Petrovietnam and Vinatex JV for Polyester

A 50:50 Joint Venture between Petrovietnam and Vinatex (PVTEX JSC) for a $200m polyester fibre plant in Haiphong, Vietnam has been set-up with a capacity of 165 thousand tonnes per day. The feedstock for the plant, monoethylene glycol (MEG) and purified terephthalic acid (PTA) will be on import basis.

Under the agreement, Vinatex who is also the parent company for the JV will buy PVTEX JSC’s polyester for its textile and garment production facility. A pre-feasibility study for the project has been laid out to Vietnam's Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI).

Thailand's ACN and MMA Chemical Plants High Cost by Asahi Kasei

Asahi Kasei Chemical's Joint Venture to build ACN (Acrylonitrile) and MMA (Methyl Methacrylate) unit in Mab Ta Phut in Rayong, Thailand costs have increased to $760m. The project is expected to start commercial production by 2010, after several construction cost hikes. The JV includes PTT Asahi Chemical Company (PTTAC), of 48.5% share and another 3% by Marubeni Corp.

Explosion at Nanjing Chemical Industrial Killed One

Sinopec subsidiary Nanjing Chemical Industrial suffered an explosion killing one worker and injured six others at the company’s 300,000 tonne/year capacity ammonia synthesis plant in Nanjing.

LNG Becoming Global Commodity - A Market Perspective

With more and more country finding scarcity for energy resources, LNG, which once was considered regional commodity is now set to become a globally traded commodity as expected by analysts. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) upcoming LNG projects are skyrocketing, especially as oil production and gas recovery is increasing in the Middle East.

Liquefaction capacity is expected to rise 30% with shipping capacity will increase by 50% by end of 2010. The main contributing factor that leads to the move of becoming globally trading commodity comes from trading structure for the upcoming supply of LNG - a more flexible rather than relying on long-term contracts.

Moreover, new supply destined for North America, the largest natural gas market in the world will play a massive role in pricing and LNG contracts. North America's has a vast storage capacity of 4,000 bcf expected to act as a buffer against market prices movement.

NPC Fanavaran Methanol Plant Restarting

The short-term methanol shortage due to National Petrochemical Co’s (NPC) 1million tonne/year capacity methanol plant at Fanavaran, Bandar Imam, Iran has been remedied when the methanol plant restarted.

The plant was having problems with its gas supply a likely scenario in Iran having gas supply shortages during the severe winter weather.

PET Bottles Manufactured Domestically

Following plastic bottle resin industry small margin, more and more end users are manufacturing their own polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles in-house to reduce costs. The trend is increasing.

The situation mostly driven by small margin for PET bottles manufacturer and economies of scale wouldnt help either. There is increasing trend of large PET bottles manufacturer closing their plants.

Siam Cement & Dow Chemicals Cracker Project at Mab Ta Phut On Schedule

Siam Cement and Dow Chemical new joint-venture for 900,000 tonne/year capacity cracker project in Mab Ta Phut, Thailand is on track to start up in the second half of 2010 despite concerns that the project schedule affected by a recent dispute between Mab Ta Phut residents and government officials over environmental concerns which could turn the site into a “pollution-control” zone.

Siam Cement/Dow Chemicals had already started construction with erection on piling work for the new complex including a new naphtha cracker is on progress. The cracker survives on imported naphtha, as much as 85% for the feedstock.

The economics for the project was uplifted by a value-added downstream integration including propylene oxide (PO) and specialty elastomers through Dow Chemicals. Planned specialty elastomers plant will produce AFFINITY Polyolefin Plastomers and ENGAGE Polyolefin Elastomers for packaging and automotive thermoplastic applications. It was also estimated that as much as 50% savings from construction cost can be achieved as compared to Middle East.