Industry News

M&As/Investments/Tie-ups

• Singapore-based their cooperation investment on PTA sourcing, management firm work together along Circulate Capital’s the polyester value Circulate Capital chain and seek Ocean Fund (CCOF), other collaborative the world’s first opportunities. investment fund dedicated to the • Austrian chemical ocean plastic firm Borealis crisis in South and has completed Southeast Asia, has the acquisition made its first US$6 of Canada-based million investment Nova Chemicals’ in Lucro Plastecycle 50% interest in in India, and PT Novealis Holdings. Tridi Oasis Group in Formed in 2018, Indonesia. Novealis is the joint venture between • South Korean giant affiliates of Borealis

Lotte Chemical has and Nova, which invested around subsequently US$132 million to formed a 50/50 acquire a 4.46% joint venture stake in Japanese with an affiliate chemical company of Total S.A. to Showa Denko, launch Bayport undertaken in two Polymers (Baystar) phases between in Houston, Texas, March and April. US. The move reflects the South Korean • Japan’s Ube group’s intention to Industries has take over Japanese acquired Premium chemical companies Composite with strong Technology North technologies for its America (PCTNA), future growth. a subsidiary of

• Oil firm BP has Corporation. entered into an PCTNA agreement with manufactures China Resources compounds Chemical Innovative in the US. In Materials Holdings January, Ube and Limited (CRC) Toyota Tsusho and invested as a entered into a shareholder of CRC, share transfer which is a major agreement, under producer of PET in which Ube was China and a PTA to receive 100% customer of BP’s. of the shares in The companies PCTNA, to be will look at completed by strengthening 1 April. • Speciality chemicals firm Nouryon is to acquire the merchant triethyl aluminum (TEAL) business of South African petrochemical firm Sasol, including its specialty fleet of returnable cylinders. TEAL is a metal alkyl essential in the production of plastics like PP and PE.

Toyota Tsusho

Mubadala Investment

Company, the Abu Dhabibased investment company, and OMV, oil and gas company headquartered in Vienna, have signed a n agreement that will give OMV a majority stake in Borealis. OMV, which currently owns a 36% stake in Borealis, will acquire an additional 39% from Mubadala for US$4.68 billion, the biggest acquisition in OMV’s history and the largest single transaction for Mubadala. Following completion, OMV will hold a 75% interest in Borealis and Mubadala will retain a 25% interest.

• Tokyoheadquartered

Mitsubishi Chemical

Corporation (MCC) has acquired Gelest

Intermediate

Holdings, the parent company of Gelest Inc and a portfolio company of New Mountain Capital. Gelest is a manufacturer, of silicones, organosilanes, metal-organics, and speciality monomers for medical devices, life sciences, microelectronics, and personal care markets.

• Canadian recycler Pyrowave has c losed a series B investment, which marks the first step towards bringing the modular recycling technology to market. The round led by French tyre maker Michelin and Sofinnova Partners, a European venture capital firm, also includes Ecofuel, a Quebec-based early stage cleantech venture capital fund.

• German materials manufacturer Covestro and US compounder Teknor Apex are to cooperate on compounding thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), with the jointly developed products by Teknor Apex to be marketed as Desmoflex.

• Chemical firm

Nova Chemicals

and biofuel maker Enerkem are to jointly develop technology for converting nonrecyclable and non-compostable municipal waste into ethylene, a key feedstock for the production of PE and other plastics. The two Canadian companies will work together to research advanced recycling technology.

• Chemical firm Dow and Swedish stretch film manufacturer Doxa Plast are to commercialise Reborn, the new range of biobased stretch films that integrate Dow’s biobased LLDPE Elite 5230GC R Enhanced PE resin, which is produced from renewable feedstock. The films are produced at Doxa’s factory in Sweden, which due to the short supply chain also contributes to reducing carbon footprint.

• Australia’s Security Matters and German chemical firm BASF are to develop solutions for plastics traceability and circularity. Security Matters will contribute its technology to enable physical and digital tracking of closed loop recycling, authenticate sustainability claims and improve sorting of plastic waste. The partnership leverages BASF’s experience in plastic additives, regulatory know-how, and understanding of the plastics value chain.

• Switzerland-based Maag Group, a diversified solutions provider of Pump & Filtration Systems, Pelletising Systems, Pulverising Systems, and Recycling Systems, has appointed DKSH to distribute Maag’s equipment in Indonesia. Prior to this, in 1990, Maag has had a partnership footprint with DKSH in Japan, North Asia.

State-owned oil firm Saudi Aramco is seeking to lower the price of the acquisition of a 70% stake

INDUSTRY NEWS

in petrochemicals maker Sabic, following the collapse in oil prices due to Covid-19, and against the slash in spending by the government. Aramco is also looking at cutting down the size of the initial instalment payment for the purchase to Sabic’s owner, the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund Public Investment Fund.

• French robots supplier Sepro Group has tied up with Labotek A/S, Denmark, to sell Sepro robots in India. It will develop the commercial presence of Sepro in India, while expanding Labotek’s portfolio of auxiliary equipment for plastics processing.

