Lotte Chemical builds AI organizations

South Korea's Lotte Chemical Corp. announced that it has established artificial intelligence (AI) organizations tailored to the characteristics of its basic materials and advanced materials businesses to strengthen data-based research, said Kedglobal.

In the basic chemicals business sector, the company has formed a new AI Solution Team at the Lotte Chemical Institute of Technology in Daejeon to develop AI-integrated catalysts and products, combining accumulated research and development (R&D) knowledge with AI to enhance quality.

The Solution Team integrates AI tasks from relevant departments, undertaking tasks such as improving product properties using machine learning and deep learning techniques, predicting catalyst characteristics, and simulation-based reactor design.

In the advanced materials sector, the company has built the AI Promotion Office to identify and address various issues arising in all areas of business, including product development, production, and global supply chain, through AI-based solutions.

We remind, Lotte Chemical Corp. announced on Monday its commencement of commercial production at the plant of Hydroxy Ethyl Cellulose (product name: Hecellose) in Yeosu, South Jeolla Province earlier this month.

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Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) price experiences a contradictory trend for the US and European market during early March 2024, said Chemanalyst.

In the US market, PET price remained stable during the first week of March 2024, due to the balanced supply chain and uninterrupted operation while market took a growth of around 4.5% in February 2024, attributed to the significant factors from feedstock shortage and logistics interruption. Eventually, PET prices marked stable price during first week of March 2024, However, Alpek Polyester USA, has announced to increase the PET price by around USD 110/MT, in effect from 1st March 2024, owing to the complexities from the upstream and logistics factors, that has been a complex factor in the import. In recent months, the PET market has experienced a shortage of its feedstock i.e. Mono Ethylene Glycol, driven by the shutdown of manufacturing units or reduction in the operation capacities, due to the unfavorable climate conditions. The shortage of MEG (raw material for PET) coupled with the fluctuation in crude oil prices and geological tensions forced the key players to increase the price, including Indorama Ventures and MEGlobal.

European market has experienced the same trend for PET prices, In the first week of March 2024, the price escalated by around 1.2% in Germany while in previous month, price rose by 5.8% on month-on-month basis. This is attributed to the intense feedstock price and supply chain disturbance. Concurrently, the downstream market has lackluster demand during recent months that is why commodity prices hold price stability from the last multiple weeks.

However, price is expected to step up in March 2024, attributed to numerous factors including the protests across the European nations, from Spain to Belgium, farmers are angry on the Governments Green policies and protesting against the policies i.e. Nitrogen emission curbs and Pesticide bans, high business cost and the increasing competition due to abroad imports, creating turmoil for road logistics across the European border as several borders has sealed by the angry protestors, is another interruption for European region along with the global marine logistics disruption.

To Conclude, PET price is expected to increase during upcoming time in USA as well as in European market in coming period as extreme cold weather has been improved that will enlarge the demand from downstream beverages and food packaging industries. Furthermore, crude oil fluctuation coupled with the logistics interruptions may force the producers to increase the price of its feedstock and PET.

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Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd. has decided to transfer its shares in Sumika Color Co., Ltd. (“Sumika Color”) to Nippon Pigment Company Limited (“Nippon Pigment”) and concluded a share transfer agreement with Nippon Pigment, said the company.

The transfer is scheduled to take place on April 30, 2024.

We remind, Sumitomo Chemical has decided to close down its production facilities for cyclohexanone (also known as anone) at its Ehime Works located in Niihama City, Ehime, Japan and exit the business, said the company. The closure of the production facilities is scheduled for the end of March 2024.

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Evonik Industries AG said it has signed an agreement to sell its superabsorbents business to International Chemical Investors Group for an enterprise value in the low triple-digit million euro range, said the company.

The agreement also includes the assumption of pension obligations by ICIG, the company said. The final transfer of the business is planned for mid-2024 following approval by the relevant competition authorities, it said.

Evonik’s superabsorbents business generated sales of €892 million in 2023, with adjusted EBITDA in the mid double-digit million-euro range. On average over the past five years, it achieved an adjusted EBITDA of around €20 million, the company said.

