Chexpress - December 17, 2014

North America

Sales

Dow Chemical is selling two businesses for a total of $225 million. Vertellus Specialty Materials will buy Dow’s sodium borohydride business and Valfilm North America will buy a Dow polyolefin films plant in Findlay, Ohio. Dow expects both sales to close during the first quarter of 2015. The divestiture of the sodium borohydride business includes a manufacturing facility in Elma, Washington. The polyolefin plant in Ohio will close in January, but Valfilm will restart it in February.

Expansion

Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LP has completed an ethylene expansion at its Sweeny complex in Old Ocean, Texas. With the addition of a tenth furnace to ethylene unit 33 at the complex, the expansion is expected to increase annual production by 200 million pounds. Expansion construction began in 2013. The Sweeny complex is now capable of producing roughly 12 million pounds of ethylene per day, or 4.3 billion pounds annually.

HDPE Project

INEOS Olefins & Polymers USA and Sasol have broken ground on their high-density polyethylene (HDPE) manufacturing joint venture at the INEOS Battleground Manufacturing Complex in La Porte, Texas. The facility will produce 470 kilotons per year of bimodal HDPE using Innovene S process technology licensed from INEOS Technologies. The intention is to produce a limited number of grades allowing high grade efficiencies. INEOS will operate the 50/50 joint venture. The plant is expected to start up in 2016.

Gasifier Vessel

Linde North America has completed installation of the gasifier vessel, a significant step in the construction of its new gasification train at its La Porte, Texas facility. The plant is part of a more than $250 million investment that also includes a state-of-the-art air separation unit, which is also under construction. The gasification plant is scheduled to come on-stream early in 2015. The new gasifier will convert natural gas into syngas. The air separation unit is slated to be operational in December 2014. The plant will also produce liquid oxygen, nitrogen and argon.

World

Heat Exchanger Order

Alfa Laval has won an order to supply Alfa Laval Packinox heat exchangers to a petrochemical plant in South Korea. The order has a value of approximately SEK 85 million and delivery is scheduled for 2015. The heat exchangers will be used in the production of mixed Xylenes, ingredients in the manufacturing of synthetic nylons and PET bottles.

Maintenance

Yanbu National Petrochemicals Co will be shutting its ethylene glycol plant in April 2015 for between 35 and 60 days for planned maintenance. The financial impact on the company is estimated to be around $119.9 million.

Investment

Bharat Petroleum Corp will invest $741.44 million to diversify into the petrochemicals business, moving the state refiner beyond refining and retailing to boost margins. The company will produce niche petrochemical products that are predominantly imported into India at its Kochi refinery using propylene that will be available once the ongoing refinery expansion is completed. The company plans to boost capacity at its Kochi refinery to 310,000 barrels/day from the current 190,000 barrels/day by May 2016. The project proposal is submitted and awaiting environmental clearance. The petrochemical unit is expected to come on stream during financial year 2018-2019.