DATE : 2014-03-31
US acrylic acid and acrylate esters, like other markets closely linked to construction and coatings, has been challenged by persistently harsh winter weather in the northeast, but participants are mostly hopeful about near-term demand.
While non-cyclical downstream segments such as adhesives, water treatment and super-absorbent polymers are reporting steady, albeit low-key demand, coatings customers are anticipating the “seasonal bump”, tentative though it appears so far.
Although memories of the severely delayed spring 2013 coatings season are still fresh on the collective mind, some players were optimistic heading into this year’s International Petrochemical Conference (IPC), even if their reasons vary.
“It’s not the weather that’s holding back the economy,” a buyer said. “It’s pockets of the economy. If people say the economy is bad, it tends to be bad – a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
The market will see residual demand from insurance-related rebuilding stemming from the devastating storms of 2013 after the winter of 2014 is over, the buyer added.
“That is going to happen. Reconstruction will take place on the other side of this. There’s always a reason for hope,” the customer said. “The amount of damage that was and is being done to residences will need to be repaired. That is pent-up demand.”
Others are less positive.
“The market is long, demand is weak and spot prices are low and disconnected from contracts,” another customer said. And yet another customer said that overall glacial acrylic acid (GAA) is strong, but that downward price pressure is still in play.
But on one point there is consensus.
“Until we get some kind of clear direction and reason for homeowners to buy homes or renovate, there’s no way to justify the view that the recovery is here to stay,” a buyer said. “The recovery is so tentative right now; that’s the problem.”
“There’s not enough ground-breaking going on to drive demand, so much of it is or will be storm-damage repair – not reflective of a healthy economy – as would be housing starts and other new construction.
Downstream signals are somewhat mixed.
In spite of some recent positive housing numbers, US sales of new single-family homes fell by 3.3% in February from January, the Commerce Department recently reported.
Last month’s selling pace also was 1.1% below activity seen in February 2013. The recent decline partly offset a sharp 9.6% gain recorded in January, which had ended two months of declines, including a 7% drop in December.
Major US acrylates suppliers include Arkema, Dow Chemical, BASF and Sasol.
SOURCE Icis News
DATE : 2014-03-31
Samsung SDI Co., a supplier of batteries to Apple Inc., agreed to buy Cheil Industries Inc. for about 3.5 trillion won ($3.3 billion) in stock to add chemical and electronic material businesses.
Cheil investors will receive about 0.44 of a share in an enlarged SDI for each share they own, according to a regulatory filing. Samsung SDI said the deal will take effect from July 1 if approved by stockholders. Share of both companies gained today.
The deal to combine two members of the Samsung Group, South Korea’s largest business group, expands the reach of SDI’s lithium-ion battery business through the chemical and materials supply chain of Cheil. Samsung is seeking a larger share of growing demand for rechargeable powercells in electric vehicles while also pushing to gain control of organic light-emitting diode technology used in displays.
“In the long run it’s a good buy for SDI because the merger will create synergies for both in areas such as cars and OLEDs,” Kim Chang Jin, a Seoul-based analyst at NH Investment & Securities said by phone today. “This will also help Cheil expand its customer channel to supply electronics materials and components as it literally has no customers in car industry so far.”
Samsung SDI jumped 6.6 percent, the most since September, to close at 161,000 won in Seoul. Cheil added 5.8 percent, the most since December 2011, to 71,700 won. Both companies are based in Gyeonggi province, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) south of Seoul.
Car batteries
The combined operations will target annual sales of more than 29 trillion won in 2020, Samsung SDI said in a separate statement today. The offer is worth about 3.5 trillion won vased on the March 28 closing price of Cheil.
In the short term, the deal will create financial strain for Samsung SDI, said Heo Pil Seok, the chief executive officer at Midas International, which oversees about $8.9 billion. In the longer term the acquisition will help SDI strengthen its battery business, he said.
“The latest deal implies that the group is seeing a bigger potential in batteries,” said Jae H. Lee, a Seoul-based analyst at Daiwa Securities Group Inc. “SDI is trying to expand its battery sales to global carmakers. With lackluster demand for OLED TVs, Cheil may use its OLED materials for dash boards or lighting in cars.”
Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s biggest maker of memory chips and smartphones, owns 20.4 percent of SDI, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
SOURCE Bloomberg
DATE : 2014-03-31
Versalis’s project to build new butadiene (BD) production at its site in Dunkirk, France, has been frozen, a company source said on Sunday.
