MIDDLE EAST & ASIA CHEMICAL PROCESSING INDUSTRY BRIEFS

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources

Malaysia's Titan Replacing Naphtha with LPG

In the second quarter of 2008 Malaysia's Titan Chemicals Corporation (KUL:TITAN) (Damansara) turned an after-tax profit of over $61 million on $1.1 billion of revenues. In the first quarter, revenues had increased 25% and profits 65% year-on-year. Driving these results was the introduction of butadiene to the product line and increase in prices and volumes of existing products. The use of liquefied petroleum gas feedstock rose to 25% in a plan to replace increasingly expensive naphtha. The company has expanded storage for liquefied petroleum gas and has seen the arrival of a very large gas carrier at Pasir Gudang. In Indonesia, the company has achieved record polyethylene production and will add biaxially-oriented polypropylene to the product range.

Japanese Naphtha Cracker Production Reduced

In the face of weak demand, Japan's Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (Tokyo) is planning to reduce naphtha production levels in September by shuttering three crackers through to the second half of December. The crackers, two at Kashima and one at Mizushima, have a total capacity of 1.3 million tons per year of ethylene and are currently operating at 93% capacity, which will be reduced to levels of 80-85%. Other Japanese producers Sumitomo Chemical Company Limited (TYO:4005) (Tokyo), Mitsui Chemicals Incorporated (TYO:4183) (Tokyo) and Asahi Kasei Corporation (TYO:3407) (Tokyo) are also planning production cuts at their naphtha crackers.

S-Oil Awards Samsung $1 Billion Petrochemical Expansion Contract

South Korea's S-Oil Corporation (SEO:010950) (Seoul) has awarded a $1 billion contract to Samsung Engineering Company Limited (SEO:028050) (Seoul) for the expansion of the petrochemical plant at its Onsan refinery. The expanded facility will make S-Oil the largest paraxylene supplier in the Asia Pacific region. The aromatic unit will have a capacity of 900,000 tons per year of paraxylene, a feedstock for the production of synthetic fiber, and 280,000 tons per year of benzene, a blending ingredient for petrochemical products. Feedstock for both products is heavy naphtha. The plant is scheduled for completion by January 2011. S-Oil announced a revised expansion plan last November which included a 50,000-barrel-per-day refinery boost.

LyondellBasell ImplementingTechnologies for 1.3 Billion-Ton Kazakhstan Petrochemicals Complex

Kazakhstan Petrochemical Industries AO (KAS:ATOL) (KPI) (Almaty, Kazakhstan) has selected LyondellBasell Industries (Rotterdam, The Netherlands) to supply the single gas phase reactor "S" configuration Spherilene technology for its 400,000-ton-per-year facility producing linear low density polyethylene and high density polyethylene. LyondellBasell's technologies will go into another 400,000-ton-per-year low density polyethylene using Lupotech T processing technology, and the company's Spherizone technology will be used at a 500,000-ton-per-year polypropylene unit. The three-plant complex at Karabatan is scheduled to start operation in 2013 and will use feeds that are locally available. LyondellBasell is a holding partner in KPI.

Iran Plans $30 Billion South Pars Based Product Expansion

Iran is planning to invest $30 billion in petrochemical projects based on output from the South Pars natural gas field. The National Iranian Petrochemical Company (NIPC) said that Phases I and II of the projects will attract an investment of $7.5 billion and $13 billion, respectively. The balance of $8.5 billion will go into downstream projects. Market income from products from the projects is forecast to total $22.3 billion per year. NIPC aims to double production to 68 million tons per year by 2024.

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