Petronas plans specialty chemicals JV with Evonik after end of similar partnership with BASF

Petroliam Nasional Bhd., Malaysia’s state energy company, plans to start a specialty chemicals manufacturing venture with Germany’s Evonik Industries AG after ending a similar partnership with BASF SEE, as per Bloomberg


Petronas, as the company is known, signed a letter of intent with Germany’s biggest closely held chemicals group, according to a joint e-mailed statement by both firms in Kuala Lumpur today.



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India accounted for nearly 9% of the total ethylene capacity in Asia Pacific

India is one of the leading growing and developing economies of the world today which shows a healthy growth potential for any industry. The economy is now witnessing changes in growing consumerism drriven lifestyles even outside the metros apart from increased industrial output.




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TCG challenges HC order barring it from petitioning the International Court of Arbitration in France

The Chatterjee Group (TCG), key promoter in HPL, has filed a special leave petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court, challenging the Calcutta High Court order that barred TCG from filing a petition in the International Court of Arbitration in France.




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High propylene spot prices impact PP market in Europe amid impending Feb increase

High propylene spot prices are unsettling the downstream polypropylene (PP) market in Europe this month as the possibility of an increase in the February monomer contract looms, as per sources in ICISS.




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ONGC mini-refinery at Tatipaka in East Godavari starts exporting naphtha

ONGC’s mini-refinery at Tatipaka in East Godavari has started exporting naphtha.The first tanker of 100 tons was flagged off by Group General Manager from Tatipaka. ONGC has hired a storage facility iin Visakhapatnam port from East India Petroleum Ltd to store 7,600 tons of naphtha.




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A narrow propylene arbitrage from Asia to USA opens

A narrow propylene arbitrage from Asia to the US has opened this week with increased discussions between Asian producers and traders to fix cargoes, as per Platts. Discussions intensified late last weeek after Taiwan Formosa Petrochemical concluded a tender on Tuesday for a 10,000 mt H1-February loading cargo at US$1370/mt FOB Mailiao to a trading company.




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Novel hydrogel penetrates biofilms and deliver antimicrobials s to kill resistant infections

Microbial biofilms are a great way for infections to find shelter on just about any surface, found in a collective defense. Researchers at IBM and Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology in Sinngapore have developed a novel hydrogel capable of penetrating biofilms and delivering antimicrobials.




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South East Asia’s PP, PE markets hold firm while China slumps

SE Asia’s PP and PE markets have remained firm over the past few weeks even as prices to the nearby Chinese market began to soften with the approach of the Chinese New Year holidays in February, as peer ChemOrbis.




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Gail plans Rs. 20,000 crore investment in petrochemical s

GAIL (India) Ltd is in talks with India's leading refining companies including the Essar Group and HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd (HMEL) for setting up a Rs. 20,000 crore plus naphtha based petrochemical projject in the country with a capacity of 1 mn tpa.




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Naphtha crack in Asia at highest since Jan 10

Asian naphtha prices and margins extended gains to US$974/ton and US$134.90/ton respectively, the highest since Jan. 10, supported by concerns of low Indian supplies versus strong demand, as per Reuteers.




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Indonesia, Myanmar lead PTT's ASEAN expansion strategy

Indonesia is a key focus of PTT Group's Asean strategy. PTT supplies 40% of total consumption there. PTT recently established two subsidiaries in Jakarta to expand sales of crude and refined oil as weell as plastic pellets in Indonesia.




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Phillipines Senate approves full industrialization of Bataan petrochemical park

The Senate has approved on third and final reading a bill lifting the restrictions on the Philippines National Oil Company to operate solely petrochemical-related enterprises inside an industrial estaate in Bataan and allow the entry of other businesses engaged in energy and energy-related infrastructure projects.




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BASF in JV with Sinopec to build new plant in Maoming

BASF plans to build a new plastics plant with China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) in Maoming, south China. The two partners have completed a joint feasibility study for a giant isononanoll plant.