Speaking on the sidelines of the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers’ (AFPM) International Petrochemical Conference (IPC), the company source said the project had been frozen and “may be close to disappearing” as the possibility of importing ethane into Dunkirk as cracker feedstock instead is looked at.
“Ethane could come to Dunkirk,” the source said, “gas furnaces are already there.” “We only have to build logistics,” the source said, adding that the cracker would maintain “some kind of flexibility” with regard to cracker feedstock.
Versalis announced back in July 2012 that it would build a new 70,000 tonne/year BD unit at the site where it already operates a 380,000 tonne/year ethylene cracker, according to ICIS data. The new BD unit would start up at the end of this year, or early 2015, the company said.
Additionally, there had been several BD capacity announcements by European producers in a market already structurally long. "Other companies have announced [new and expanded capacity] so maybe it's close to disappeared."
SOURCE Icis News
DATE : 2014-03-31
South Korea’s Daesan MMA (DMMA) has resumed operations at its 98,000 tonne/year methyl methacrylate (MMA) plant in Yeosu earlier this week, a source close to the company confirmed on Friday.
The plant was taken offline two weeks ago for a scheduled turnaround.
After this week's restart, the facility is running at approximately 85%, a separate source said.
The company is a joint venture between Japan’s Mitsubishi Rayon Co (MRC) and South Korea’s Honam Petrochemical.
SOURCE Icis News
DATE : 2014-03-26
The Petrochemical Corporation of Singapore (PCS) is expected to resume production at its 60,000 tonne/year butadiene (BD) extraction unit in Jurong Island, Singapore, by the end of March, market sources said.
The BD unit was shut down unexpectedly on 18 March because of technical issues, market sources said.
The 12-day unplanned shutdown is expected to result in a production shortfall of about 2,000 tonnes, market sources said.
SOURCE Icis News
DATE : 2014-03-26
LG Chem shut a styrene monomer (SM) plant for maintenance turnaround.The plant was shut on March 23, 2014. It is likely to remain off-stream for around two weeks, according to a Polymerupdate source in South Korea.Located at Daesan, South Korea, the plant has a production capacity of 180,000 mt/year.
SOURCE Icis News
DATE : 2014-03-25
At the forthcoming AFPM International Petrochemical Conference in San Antonio, TX, US Solvay Aroma Performance will present an updated range of monomer stabilizer, TBC Optima, capitalizing on its long lasting expertise in monomer technologies and savoir-faire to the benefit of styrene, butadiene and rubber industries. Solvay's TBC Optima is designed to ensure the highest benefits at each step of TBC utilization: monomer manufacturing, storage and transport. End-use market applications of monomers stabilized with TBC are extremely broad and include coatings, surface treatment, home appliances , automotive , toys, isolation etc. With this new product launch available on a worldwide basis, Solvay Aroma Performance einforces its leading position of unique producer fully integrated in the diphenol-based inhibitors value chain.
SOURCE Icis News
DATE : 2014-03-26
Japan’s Asahi Kasei Chemical plans to restart its styrene monomer (SM) units in April after completing maintenance, a company source said on Wednesday.
Its 390,000 tonne/year No.3 unit, located in Mizushima, will be restarted on 1 April after being shut for maintenance in early March.
Its 320,000 tonne/year No.2 unit, at the same location, will be restarted around the middle of April. The unit was shut in mid-February for a turnaround.
The company’s 150,000 tonne/year No 1 SM unit was mothballed in 2007.
Other Japanese SM makers include Denka and Idemitsu Kosan Chemicals.
SOURCE Icis News
DATE : 2014-03-10
Arkema, France, has agreed joint venture terms with Jurong Chemical, the 5th producer of acrylic acid in the world and leader in China. The joint venture Sunke, has a plant at Taixing, 200 km from Shanghai, China, with 400 employees and 2 lines of 160,000 tonnes/y each. A 3rd line is planned to open in 2015, to bring the site capacity to 480,000 tonnes/y. Arkema claims Asia accounts for 53% of global consumption of acrylic acid, calculated at 4.8 M tonnes in 2013, of which 25% was for China, which is growing at 7-8%. Arkema has recently brought its capacity in Clear Lake, TX, USA, to 270,00 tonnes/y acrylic acid. It also has 50% of Nippon Shokubai, with a 65,000 tonnes/y plant in Bayport, TX,USA. The Arkema site in Carling, Moselle, France, has a capacity of 275,000 tonnes/y.
