PolyMirae, a LyondellBasell joint venture, to expand its PP capacity in South Korea

MOSCOW (MRC) -- PolyMirae Company Ltd. (part of LyondellBasell) has announced that it would establish a joint venture with SK Advanced in South Korea, as per LyondellBasell's press release.

The joint venture intends to build a new 400,000 ton/year polypropylene (PP) plant to serve customers in Asia. The plant will be located in the southeastern port city of Ulsan and is dependent on regulatory filings and permitting reviews.

PolyMirae is a joint venture 50 percent owned by LyondellBasell, one of the largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies in the world, and 50 percent owned by Daelim, a construction and petrochemical company in South Korea.

Construction on the project will begin in January 2019 and operations at the plant will begin in the first half of 2021.

"Through direct investment or through a joint venture such as PolyMirae, we continue to build production capacity to serve rapidly growing end markets in Asia," said James Seward, Vice President of Joint Ventures and International Marketing at LyondellBasell. "With the addition of this joint venture's capacity, PolyMirae will ensure that automotive manufacturers in South Korea and throughout Asia will continue to be able to locally source the polypropylene they need to advance the next generation of fuel efficient vehicles, and that LyondellBasell will gain access to additional export volumes to ensure our global production footprint will continue to grow alongside our customer base."

The new PP plant will be one of the largest of its kind in Asia and will utilize LyondellBasell's industry-leading Spheripol technology. Polypropylene manufactured at the joint venture will be sold to customers in South Korea and exported throughout Asia for use in automotive components, injection molding, blow molding and packaging film. Some of the polypropylene will also be sold to compounding companies in South Korea and the broader region.

PolyMirae is a 50/50 joint venture between LyondellBasell and Daelim. The new company will be a joint venture between PolyMirae and SK Advanced.

As MRC informed before, in September 2017, LyondellBasell announced the successful startup of a new 20,000 PP compounding plant in Dalian, China. This is the company's third facility in China, strategically located to serve the region's growing automotive market.

PolyMirae is a joint venture between Daelim and LyondellBasell Industries, both of which are well respected companies worldwide, and is a leading polypropylene production company in Korea. With Daelim's outstanding accumulated on-site operational experience and LyondellBasell's core technologies and worldwide sales network, PolyMirae was founded on September 1st 2000 in order to produce and supply the best polypropylene in Asia.

Daelim Industrial is a construction and petrochemical company that is a part of the Daelim Group hailing from South Korea. As the first Korean company to build petrochemical plants in the Middle East, Daelim continues to expand globally. Daelim builds petrochemical, refinery and power plants in more than 36 countries. With headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Daelim completed more than 600 engineering and construction projects around the world, as well as operates manufacturing facilities in South Korea. Founded in 1939, Daelim has approximately 5,300 employees worldwide. Revenues for 2014 were USD8 billion.

LyondellBasell is one of the largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies in the world. Driven by its 13,400 employees around the globe, LyondellBasell produces materials and products that are key to advancing solutions to modern challenges like enhancing food safety through lightweight and flexible packaging, protecting the purity of water supplies through stronger and more versatile pipes, and improving the safety, comfort and fuel efficiency of many of the cars and trucks on the road. LyondellBasell sells products into approximately 100 countries and is the world's largest licensor of polyolefin technologies. In 2018, LyondellBasell was named to Fortune magazine's list of the "World's Most Admired Companies."
MRC

Last month’s SPVC imports to the Ukrainian market rose to 6,400 tonnes from 6,000 tons in April, purchases of resin in Europe increased. Overall SPVC imports totalled 32,900 tonnes in January-May 2018, compared to 39,400 tonnes a year earlier, whereas shipments of resin from the USA grew significantly.

The structure of of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) imports to Ukraine looked the following way over the stated period.

Last month’s SPVC imports from the United States declined to 4,000 tonnes from 4,400 tonnes in April. Thus, imports of North American resin were 22,600 tonnes in the first five months of the year versus 13,100 tonnes a year earlier. April and March accounted for the peak of deliveries.

May shipments of European PVC to the Ukrainian market rose to 2,300 tonnes from 1,600 tonnes a month earlier. The weakening of the euro against the dollar and a seasonal increase in demand were the main reason for higher PVC shipments from Europe. Overall imports of European PVC to Ukraine totalled 9,000 tonnes over the stated period, compared to 18,500 tonnes a year earlier.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Formosa Plastics is likely to restart a No. 1 polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plant following a maintenance turnaround, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Taiwan informed that the company has planned to resume operations at the plant July 5, 2018. The plant was shut for maintenance last weekend.

