Attachment(s)
DATE : 2015-04-23
Though PEEK is increasing penetration across various sectors, high price of PEEK compared to other plastics remains a key challenge, according to a Grand View Research report
Rapid industrialisation in Asian and Latin American countries, and growing demand from sectors such as automotive, packaging, medical, electrical & electronics, etc is driving the global polyether ether ketone (PEEK) market, which is expected to reach $765.7 million by 2020, according to a new study by Grand View Research Inc. The global PEEK demand is expected to reach 7,562.7 tonnes by 2020 - growing at a CAGR of 8.4 percent from 2014 to 2020 – from 4,320 tonnes in 2013.
Shift towards reducing overall weight of automobiles by substituting metals with high performance plastics is expected to drive the global polyether ether ketone market over the forecast period. Stringent regulations particularly in the US and Europe to minimise fuel consumption by improving fuel efficiency have prompted PEEK adoption across the automotive industry. “Superior performance features have also contributed towards its increasing penetration across medical, food, semiconductors, aerospace and industrial sectors. High price of PEEK compared to other plastics is expected to remain a key challenge for market participants,” said Grand View Research in a press release.
Glass filled emerged as the leading PEEK product and accounted for 47.6 percent of total market volume in 2013. The growth in demand for glass filled PEEK, which is widely used across electrical & electronics and industrial applications, is expected to be fuelled by the growing electrical & electronics industry in Asia Pacific in coming years. Carbon filled PEEK is expected to witness the highest growth of 8.8 percent from 2014 to 2020 on account of its increasing application base across clinical and aerospace industries.
“PEEK is majorly used for industrial applications which accounted for 27.6% of total market volume 2013. Stringent environment regulations for packaging are expected to drive PEEK demand for industrial applications. In addition, rapid industrialisation rates in Asian and Latin American countries are also expected to have a positive impact on the market growth over the forecast period,” added the Grand View Research report.
Strong shift in trend towards replacing metals with high performance plastics in the US and Europe will drive the demand for PEEK from automotive segment, which is expected to witness the highest growth of 8.9 percent from 2014 to 2020.
Medical and aerospace application segments are also expected to witness significant growth. Currently, polyether ether ketone is majorly used as an efficient product for spinal surgeries in medical industry. In aerospace industry, PEEK is used as a raw material for new generation passenger aircrafts.
Europe emerged as a leading regional market and accounted for 55.6 percent in 2013. Favourable regulatory scenario coupled with presence of major PEEK manufacturers is likely to drive the regional market in the near future. “Asia Pacific is expected to witness the highest growth of 15 percent from 2014 to 2020. Positive outlook on regional automotive industry is expected to drive the regional market over the forecast period,” said the report.
SOURCE Business Standard
DATE : 2015-04-22
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co is planning to spend $550 million on a new tire plant in Mexico, a person familiar with the matter said, the latest in a string of investment pledges in the country's booming auto sector.
The Goodyear plant, which will begin operations in 2017, will produce tires primarily for the domestic market, said the person, who declined to be named as the investment was not yet public. The company is expected to announce the investment at a joint event with the government on Friday in Mexico City, the person said. Goodyear spokesman Eduardo Arguelles declined to comment.
The investment comes shortly after automakers Toyota , Ford and Volkswagen unveiled major expansion plans in Mexico, taking advantage of Mexico's low wages, free trade agreements and proximity to the United States.
Last week, Toyota said it would spend $1 billion on a passenger car plant, and Ford said it would spend $2.5 billion on engine and transmission operations. German Volkswagen said last month it will invest about $1 billion to expand its vehicle assembly plant in Mexico's Puebla state.
Source: Reuters
DATE : 2015-04-22
Evonik’s new 100,000 tonnes/year butadiene (BD) unit in Antwerp, Belgium, is in the start-up phase, a company spokesman said on Tuesday.
“Our butadiene unit in Antwerp is not operational yet. We are now in the start-up phase. We aim to start the production soon,” the spokesman said without elaborating further.
The new BD unit had been planned to come online some time during the second quarter of 2015.
There is much interest among European BD market players as to when exactly this and two other new BD units will come onstream this year to determine supply and demand balances.
Although the market is currently constrained by supply issues, these are resolving and the outlook for any structural improvement in demand is flat.
The status of OMV's new capacity BD unit in Burghausen, Germany, is unclear – production here is planned also for the second quarter, while MOL-TVK’s new unit in Tiszaujvaros, Hungary is expected later in the third quarter.
SOURCE Icis News
Attachment(s)
DATE : 2015-04-15
Rocket Lab is a Lockheed Martin-funded startup that dreams of taking small satellites to space for an affordable price -- but it wants to do so using technology quite different than usual. See, the company has revealed that its engine called the "Rutherford" is (1) composed mostly of 3D-printed parts, and (2) uses batteries instead of liquid fuel. It will paired up with the company's Electron launch system, and together they make up the first battery-powered rocket, or so the startup claims. By using lithium polymer batteries (and hence, electricity) to propel the rocket, the company can get rid of all the tubes and pumps needed for systems that use liquid power sources.
In addition, it takes merely three days to print the components of the Rutherford engine out of titanium and other alloys, using an advanced form of 3D printing called "electron beam melting." (If those components are manufactured via traditional means, it will take up to a month instead.) That means Rocket Labs', well, rockets, are lighter, can be manufactured faster and will cost clients less money per launch. In fact, the startup believes it will cost only around $4.9 million to send the 65 feet x 3 feet system to space, carrying a payload that weighs up to 220 pounds. It plans to start ferrying satellites and other payloads out there in 2016.