SOURCE Double-Liaison
DATE : 2014-03-21
Ineos announced today that it is taking legal action against Sinopec and Sinopec subsidiaries, including Sinopec Ningbo Engineering Co. (SNEC), for breach of contract and/or misuse of trade secrets. Ineos says that SNEC has broken a long-established technology agreement which, together with trade secret misuse by other Sinopec companies, has enabled development of a series of world-scale acrylonitrile plants without Ineos’s agreement or consent. Ineos says it fears that these breaches of rights will cause major harm to its acrylonitrile business which generates up to $500 million/year of profit and has a replacement value of $3 billion. Ineos is pursuing parallel actions in the Beijing High Court and through arbitration in Sweden.
“We have good and valuable relationships with Sinopec and other Chinese companies across our business," says Jim Ratcliffe, chairman of Ineos. "But in this case, we have to take action to protect the interests of our stakeholders. The fundamental value of a business like Ineos depends on its intellectual property which includes trade secrets and patents, covering technology, design and operations. Unless we protect our intellectual property, ultimately we will see the demise of Ineos.”
Sinopec has denied the charge. The company told Reuters that its subsidiary Shanghai Research Institute of Petrochemical Technology has developed what became a core technology after 50 years of research. "Sinopec has full proprietary intellectual property rights over such technology. There is no ground for the infringement alleged by Ineos," the company told Reuters.
Ineos says it cannot comment on the detail of Sinopec's counter argument and says that this will be at the heart of the issues that will be debated in the Chinese courts and in the Swedish arbitration. "Our legal action concerns the technology used in a recently commissioned 130,000-m.t./year acrylonitrile plant at Anqing. This plant claims to use Sinopec's own acrylonitrile technology. However, Ineos has evidence that Anqing is using specific Ineos technology without any license from Ineos," the company says. "Sinopec is also in the process of building a number of other large scale acrylonitrile plants, again, without any technology license from Ineos. It has recently become apparent to Ineos that SNEC has laso been at the heart of many of Sinopec's recent acrylonitrile projects in China," Ineos adds.
"SNEC has been the sole engineering firm used by Ineos in acrylonitrile licensing in China for 30 years. SNEC's entire prior knowledge of designing and constructing acrylonitrile plants has been obtained as a result of this relationship. They have agreed to work exclusively on Ineos's secret and patented acrylonitrile technology," Ineos says. Ineos recently announced plans to jointly build a phenol plant with Sinopec and an acrylonitrile plant with Tianjin Bohai. Ineos says its acrylonitrile technology provides the basis for over 90% of the world’s production.
SOURCE Chemweek's Business Daily
DATE : 2014-03-21
China’s Shandong Wanda Chemical has started test trial of its on-purpose 150,000 tonne/year butadiene (BD) plant at Dongying in Shandong province, market sources said on Friday.
The new BD plant is unlikely to run at full rate, or may even shut after its test trial is completed because of negative margins, given the current weak BD prices, market sources said.
The plant uses butene as a feedstock to produce BD through dehydrogenation, the source said.
Chinese domestic BD spot prices have dropped by more than yuan (CNY) 2,000/tonne since early February to CNY8,600-8,9000/tonne delivered in east China on 20 March, according to Chemease, an ICIS service in China.
SOURCE Icis News
DATE : 2014-03-20
Dow Chemical’s butadiene (BD) unit at Boehlen in Germany is running at reduced rates because of technical issues, a company source said on Thursday.
The issue, which was undisclosed, started to impact operations today.
“[The issue] is clear, its fixable and simple,” the source said, adding that rates would be reduced for around a week.
The unit, which has a nameplate capacity of 105,000 tonnes of BD a year, experienced a separate issue two weeks ago which had been resolved.
The company has not declared force majeure.
This latest production constraint comes as European BD supply is already tight with two forces majeures in place and a planned maintenance turnaround underway.
Additionally, there is talk of of technical problems at another European unit, but details are sketchy and have not been confirmed.
SOURCE Icis News
DATE : 2014-03-19
Adults hospitalised with H1N1 influenza during the 2009-2010 pandemic were 25% less likely to die from the disease if they were given antiviral drugs called neuraminidase inhibitors (NAIs) such as Tamiflu®, according to a large meta-analysis involving more than 29 000 patients from 38 countries, published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine journal. The findings also indicate that treatment within 2 days of flu symptoms developing halved the risk of death compared with later treatment or no treatment.