Located in Mailiao, Taiwan, the No.1 PVC plant has a production capacity of 420,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed before, on 19 March, 2018, Formosa Petrochemical Corp (FPCC) undertook an emergency shutdown at its No. 1 cracker in Mailiao owing to technical issues. The plant remained off-line for around one day. Located at Mailiao in Taiwan, the No. 1 cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 700,000 mt/year, propylene production capacity of 350,000 mt/year and butadiene production capacity of 109,000 mt/year.

Formosa Petrochemical is involved primarily in the business of refining crude oil, selling refined petroleum products and producing and selling olefins (including ethylene, propylene, butadiene and BTX) from its naphtha cracking operations. Formosa Petrochemical is also the largest olefins producer in Taiwan and its olefins products are mostly sold to companies within the Formosa Group. Among the company's chemical products are paraxylene (PX), phenyl ethylene, acetone and pure terephthalic acid (PTA). The company's plastic products include acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) resins, polystyrene (PS), polypropylene (PP) and panlite (PC).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A fire that broke out at Mitsui Chemicals' plant in Osaka in western Japan was extinguished on Friday morning, reported Reuters with reference to the Japanese company.

The fire started on Thursday afternoon in the chimney of a utility unit that supplies electricity, water and steam to multiple petrochemical facilities at the firm's Osaka Works in Takaishi City.

The local fire department confirmed the blaze had been extinguished by 8:30 a.m. on Friday (2330 GMT on Thursday), the company said in a statement.

An investigation is underway into the cause of the accident and its impact on the plant and the local environment, although no toxic gas that could affect human health had been detected, it added. There were no injuries.

The company has not so far identified any damage to other plant facilities including a 500,000 tonne-per-year naphtha cracker, which has been shut since June 14 for scheduled maintenance.

The company may consider alternative sources of electricity and steam to supply the plant's petrochemical facilities, a company spokesman said.

It was not immediately clear whether the cracker's restart would be delayed from its current schedule of late July.

The company said it would promptly report any major financial impact from the fire.

The fire did not have an immediate impact on the market because the naphtha cracker was shut, said a trading source, who declined to be identified.

The plant also manufactures products such as olefins, aromatics, ammonia, ethylene oxide, ethylene glycol, adhesives and unsaturated polyesters, the Mitsui Chemicals' website shows.

Mitsui Chemicals is a leading manufacturer and supplier of value added specialty chemicals, plastics and materials for the automotive, healthcare, packaging, agricultural, building, and semiconductor and electronics markets. Mitsui Chemicals is a Japanese Chemicals company, a part of the Mitsui conglomerate. The company has a turnover of around 15 billion USD and has business interests in Japan, Europe, China, Southeast Asia and the USA. The company mainly deals in performance materials, petro and basic chemicals and functional polymeric materials.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -– Fluor Corporation announced that the first modules for the Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company (KIPIC) Al-Zour project have arrived in Kuwait, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Fluor is working with its joint venture partners to deliver two engineering, procurement, fabrication and construction packages for key process support units, utilities and infrastructure for the Al-Zour refinery project. Upon completion, the new complex is expected to be one of the largest refineries in the world and produce 615,000 barrels per day.

Modules are being constructed at the COOEC-Fluor Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. (COOEC-Fluor) fabrication yard in Zhuhai, China. The first 14 of the 188 modules were loaded onto a shipping barge and sailed away in May to Kuwait. The sail-away of the modules was marked by a ceremony officiated by Hatem Al-Awadhi, KIPIC’s deputy chief executive officer and Jim Brittain, group president of Fluor’s Energy & Chemicals business, and was attended by executive members of the project team.

"Fluor is proud to be part of KIPIC’s prestigious and strategically important Al-Zour project," said Brittain. “This milestone was achieved through the collaboration and commitment of our craft professionals at the newly expanded Zhuhai fabrication yard where more than 6,500 craft workers are safely fabricating steel and pipe and assembling modules for the project."

The Fluor-led joint venture, known as FDH JV, includes Daewoo Engineering and Construction and Hyundai Heavy Industries.

"Fluor and our joint venture partners are working closely with KIPIC to implement Fluor’s integrated engineering, procurement, fabrication and construction solutions across every phase of the project to enable the safe and efficient construction, commissioning and start-up of this new refinery," said Al Collins, president of Fluor’s Energy & Chemicals business in Europe, Africa and Middle East.
MRC