Issue 3/2016 - Global Chemicals Global Vision

LANXESS expands production capacity at its high-performance plastics plant in the U.
S

LANXESS' second high-performance plastic compounding line in Gastonia, North Carolina, has been officially put into operation
as scheduled.
The new production line invested about $15 million and doubled the plant's annual production capacity from 20,000 tons to 40,000 tons
.

LANXESS's gastonia plant produces the high-performance plastic product lines Durethan and Pocan, which are mainly used in the automotive industry to manufacture lightweight plastic parts to replace metal parts in cars by mixing and refining polyamide (PA) and polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) with special additives and glass fibers
, mainly used in the automotive industry.

In the next few years, LANXESS plans to invest 50 million ~ 100 million euros to promote the organic growth
of the high-performance plastics business.
"With these investments, we will further balance the capacity of our polyamide value chain and drive the globalization
of our engineering plastics business.
" Michael Zobel, Global Head of LANXESS' Performance Materials business unit, said
.

WACKER expands production capacity for high-quality silicone fluids at the Burghausen site

WACKER has completed the expansion of its production capacity for functional silicone fluids at its Burghausen site, which was officially completed and commissioned at the beginning of January this year
.
With this new expansion, the company is meeting the growing demand for specialty silicone fluids and silicone dispersions in the coatings, paper, textile, cosmetics and personal care industries worldwide, for which highly specialized functional silicone fluids are an important upstream product
.
The total investment in the new line is around 26 million euros
.

In addition, it continues to optimize the production process during the capacity expansion, further improving the efficiency and purity
of silicone fluids.
The expansion is of great
significance to WACKER SILICONES.
This functional silicone line produces highly functional silicone fluids from silicone upstream products and other raw materials, which are important raw materials
for defoamers, impregnating agents, release agents or additives for construction, coatings, paper, cosmetics and personal care products.
The expansion project has enabled the production line to increase its capacity by approximately 70 percent
.

"With the opening of WACKER's polysilicon site in Tennessee, USA, we have almost completed our investment in a large upstream product line," said Dr.
Rudolf Staudig, President and CEO of WACKER, at
the opening ceremony 。 Dr.
Staudiger continues, "With this expansion, we have sufficient production capacity in Burghausen to meet the growing global demand
for versatile silicone fluids and silicone dispersions.
”

The performance of chemical giants at a glance

Shell recently announced that the company's profit in the fourth quarter of 2015 fell by the highest or 50%
compared with the same period last year.
Analysts pointed out that the significant decline in Shell's performance reflects that the decline in international oil prices has had a huge impact
on the entire energy sector.
The company's profit (excluding recognized items) is expected to reach $1.
6 billion ~ $1.
9 billion in the quarter, compared with Shell's profit of $3.
3 billion
in the same period last year.
These include $400 million ~ $500 million in upstream business and $1.
4 billion ~ $1.
6 billion
in downstream.
For the full year of 2015, it is expected to generate revenue of 10.
4 billion ~ 10.
7 billion US dollars
.

PPG Industries said today that its net income in the fourth quarter of 2015 doubled from the same period last year to $314 million
, driven by a 2% year-over-year increase in sales.
Turnover of $3.
7 billion was little changed year-on-year
.
Adjusted income, excluding debt restructuring charges, increased 10% year-over-year to $332 million
.


Celanese posted a net loss of $301 million
in the fourth quarter of last year.
Revenue decreased by 14.
4% ~ 1.
334 billion US dollars
year-on-year.
The company's pricing and lower raw material costs alleviated the price crisis in the acetyl industry chain to some extent, resulting in an adjusted EBIT increase of 19.
2%
year-on-year.
Adjusted earnings per share increased slightly from expectations to $1.
25 per share
.


SABIC's net profit fell 29.
4 percent year-on-year to about $822 million
in the fourth quarter of last year.
Net profit for the full year 2015 decreased 20% year-on-year to approximately USD 18.
78 billion
.
Last year's full-year revenue was about 39.
77 billion US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 20.
7%.