Polymers GeneralNews Oil PETBottle 18-02-2021 - Arhive
Polymers GeneralNews Oil PETBottle
Crude Oil Prices Trend
-LyondellBasell will raise PE prices in North America by USD154 per ton in March
LyondellBasell will increase March polyethylene (PE) prices in North America by 7 cents / lb (USD154 / t) amid rising ethylene feedstock, according to the company’s letter to customers.
The price increase will take effect on March 1, in addition to any previously announced price changes. The letter also said the company was confirming a previously announced 7 cents / pound increase in February.
Polyethylene demand in the United States has been strong throughout the pandemic due to increased consumption of polyethylene for fast-use consumer goods such as food packaging.
On the supply side, availability has been limited in recent months due to some production issues at polyethylene plants in the US and Mexico.
Earlier it was reported that LyondellBasell raised the price of polyethylene (PE) in North America by 6 cents / lb (USD132 / t) in January.
-Avery Dennison launches label-liner recycling program in Europe
Easy, cost-effective liner recycling program is part of longtime labelling leader’s sustainability vision
part of its ongoing efforts to help establish a circular economy, Avery Dennison today announced the launch of AD Circular, a comprehensive program providing recycling of used paper and filmic label liners in countries across Europe.
Through the program, companies can simply use an online web application to schedule a pickup of used label liners by Avery Dennison to one of its recycling partners. The web app also provides useful data in the form of regularly updated analytics and certificates on the amount of recycled liner material, the amount of CO2 emissions they’ve avoided as a result, and more.
Collection and transport of used liners through AD Circular will comply with EU regulations, and the costs will be comparable to existing waste disposal services.
-CEFLEX shows new market potential for recyclates from flexible packaging
A new Quality Recycling Process (QRP) for flexible packaging, from CEFLEX and its stakeholders, shows high-value applications for recycled polymers from a mechanical recycling process is viable.
Dana Mosora, workstream lead, said: “We have reached a milestone through the power of value chain collaboration and expertise in waste management of flexible packaging. Our trials have shown good yields and delivered recyclate quality suitable to replace virgin polymer grades in a number of demanding film and flexible packaging applications.”
The CEFLEX stakeholder team set out to deliver commercial quantities of PE and PP film quality recyclates for a range of non-food flexible packaging markets not currently open to household collected post-consumer flexible recyclates. With this milestone reached, the CEFLEX workstream is planning industrial trials to underpin the business case for investment in infrastructure which can leverage the QRP into a mainstream solution.
-Film manufacturer takes over Saxa Packaging / Capacity of 12,000 t/y to be doubled
Film specialist Polifilm Extrusion (Weißandt-Gölzau / Germany; www.polifilm.de) has acquired packaging manufacturer Saxa Packaging (Neukirchen/Pleiße / Germany; www.saxa-packaging.com). Saxa will be integrated into Polifilm’s packaging and performance films division. Division head Jens Kölble and Polifilm Extrusion’s MD Eckehard Betz will jointly assume the management of the packaging manufacturer, which will trade under the name of “Polifilm Neukirchen” in the future. All 37 jobs are to be retained; the purchase price, however, has not been disclosed.
According to Polifilm, the takeover will enable the company to expand its product portfolio of food and industrial packaging solutions – including polyethylene and polypropylene-based barrier films in widths of up to 3.3 m.
-Plants: UFlex expands packaging films capacity in India
UFlex Ltd, India’s largest multinational flexible packaging company, has scored in the packaging sector since it has become a lifeline in the battle against Covid-19 pandemic. The company witnessed a surge in demand for multiple lines of businesses while also adding newer clients. With this, UFlex also 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 said, “The highlights of this quarter are commissioning of the brownfield BOPET film line in Poland with a capacity of 45,000 tonnes/year.
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.
In India, we have not expanded the capacity of packaging films since the last 16 years and are now setting up greenfield BOPET and CPP lines in Karnataka to meet the growing demand.
We are also expanding outside India with plans to set up brownfield CPP film line at our UAE plant that will add a production capacity of 18,000 tonnes/year.”
-INNOVATE UK INVESTS £1.2 MILLION IN CHEMICAL RECYCLING TECHNOLOGY
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), has announced its support of a £1.2 million project between Recycling Technologies, University of Birmingham, University of Surrey and Cranfield University to enhance and improve the efficiency of chemical recycling technology in the UK.
black plastic packagingThe funding has been made available as part of Innovate UK’s Smart ‘open grant funding programme’, which looks to support commercially viable and innovative business ideas.
