Clariant enters partnership with Tiangang for production of high-end polymer additives in China

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Clariant, a world leader in specialty chemicals, has announced the signing of a Joint Venture contract with Tiangang Auxiliary Co., Ltd., a privately owned producer and leading supplier of UV Light Stabilizers in China, accoridng to the company's press release.

Subject to merger control clearance, the contract shall become effective. The multi-million CHF investment of Clariant’s Performance Additives business and Tiangang will establish a world-class production facility in China to meet the growing local demand for process and light stabilizer additives in various growing industries such as textiles or automotive.

"The partnership with Tiangang is another successful step toward strengthening Clariant’s position in China. It provides us with a stronger local footprint to better position our innovative solutions in the growing Asia region, especially in China. Furthermore, by cooperating with a leading Chinese company like Tiangang, we can exchange best practices and valuable market insights in order to deliver ever-more tailored solutions to our customers," said Christian Kohlpaintner, Clariant's Executive Committee Member residing in China.

China is one of the key markets for high-end process and light stabilizers, which include the state-of-the-art Nylostab S-EED chemistry, invented by Clariant. To support the growing demand of customers in China, Clariant and Tiangang will jointly manufacture process and light stabilizers and plan to install a new production site in the Cangzhou National Coastal-Port Economy and Technology Development Zone, Hebei province. Production is scheduled to come on stream in the first half of 2019. The JV also plans to expand its offering of solutions for the automotive industry in the future.

Commenting on the joint venture, Stephan Lynen, Head of Clariant BU Additives, said: "The production joint venture with Tiangang significantly strengthens our ability to serve the strongly growing demand for high-end additives solutions in Asia. Having local production with a well established and trusted partner improves proximity to our customers and to our raw material suppliers. This will enable us to accelerate response times and shorten supply lead times."

Gang Liu, Vice President, Tiangang comments: "Established in 1991, Tiangang has been a trusted supplier for the polymer industry with a complete range of light stabilizer products and solutions. By partnering with Clariant, a world-leading innovative pioneer in additives development, we look forward to combining the rich technology and production knowledge of both companies to provide the best value-adding solutions and products to the polymer industry with world-class quality and services."

The joint venture with Tiangang is the latest move to expand the local footprint of Clariant’s Additives business in China. It follows the announcement in May 2017 of an investment in Zhenjiang, China which will create a state-of-the-art production facility for AddWorks, synergistic additive solutions and Ceridust®, micronized waxes serving the plastics, coatings and inks industries. It is scheduled to come on stream in the second half of 2018.

As MRC informed earlier, in March 2017, Clariant announced that it had been awarded a contract by Dongguan Grand Resource Science & Technology Co. Ltd. to develop a new propane dehydrogenation unit in cooperation with CB&I.

Clariant AG is a Swiss chemical company and a world leader in the production of specialty chemicals for the textile, printing, mining and metallurgical industries. It is engaged in processing crude oil products in pigments, plastics and paints. Clariant India has local masterbatch production activities at Rania, Kalol and Nandesari (Gujarat) and Vashere (Maharashtra) sites in India.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) — Unipec, the trading arm of China’s state-owned Sinopec, is shipping its first very large crude carrier (VLCC) of diesel from China to Europe, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The company is loading the vessel with 10 parts-per-million (ppm) diesel from its refinery in the northern port city of Tianjin, near Beijing, in second-half September to head to the Mediterranean or northwest Europe, one of the sources said.

It will also match the more stringent winter specifications required by Europe, the source said.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Korea Petrochemical Industry Co (KPIC) has reduced run rates at its naphtha cracker mid this week owing to technical issues, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in South Korea informed that the cracker is presently running at around 65% of production capacity rates.

The cracker was operating at near full capacity early this week following an unplanned shutdown that lasted for two days last week.

Located at Onsan city in South Korea, the cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 800,000 mt/year and propylene capacity of 500,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed previously, in June 2017, KPIC finilized the expansion of its ethylene production capacity. Thus, KPIC started commercial operation at its Ulsan-based Naphtha Cracking Center (NCC) from Jun 23, 2017. Earlier, KPIC produced about 470,000 mt/year of ethylene from its Ulsan-based NCC. With the expansion, the company added 330,000 mt/year of ethylene, and its combined ethylene capacity reached 800,000 mt/year.

KPIC is one of the key producers of ethylene in South Korea. The company’s ethylene capacity accounted for about 6% of total ethylene production in South Korea before the expansion was completed, and now the company’s market share will be increased to nearly 10%.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Supervisory Board of Bayer AG has appointed Wolfgang Nickl (48) to the Board of Management of Bayer AG effective April 26, 2018, the producer said on its site.

He is to succeed Johannes Dietsch (55) as the company’s Chief Financial Officer on June 1, 2018. In April this year, Dietsch announced that he would be leaving Bayer at his own request at the end of May 2018.

Nickl has already been the CFO of several companies in the United States and the Netherlands. He is currently Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at ASML N.V., Veldhoven, Netherlands, which is the world’s leading supplier of lithography systems for the semiconductor industry. "In Wolfgang Nickl, we are pleased to have found a successful manager with a proven track record in the field of finance and many years of experience abroad," said Werner Wenning, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Bayer AG. "We wish him every success in his new role."

As MRC informed before, German drugs and pesticides group further reduced its holding in Covestro to 31.5% from 40.9% by selling 19 million shares in the plastics business for a total of EUR1.2 billion (USD1.4 billion). It said on Wednesday that it placed the stock at EUR63.25 each, a 3.7% discount to Tuesday’s closing share price, which DZ Bank analyst Peter Spengler said indicated healthy demand for the stock. Bayer, which is trying to wrap up the USD66 billion takeover of U.S. seeds giant Monsanto by the end of the year, had announced the accelerated book building late on Tuesday, part of its plan to fully sever ties with Covestro over the medium-term.

Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the fields of health care, agriculture and high-tech polymer materials. As an innovation company, it sets trends in research-intensive areas. Bayer's products and services are designed to benefit people and improve their quality of life. At the same time, the Group aims to create value through innovation, growth and high earning power. Bayer is committed to the principles of sustainable development and to its social and ethical responsibilities as a corporate citizen.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Celanese Corporation, a global technology and specialty materials company, has increased list and off-list selling prices for vinyl acetate-based (VAM) emulsions in Asia, as per the company's press release.

The price increases below was effective as of 6 September 2017, or as contracts otherwise allow, and are incremental to any previously announced increases.

Thus, the company raised the price of vinyl acetate-based emulsions sold in China by CNY500/mt and in Asia (outside of China) - by USD100/mt.

As MRC reported before, effective June 21, 2017, Celanese Corporation raised its prices of vinyl acetate ethylene (EVA) emulsions sold in Asia (outside of China). Thus, prices rose by USD80/tonne.

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 7,300 employees worldwide and had 2016 net sales of USD5.4 billion.
MRC