ExxonMobil Chemical to form a new specialty business to supply high-performance compounded polyolefin products
ExxonMobil Chemical announced that it has formed a new specialty compounds and composites business to focus on the development, production, and marketing of engineered polyolefin compounds. The new business is organized to provide customers with efficient delivery of innovative products that fully utilize ExxonMobil’s polymer and process development capabilities and global reach.
The business portfolio includes a new line of ExxonMobil Performance Polyolefins for automotive applications. Products range from soft and flexible compounds to reinforced composites. This is made possible by ExxonMobil’s extensive slate of polypropylene, polyethylene, and elastomer base polymers that can be produced globally and tailored for specialty compounds.
This announcement marks another milestone in ExxonMobil’s commitment to a global compounded products business. The company recently started up a specialty compounding center in Baton Rouge, La., providing complementary capability in North America to that of its existing European facility in Lillebonne, France. In March 2007, ExxonMobil also announced the official opening of its Polymers Automotive Applications Center in Kawasaki, Japan.
Comments: There is no surprise here – somewhat anticipated based on earlier announcements by ExxonMobil Chemical Company (EMCC) previously. Since the AES business has been finally merged into the newly re-organized “Specialty Elastomers Business (SEB)”, EMCC decided to play the market by its leadership position in a broad spectrum of polyolefins products and focusing on the development, production, and marketing of engineered polyolefin compounds. The new business is organized to provide customers with efficient delivery of innovative products that fully utilize EMCC’s polymer and process development capabilities and global reach. The company recently started up a specialty compounding center in Baton Rouge, La., providing complementary capability in North America to that of its existing European facility in Lillebonne, France. In March 2007, ExxonMobil also announced the official opening of its Polymers Automotive Applications Center in Kawasaki, Japan.
Qatar Petroleum to license Basell’s Spheripol technology for PP manufacture
Qatar Petroleum, a global leader in the energy sector, has selected Basell’s Spheripol technology for a new 700 KT per year polypropylene plant that will be built in Mesaieed, Qatar, as part of the Qatar Petrochemical Complex project. The unit will be operated by a joint venture between Qatar Petroleum and Honam Petrochemical of Korea. Start-up is expected in 2011.
According to Basell, with this new license, the company has passed the milestone of 20 million tons of licensed capacity for the Spheripol process. The company said that there are Spheripol plants in 35 countries. Through the refinement of bulk liquid and gas-phase polymerization reactors, this technology includes features that reduce both resource consumption and emissions from the process.
This is the second license sold by Basell in Qatar this year. A Lupotech T low-density polyethylene license was recently granted to QAPCO for a new plant in Mesaieed.
Comments: Basell’s Spheripol technology has been extremely successful and is one of the most widely used polypropylene technology in the world. This complex will have a 700 KT PP plant based on two Spheripol lines and is expected to start in 2011. This grassroots project is a 70:30 joint venture between Qatar Holding and Honam Petrochemical Corporation and will produce some 1.7 million tons per year of propylene, polypropylene, styrene, polystyrene, and aromatics (xylene). The joint venture was expected to begin production by 2011-end. The plant will use ethane and naphtha, provided by Qatar Petroleum, to produce 700 KT of polypropylene, 600 KT of styrene monomer, and 220 KT of polystyrene in addition to significant quantities of propylene and aromatics. This joint venture will be the first petrochemical complex in Qatar to use the available liquid feedstock from projects now operating in Mesaieed and Ras Laffan.
Venezuelan company to increase PE capacity using NOVA Chemicals’ SCLAIRTECH™ technology
NOVA Chemicals announced that Polinter C.A., a leading Venezuelan polyethylene manufacturer, has chosen to expand its LLDPE/HDPE polyethylene capacity utilizing NOVA Chemicals’ proprietary SCLAIRTECH™ technology.
The capacity expansion will add 40 kilotonnes (88 million pounds) to the “El Tablazo” facility. Upon completion of the expansion in the last quarter of 2008, the facility will produce a total of 215 kilotonnes (474 million pounds) of polyethylene, using SCLAIRTECH solution-phase technology. The plant manufactures linear low-density (LLDPE) and high-density (HDPE) butene and octene copolymers.