"Many governments have stockpiles of Tamiflu that are close to expiry. But until now, they had no adequate data to assist them in deciding if lives were saved in 2009-2010 or not, and whether they should replenish or not"*, explains lead author Professor Jonathan Nguyen-Van-Tam, from the University of Nottingham in the UK.
"The situation is made more complex by the fact that when an influenza pandemic occurs, even with the best will in the world, vaccine arrives six months too late and its public health benefit is therefore moderate at best. Thus we are left with antivirals like Tamiflu and public health measures like handwashing and social distancing as the only defences we have for the first 6 months of a pandemic."*
Nguyen-Van-Tam, and colleagues from the Post-pandemic Review of anti-Influenza Drug Effectiveness (PRIDE) research consortium, did a meta-analysis of individual patient data to assess the effects of NAI treatment (primarily Tamiflu) on death in patients hospitalised with confirmed or suspected H1N1 infection between January 2, 2009 and March 14, 2011. Using statistical modelling, the researchers compensated for the effects of treatment propensity (likelihood of treatment) as well as other confounding factors such as treatment with corticosteroids and antibiotics and health-care seeking behaviour.
Analysis of data from 78 studies involving 29 234 patients of all ages revealed that treatment with NAIs (at any time) reduced the risk of death by 19%, compared with no treatment.
The researchers report that to maximise survival, ideally NAIs should be started within 2 days of symptoms developing. The risk of death was halved when starting treatment within 48 hours of symptom onset compared with later treatment, or no antiviral treatment. Each day that starting antiviral treatment was delayed after 2 days from illness onset was associated with about a 20% increase in the risk of death compared with treatment started within 2 days.
Importantly, they noted much the same survival benefit in pregnant women and adult patients in intensive care with more severe symptoms, but observed no significant mortality reduction in children (aged 0 years).
According to Professor Nguyen-Van-Tam, "Since placebo-controlled trials of NAIs are not ethically feasible during a pandemic, the evidence we have assembled is likely to be the best that is available. Our data suggest that in line with US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations, treatment guidance policies should emphasise that NAI treatment should be started as soon as possible for any hospitalised adult who presents with influenza that is suspected or confirmed. Since so many patients with severe influenza are not admitted to hospital within 48 hours of symptom onset, the same applies to adults in the community who are appreciably unwell with influenza like illness or who have underlying risk conditions. If clinical suspicion is high, one should not wait for laboratory confirmation before starting treatment."*
Writing in a linked Comment, Alicia Fry from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the USA says, "As expected, early treatment seems to be optimal, and treatment shouldn't be delayed by even 1 day to wait for diagnostic test results; however, if the patient presents for care more than 2 days after illness onset, treatment might still have some benefit, especially if they are severely ill. Although additional evidence for the benefits of NAI treatment in children admitted to hospital, and how to optimise treatment, are needed, in the absence of any other influenza-specific treatment, the potential benefit from NAI treatment for severely ill children is substantial and outweighs any potential risk associated with treatment."
She concludes, "Continuing efforts to identify other anti-influenza treatment options, especially those with different virus targets or mechanisms of action, might improve our ability to care for severely ill patients with influenza and reduce the risk of mortality further."
SOURCE The Lancet Respiratory Medicine
DATE : 2014-03-18
Styrindo Mono Indonesia (SMI) resumed production at its 250,000 tonne/year styrene monomer (SM) unit over the weekend after completing scheduled maintenance at the unit, a company source said on Tuesday.
The facility located in Merak was shut on 22 February and restarted on 15 March, the source said.
SMI also operates a 100,000 tonne/year No 1 SM unit at the same location. This unit was operating normally during the shutdown of the No 2 plant.
The company is the lone producer of SM in Indonesia.
SOURCE Icis News
DATE : 2014-03-18
China’s Sinopec Qilu Petrochemical and Wanda Group are scheduled to complete the construction of a 130,000 tonne/year acrylonitrile (ACN) unit at Dongying in Shandong province on 25 September, Sinopec said on Tuesday.
This first phase of the ACN project, which is a joint venture between Sinopec Qilu and Wanda Group, will be commissioned in October.
The construction timeline for the second 130,000 tonne/year ACN unit at the same Dongying site was not given.
State-owned oil giant Sinopec is the parent company of Sinopec Qilu Petrochemical.
SOURCE Icis News