Chemical News
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PKN Orlen to invest 1 bln eur in new petrochem facility Aug 31,2007
PKN Orlen , Poland's largest oil company, plans to invest 1 bln euro in several petrochemical units projected to come onstream in 2010. 60% investment will be for PTA unit and 40% for PX. PKN has signed contracts with Polish construction company Polimex and Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to build a purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant an...>>>
Copper price to 'remain strong' Sep 03,2007
The chief executive of copper producer Antofagasta, Marcelo Awad, has dismissed recent concern about metals prices, saying he believes commodity prices will remain strong well into 2008. London-listed Antofagasta, controlled by Chile's Luksic family since 1980, posted a 12pc increase in first-half profits yesterday, sparking another rise in a sh...>>>
Chinese antimony ingot export prices hold steady amid thin trade Sep 03,2007
China's antimony ingot prices have mostly held steady in August moving within a wide range of $5,250-5,500/mt FOB China, supported by tight raw material supplies, industry sources told Platts on Tuesday. Spot trade, however, was thin as some overseas consumers expected prices to retreat in the fourth quarter. An official from Beijing Antaike, a ...>>>
Indian Oil Corp. (IOC) sells naphtha from Kandla and Dahej Sep 03,2007
State-run Indian Oil Corp. (IOC) has sold 180,000 tons of naphtha to be loaded from Kandla between October 2007 and March 2008 to Emirates National Oil Co (ENOC) at an US$8/ton premium to its price formula, free-on-board (FOB) basis, as per a trading source. IOC also sold 91,500-94,500 tons of naphtha to be loaded from Dahej during October-December...>>>
Daewoo to build HDPE plant for a unit of PTT PCL Sep 03,2007
South Korean company- Daewoo Engineering Co has been awarded a US$130 mln order to build a high density polyethylene (HDPE) plant for a unit of PTT PCL , Thailand's biggest energy firm. Daewoo will build the 250,000 tpa HDPE plant in an industrial complex about 200 kms southeast of Bangkok. The project is scheduled for completion by October 2009. >>>
Some 12,000 mt Saudi-origin ethylene sold to Taiwan: sources Sep 03,2007
About 12,000 mt of Saudi-origin ethylene has been sold to Taiwan for September delivery as part of an incremental contract volume, market sources said Friday. The first 6,000 mt portion of the sale was set last week, with the second half of the parcel transacted Thursday, sources noted. Saudi-origin ethylene supplies have recently become a...>>>
INEOS completes EURO90m Borealis Norway purchase Sep 04,2007
LONDON (ICIS news)--INEOS has completed the EURO290m ($394m) acquisition of Borealis’ petrochemicals business in Norway, the UK chemicals major said on Monday. “The acquisition of Borealis AS is an important development for INEOS Olefins,” said INEOS Olefins CEO Tom Crotty. “This not only increases our European manufacturing capacity but also...>>>
China's Panzhihua to build US$2 bln vanadium titanium steel plant Sep 04,2007
The Panzhihua Iron and Steel Group has reached a framework agreement with local government on building a vanadium titanium steel production facility in Xichang, a city in southwest China's Sichuan province. >>>
Hind Copper cuts prices 4.6% Sep 04,2007
Hindustan Copper (HCL), a public sector copper producer, has cut its basic prices across all product categories by 4.55 per cent following a 4.65 per cent decline in the metal price on the London Metal Exchange (LME). >>>
Ineos removes force majeure on LDPE from Cologne Sep 04,2007
Ineos Polyolefins has removed force majeure (FM) on its LDPE production at Cologne, Germany, after repairs have successfully carried out. The force majeure was declared in May 2007 after one of the lines faced problems caused by a minor ethylene leakage at the same time that the other line was undergoing maintenance. >>>
Oltchim to commence negotiations for acquisition of Petrochemicals Arges Sep 04,2007
Oltchim Ramnicu Valcea is to commence negotiations for the acquisition of Petrochemicals Arges. Petrochemicals Arges encompasses petrochemical operations of Romanian oil firm Petrom's Arpechim Pitesti refinery. If an agreement is reached, Oltchim plans to invest 100 mln Euro to expand production capacity from 200,000 tpa of ethylene to 300,000...>>>
Price trends of commodity polymers in Asia for the week of Sep 3, 2007 Sep 04,2007
SUMMARY Crude oil futures spiked to a four week high, rising to US$74.04 a barrel for October delivery in the week of Sep 3, 2007 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, on account of a sudden drop in inventories. Naphtha rose in line with robust crude prices. Ethylene prices dropped sharply as the market continued to maintain a downbeat mood....>>>
China reconsiders anti-dumping duty on Russian chemical supplier Sep 04,2007
BEIJING, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- China is reconsidering the necessity of imposing anti-dumping duty on a Russian caprolactam supplier, the Ministry of Commerce announced on Monday. Kemerovo Joint Stock Company "AZOT", a major chemical plant in west Siberia, filed in July an application to the ministry for a re-examination of the anti-dumping du...>>>
Dow to Exit Hydroxyalkyl Acrylates Market Nov 14,2007
Midland, MI - November 12, 2007 The Dow Chemical Company ("Dow") announced today its intent to stop producing and marketing hydroxyalkyl acrylates (HAA) by the end of 2007. The HAA product line includes hydroxyethyl acrylate (HEA) and hydroxypropyl acrylate (HPA). These products are sold largely to major coatings formulators for use in automo...>>>
Low aluminium prices spur demand in July Sep 05,2007
Weaker prices of aluminium on the LME have helped ensure strong demand conditions for this non-ferrous metal in July 2007. As a result, aluminium inventories in the Asian region (including India) amounted to 350, 000 tonnes in July 2007 as compared with 381,000 tonnes in the corresponding period of the previous year, according to the global industr...>>>
Policy on natural gas streamlined Sep 05,2007
BEIJING, Sept. 4 -- China has enacted a new industry policy on natural gas use to address the supply shortage and optimize usage, the nation's planning agency said yesterday. The guideline says residential gas use is a top priority, while usage in petrochemical plants is discouraged, the National Development and Reform Commission said on it...>>>
Recent storms delay finishing touches on new Trinidad gas line Sep 05,2007
The long-delayed completion of a $200 million natural gas pipeline offshore Trinidad will be delayed further still by recent hurricanes in the region, the project's manager said Tuesday. Clarance Harnanan told Platts workers have been unable to perform recent subsea work on the 62.9-km pipeline along Trinidad's southeast coast, delaying the...>>>
Mexico's Mexichem brings $75 million chlorine plant on stream Sep 05,2007
Mexico City-based Mexichem said it had brought on stream a new chlorine-caustic soda plant claiming that it is the most modern unit in Latin America. The $75 million plant is located at Santa Clara near Mexico City where it replaces a facility that had a capacity of 39,000 mt/year, plus 130,000 mt of sodium hypochlorite and 25,500 mt of hydrochlor...>>>
Solvay continues support for polymer-based printed electronics Sep 05,2007
4 September 2007 – The international chemical and pharmaceutical group Solvay has made a $10m investment in Plextronics, a US firm developing technologies for polymer-based printed electronics. The Belgian group’s contribution was part of the latest round of financing, which totalled $20.6 million, a Solvay spokesman told PRW.com. In a statem...>>>
BASF launches breathable coating technology Sep 05,2007
4 September 2007 – BASF has started up a pilot facility for a pioneering breathable coating technology which can impart a uniform appearance to a variety of different substrates including plastics, fabrics and leather. The new unit, at the Ludwigshafen complex, will be used for further development and customer support on individual applications....>>>