Germany in 1990 as deputy sales manager in the Polyurethanes business unit, and has held various positions at Bayer/Lanxess within several business units.

Lanxess AG's core business comprises the development, manufacture and sale of plastics, rubber, specialty chemicals and intermediates.
MRC