New Plants/Capacity Expansions • US firm • US dis tribu tor targeted for the

ExxonMobil has o fengineering end o f2023. broken ground thermoplastics The resul ting on its US$10 Conventus material will be billion Chinese Polymers has used in Ineos’s petrochemical es tablished crackers complex in a Chinese to replace Huizhou, subsidiary, oil -based Guangdong Shanghai materials. Province. The Conventus Firs ttrials complex is one Polymers New o fthe produc t o fa few mega Materials, based from Plas tic petrochemical in Shanghai, Energy’s process projec ts in China which will o f fer have been tha twill be the company’s successfully wholly owned by portfolio o f converted into a foreign investor. products. virgin polymer I twill be buil tin through the two phases wi th • Nova Chemicals Ineos cracker a t the firs tphase is slowing down Köln, Germany. to have a 1.6 expansion work million-tonne/ i ts new AST2 • Engineering firm year e thylene PE facili ty and TechnipFMC’s cracker as well Corunna cracker operating centre as downstream expansion in Lyon, France, PE and PP plants, projec ts in will be assis ting scheduled to Ontario. The French green be completed expansion plans chemis try firm by 2023 when were to inves t Carbios to build cons truc tion on C$2 billion to a plant that the second phase expand capaci ty demonstrates will begin. on Corunna Carbios’ by 50% and to Enzyma tic • BASF has licensed build a 450,000- Recycling the production tonne/year PE Process. The o fits certified plant based on technology uses compos table the company’s proprie tary aliphatic-aromatic Advanced enzymes to co-polyester Sclair tech recycle was te (PBAT )to China’s technology. PET plastics Red Avenue New Completion was in to monomers Materials Group. expected by 2021. ready for The latter will The Corunna repolymerisation build a 60,000- cracker curren tly in to PET wi th tonne PBAT plan t has 816,000 the same in Shanghai, using tonnes/year o f technical BASF`s process ethylene capacity. and physical technology and proper ties in exchange for • Chemical firm as virgin PET. access to raw Ineos and Plastic Construction material from this Energy are to will s tar tla ter plant BASF will build a new plant this year with sell i tas ecoflex. to convert waste first operations Production will plas tic i n to new expec ted to start in 2022. raw material, begin in 2021. • German recycling company APK, which offers the Newcycling recycling technology, has comple ted its new EUR1 million labora tory a ti ts produc tion si te in Merseburg (Germany). Initially, the facility will focus on LDPE and polyamiderecyclates, which are to be used in packaging applications.

Advanced Global Investment Company

(AGIC), a subsidiary o f Saudi Arabian PP producer

Advanced

Petrochemical, is to form a join tven ture wi th Sou th Korea’s SK Gas

Petrochemical

(SKGP), a subsidiary o f SK Gas, to build a propane dehydrogena tion (PDH )/PP complex in Jubail, Saudi Arabia.

Advanced

Polyolefins join t venture will inves tUS$1.8 billion and will be owned by AGIC wi th 85% share and SKGP holding the

remainder. The facility will have a nameplate capacity to manufacture 843,000 tonnes/year of propylene and 800,000 tonnes/ year of PP.

• De spi te the unfavourable situation due to Covid-19, Russian firm Sibur is going ahead with ramping up trial production of thermoplastic elastomers (SBS polymers) at its Voronezh site, Russia, in accordance with the project schedule. Thus, in 2020 the company’s portfolio will include five new SBS grades. It launched the investment project in 2018 to increase the production of TPEs by 50,000 tonnes/year.

• Ge rman chemical firm Evonik has doubled capacity for its transparent, high-performance polyamide Trogamid CX at its plant in Marl, Germany. The planned expansion went on stream as scheduled in February 2020. It did not state the capacity increase.

• Japan’s Mitsui Chemicals is to establish a new plant within Osaka Works, Takaishi, Osaka Prefecture, to produce its APEL series of cyclic olefin copolymers, with an additional line. By establishing the new plant, Mitsui says production capacity for APEL will rise by 50%. Construction is slated to wrap up in March 2022. It already operates one line each at Iwakuni-Ohtake Works and Osaka Works, making a total of two lines currently.

• Wi th the ca rbon nanotube (CNT) market growing at 30% a year, South Korea’s LG Chem is to more than triple its capacity, from 500 tonnes/ year to 1,700 tonnes/year, at its production facility in Yeosu. It also plans to gradually increase sales to global IT materials companies and car makers in North America, Europe and China and will also review plans for additional expansion in 2022.

Toray Industries

is boosting production capacity for Torayfan oriented polypropylene (OPP) film for automotive capacitors by 60% at its Tsuchiura Plant in Ibaraki Prefecture by 2022. It intends to capitalise on the electric vehicles (EVs) market.

• US custom compounder

Polymax TPE

has expanded output of its medicalgrade P-Series and A-Series thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs) to meet increased demand from customers. Capacity was not disclosed.

• Bo reali s will not go ahead with the US$6.8 billion integrated cracker and PE project in Kazakhstan, to

INDUSTRY NEWS

have a capacity of 1.25 million tonnes/year. The decision is due to economic uncertainties as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The project was a 50:50 joint venture with Kazakh stateowned United

Chemical

Company ( UCC) and a joint agreement was signed in 2018. Borealis also has a 500,000- tonne/year PP project with Kazakhstan’s

Samruk-Kazyna Sovereign Wealth Fund

that is under construction.

• In a bid to boost competitiveness, KHS Group, a manufacturer of filling and packaging systems for the beverage and liquid food industries, has invested EUR20 million in modernising its headquarters in Dortmund, Germany. In a bundle of measures underway since 2015 the company has built a 4,300-sq m production shop and fully renovated another.