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-China – Polyethylene terephthalate inches up 

PET Bottle grade export 1,240/1,280 $/ton – PET Bottle grade domestic market 9,950/10,050 yuan/ton – PET Filament grade domestic market 9,850/9,950 yuan/ton

PTA Taiwan 1,035/1,045 $/ton – PTA domestic market 7,950/8,050 yuan/ton – MEG $ 905/915 $/ton – MEG domestic market 7,400/7,500 yuan/ton – PX Korea 1,320/1,330 $/ton

POY 150D/48F  domestic market 11,200/11,300  yuan/ton – DTY 150D/48F  domestic market 12,700/12,800  yuan/ton – PSF domestic market 10,600/10,700  yuan/ton

-EFIB 2018 The European Forum for Industrial Biotechnology and the Bioeconomy

-Americhem develops new additives for fibre applications 

Americhem, a leading designer and manufacturer of custom colour masterbatch, functional additives, engineered compounds and performance technologies, has developed new additives for the fibres industry.

Americhem will exhibit the three key innovations at the upcoming ITMA Asia + CITME 2018 trade show in Shanghai, China, next week.

-Hanwha Total will open a new PE plant in South Korea at the end of 2019  Hanwha Total PE plant South Korea

Hanwha Total Petrochemical, a joint venture of Hanwha Chemical and Total Petrochemical for the production of petrochemical products in South Korea, plans to commission a new polyethylene (PE) plant in Daesan (Daesan, Sosan, South) by the end of 2019 Korea), ICIS reported.Hanwha Total PE plant South Korea

The capacity of the new enterprise will be 400 thousand tons of PE per year.  After its launch, the total capacity of the company producing PE will be 1.12 million tons per year.

-Crude Oil Prices Trend

-Heimtextil to grow its offerings for January show

Major fabric trends to be on display

With more than 400 vendors of decorative fabrics and upholstery slated to show their wares, the January Heimtextil trade fair is expected to present the show’s widest offering of new products yet, according to Messe Frankfurt, the show’s organizer.

 Heimtextil 

“In 2019, all the relevant European suppliers of upholstery and decorative fabrics, upholstery and artificial leather will be presenting themselves across the three levels of hall 4 for the first time,” said Olaf Schmidt, VP of textiles and textile technologies at Messe Frankfurt. Manufacturers of upholstery fabrics from Asia will exhibit in halls 1 and 5.

-India’s Reliance to start negotiating Asian paraxylene contract price in January

India’s Reliance Industries, will officially start negotiating and reporting the Asian Contract Price for paraxylene from January 2019, the company said Saturday.

Register Now  Reliance has entered into PX contracts with most ACP negotiators in Asia since launching trial ACP negotiations in early 2017, Reliance said in an official statement to S&P Global Platts dated October 6.

New participants to the ACP negotiations typically undergo a year of trial negotiations before officially moving to become a full negotiator, market sources said.

Reliance is currently the second largest PX producer globally with a total nameplate capacity of 4.2 million mt/year. Its largest PX unit at Jamnagar, with a capacity of 2.2 million mt/year, started commercial production in January 2017.

-PET sheet producers want support for circularity

The PET value chain is urging European policymakers to support the industry’s circularity rather than focus on the reduction of PET tray consumption.

In a press statement, PET Sheet Europe argued that the EU Single Use Plastics Directive Proposal – currently under assessment by the European Parliament – contradicts the work that industry has done in recent years to increase levels of recycled content in PET trays.

Today, PET sheet is highly recyclable and there is a growing trend in collection across Europe. In addition, PET sheet manufacturers use an average of 45 per cent of recycled material, says PET Sheet Europe, which is part of the EuPC sector group.

-Americas petrochemicals outlook, w/c Oct 8

With US September ethylene contracts settled last week at a 5-cent increase, market participants are already looking ahead to October.

Ethylene spot prices had dropped below the 20 cents/lb level in the first week of October, alongside weaker feedstock ethane prices.

Should ethane continue to fall this week, it would put additional downward pressure on the market. Meanwhile, participants are also monitoring production activity.

Sources said they expect both crackers to be operating at Chevron Phillips’ Cedar Bayou facility in Texas this week.

-New Monforts Eco Applicator for Schoeller

Swiss fabric innovator Schoeller Textil, which celebrates its 150th anniversary this year, has taken the finishing of two-layer laminates for protective clothing and outdoor and active sportswear to a new level of production efficiency with the installation of a Monforts Eco Applicator unit.

