Honeywell UOP methanol-to-olefins technology becomes popular with Chinese producers

(plastemart) -- Honeywell's UOP granted the third technology license for its breakthrough methanol-to-olefins (MTO) technology to China's Shandong Yangmei Hengtong Chemicals.

The Chinese company will use Honeywell UOP's advanced MTO process to convert methanol from gasified coal into ethylene and propylene. The process combines the UOP/Hydro MTO process and the Total Petrochemicals/UOP olefin cracking process to convert methanol from gasified coal into over 295,000 tpa ethylene and propylene at its facility in Tancheng, Linyi City, China. In addition to technology licensing, Honeywell's UOP will provide basic engineering, catalysts, adsorbents, specialty equipment, technical services and training for the project, which is expected to start up in 2014.

"UOP's advanced MTO solution allows petrochemical producers in China such as Shandong to tap abundant and cheap coal resources, produce high yields of valuable petrochemicals, and reduce operating costs," said Pete Piotrowski, senior vice president and general manager of Honeywell's UOP process technology and equipment business unit. This technology will help Shandong meet growing demand in China for ethylene and propylene."

We remind that earlier this year China’s Jiutai Energy (Zhungeer) also licensed Honeywell’s UOP methanol technology. Jiutai will produce 600,000 tpa of ethylene and propylene at its facility in Ordos City, Inner Mongolia Province, China, as MRC reported earlier. Besides, Honeywell plans to take part in the construction of the facility to produce light olefins in Uzbekistan. The unit in Bukharskaya region will produce 500,000 tonnes of methanol with its further processing into 190,000 tonnes of ethylene and propylene.
MRC

(reuters) -- Arkema, French specialty chemicals company, showed a near 4% fall in Q3 sales volumes, showing how tough times could lie ahead for the industrial sector in Europe.

Arkema, which kept its earnings goals for this year and through to 2015, said some clients had become increasingly cautious in managing their stock levels at the end of the third quarter and added this would likely amplify the usual slowdown in its business in the last three months of the year.

Third-quarter sales volumes dropped 3.7%, which Arkema blamed on a tougher construction market in Europe, echoing comments by rivals such as Bayer. Arkema, like its peers, is sensitive to the economic cycle as it makes a range of ingredients for products like paints, detergents and shampoos used in a host of industries including construction, packaging, cars and electronics.

Construction accounts for about 20% of Arkema's sales and the group's activities centre on PVC or plastics in Europe, including pipes for gas or water or window profiles.

Chief Executive Thierry Le Henaff said it was too early to predict what 2012 might entail for the group, but reiterated Arkema's 2011 goal to achieve core earnings of more than 1 billion euros, as MRC informed earlier. He also kept the company's targets for 2015, including sales of some 7.5 billion euros.

We remind that earlier this year, Akrema announced its 2016 ambition to become a world leader in specialty chemicals and advanced materials. The acquisition of Hipro Polymers and Casda Biomaterials in China beginning of this year and the divestment of its Vinyl business beginning of July, were the last steps of the highly successful turnaround of Arkema into a strong player in specialty chemicals.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Amid strong inter-polymer competition and unfavouralbe global economic situation, innovation will become a driver for polypropylene (PP) sales upturn in Europe till 2016, accoring to 'packaging europe' with reference to a recently published study by Applied Market Information Ltd (AMI Consulting), leading industry consultants.

Europe is the kernel of technical development of PP. European makers had done their best in shifting their PP production towards higher value applications.

The largest amount of growth will account for the production PP packaging, despite low consumers spendign and high competitions in the marekt. PP will lose its market share in favor of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) in a segment roof caps and closures. Recycled PET will also displace the polypropylene from the market, for example, in a segment of the thin-walled packaging. Despite such an outlook and situation in the market, PP is gaining sales due to the introduction of new grades of resin offering high clarity and fast cycling. We remind that Borealis, has just launched the next generation transparent polypropylene (PP) grade Borpact SH950MO for packaging of deep freeze products. It is also an excellent choice for broader consumer packaging and housewares. SABIC has also developed a new brand of high clarity polypropylene SABIC PP Qrystal QR681K, as MRC reported earlier. This random copolymer is an economical, transparent and durable material for the production of bottles, small and medium size.

Automotive sector will largerly benifit from the fastest growth driven by penetration gains. PP producers are offering automotive companies solutions which substantially reduce their costs. The fast intake of long fibre PP should be mentioned in this connection. Thus, as MRC informed earlier, Renault is now launching the New Renault Clio with a thermoplastic lift-gate made with Styron's material solutions, which consits of three parts, namely, Styron's polypropylene compound, long glass fiber polypropylene resin (LGF-PP), PP impact copolymer blended with different components. PP help reduce the cost of cars and also provides excellent opportunities for light-weighting which is a key objective in car design.

The textile segment has suffered since the downturn in construction activity. Residential construction was first hit and is now showing some early signs of recovery, whereas civil construction was hit more recently. Generally PP non-wovens have prospered better than other PP textiles, according to the study.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) – Ukraine’s imports of polyethylene in October, up 45% from September and reached five years’ record 32,640 tonnes. The main increase in imports fell on the high density polyethylene (HDPE), according to MRC DataScope.

In October, the total amount of external supplies of polyethylene to the Ukrainian market grew by 45% from September and reached 32,640 tonnes. Which was an absolute record over the last five years. Such significant growth in imports mainly took place in the sector of high density polyethylene and resulted from the stoppage of domestic maker - Karpatneftehim (Lukoil Group) and serious disruptions of PE delivery from Asia and the US.
Ukrainian producer Karpatneftekhim stopped its capacity for scheduled maintenance in the beginning of September. By the end of October, all maintenance work had been completed, but the production of polyethylene has not been resumed due to economical inexpedience.

The producer’s annual production capacity makes 100,000 tonnes per year; the monthly supplies in the domestic market exceeds 2,000 tonnes of film HDPE.

Imports of high-density polyethylene to the Ukrainian market in October rose to record levels - more than 17,300 tonnes. HDPE imports increased by more than twofold compared with September. The main increase in imports fell on the film and pipe polyethylene.

Limited export quotas and high prices of HDPE in Europe in August-September, and a suspension of Karpatneftehim made Ukrainian companies contract PE actively in the US and Asia.

LDPE imports to Ukraine in October grew by 11% compared with September and amounted to 7,900 tonnes. Even more significant was the increase in the supply of linear polyethylene - about 3% from 6,000 in September to 6,200 in October.

In general, over the ten months of this year, the total volume of imports of polyethylene in Ukraine amounted to 268,700 tonnes, up 7% compared to the same period a year ago.

MRC