Comments: Low-pressure polyethylene processes are used in the production of linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE). There are 3 major types of low-pressure technologies, namely (1) slurry, (2) solution, and (3) gas phase. Commercially important solution processes include The Dow Chemical Company’s DowlexÒ process, Stamicarbon’s CompactÒ solution process, and NOVA Chemicals’ Advanced SclairtechÒ Technology (AST). NOVA acquired the rights to SCLAIRTECH technology, the SCLAIRÒ trademark, and the worldwide SCLAIRTECH licensing business when it acquired DuPont Canada’s polyethylene business in 1994. NOVA also licenses, Advanced SCLAIRTECH technology, or AST, a significantly upgraded version of SCLAIRTECH technology based on a number of modifications and centered on a set of 2 sequential autoclave reactors, each fitted with independent monomer, comonomer, and catalyst feed systems plus high-intensity mixing technology.
Pointer already has a Sclairtech based 120 KT LLDPE/HDPE capacity at El Tabalzo. The company is increasing its capacity by 33% to a new total of 160 KT.
National Iranian Petrochemical Company (NIPC) to acquire 60% stake in Philippines Bataan Polyethylene Corporation
NIPC will produce 100 KT per year of polyethylene in the first phase of its joint venture and cooperation at Bataan petrochemical site. The production capacity of petrochemical products by NIPC is expected to reach 23 million tons per year by 2012.
Furthermore, NIPC will produce six million tons of ethylene, three million tons of polymer, three million tons of ethylene glycol, 5.5 million tons of methanol, and 900,000 tons of polypropylene.
Iran’s joint venture with Bataan Polyethylene Corporation will play an important role in promoting the country’s petrochemical industry.
Comments: Bataan Polyethylene Company (BPC) was closed a year after it went into operation. Now the company will remain solvent as National Petrochemical Co., a subsidiary of Iran’s NPC International, has agreed to infuse $100 million for the reoperation of Bataan Polyethylene Corp. (BPC) after buying out a 60 percent stake of the NPC Alliance Corp. of the Gatchalian-owned firm Metro Alliance Holdings and Equities. NPCI and Metro Alliance Holdings and Equities had earlier signed a long-term contract for the supply of feedstock to the BPC. With the entry of the Iranian firm, the Gatchalians are now limited to a minority 40 percent stake in the NPC Alliance Corp. Apart from continuing the production of polyethylene, the Iranian firm is also looking at the production of downstream petrochemical products. BPC owns a 275 KT linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE)/high-density polyethylene (HDPE) swing plant. The idle plant is located at the PPDC Petrochemical Park in Mariveles, Bataan or 140 kilometers from Manila. The plant started commercial operations in 2001 and was operated for about a year till 2002.
Thai PVC producers TPC starts new PVC plant and sells older plants to Vietnam
Thai Plastic and Chemicals recently opened a new world-scale PVC plant at Map Ta Phut, Rayong. The company will disassemble and export to Vietnam in December part of an older plant at Samutprakarn, near Bangkok.
The Thai PVC manufacturer and distributor started commercial operations at a 120 KT per year plant at Map Ta Phut in August. The older plant at Samutprakarn can produce 90 KT per year. It comprises two units that can yield 60 KT per year and 30 KT per year.
TPC VINA Plastics and Chemical Co. Ltd. — a PVC joint venture company in Vietnam in which TPC has a 70% controlling stake — will buy the 60 KT per year unit and debottleneck it at its production site in Go Dau, in Vietnam’s Dong Nai province.
The debottlenecking project was expected to boost the unit’s yield to 90 KT per year. TPC will then scrap the 30 KT PVC unit at Samutprakarn.
The combined costs of the plant’s purchase and debottlenecking were expected to cost TPC VINA $36 million. When completed, it would boost the firm’s total PVC capacity to 190 KT per year in Go Dau in Dong Nai province. Vietnam’s state-owned Vietnam Plastic Corp (VinaPlast) has 30% ownership of TPC VINA. The joint venture company is one of two PVC producers in Vietnam.
The country’s other PVC maker, Phu My Plastic and Chemicals, also has a 100 KT per year capacity, in Vung Tau province about 20 km from Dong Nai. TPC handles the purchase of vinyl chloride monomer feedstock for TPC. VINA, from its corporate head office in Bangkok. All of the latter’s VCM is imported, mostly from Japan, followed by South Korea and Malaysia.
