Chemicals Biotechnology PolyesterFilament 03-03-2021 - Arhive
Chemicals Biotechnology PolyesterFilament
Crude Oil Prices Trend
-Nylon 6 CS chip into intensive profit-taking sales
Following the strong increase in caprolactam market, nylon 6 conventional spinning chip market has risen rapidly since China market reopened on Feb 18, 2021. In the week starting from Feb 22 and ending Feb 26, the quotation of medium-viscosity bright CS chips from mainstream factories has further elevated to 15,100yuan/mt, 6 months payment, delivered. The market seems have stabilized after hitting this height. The temporary stabilized CS chip is mainly due to the following factors.
First, the commodity market, including crude oil and international copper, has seen short-term adjustments, and there are divided point of views on market outlooks.
Nylon 6 conventional spinning chip plants had sold stocks intensively before the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday. As CS chip plants mostly replenish CPL from term contract, their cost line is decided by Sinopec’s monthly contract settlement.
And Sinopec had raised the Feb contract nomination dramatically to 13,100yuan/mt by Feb 23, a rate much higher than the expectation before the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday (Reasons for post-holiday CPL price hike are explained in insight report “Caprolactam finds some solid supports after a bullish start”. ) There comes the problem, chips sold before the CNY holiday was based on a lower cost of CPL, while actual monthly cost of CPL has been elevated significantly afterwards. Thus CS chip plants are suffering great losses.
-NOVA Chemicals debuts film structure designs formulated with PCR
NOVA Chemicals Corporation (NOVA Chemicals) has developed a series of customizable film structure designs formulated with post-consumer resin (PCR). The film structures, which incorporate post-consumer low-density and linear low-density polyethylene (rLDPE/LLDPE), can be tailored to meet the demands of film applications including heavy-duty sack, collation shrink, stretch film, agricultural film, trash bags and liners, food packaging and protective packaging for e-commerce, such as bubble wrap and air pillows
Greg DeKunder, vice president, polyethylene marketing, NOVA Chemicals, said the new film structure designs further advance the company’s commitment to supporting industry-wide adoption of PCR. “The introduction of these film structure designs is one of several initiatives we are pursuing to make it easier and more practical for the industry and our customers to incorporate PCR into new packaging and products,” he explained. “The addition of our portfolio of PCR will allow NOVA Chemicals to be a one-stop supplier for our customers’ virgin and recycled polyethylene needs.”
-Asia petchem markets bullishness set to continue amid tightening supply, high oil prices
Across the board bullishness seen in Asia’s petrochemical markets is likely to continue in the near term on tight supply in key China market ahead of its peak turnaround season, along with robust downstream demand and crude oil prices.
Recent petrochemical production outages in the US as a result of a polar storm earlier this month are also impacting Asia’s trade as players seek to fill in the shortfall in global supply, as seen in the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and bisphenol A (BPA) markets.
“Swing producers” are diverting cargoes from China in search of much better netbacks in Europe, Latin America and the US – the three regions most directly affected by the US outages. Swing producers include those in the Middle East and South Korea, according to John Richardson, ICIS senior consultant.
Chemical plants and refineries in the US are beginning to restart their operations following the recent polar storm in the Gulf Coast, a process that could last for days or even weeks.
The shortages in the US are supporting Asia’s vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) markets with discussions at record highs last week.
China’s refineries and downstream units typically enter the peak maintenance season from April each year.
-Over 540MW of green hydrogen capacity announced in Spain during February
Over 540MW* of electrolyser capacity is expected to be developed based on different renewable hydrogen project announcements in Spain during February, the latest in a series that will likely accelerate and expand in the coming months.
The announcements of new renewable and electrolysis capacity are likely to lower the cost of renewable hydrogen production in the following years.
The Iberian Peninsula has proven attractive not only for domestic but also for international initiatives like the Hydeal Ambition project.
ENDESA TO DEVELOP 23 PROJECTS
On 1 February, Spanish utility Endesa announced it had submitted a letter of interest to the Ecological Transition ministry to develop 23 renewable hydrogen projects in Spain, involving 340MW of electrolyser capacity fed with an additional 2GW renewable power capacity.
-The Opportunity of Chemical Recycling
Audi is present in more than 100 markets and produces automobiles at 13 locations. Our supplier network comprises 14,000 direct suppliers from more than 60 countries. Changes that we initiate have a major impact on all those who are part of our network. We can achieve a great deal together.
With its suppliers, Audi is placing an emphasis on the efficient and economical use of the resources we need for manufacturing our products.
Our ambition is to be a pioneer with regard to handling these recyclable materials. Our goal is to establish closed-loop systems and obtain new recyclable materials from waste. I firmly believe that our industry must put sustainability at the core of its philosophy in order to be successful in the future.
The pilot project for chemical recycling is a prime example of this goal.