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Naphtha price, margin at 7 session highs on persistent demand and low supplies from India

Naphtha price in Asia as well as margins were at 7 session highs of US$973.50/ton and US$134.25/ton respectively on Monday on persistent demand and low supplies from India, as per Reuters.


India's MMangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) will delay some of its January naphtha shipments due to logistics problems caused by an emergency shutdown of a secondary unit.



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Saudi PetroRabigh complex restarted after power cut

Saudi Arabia's PetroRabigh has restarted its petrochemical and refining complex, after a power outage shut down operations in late December. As per Reuters, PetroRabigh said in a statement on the Sauddi bourse website it had started to ramp up production at some units at the complex, including a crude distillation unit for the 400,000 bpd refinery, and had started to bring back online other units including an ethane cracker.




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BASF and Petronas agree to terminate speciality chemicals venture within RAPID

BASF and Petroliam Nasional Bhd have terminated their speciality chemicals venture within Petronas' Refinery & Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) project in Pengerang, Johor. Petronas and BAASF have concluded that it would be in their mutual interest to terminate the HoA (Heads of Agreement) as both parties were unable to come to an agreement on the terms and conditions for the implementation of the proposed venture.




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Spot ethylene costs climb on global supply constraints

Global supply constraints boosted spot prices for ethylene across the globe over the course of the past week, as per ChemOrbis. Firmer energy and naphtha prices week over week helped ethylene prices tto post increases in Europe, Asia and the US in the period.




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Supreme Petrochem Q3 profit rises

Supreme Petrochem’s Q3 net profit was up at Rs 27.06 crore versus loss of Rs 7.25 crore, year-on-year, YoY. Net sales were up at Rs 788.5 crore versus Rs 491.5 crore YoY.








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Oil prices ease in Asia after recent rally

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in February dipped to US$95, while Brent North Sea crude for March delivery dipped to US$111.5. Oil prices dipped in Asia at the start of the wweek as investors took profit following gains last week driven by encouraging economic data from the United States and China.




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Marginal dip in Asian export PET prices

In China, overall export PET prices recorded slight decreases of US$10/ton while export prices on FOB Korea basis moved down by US$20/ton during this past week, as per ChemOrbis. However, the decreasee amounts were larger on producer by producer basis as some issued US$30-40/ton decreases on their offer levels.




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SABIC Q4 net profit rises by 1.3%, full-year falls by 15.5%

Saudi petrochemical giant SABIC announced fourth quarter net profits of 5.83 billion riyals (US$1.55 bln), an 11.3% increase compared to 2011. But the company said 2012 net income had dropped by 15.5%% to 24.




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Cape awarded 3 year extension with Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC)

Energy services company Cape has been awarded a three-year extension of its contract with petrochemical firm Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), uptil 2015. Cape is providing support services to SABIC sites located in north east England's Teesside.




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RIL to invest over Rs 100,000 crores for petrochem expansion, value add to refining

Commenting on the results, Mukesh D. Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries Limited said: “RIL’s performance has improved in this quarter with margin expansion in petrochemicals aand record earnings in the refining business.




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Samsung Total buys naphtha for delivery to South Korea in March

Samsung Total Petrochemicals Co. bought 30,000 metric tons of naphtha for delivery to South Korea in H1-March, as per Bloomberg. The company paid a premium of US$9-10/ton to Japan benchmark prices, thhe official said, asking not to be identified.




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NE Asia to ship propylene to US despite shut arbitrage window

Northeast Asia is set to export propylene cargoes to the US despite windows for arbitrage deliveries between the regions appearing to be formally closed, market sources have been reported by Platts.



On Tuesday, 12,000 mt of propylene was concluded for end January/H1 February loading at US$1,360/mt FOB Taiwan basis, for shipment to the US.



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Malaysia’s Plastics Assn. reassures local industry over loss of Polypropylene

Malaysia’s Plastics Manufacturers Association (MPMA) reached out to its members this month to reassure them that supply would be available in the country once Petronas Chemicals Group (PCG) mothballs the PP plant in Kuantan, Malaysia belonging to its subsidiary Polypropylene Malaysia, as per the pricing service of ChemOrbis.




