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PTT Chemical?s ethylene plant continues to be suspended in the Map Ta Phut controversy. It is one of the two projects on a list of activities deemed environmentally harmful by the court, resulting in its licence being withdrawn. Under the constitutio......

Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical Co (Petro Rabigh) plans to focus on the fast-growing markets of China and India as it undergoes expansion of its complex. As per ICIS, the expansion plans are part of a US$10 bln (?7.8 bln) development plan, as repor......

Making corn-derived plastics more heat-tolerant is one of several top-priority targets of collaborative research at the Agricultural Research Service's Western Regional Research Center in Albany, California. This will help broaden the range of applic......

Spot ethylene and propylene prices have lost some ground over the past week in Asia and Europe, due to rising supply levels in both regions, as per Chemorbis. Rising supply in the Middle East has also helped ease the availability of import supplies. ......

As demand from China increases, Asia could witness influx of naphtha cargoes from Europe after a gap of three months. Asian petrochemical companies are to import naphtha from Europe in September, as per Bloomberg. Naphtha shipments are likely to rise......

The Thai Administrative Court has ordered termination of the operating permits of only two industrial projects in the Map Ta Phut, allowing 74 other earlier-suspended projects to go ahead. The two suspended projects are expansions ? An ethylene-glyco......

Developments and improvements in the field of efficient and economic plastics recycling will be the focus for EREMA at K 2010. As a next-step development of the proven TVE extrusion system with high-performance degassing for difficult recycling jobs......

Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LLC (Chevron Phillips Chemical) has announced several senior management changes affecting its joint ventures in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The changes will be effective September 1, 2010. Said M. Bajodah has been......

German PVC, PE and PP compound maker Polymer-Chemie has expanded production of PVC compounds to 20,000 tons at its Russian LLC Tula Polymer factory, as per European Plastic news. Financial details of the project were not disclosed. ......

The companies SIBUR and NOVATEK have concluded an agreement to acquire petrochemical holding company OJSC NOVATEK-Polymer. A share of the authorized capital of OJSC NOVATEK-Polymer to the amount of 32% is to be transferred at the conclusion of the co......

Petrochina Co has won government approval to double the capacity of its 5 mln tpa Huabei oil refinery. The expansion will make the plant the 14th refinery in China with an annual capacity of 10 mln tons or more. The company also plans to add a 1 mln ......

Middle Eastern producers have approached the Egyptian market with their September offers, as per Chemorbis. Producers? LDPE film offers indicate rollovers to increases from August levels- at a large premium when compared with the prices offered to Ch......

Naphtha prices in Asia fell from a two-week high, and naphtha cracks dropped from three-month highs on muted spot demand and ample supplies, as per Reuters. At least 115,000 tons of African/Mediterranean naphtha will land in Asia between H2-September......

Indonesia?s Tri Polyta?s polypropylene plant, that has been shut for debottlenecking since March 2010, will see a delay in restart. Restart will be delayed by three months to April 2011, mainly on concerns on global economic recovery, as per Platts. ......

State-owned Egyptian General Petroleum Corp (EGPC) has sold 350,000 tons of naphtha for September-December loading from Suez. JPMorgan will lift 6 cargoes, each at 35,000 tonnes, at premiums ranging US$2-5/ton to Middle East quotes, on a free-on-boar......

The global steel pipe coating market is worth circa ?5 billion, reveals the market study released by Applied Market Information Ltd. (AMI). The pipe coating industry was affected by the global economic crisis, but the magnitude, timing and duration o......

Polycarbonate is one of the most widely used thermoplastics. It has the second largest share in the thermoplastic market after polyamide and is one of the fastest growing types of thermoplastic, as per GBI Research. With properties such as transpare......

Expanding supplies of natural gas liquids derived from unconventional sources, such as the Eagle Ford and Marcellus shales and Bakken formation, is expected to benefit the cost structure of the North American petrochemical market, as per Platts. Ab......

Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical Co (Petro Rabigh) has restarted its 700,000 tpa polypropylene (PP) plant in Rabigh, taken off line in early August because of a shortage of feedstock propylene, due to an outage at its? fluid catalytic cracker (FCC).......

BP is to hive off interests in ethylene and polyethylene production in Malaysia to Petronas, Malaysia's national oil company. The sale by British oil giant for US$363 mln is expected to be completed by the end of 2010. BP holds a 15% stake in Ethylen......