While intriguing, the Rutherford-Electron rocket is far from being the first one to use electric propulsion. The Dawn spacecraft that's on its way to proto-planet Ceres has an electric engine on board. Plus, NASA is developing a next-gen ion thruster (which, yes, uses electric propulsion) for its future asteroîd mission.
SOURCE Engadget
DATE : 2015-04-10
Petrochemical Corporation of Singapore (PCS) will shut its new 100,000 tonne/year butadiene (BD) extraction unit for two weeks from end-May for statutory inspection, according to market sources on Friday.
The new 100,000 tonne/year BD unit started up in May 2014 and is scheduled for statutory inspection in May this year, market sources said.
The company also has a 60,000 tonne/year BD unit, which will run at full rate during this period.
Both the BD units are located at Jurong Island, Singapore.
SOURCE Icis News
DATE : 2015-04-10
China’s Shanghai SECCO Petrochemical has achieved on-spec acrylonitrile (ACN) after trial runs at its two new lines in Shanghai, a company source said on Friday.
“Starting from the end of March, we took trial runs at the two new lines each with a capacity of 130,000 tonnes/year one by one at the same site,” the source added.
However, the source declined to disclose the operation rate.
Market sources expect the increment of production at the plant to be less than 20,000 tonnes during April.
SOURCE Icis News
DATE : 2015-03-09
On March 21, Bayer CropScience posted a news release in Beijing, themed under “Leading the Future”, to promote the sustainable development of China’s agriculture industry. Bayer CropScience released eight crop protection products for the Chinese market, involving five areas of rice, corn, wheat, vegetable and fruits, cementing its leading position in these fields.
The eight newly introduced brands are Routine Start, seed treatment product used on rice; Qiu Zhi Bao, rice herbicide; Sunato, seed treatment product on corn; Adengo, corn herbicide; Hombre, seed treatment product on wheat; Bacara Forte, cereal herbicide; Luna Experience, fungicide focused on banana and Movento Smart, insecticide used in vegetable. With years of R&D and many experiments, the new products will help farmers increase crop yield, guarantee the health of crops and improve the quality of agricultural products, while at the same time trying best to reduce footprint on the environment.
“Through supplementing and improving existing integrated crop solutions, the new products could solve farmers’ problems in China and better serve customers,” said Cheng Cheng, Head of Marketing, Bayer CropScience China. “A sound agricultural production in China is a vital goal that we spare no effort to achieve.”
“As an innovation-driven company, Bayer has been following the idea of ‘Science for a Better Life’ for more than 150 years”, said He Yuanbo, general manager of Bayer CropScience Greater China. “In addition to answering Chinese government’s call ‘Propelling Agricultural Industry with Advanced Technologies’, we hope that these new products could simplify farming operations for Chinese farmers and improve their lives with better harvest and more earnings.”
Bayer CropScience dedicates to offering integrated crop solutions from seed to harvest for optimal economic efficiency for farmers. The company announced an aggressive plan in the ISF World Seed Congress in Beijing on May 27, 2014, that it increases its R&D spend and will invest Euro 5 billion from 2011 to 2016, about 10% of its sales worldwide.
SOURCE CCR
DATE : 2015-03-09
The global market for acrylic acid witnessed a strong growth over the recent few years owing to enhanced demand from the adhesives and sealants industry. As per Transparency Market Research, the global acrylic market is poised to grow at a positive CAGR of 6.5% between 2012 and 2018.
Acrylic acid has a multitude of applications across industries such as construction. It is also increasingly used in the manufacture of plastics, floor polish, latex products, and paint formulations, among others. The demand for these items will increase with the development of economies around the world. This will in turn boost demand from the global acrylic acid market. However, on the flip side, the growth prospects of the market will be hampered by fluctuating raw material prices. Propylene is the most commonly used raw material in the manufacture of acrylic acid. Volatile prices of propylene will impact the profit registered by acrylic acid manufacturers negatively. Reports suggest that the prices of propylene reached US$1800 per ton in 2011, and are projected to increase further due to the rise in crude oil prices and uneven supply of the same. Stringent regulations imposed in North America and Europe will also adversely affect the growth of the acrylic acid market.
The key derivatives of acrylic acid are glacial acrylic acid, acrylic esters, cyanopolyacrylate, and ammonium polyacrylate. In 2012 almost 51% of the total acrylic acid consumed worldwide was used for producing acrylate esters. However, the acrylate esters market is projected to register the slowest rate of growth over the forecast period. Glacial acrylic acid emerged as the second largest market segment in 2012. It is mainly used in the manufacture of superabsorbent polymers, which in turn is used for manufacturing training pants, feminine hygiene products, and baby and adult diapers. Poly acrylic is also one of the most important application segments for glacial acrylic acid, and is mainly used in mineral processing and water treatment.
The global market for acrylic acid was dominated by Asia Pacific in 2012. The region accounted for 40% of the global demand. Asia Pacific is expected to remain the fastest growing region over the forecast period as well. It is expected to grow at a 6% CAGR between 2012 and 2018. Rapid development of construction activities in emerging economies such as India, South Korea, and China will propel the acrylic acid market in the region. The leading manufacturers profiled by the report include Dow Chemical, Nikkon Shokubai, BASF SE, Formosa Plastics, StoHass Monomer, Rohm and Haas, and Arkema SA.
SOURCE Plastemart
DATE : 2015-04-07
Styrindo Mono Indonesia, a subsidiary of Chandra Asri Petrochemical, restarted its 100,000 tonne/year No 1 styrene monomer (SM) plant in early April and is ramping up output, a company source said on Tuesday.
The unit, located in Merak, was shut since late December 2014 when the company’s cracker had an outage.
The company also operates a 250,000 tonne/year No 2 SM unit at the same location. The plant was restarted in mid-January and has been operating all this time.
The company is the sole producer of SM in Indonesia.
SOURCE Icis News