Comments: This agreement between the Thai company and the Vietnamese firm is a symbiotic one. The demand for PVC is increasing in Asia and hence an additional unit in Vietnam will help reduce its dependence on imports.
INEOS NOVA to close polystyrene Plant in Mexico
INEOS NOVA announced that it plans to shut down its Montréal, PQ polystyrene production by the end of 2007. The site has an annual production capacity of 120 million pounds (55 kilotons) of polystyrene.
The shutdown will remove approximately 6% of INEOS NOVA’s North American polystyrene production capacity. This action represents the first step toward achieving the estimated $50 million annual North American synergies target for INEOS NOVA.
Comments: Nova just finished combining the polystyrene assets with its joint venture with INEOS and now company is consolidating its assets to compete effectively. The company recently secured exclusive rights to styrene production at Sterling Chemical’s Texas City, Texas, facility. Nova will transfer the rights to the joint venture, Ineos Nova, when it launches on Oct. 1. Ineos Nova will also pay the $60 million price for the rights.
The capacity reduction will allow improvements in the operating rate. Over the last 2 years, due to the closures in polystyrene capacity in Europe, the operating rates improved from about 75% to 90% and NOVA INEOS joint venture is trying to repeat the European situation.
Sud-Chemie sells Nanofil unit to Rockwood Specialties
Sud-Chemie, the German chemicals group, has sold its Nanofil unit, which offers a nanocomposite filler product line for polymer applications, to Rockwood Specialties, the US special chemicals company. This forms part of a plan by the German group to concentrate on catalysts and adsorbents.
Comments: This is a win-win situation for both companies involved. For Rockwood Specialties, this is a step in the right direction – establishing the leadership in the emerging nanoclay market by acquiring additional products/technical skills to expand its current capabilities in cloisite nanoclay products. For Sud-Chemie, this is pretty much a pragmatic decision to get rid of the Nanofil operation that was not a good strategic fit within its chemicals operation to begin with. We understand that this new acquisition will be incorporated into Rockwood Clay Additives business unit, which also includes Southern Clay Products in the US, Rockwood Additives in the UK and Rockwood Clay Additives in Germany.
PetroRabigh project will have logistical issues
PetroRabigh (Rabigh, Saudi Arabia), a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Sumitomo Chemical, will face major logistical challenges when its approximately $10-billion petrochemical complex comes onstream in October, 2008. The PetroRabigh complex is currently under construction at Rabigh. According to Sumitomo, there will be a need to export 5,000 MT per day of solid products, transporting them on trucks from Rabigh to Jeddah and then loading them onto ships. PetroRabigh also will export liquids, including 200 KT per year of propylene oxide and 600 KT per year of ethylene glycol. The JV will have to hire 800 trucks.
Comments: Shipping and logistics are going to be a big problem for the Middle Eastern region due large amounts of capacities coming on-stream during the same time-frame.
OMV announces its plans to acquire MOL
OMV announced its intention to acquire Hungarian energy and petrochemicals company MOL. As a first step in that direction, the company sent a a letter along with this Declaration of Intent to MOL’s Board of Directors. The Board of OMV reiterated its invitation to MOL’s Board to enter into a constructive dialogue, with the ultimate objective of realizing a combination which would enhance the strengths of both companies and benefit all stakeholders.
The Board of OMV is prepared to offer to MOL’s shareholders HUF 32,000 per share of MOL in cash once the impediments to achieve voting control of MOL have been removed. This price represents a 43.6% premium to MOL’s unaffected share price of HUF 22,290 on May 21, 2007, the day before speculative investments in MOL started, and an 18.7% premium to the share price at the close of business last night. In addition, OMV is prepared to offer up to 25% of the consideration in the form of OMV shares.
OMV’s offer will be conditional solely on (1) securing at least 50% voting control of MOL and (2) securing EU anti-trust approval.. OMV has undertaken an antitrust pre-notification process with the European Commission. OMV has already lined up a syndicate of banks to provide financing for the proposed transaction.
Comments: Earlier this year, OMV increased its ownership in MOL to 20.2%. The combination of OMV and MOL will present a unique strategic opportunity to create one of Europe’s leading integrated oil and gas companies, with a focus on the fast growing regions of Central and Eastern Europe.
The benefits achieved by combination will include: (1) enhanced growth opportunities, (2) economies of scale, (3) secured energy supply, and others.