ICIG is taking over the entire business with around 1,000 employees and superabsorber production facilities at Krefeld and Rheinmuenster, Germany, as well as two locations in the US; in Greensboro, North Carolina, and Garyville, Louisiana. The business also includes plants at Marl, Germany, for production of acrylic acid, the most important raw material for superabsorbents, Evonik said.

Christian Kullmann, chairman of Evonik said that the profile of the superabsorbents business no longer fits Evonik’s character as a specialty chemicals company. This agreement is “the second step in the divestment of our performance materials division,” he said.

The first step was the sale of Evonik’s Luelsdorf site and associated businesses in Wesseling to ICIG last year. The third part of the performance materials division are chemicals from the C4 chain, which is a business that is up for sale too, the company said.

Kullmann said earlier today, during a press conference about the company’s 2023 results, that Evonik will not rush the sale of its C4-chemicals business within the current environment, but will wait for the conditions to improve.

ICIG is an experienced chemical investor that has already announced extensive investments in the Luelsdorf site that it acquired in 2023. ICIG has a workforce of more than 6,200 that generates sales of over €4.6 billion per year.

”With its high technological quality as a new platform within ICIG, the superabsorbents business will offer our group new opportunities for further growth,” said Achim Riemann, chairman of the supervisory board of ICIG.

Superabsorbents are powdered polymers used as absorbent materials in diapers and other hygiene products.

We remind, Evonik Hydroxylterminated Polybutadienes Production CapacityEvonik, a specialty chemicals company, begins work to expand its POLYVEST® HT plant in Marl, Germany. The Coating & Adhesive Resins business line expects the additional production capacity for its hydroxyl-terminated polybutadienes (HTPB), marketed under the brand name POLYVEST®, to be ready as early as the second quarter of 2024 following the double-digit million-euro investment.

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A major investment project has been completed at AkzoNobel’s production plant in Bac Ninh province near Hanoi in Vietnam, which will help to strengthen the company’s position in Asia and sharpen its focus on more sustainable manufacturing, said the company.

Five new powder coating lines have been added at the multi-site, along with a line for producing water-based products for the consumer electronics market (IT, wireless and home appliances). The total investment amounts to €18.5 million.

“The cutting-edge powder coating lines we’ve installed will help us to grow with our customers, serve them faster and pave the way for a more sustainable future,” says Jeff Jirak, Managing Director of AkzoNobel’s Powder Coatings business.

“Increasing capacity at the site will enable us to focus on supporting volume growth in the northern part of the country, while our Dong Nai facility covers the southern part of Vietnam. It means we can now focus on streamlining our manufacturing processes to meet the diverse needs of the Vietnam market.”

The work included building a fully automated warehouse for the company’s consumer electronics activities, along with installing advanced equipment and technology to deliver higher productivity rates and efficiency gains. This will contribute to AkzoNobel’s ambition to halve its own carbon emissions by 2030. The installation of a new line for water-based consumer electronics products will also help to lower emissions across the value chain.

“We can now offer the latest water-based technology to our Vietnam-based multinational customers, including key Asian consumer electronic brands,” explains Maximilien Schreder, Global Director of AkzoNobel’s Consumer Electronics business. “This represents another important step forward in terms of helping to reduce the overall carbon footprint of our customers.”

Adding the new lines in Bac Ninh is the latest in a series of investments in the South Asia region, following recent capacity expansions in Pakistan, Thailand and Australia.

We remind, мore than 82 companies, businesses and social organizations – including AkzoNobel – are involved in a major Dutch research program focused on developing new technologies that will help solve some of today’s societal challenges. Seven broad consortia have been established as part of the government-funded “Perspectief” program, with AkzoNobel set to play a leading role in the SusInkCoat project, which will explore how to make inks and coatings more sustainable. AkzoNobel’s Como site is the company’s largest plant for producing powder coatings. It supplies products for seven main market segments: home appliances; architecture; automotive; agriculture and construction machinery; trade coaters; furniture; and general industry.

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