Trinseo raised April prices of PS and copolymers in Europe

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Trinseo, a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex binders and synthetic rubber, and its affiliate companies in Europe have announced price increases for all polystyrene (PS), ABS and SAN grades, as per the company's statement.

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

- STYRON general purpose polystyrene grades (GPPS), STYRON and STYRON A-TECH high impact polystyrene grades (HIPS) - by EUR105 per metric ton;
- MAGNUM ABS resins - by EUR120 per metric ton;
- TYRIL SAN resins - by EUR95 per metric ton.

As MRC reported earlier, Trinseo last raised its prices for all PS grades in Europe in March 2016, as follows:

- STYRON GPPS grades, STYRON and STYRON A-TECH HIPS grades - by EUR100 per metric ton;
- MAGNUM ABS resins - by EUR70 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. TrinseoпїЅs 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. Trinseo had approximately USD4.0 billion in revenue in 2015, with 18 manufacturing sites around the world, and more than 2,200 employees.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The US International Trade Commission (ITC) says that the existing antidumping and countervailing duty orders on imports of polyethylene retail carrier bags from six Asian countries will remain in place, said Chemweek.

The ITC says it determined that revoking the existing antidumping and countervailing duty orders on polyethylene retail carrier bags from China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam would be likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of material injury within a reasonably foreseeable time.

As MRC informed earlier, Demand for polyethylene (PE) resins in New Delhi may be dampened by a new ban on plastics bags. The Delhi government has imposed a blanket ban on the manufacture, storage and usage of plastic bags in the capital, regardless of thickness. The new ban will curtail demand for PE film and coating grades, which are the raw materials in the production of plastic bags.


MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Group NanoXplore Inc., a Montreal-based company, has introduced graphene-enhanced plastics, as per the company's statement.

Compounded pellets for different grades of polyethylene (PE) and polycarbonate (PC) are available.

NanoXplore is targeting graphene-enhanced thermoplastics in response to broad customer interest for engineering plastics with enhanced electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties. The company commissioned its 8,500 sq. foot manufacturing facility in December, 2015 and today has a capacity of 400 metric tons per year of compounded master batch pellets. NanoXplore has been taking orders and sampling pellets to customers in Europe and North America since January 2016.

NanoXplore has been focusing recently on polyethylene (PE) thermoplastics and has obtained significant multi-functional improvements in performance compared to base resins. For HDPE at 0.5 weight% graphene loading, a 15% increase in tensile strength was achieved without degrading material toughness. For LLDPE at 15 weight% graphene loading, thermal conductivity was doubled, yield strength increased by more than 30%, and electrical conductivity was increased to the anti-static range.

NanoXplore's ability to tailor the final properties of the plastics by adding graphene paves the way for engineering plastics in real world products such as electric motors, cellphone and tablet casings, and automotive and aerospace parts.

We remind that, as MRC wrote previously, in 2013, Dow Elastomers, a business unit of The Dow Chemical Company unveiled a breakthrough compatibilization technology that offers a tuneable range of new-to-the-world, highly effective solutions for combining both non-polar and polar polymers with polypropylene. INTUNE PP-based Olefin Block Copolymers from Dow offer highly effective solutions for combining polyethylene (PE), polyolefin elastomers (POE) and polar materials such as ethylene vinyl alcohol (EVOH) and polyamide (PA) with polypropylene (PP) to provide the best benefits of each material, while minimizing individual trade-off properties.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Celanese Corporation, a global technology and specialty materials company, has increased list and off-list selling prices for Ateva EVA and LDPE polymers, said the producer on its site.

The price increase is effective April 1, 2016 or as contracts allow.

Prices of Ateva EVA will rise by USD0.03/lb (USD 0.07/kg or USD70/tonne) for North and South America and by USD50/tonne for Asia, whereas LDPE prices will increase by USD0.04/lg (USD 0.09/kg or USD90/tonne) for North and South America and by USD50/tonne for Asia.

We remind that, as MRC informed previously, Celanese Corporation raised its prices of vinyl acetate-based emulsions sold in Asia by Yuan 200/MT for China and USD25/MT for the rest of Asia effective March 10, 2016. This price increase affects all applications including, but not limited to, adhesives, paints and coatings, waterproofing, building and construction, glass fiber, carpet and paper. This increase is attributed to the continued pressures on raw materials, notably ethylene and vinyl acetate monomer (VAM).

Celanese Corporation is a global technology leader in the production of differentiated chemistry solutions and specialty materials used in most major industries and consumer applications. Based in Dallas, Celanese employs approximately 7,000 employees worldwide and had 2015 net sales of USD5.7 billion.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- PTT Global Chemical (PTTGC) has restarted its linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) plant following a maintenance turnaround, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in the Thailand informed that the company has resumed operations at its plant on April 5, 2016 . The plant was shut for maintenance in early-March 2016.

Located at Map Ta Phut in Thailand, the LLDPE plant has a production capacity of 400,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed before, As MRC wrote before, PTTGC is studying several options for supplying sufficient raw material to its petrochemical plants, including imports of oil feedstocks after declines in global crude prices. The move is part of a plan to cope with a potential drop in domestic natural gas supply after Thailand's government put bidding for new oil and gas concessions on hold.

PTT Global Chemical is a leading player in the petrochemical industry and owns several petrochemical facilities with a combined capacity of 8.45 million tonnes a year.
MRC