The year of 2020 is finally over, but the ripples it has sent through world markets are yet to calm down. What has it brought to global synthetic rubber and butadiene trade? Was 2020 a historic turning point for the markets or a less momentous year than we tend to believe?

   Chem-Courier team invites everyone to join a free webinar ‘Synthetic rubber and butadiene markets: challenges, prospects and opportunities’ which will take place via Zoom on 16 March 2021, 11:00 CET.

   Our experts are eager to share their knowledge, thoughts and vision of Russia’s and the other CIS countries’ role in synthetic rubber and butadiene trade. We will discuss the expansion of SR and BD capacity in different regions, the reasons for an upturn in butadiene import into Asia in 2020 and China’s future need for European BD in 2021.

   Discussion topics:

Synthetic rubber trade flows and price trends in Europe and Russia

Global butadiene market in constant motion

Asia as game changer for global butadiene market

You are welcome to put your questions and take an active part in their discussion.

Please join the free webinar

 

Eugene Zubov
Editor-in-Chief Petrochemical Department
ChemCourier analytical agency
+ 7 499 346 03 42 (320)
+ 38 056 370 12 04 (320)
e.zubov@chem-courier.com

   China’s Hengyi Petrochemical plans to construct an 800,000-tpy benzene plant under its refining and petrochemical expansion project in Pulau Muara Besar, Brunei. It will be the second benzene unit on the site after the 500,000-tpy one commissioned in October 2019. The company announced earlier that it would also build a 1.65 million-tpy ethylene cracker, 2 million-tpy paraxylene, 2.5 million-tpy purified terephthalic acid (PTA), 1.2 million-tpy monoethylene glycol and 1 million-tpy PET plants there. The cracker will consume naphtha from the company’s own refinery that will have its capacity expanded. Some ethylene and propylene output will be supplied to PE and PP projects. The startups of all the units are scheduled for 2023.

 

   LyondellBasell, one of the world’s largest companies in the plastics, chemicals and refining industries, and China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), a huge Chinese integrated energy company, have signed an agreement to form a 50:50 joint venture (JV) producing propylene oxide styrene monomer (POSM) in China, according to the former’s press release published on 26 January. First announced on 23 December 2019, the JV will operate under the name Ningbo ZRCC LyondellBasell New Material Company Limited.

   The JV includes a new 275,000-tpy PO and 600,000-tpy SM unit to be constructed in Zhenhai Ningbo, China. The facility will use LyondellBasell's leading PO / SM technology. Both partners will be able to equally market the output from the jointly owned unit and expand their presence in the Chinese PO and SM markets. The start-up is to be completed in end-2021.

   ‘We are excited to expand our relationship with Sinopec through this joint venture in order to better serve the Chinese domestic market. Sinopec's outstanding operational capabilities, combined with LyondellBasell's leading technology, is a win-win,’ Torkel Rhenman, Executive Vice President of Intermediates and Derivatives, and Refining for LyondellBasell has said.

   ‘We have great expectations on the new JV for propelling the economic development of the city of Ningbo to a new level. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period of 2021—2025, Sinopec will continue to promote green industrial upgrading and innovative transformation, contributing to the everlasting economic growth of Zhejiang Province and Eastern China, and even the development of the chemical industry in China,’ Yu Baocai, Senior Vice President of Sinopec Corp. has commented.

   LyondellBasell operates five wholly owned facilities located in China’s Guangzhou, Suzhou, Dalian, Dongguan and Changshu provinces.