It is designed to demonstrate that technology and innovation can lead to greater sustainability in Germany as a business location.
-Milliken & Company announces acquisition of Zebra-chem
Milliken & Company (“Milliken”), a global diversified manufacturer with more than a century and a half of materials science expertise, has formally acquired Zebra-chem GmbH (“Zebra-chem”), a global chemicals company known for its peroxide and blowing agent masterbatches. With more brands and governments globally setting goals to increase their use of recycled materials, plastics manufacturers are faced with the challenges of using recycled plastics effectively. Peroxide masterbatches, like those from Zebra-chem and Milliken, make it possible to incorporate up to 100% recycled content into these new plastics.
Milliken & Company (“Milliken”), a global diversified manufacturer with more than a century and a half of materials science expertise, has formally acquired Zebra-chem GmbH (“Zebra-chem”), a global chemicals company known for its peroxide and blowing agent masterbatches. With more brands and governments globally setting goals to increase their use of recycled materials, plastics manufacturers are faced with the challenges of using recycled plastics effectively. Peroxide masterbatches, like those from Zebra-chem and Milliken, make it possible to incorporate up to 100% recycled content into these new plastics.
-Lanxess to acquire French biocide manufacturer
Lanxess says it has acquired Intace SAS (Paris, France), a biocide manufacturer that makes specialty fungicides for the packaging industry, according to Chemweek.
The companies signed an agreement yesterday and the transaction is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2021, Lanxess says. Financial terms have not been disclosed.
“With the acquisition of Intace, we are strengthening our biocide technology platform for packaging and labels in the consumer goods industry. We are also following a trend: plastics are more and more being replaced by paper in packaging,” says Nicolas Gallacier, head/marketing industrial reservation & coatings at Lanxess material protection products.
Intace’s products are used in paper, paperboard, soap packaging, labels, and bank notes, with the company generating sales in the mid-single-digit million euro range in 2020, Lanxess says.
As MRC informed before, in January, 2021, Lanxess completed the sale of its membrane business to French resource management firm SUEZ. The deal was previously announced in July, 2020, as Lanxess realigned its water treatment technologies segment, resulting in the sale of its reverse osmosis membrane business.
-Environment: Shifting from small to medium plastic bottles could reduce PET waste
A 20% shift in beverage sales from small to medium-sized plastic bottles could reduce the production of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste in the USA by over 9,000 tonnes annually, a study in Scientific Reports suggests.
PET is the dominant material used in plastic bottles containing non-alcoholic beverages. Rafael Becerril-Arreola and Randolph Bucklin weighed 187 differently sized PET bottles sold by the best-selling beverage brands in Minnesota, USA, to identify which bottles sizes were the most efficient at delivering the highest volume of beverage for the lowest packaging weight.
To validate their findings, the researchers combined data on sales of different sized PET bottles and the weight of PET waste in Minnesota from 2009 to 2013.
These data were used to estimate the effect that changes in the sales of certain PET bottle sizes could have on PET waste.
-Consortium campaigns benefits of EPS
A group of 18 European companies active in expanded polystyrene (EPS) raw materials, packaging manufacturing and recycling, have launched a campaign to highlight the environmental, economic and social benefits of EPS packaging.
The campaign – called Smart Packaging Europe – launches as European policymakers and industry alike are striving for more resource-efficient and circular packaging and to reduce the amount of litter in the environment. Smart Packaging Europe aims to demonstrate that EPS has an important role to play in the future European packaging market. “We fully support efforts to reduce pollution and are doing our part by investing in waste collection, recycling and increasing the use of recycled materials,” said Sven Heppes, spokesman of the campaign. “A variety of recycling options, combined with the fact that EPS packaging generally consists of a single polymer, make EPS one of the most recyclable packaging materials available.”
-UFlex adds capacity in packaging films
The company has witnessed a surge in demand for multiple lines of businesses while also adding newer clients.
UFlex Ltd, a large, multi-national flexible packaging company based in India, has declared its financial results for the quarter ending December 2020. With packaging becoming a lifeline in the battle against COVID-19 pandemic, the company has successfully supported customers and consumers with packaging products in the past quarters.
The company witnessed a surge in demand for multiple lines of businesses while also adding newer clients. The company posted strong growth numbers with Consolidated Net Profit surged by 89% YoY to INR 159.9 crore.
UFlex announced domestic and international expansion for its packaging films business in the results. Speaking of the capacity expansion, Rajesh Bhatia, Group CFO at UFlex Limited, says, “The highlights of this quarter are commissioning of the brownfield BOPET film line in Poland with a capacity of 45,000 TPA. The trial run for our BOPP plant in Hungary and BOPET plant in Nigeria have already commenced, and both the plants are expected to be commissioned soon.
Chemicals Biotechnology PolyesterFilament