Trinseo increases PS prices for Asia Pacific in May

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Trinseo (Hong Kong) Limited and its affiliate companies in Asia Pacific has announced price increases for all polystyrene (PS) grades for Asia Pacific region, as per the company's press release.

Effective immediately, or as existing contract terms allow, the prices for the products listed below will increase as follows:

- STYRON general purpose polystyrene grades (GPPS) - by USD150 per metric ton;
- STYRON and STYRON A-TECH high-impact polystyrene grades (HIPS) - by USD150 per metric ton.

The price increase responds to the rising costs associated with the manufacturing of polystyrene grades in Asia Pacific." said Samer Al Jabi, Global Product Director for Styrenics.

As MRC reported earlier, Trinseo last raised its PS prices for the said region in April 2015, as stated below:

- STYRON GPPS - by USD100 per metric ton;
- STYRON and STYRON A-TECH HIPS - by USD100 per metric ton.

Formerly known as Styron, Trinseo has completed the name change process for most legal entities around the world. Some Styron companies are still completing this process and will continue to do business as Styron until their respective name changes are complete.

Trinseo is a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex and rubber. Trinseo’s technology is used by customers in industries such as home appliances, automotive, building & construction, carpet, consumer electronics, consumer goods, electrical & lighting, medical, packaging, paper & paperboard, rubber goods and tires. Formerly known as Styron, Trinseo completed its renaming process in 1Q 2015.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sinopec Yangzi Petrochemical is in plans to shut a linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) plant for maintenance turnaround, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the plant is planned to be shut in end-July 2015. It is expected to remain off-stream for around one month.

Located at Nanjing in China, the plant has a production capacity of 200,000 mt/year.

As MRC reported earlier, on March 26, 2015, Sinopec Cangzhou Petrochemical has shut its refinery for maintenance turnaround. It is planned to remain off-stream for around two months. Located at Cangzhou in Hebei province of China, the plant has a production capacity of 2.5 million mt/year.

Sinopec Corp. is one of the largest scale integrated energy and chemical companies with upstream, midstream and downstream operations. Its refining and ethylene capacity ranks No.2 and No.4 globally. The Company has 30,000 sales and distribution networks of oil products and chemical products, its service stations are now ranked third largest in the world.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Huntsman Corp. has awarded an engineering, procurement and construction management contract to Jacobs Engineering for an expansion project at Huntsman's world-scale polyetheramine facility at Jurong Island, Singapore, reported Apic-online.

The USD100-million expansion project involves doubling polyetheramines capacity to 50,000 t/y from 25,000 t/y. The facility will be backward integrated to produce poly-ethers from locally sourced feedstock. Construction is expected to begin by mid-2015 and be completed in the second half of 2016.

Under the contract, for which a value was not dis-closed, Jacobs is responsible for detailed engineering and design, procurement of major equipment and management of construction services for the project.

"Huntsman expects demand for polyetheramines to grow significantly over the next decade, particularly in the Asia Pacific market," Jacobs noted.

As MRC wrote previously, Huntsman plans to reduce its titanium dioxide (TiO2) capacity by approximately 100,000 tons, representing 13% of Huntsman's European TiO2 capacity. The plan will generate approximately USD35 million of annual savings.

Huntsman Corporation is a publicly traded global manufacturer and marketer of differentiated chemicals with 2013 revenues of over USD11 billion. Huntsman is a global manufacturer and marketer of differentiated chemicals. The company's operating companies manufacture products for a variety of global industries, including chemicals, plastics, automotive, aviation, textiles, footwear, paints and coatings, construction, technology, agriculture, health care, detergent, personal care, furniture, appliances and packaging.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Arabian Oil Co., the world’s largest oil exporter, is planning to spend between USD70 billion and USD80 billion on overseas acquisitions and investments during the next five years, three people with knowledge of the matter said, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The investment is part of the state-owned company’s target of spending USD150 billion at home and internationally through 2019, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. Saudi Aramco, as the company is known, will focus on Asia, particularly China and Korea, they said.

Saudi Aramco is expanding in refining and petrochemicals and seeking to boost ties with Asia as part of its ambition to become both the world’s largest oil and chemicals producer by the end of the decade. Last year it bought a USD2 billion stake in S-Oil Corp., South Korea’s third-largest oil refiner.

The company has joint-venture plants in China, owns stakes in refining businesses in South Korea, Japan and the US and markets its crude and refined products globally.

Aramco secured a USD10 billion loan in March that could be used to fund potential acquisitions, people with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg at the time. The company didn’t respond to requests for comment.

As MRC informed earlier, German chemical company Lanxess is discussing the sale of a minority stake in its synthetic-rubber unit with potential buyers including Saudi Arabian Oil Co.

Saudi Aramco, officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, is a Saudi Arabian national oil and natural gas company based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Aramco's value has been estimated at up to USD10 trillion in the Financial Times, making it the world's most valuable company. Saudi Aramco has both the largest proven crude oil reserves, at more than 260 billion barrels, and largest daily oil production.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A fire broke out on Sunday at Shell's refining and petrochemical complex in Wesseling, Germany, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing with reference to the company's confirmation on Monday.

"Yesterday at 2:20 p.m., a fire broke out in a furnace in the Wesseling site of Rhineland Refinery, with strong smoke emissions," a Shell spokesperson said on Monday. "Nobody has been injured."

"The fire was extinguished at 9:11 p.m. Air quality checks conducted by the professional fire brigade were negative," the spokesperson said.

Local media reports said the fire had broken out in the olefins cracking unit.

"We do not comment on the operational status of affected units," the spokesperson said. "But to make it clear: (there is) no total shutdown of the Wesseling site."

The Wesseling cracker has capacity to produce 260,000 tpy of ethylene, according to news reports, while the refinery can process 141,000 bpd.

The cause of the fire is not yet known. An investigation is underway.

Royal Dutch Shell plc is an Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the biggest company in the world in terms of revenue and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors". Shell is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading.
MRC