Active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), intermediates and formulations manufacturer SMS Pharmaceuticals (Hyderabad, India) informed the Bombay Stock Exchange (Mumbai) that its board of directors has decided to sell its plant at Visakhapatnam, India, to Mylan Laboratories (Hyderabad), a subsidiary of Mylan (Canonsburg, PA), for 1.73 billion Indian rupees ($33 million). The plant manufactures APIs and formulations for oncology drugs.

BASF says it has opened its first applications technology center for polyurethane (PU) systems in Russia. The center is at Vsevolozhsk, near Saint Petersburg. The site will be a part of the BASF joint venture Elastokam with OAO Nizhnekamskneftechim…

The major change that has taken place in the coatings industry during the last twenty years has been the adoption of new coating technologies. Until the early 1970s, most of the coatings were conventional low-solids, solvent-based formulations; waterborne (latex) paints, used in architectural applications, accounted for 30–35% of the total. In the late 1970s, however, impending government regulations on air pollution control focusing on industrial coating operations stimulated the development of low-solvent and solventless coatings that could reduce the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Energy conservation and rising solvent costs were also contributing factors. These new coating technologies include waterborne (thermosetting emulsion, colloidal dispersion, water-soluble) coatings, high-solids coatings, two-component systems, powder coatings and radiation-curable coatings.

The following pie chart shows world production of paints and coatings:

The paints and coatings industry in the United States, Western Europe and Japan is mature and generally correlates with the health of the economy, especially housing and construction and transportation. Overall demand from 2011 to 2016 will increase at average annual rates of 1–2% in the United States and 1.5–2.5% in Western Europe. In Japan, however, consumption of paints and coatings will experience relatively slow growth during this period (0.3%) as a result of no growth in major markets such as automotive OEM, machinery and appliances.

In the emergent countries of the world, coatings are growing at a much faster rate. The best prospects for growth are in Asia Pacific (8–10% growth per year in the near future), Eastern Europe (6%) and Latin America (6%). Growth of coatings in China is expected to continue at 8–10% per year, and in India and Indonesia at 5–10%. Growth in value terms will be even higher as a result of the production of relatively higher-valued coatings. Most of the major multinational paint producers, including PPG, Akzo Nobel, Kansai Paint, Nippon Paint, BASF, DuPont, Chugoku Marine Paint, Valspar, Sherwin-Williams and Hempel, have production in China. The multinational producers should gain even more presence in the developing world as living standards increase and per capita consumption of coatings rises.

Through the next five years, air pollution regulations will continue to be a driving force behind the adoption of new coating technologies. Despite the relatively slow growth in demand anticipated for coatings overall, waterborne and high-solids coatings, powders, UV curables and two-component systems appear to have good growth prospects.

By Malini Hariharan

One more US cracker and propane dehydrogenation (PDH) project has been confirmed. After months of speculation Formosa Plastics has announced that plans to build a 800,000 tonnes/year ethane cracker, a 600,000 tonnes/year PDH plant and a 300,000 tonnes/year low density polyethylene (LDPE) plant at Point Comfort, Texas. The $1.7bn investment is due to be completed in 2016.

Ethylene from the cracker will feed the LDPE unit and other existing downstream plants at the site. The company did not identify plans for the propylene from the PDH unit but said the additional propylene will provide ‘operational flexibility’

Formosa joins Chevron Phillips Chemical, Shell Chemicals and Dow Chemicals with plans for new crackers in the US during 2016-17.

South Africa-based Sasol is undergoing a feasibility study, due in the second half of 2013, for a $3.5bn-$4.5bn cracker of 1.0-1.4m tonnes/year at Lake Charles, Louisiana. Sasol already has a 470,000 tonne/year cracker at the site.

Dow Chemicals also plans to restart its 390,000 tonne/year cracker in St. Charles, Louisiana, by the end of 2012.

The shale gas fueled ethane boom has also prompted companies to plan expansions or debottlenecks at existing sites, including Westlake Chemical, LyondellBasell and INEOS. Other companies who have said they are evaluating new crackers include Saudi Arabia’s SABIC, Brazil’s Braskem, as well as US-based start-up Aither Chemicals.

The expansions and new projects add up to an estimated 29% increase in US ethylene capacity by 2017. The extra ethylene will also trigger a wave of capacity addition downstream. Given the capacity additions planned elsewhere in the world, including China, it is perhaps time for some rational thinking in the US.

By Indian Chemical News

Reliance Industries Ltd formally announced a $450-million joint venture with Russian petrochemical company Sibur, for setting up a one-lakh tonne butyl rubber plant at Reliance’s Jamnagar refinery. The plant is expected to be commissioned in mid-2014. While Reliance will hold a 74.9 per cent stake in the venture, the rest would be held by Sibur. The plant is expected to be commissioned by the second half of 2014 (calendar). The joint venture has been named as Reliance Sibur Elastomers Pvt Ltd. The JV will be the first manufacturer of butyl rubber in India and the fourth largest supplier of butyl rubber in the world. The JV will cater to the demand for synthetic rubber from the Indian automotive industry of over 75,000 tonnes per year, which is currently satisfied by imports. Investment in the JV is in line with Reliance’s vision of emerging as a significant player in the global synthetic rubber market.

Reliance and SIBUR also signed a technology licence agreement facilitating use by the JV of SIBUR’s proprietary butyl rubber production technology at the new production facility. SIBUR will develop basic engineering design for the facility and also train the JV’s personnel at SIBUR’s production site in Togliatti, Russia.

In December 2010, during the state visit of the Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, the initial agreement for the joint venture was made by RIL. Butyl rubber is a variety of synthetic rubber with many industrial applications ranging from inner tubes for tyres to adhesives and sealants. Sibur has proprietary technology for making the rubber, which would be made available to the joint venture.

, addressing the media said that the venture will cater to the demand for synthetic rubber from the Indian tyre industry of over 75,000 tonnes a year,

“Today, the whole demand is being met only by imports with prices ranging from $4,000 to $7,000 a tonne,” Nikhil Meswani, Executive Director of RIL, said. According to him, the joint venture will have a turnover of about Rs 2,500 crore after a full year of production. RIL will have to pay a ‘certain’ royalty to Sibur for accessing the proprietary technology for rubber making, he said.