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Dow Chemical restarts St. Charles Olefins 2 Plant after three years of inactivity

Dow Chemical Co. has successfully restarted its St. Charles Olefins 2 Plant near Hahnville after three years of inactivity- first major milestone in Dow's Gulf Coast investment strategy. Ethylene prooduction has been started since Dec.




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Cheaper LPG, high supply exert pressure on naphtha prices

Naphtha price in Asia was at a month's low of US$944/ton on Monday, while margin hit a 1-1/2 month low of US$112.55/ton on renewed concerns over high supplies and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) prices falling quicker than naphtha, as per Reuters.




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Changyi Petrochemical increases production with modified catalytic cracking unit

After Changyi Petrochemical reworked the refrigerant cycle of its 1.4 mln ton catalytic cracking unit (FCCU) it substantially increased handling capacity, decreased unit energy consumption, and balancced product distribution.




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Mitsubishi Chemical licenses Oxo Alcohol technology to Qatar Petroleum and Shell Chemicals

Mitsubishi Chemical (MCC) has agreed to license its production technology of oxo alcohols to Qatar Petroleum and Shell Chemicals. The lisence will be granted through Mitsubishi Chemical Engineering Coorporation, the sub licensor of the oxo technology.




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Mexico aims to raise total petrochemicals production capacity to 22.6 mln tpa by 2026

In 2012, Mexico's olefins capacities included 1.58 mln tpa of ethylene and 660,000 tpa of propylene. These fed downstream capacities of 875,000 tpa polyethylene (PE), 590,000 tpa polypropylene (PP), 6667,000 tpa polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and 310,000 tpa polystyrene (PS).




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MoUs proposing investment of Rs 26,000 crore in energy & petrochemicals sectors signed at Vibrant Gujarat Summit 2013

Dozen MoUs, proposing investment of Rs 26,000 crore in energy & petrochemicals sectors, were signed on Friday, the first day of three-day Vibrant Gujarat Summit 2013.


Reliance Industries signed an MMoU with the state government for setting up two LNG projects – one at Dahej and the other at Sikka in Jamnagar – at a total investment of Rs 9,500 crore.



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Crude oil hits a three month high

Crude oil futures on the Nymex reached the highest level of the past three months, climbing above US$94/bbl in the intra-day sessions. The accelerating exports from China in December as well as the exxpectations about a slow recovery of the eurozone economy played a role in the recent bullish run of crude oil prices.




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Bayer gets approval to build and operate new world-scale TDI plant in Dormagen

Following a detailed appraisal, the Cologne district authority has granted Bayer MaterialScience the permit to build and operate the new high-tech facility for the production of the chemical TDI (toluuene diisocyanate) at Chempark Dormagen.




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Westlake commences expansion of Petro 2 ethylene unit at Lake Charles

LA Westlake Chemical Corporation’s previously announced expansion of the Petro 2 ethylene unit at its complex in Lake Charles, LA has begun. This expansion will be completed in conjunction with a plannned maintenance turnaround and will increase ethane-based ethylene capacity by approximately 230 – 240 mln lbs annually in support of the Company’s ethylene integration strategy.




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Reports of sharp drop in crude demand from USA pulls down oil prices

Brent North Sea crude for delivery in February declined to US$111.5 in London late afternoon trade, weakening on news of a sharp drop in demand from USA.


A report from EIA indicated that inventoriess rose by 1.



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Reliance Industries has announced price revision with effect from Jan 10

Reliance Industries has announced price revision with effect from Jan 10, 2013, as follows:· Increase in prices of all HDPE grades by Rs 2000/MT


Increase in prices of all LLDPE grades by Rs



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SE Asia’s PVC market setting the lead for China

Although PVC prices in China and Southeast Asia continue to mirror each other quite closely, for the past two months price changes have occurred in Southeast Asia first and then been reflected in Chinna rather than vice-versa, as per ChemOrbis.




