Polymers PET Petrochemicals rPET recycling 10-01-2019 - Arhive
-China – Polyethylene Terephthalate
PET and its chain continue to inch up.
PET Bottle grade export 1,000/1,045 $/ton – PET Bottle grade domestic market 8,000/8,100 yuan/ton – PET Filament grade SD domestic market 7,600/7,750 yuan/ton – PET Filament grade BR domestic market 7,600/7,700 yuan/ton
PTA Taiwan 805/825 $/ton – PTA domestic market 6,250/6,350 yuan/ton – MEG $ 620/635 $/ton – MEG domestic market 5,100/5,250 yuan/ton – PX Korea 1,010/1025 $/ton
POY 150D/48F domestic market 8,000/8,150 yuan/ton – DTY 150D/48F domestic market 10,000/10,100 yuan/ton – PSF domestic market 8,800/8,900 yuan/ton
To BREXIT, or not to BREXIT,that is the question
New soft touch collections on display at Domotex.
Soft and easy-to-clean: the two most popular keywords in the carpet industry. RadiciGroup expands its range.
RadiciGroup has confirmed its participation at Domotex 2019, and the RadiciGroup Performance Yarn Business Area has launched its “Product Range Options” catalogue with its newest yarn collections featuring the latest market trends in textile flooring.
The new product range includes PA 6 and PA 66 BCF yarns – for both residential and contract applications – meeting the market’s quest for soft touch products capable of giving carpet a rich look and a soft-to-the-touch feel.
“With years of experience in the industry under our belt and a proven ability to develop yarns with excellent performance features,” said Arturo Andreoni, marketing director of RadiciGroup Performance Yarn, “we started working on making our yarns more pleasing to the eye and softer to the touch, as well as creating solution-dyed yarns in brilliant colours, to satisfy the most diverse aesthetic needs of today’s designers.”
Crude Oil Prices Trend
OUTLOOK ’19: Europe R-PET market certain on demand, unclear on feedstock supply increase
Not many doubt that the European recycled polyethylene terephthalate (R-PET) market will experience strong demand once more in 2019.
The question is whether or not any new legislation could drive further change for recycling by lifting the feedstock ceiling from recyclers.
After all, although there is continued market talk of R-PET capacity expanding in 2019, the difficulty many recyclers face is in sourcing upstream post-consumer polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles.
U.S. Oil Shipments To Asia Set To Rise Soon
A combination of lower shipping costs and lower domestic demand will boost U.S. crude oil exports to Asia, Reuters reports, citing sources from the commodity trading and shipping industries.
Freight costs for shipments scheduled to arrive in Asia in late March and April this year are US$0.50 lower per barrel of oil than they were for shipments scheduled to arrive at refineries in December as buyers were in a rush to secure crude ahead of the Iran sanctions that went into effect in early November.
May loses grip on Brexit deal after fresh Commons humiliation
Amendments mean PM would be left with little room to move if her Brexit deal is rejected next week
Theresa May’s room for manoeuvre should her Brexit deal be rejected next week was further constrained on Wednesday night, after the government lost a second dramatic parliamentary showdown in as many days.
An increasingly boxed-in prime minister must now set out her plan B within three working days of a defeat next Tuesday, after a rebel amendment passed on Wednesday.
There were furious scenes in the House of Commons, as the Speaker, John Bercow, took the controversial decision to allow a vote on the amendment, tabled by former attorney general Dominic Grieve.
A string of MPs, including the leader of the house of Commons Andrea Leadsom, repeatedly intervened to question the Speaker’s approach, with some accusing him of being biased against Brexit.
Our top stories from December 2018
Coca Cola bottles wrapped in plastic at a wholesale market.Stories about beverage companies using recycled plastic, a facility sorting flexible packaging, a chemical producer embracing pyrolysis and authorities dismantling a fraud scheme drew readers’ attention last month.
The list below shows our top stories published in December in terms of unique page views.
1 | Growing PET reclaimer to supply Coca-Cola bottlers
PET recycling startup Loop Industries has inked another deal with a global food and beverage brand.
Germany’s chems orders, production sharply down in November
New orders and production in Germany’s chemicals and pharmaceuticals industry both fell markedly in November month on month, the country’s central bank said on Tuesday.
The Bundesbank’s index for chemicals and pharmaceuticals orders fell to 103.6 in November, down from 109.0 in October.
Both domestic and foreign orders declined during the month.
Year on year, the orders index for the industry was also down from the 109.9 mark posted in November 2017.
Meanwhile, the bank’s index for chemicals and pharmaceuticals production fell to 97.9 in November, down from 103.1 in October.
Year on year, production also fell sharply from the 108.2 mark posted in November 2017.