The installation is part of an on-going programme that has seen over 25 million Swiss francs invested in new technology at the Schoeller plant over the past decade and has led to further new product developments, such as the introduction of upcycled Econyl yarns by Aquafil and the PFC-free ecorepel Bio technology, based on renewable raw materials, as new components for the company’s industry-leading membranes.

-Brand owners, consumers surveyed on sustainable packaging

A new study uncovers how brand owners and consumers approach sustainable packaging and looks at the opportunities for brand owners to position flexible packaging as sustainable.

When it comes to sustainability, brand owners using flexible packaging face both challenges and opportunities in communicating to consumers the sustainability benefits of flexible packaging throughout its life cycle. That was one of the key takeaways from a presentation given by Brian Hall, Managing Director, Client Services for G&S Business Communications, at the 2018 Flexible Packaging Association Fall Executive Conference, Oct. 4, 2018, in Chicago.

-Textile recycling for sustainable fashion in HK — now on a bigger scale

H&M Foundation and the Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel have just opened two first-of-its-kind textile recycling facilities in Hong Kong, in the name of clothing the world in a sustainable fashion.

We are all culpable of the same shopping crime several times a year. Come sale season, stores turn into carnivals of disarray — elbows jostling, handbags slinging and dresses slipping from their hangers and onto the floor. The pursuit of scoring a bargain is absorbing because it provides a neurological pleasure that bolsters our mood and sagging self-confidence. Now, imagine the same scenario being played out in stores around the world. How many of these garments will end up in the landfill?

-EPCA ’18: Weighing the impact of increased recycling and circularity on petrochemicals

This graphic (below) helps put the plastics recycling debate into context. Most ethylene, globally, is used to make polyethylene, most polyethylene goes into packaging of some sort, most the reusable type.

As the pace of recycling increases, driven by legislation and probably by stronger anti-plastics public opinion, greater efforts will be made to recycle more. There will be a material impact on virgin polymer demand.

-Mondi Styria introduces two films for multilayer BIB products

Mondi Styria, a division of Austrian packaging firm Mondi Group, has unveiled two films developed for multilayer BIB products used to package liquid food products.

The new films – Styria Form Bar 50 and Styria Form Bar 90 DW – are ideal for both hot-fill and cold-fill applications.

Mondi Styria managing director Günter Leitner noted that the Styria Form Bar 50 is undergoing trials by an existing customer, while adding that no equipment changes were needed to run the film.

-In South Korea, a lesson to be learned from a plastic waste crisis

With trash piling up on the streets and recycling businesses losing money, the country was left scrambling for better solutions after China stopped buying its plastic waste, as Coming Clean About Green investigates.

SOUTH KOREA: When China – for years the world’s largest importer of recyclable materials – banned the import of plastic waste from this year, South Korea was left in a bind.

The latter had one of the world’s highest rates of recycling municipal waste – at more than 50 per cent – but following the loss of its biggest buyer of plastic scrap, the country found itself with excess amounts of plastics.

-Biome Grow to begin trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the symbol “BIO”

Biome Grow (“Biome” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that it will begin trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange (“CSE”) at market open today under the trading symbol “BIO”.

Listing on the CSE represents a significant milestone in the growth and expansion of Biome as we continue to build a Canadian cannabis conglomerate.

We believe public listing will provide Biome increased visibility with prospective global investors, improved liquidity, and a more diversified shareholder base as we continue to grow through agreements, partnerships, and acquisitions across Canada and globally.

-“There are many new monomers that have novel structural elements”

If the coatings industry wants to become more sustainable, it must reduce its dependence on oil. But that is easier said than done. We spoke to Dr Tobias Robert from the Fraunhofer Institute for Wood Research about challenges and chances of bio-based raw materials.

Which bio-based raw materials do you believe are currently important for the paints and coatings industry?

Dr. Tobias Robert: The coatings industry has traditionally used a large number of bio-based raw materials. These include cellulose, starch and vegetable oils. But the goal, of course, is to extend the variety of the bio-based raw materials in use. This is why many new (partially) bio-based raw materials, such as polyols and isocyanates, have recently been launched onto the market. These are mainly fatty acids serving as starting materials, as well as new monomers that can now be produced biotechnologically from renewable raw materials.

-EPCA ’18: US MDI project follows Covestro’s strategy of producing close to main markets – CEO

Covestro’s decision to locate its new methyl di-p-phenylene isocyanate (MDI) plant in the US follows its long-term strategy of having production within its main regional markets, the company’s CEO said on Tuesday.

Markus Steilemann said MDI capacity has been increased in Europe and China over the last few years, making the decision to locate the new facility in the US the logical choice.

Covestro announced today that it will invest around €1.5bn to build a new world-scale MDI plant in Baytown, Texas, with start-up scheduled for 2024.