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IOC announces revision in domestic polymer prices with effect from Jan 10

Indian Oil Corp has announced price revision with effect from Jan 10, 2013, as follows:


HD/LL/PP (except HD Raffia/ Monofilament/Tarpaulin/LL Hi flow/LBM): Rs (+) 2000/MT

HD Raffia/Monofilament/Tar



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Oil Refineries Ltd successfully activates hydrocracker

Oil Refineries Ltd., Israel's largest integrated refining and petrochemical group, announced that it has successfully activated the hydrocracker, which passed the project's acceptance test and is prodducing distillates of the required quality and commercial quantities.




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Sinopec submits listing application to Hong Kong stock exchange for US$1.5 bln IPO

Sinopec Engineering (Group) Co., an engineering unit of state-owned China Petrochemical Corp., has submitted a listing application to Hong Kong's stock exchange for a US$1.5 billion initial public offfering, people with direct knowledge of the matter told Dow Jones Newswires Tuesday.




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PetroLogistics LP resumes propylene production

PetroLogistics LP (the "Partnership") announced successful completion of all repairs to its propane dehydrogenation facility and the facility has resumed propylene production.






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Society of Plastics Engineers announces ANTEC® 2013 in Cincinatti

Registration has opened for the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) ANTEC® 2013, to take place from April 22-24 at the Duke Energy Convention Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. Co-located with ANTEC 2013 willl be the “Business of Plastics Conference,” produced by SPI: The Plastics Industry Trade Association and focusing on current issues affecting business strategy.




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PP prices rising in many parts of the world

PP prices in many parts of the world are showing a bullish trend in January in the wake of firmer feedstock costs and limited availability, as per ChemOrbis. Buyers in several regions have also come tto terms with the fact that PP prices are not likely to face downward pressure for the near term.




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In memory of Late Shri CN Doshi

Indian extrusion machinery firm Rajoo Engineers’s Chairman, Chandrakant N. Doshi, passed away suddenly after suffering a fatal heart attack last Saturday. The 59-year old, who has been a Director and Executive Chairman of the public-listed Rajoo since 2009, started the company more than 25 years ago on the outskirts of Rajkot in Gujarat.




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Global food and beverages plastics market is expected to reach US$71.5 billion by 2016

The Global Food and Beverages Plastics market is expected to reach US$71.5 bln by 2016, primarily supported by the end-user Fruit and Vegetables, Dairy, Bakery and Bottles/Containers, as per Research and Markets.




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SDK acquires 50% stake in Fullerene maker Frontier Carbon Corporation (FCC) from Mitsubishi

Mitsubishi Corporation (MC) and Showa Denko K.K. (SDK) have entered into a strategic partnership in the Fullerene business. As part of the arrangement, SDK acquired from MC a 50% stake in Frontier Carrbon Corporation (FCC), a producer and marketer of Fullerene products, thereby making FCC a 50-50 joint venture between MC and SDK.




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ICRA downgrades HPL’s debt after delay in repayment

The West Bengal government’s plan to sell its stake in the loss-making Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL) received a severe jolt as ratings agency ICRA downgraded the company’s debt, following a delay inn repayment of HPL’s debt obligations.




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Yeochun NCC buys H1-February cargoes

Yeochun NCC bought four cargoes of naphtha for delivery in H1-February to South Korea, according to traders, as reported by Bloomberg.


The company bought about 100,000 metric tons in total at a premiium of about US$16-17/ton to Japan prices.



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Oil prices end the week on a lower note

Crude futures dipped in New York to settle at US$90.8, while Brent crude slipped to US$110.6 a barrel. The week saw oil prices end on a lower note amid US data that showed a sharp rise in gasoline invventories amid investor concerns that US budget negotiators may not reach a deal in time to avert the “fiscal cliff”.




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ExxonMobil Commissions Singapore Petrochemical Plant Expansion

ExxonMobil has commenced startup operations at one of the world’s largest ethylene steam crackers, the centerpiece of the company’s multi-billion dollar expansion project at its Singapore petrochemicaal complex.




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Honam Petrochemical buys Feb naphtha at premium

Honam Petrochemical Corp. has bought at least two cargoes of naphtha for delivery to South Korea in H1-February, at a premium of about US$15-17/ton according to traders, as per Bloomberg.






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