Lack of demand could sink ocean plastics recycling program
Plastic waste on a street in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.Envision Plastics has had success integrating marine plastics into the supply chain. But if more brand owners don’t step up to purchase the material, the whole effort may have to scale back, an executive at the reclaimer said.
Reidsville, N.C.-headquartered Envision Plastics has processed millions of pounds of plastic at risk of entering the Caribbean Sea, calling the recycled resin OceanBound Plastic.
But the OceanBound project may not be economically sustainable at current levels because end users have purchased only a fraction of it at prices that cover Envision’s costs, Tamsin Ettefagh, vice president of sales for Envision Plastics, recently told Plastics Recycling Update.
Germany’s industrial contraction in November heightens recession fears
Industrial production in Germany contracted month on month in November, raising concerns that the eurozone’s largest economy may have sunk into recession in the second half of the year after the third-quarter’s contraction.
German industrial production fell 1.9% during the month compared to October, according to the country’s Federal Statistics Office, amid weakening exports and a slump in automotive sector demand triggered by the implementation of new emission certifications.
GDP in the country contracted by 0.2% during the third quarter of 2018, and the November production figures point to a deepening industrial decline since then, following the 0.8% month on month drop seen in October.
Lenzing Expands Offering For Nonwovens In A High-Tech Application Facility
The Lenzing Group, world market leader for wood-based specialty fibers, is expanding its offering of solutions for the cosmetics, hygiene and medical sectors.
Heiko Arnold, Chief Technology Officer of the Lenzing Group, and Jürgen Lehmann, President of Hof University of Applied Sciences in Saale, Germany, have signed a cooperation agreement to utilize a new spunlacing line for nonwoven applications.
The collaboration between the company and the university will initially last for a period of five years and gives Lenzing access to use the machines and technologies.
Asia benzene extends rebound on buoyant crude, US-China talks
Asia’s benzene market firmed this week in a refreshing change after several months of decline, on hopes of a resolution to the US-China trade war in the near term.
Shipping containers at port of Qingdao in China (Source: Sipa Asia/REX/Shutterstock)
Spot prices are continuing their rebound, after strengthening toward the mid-$550/tonne FOB (free on board) Korea levels late last week, backed by gains in upstream crude market.
Brent crude futures increased above $57/bbl this year after tumbling to around $50/bbl in December 2018.
“Sentiment has turned slightly positive as the [US-China] trade talk continues,” a Singapore-based trader said.
Spot benzene prices had tumbled from above $800/tonne FOB (free on board) Korea in the first half of October to the low-$500/tonne FOB Korea levels in early January 2019, ICIS data showed.
World Bank Cuts Oil Price Forecast To $67 In 2019-2020
The World Bank expects oil prices to average $67 a barrel this year and next, down $2 compared to projections from June last year, the bank said in its Global Economic Prospects report, in which it also revised down its global growth projections amid “darkening skies” for the global economy.
Oil prices were highly volatile in the second half of 2018, with sharp plunges toward the end of 2018, chiefly due to supply-side factors, the World Bank said. Last year, oil prices averaged $68 a barrel, slightly lower compared to the bank’s forecast from June 2018, but 30 percent higher than the average price of oil in 2017.
US-based researchers develop lignin-nylon material to help with 3D printing process.
ORNL has created a new composite material for additive manufacturing that makes use of lignin (picture courtesy of ORNL). “Structural characteristics of lignin are critical to enhance 3D printability of the materials.”
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) scientists have created a new composite material to be used for 3D printing that makes use of lignin – a biorefinery by-product. According to Tennessee-based ORNL, this feedstock could spur a profitable new use lignin.
The discovery was detailed in scientific journal Science Advances. Lignin is the material left over from the processing of biomass. It gives plants rigidity and also makes biomass resistant to being broken down into useful products.
“Finding new uses for lignin can improve the economics of the entire biorefining process,” said ORNL project lead Amit Naskar.
Details on Indorama’s move to secure U.S. RPET supply
PET baled for recycling.An Indorama Ventures executive says converging factors have led to growing recycled plastic demand, which is key to the resin maker’s acquisition of reclaimer Custom Polymers PET.
Indorama, the largest PET producer worldwide, announced last month it will acquire the recycling plant, located in Athens, Ala. Indorama is expected to formally take control of Custom Polymers PET on Jan. 15.
The Custom Polymers PET recycling facility will be Indorama’s first U.S. bale-to-flake plant. It’s located 15 minutes from Indorama’s Decatur production plant.
The facility has two lines producing more than 68 million pounds of RPET flake and food-grade RPET pellets per year. According to Indorama, which has nine production locations in the U.S., the acquisition will give the company a secured supply of domestic RPET.