The research project will aim to further develop and enhance the RT7000, a machine manufactured by Recycling Technologies which converts waste plastics into Plaxx®, a recycled feedstock that can be used to manufacture new plastic.
-British universities to further develop chemical recycling
Innovate UK backs a 1.2 million GBP project with Recycling Technologies, the University of Birmingham, the University of Surrey, and the Cranfield University to further develop chemical recycling technology in the UK.
Recycling Technologies, a specialist plastic recycling technology provider, the University of Birmingham, the University of Surrey, and Cranfield University announce they have received backing from Innovate UK’s Smart ‘open grant funding programme’ for a £1.2m project to enhance and improve the efficiency of chemical recycling technology in the UK.
The research project aims to further develop and enhance the RT7000, a machine manufactured by Recycling Technologies which converts waste plastics into Plaxx, a recycled feedstock which can be used to manufacture new plastic. The parties will work together on developing an online monitoring system which will predict and control Plaxx quality based on input composition and process conditions.
-Hyundai reveals interior of first EV-platform car Ioniq 5
Hyundai Motor has released teaser images of the interior of the Ioniq 5, the first car to be released under its new all-electric Ioniq brand.
The first car to utilize Hyundai’s EV-dedicated E-GMP modular system, the Ioniq 5’s interior has been designed under the theme “living space,” the company said, and will be equipped with a flat battery to increase the interior space.
The biggest feature that sets the Ioniq 5 aside from combustible vehicles is its “flat floor,” meaning the cockpit structure doesn’t have the raised section between the driver and passenger seat. This raised structure that extended to the backseat houses the driving axle on most cars.
According to a five-second video shared by Hyundai, the center console can slide back and forth in line with the front passenger seat, hence allowing the driver to enter the vehicle from both the left and right doors. A button-based electric gear shift will be placed near the steering wheel — a feature Hyundai calls Shift by Wire (SBW) that has already been included in a lot of the company’s latest releases.
-The expensive plastic does not spare the ‘bio’ ( Italian Language Only)
In the coming weeks, generalized increases in the prices of bioplastics are expected on the European market due to imports of PBAT.
The storm in prices has so far affected almost exclusively ‘fossil’ plastics, but its effects will soon be felt in the compostable sector as well, with increases also sustained during the year.
The transmission hinge is polybutylene adipate terephthalate (PBAT), a biodegradable polyester that provides elasticity and weldability to most of the biopolymer-based compounds used in the filming processes.
PBAT is mainly composed of monomers usually of petrochemical origin – 1,4 butanediol, adipic acid and terephthalic acid – commodities largely produced in Asia (but capacities are also present in Europe).
There are also biobased alternatives: such as sebacic acid (obtained from castor seeds) in place of adipic acid, from which partially renewable PBST (polybutylene adipate sebacate) is obtained.
In Europe, the PBAT or variants of it are produced by BASF (PBAT and PBST) and by the Italian Novamont; the latter can further increase renewability by using 1.4 biobased butanediol supplied by the sister company Mater-Biotec, as well as azelaic acid, produced by Matrìca in Sardinia, instead of adipic acid.
The most significant and sudden increase in prices recently concerned the 1-4 butanediol, whose prices have more than doubled due to the strong demand linked to the Chinese industrial recovery; bullish wave that some traders believe will lead to new hikes in the coming months.
The increase in prices has for now affected bioplastics from China and other Far East countries, with variations in the last few weeks of around + 7-8%, but will soon be applied by European suppliers as well.
Alessandro Ferlito, Sales Director of Novamont, the main Italian supplier of bioplastics, believes that it is no longer possible to internalize the higher costs of raw materials and that, therefore, by the end of the month the first increases, initially contained (around + 5%), will be applied. , without however ruling out further upward realignments in the course of the year. Another major European player has already announced substantial increases.
-Japan GDP beats forecasts with 12.7% annualized rise for Q4
COVID-19 results in 4.8% full-year fall but activity approaching pre-crisis level
Japan’s economy grew 12.7% on the quarter in the October-December period in annualized real terms, continuing its recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, preliminary data showed on Monday.
The country’s real gross domestic product shrank 4.8% for the full 2020, according to the Cabinet Office — the first contraction since a 5.7% plunge seen in the global financial crisis days of 2009. But the 2020 result was significantly better than the International Monetary Fund’s prediction in October of a 5.3% drop.
The fourth quarter growth rate followed the record 22.9% expansion in the July-September quarter, when the government’s Go To Travel campaign helped fuel the swift recovery. But while a resurgence of COVID-19 infections late in the year was a hindrance, the economy was nearly back to levels seen before the crisis in the fourth quarter of 2019.
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