OMV-MOL will have the scale to compete more effectively with Europe’s major integrated oil and gas companies, positioning it well to take advantage of enhanced growth opportunities. In particular OMV-MOL’s focus will be on the high growth CEE/Danube basin region. This region, with average GDP growth of approximately 3.4% per year and automotive fuel products demand growth of approximately 1 million tons per year since 2004, continues to offer substantial opportunity for further development. Furthermore, by combining their international operations, know-how and expertise, OMV-MOL can compete far more effectively for growth in the upstream sector.
In addition, the combination of OMV’s and MOL’s upstream operations brings together their respective expertise in the mature fields of the Danube basin to enable the combined group to better capture the most attractive opportunities and maximise the value of their existing infrastructure.
The combination of OMV and MOL will significantly enhance security of energy supply throughout the region for the combined group through both greater diversification of crude oil supply, as well as the greater scale in upstream to generate additional growth of the combined resource base. Through providing significant strength to the combined group in ongoing fuel supply it will also increase security for the whole region.
Meredian Inc. acquires PHA technology from Procter & Gamble
Meredian, Inc. a privately held Georgia corporation announced the acquisition of an extensive intellectual property portfolio from The Procter & Gamble Company relating to Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) technology. Procter & Gamble developed the technology through more than a decade of research, resulting in a highly functional and cost effective material, which will now be produced commercially by Meredian, Inc.
Meredian will use the technology to manufacture new biopolymers using renewable resources, further reducing the global dependence on petroleum products in the production of plastics.
Meredian expects to begin construction in 2008 on the first of four planned production facilities; the first will be located in the Southeastern United States. Meredian plans to produce over 600 million pounds of biopolymers annually.
According to the company, Meredian polymers work well in many traditional plastic applications by retaining product quality and convenience while reducing the burden on landfills. Meredian polymers will biodegrade either aerobically or anaerobically. This means the material will be quickly reabsorbed into the natural environment with no adverse ecological or health affects. Degradation occurs in septic systems, commercial waste water treatment systems, composting environments or even cold ocean waters. In these environments, naturally occurring bacteria use Meredian polymers as a food source and accelerate degradation.
Meredian Inc. was formed in 2007 following the successful start of the DaniMer Scientific business in 2004 by Dr. Daniel Carraway. Dr. Carraway received his PhD from the University of Georgia and spent more than a decade in industry developing and commercializing new technologies. Mr. Lindsey joined DaniMer in late 2004 following a distinguished career in the forest products industry. These key leaders have enabled the successful introduction of a modified PLA-based product line and more recently the development and launch of Seluma Technologies, which offers a proprietary line of polycondensation-based biopolymers. With the addition of Meredian PHA biopolymers, the company can offer a comprehensive selection of biopolymers; supporting their core values of utilizing sustainably produced, renewable resource based polymers to improve people’s lives and work.
Comments: During 1970’s and 80’s P&G was faced with solid waste issues related to its products such as plastic packages, diapers and other disposable products. During the 90s they started switching to biodegradable packaging materials, but the problem they faced was availability of 100 percent biodegradable materials in the market. As a result a R&D program was started focusing on development of PHAs (Polyhydroxy alkanoates). In 2002, they signed a joint development agreement with Kaneka Corporation. The result was a line of products known as the Nodax family, primarily, targeted towards hygiene and medical applications. In 2005, Kaneka licensed the technology from P&G to produce commercial quantities of Nodax in Europe where demand for biodegradable materials was on the rise. The product did find some market penetration initially, but did not grow as expected.
The Nodax PHAs are different from the other PHA materials (e.g. Metabolix’s Mirel). The major difference in technology is that the Nodax family is that they are branched and are molecularly analogous to LDPE. The major benefits in comparison to conventional PHA materials are in terms of processability (Low Tm, high melt viscosity) and end-use properties (lower glass transition temperature). Further, due to lower crystallinity, they have enhanced bio-degradability. Further, the technology allows for producing di-, tri- and tetra-copolymers.
Meredian Inc. was formed earlier this year, following the successful start of DaniMer Scientific in 2004, with focus on bio-based plastic materials. They successfully introduced a modified PLA-based product line and more recently developed and launched Seluma Technologies, which offers a proprietary line of polycondensation-based biopolymers. With the addition of PHA biopolymers, the company can offer a comprehensive selection of biopolymers for various applications covering different cost/performance requirements.
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