American W.R. Grace & Co. will provide its UNIPOL technology for the production of polypropylene (PP) for the new Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company (KIPIC) in Al-Zour, near Kuwait, Kuwait, ICIS reported, citing W.R. Grace.

It is expected that a new plant with a capacity of 940,000 tons of PP a year will start the production of propylene (PP-Random) statcopolymers and impact-resistant polymer thermoplastic resins (PP blocks) in 2023, the company said.

This technology company W.R. Grace – UNIPOL – is easy to use, due to it in the process of manufacturing PP used a smaller number of moving parts and equipment.

Earlier it was noted that W.R. Grace & Co. will provide its UNIPOL technology for the expanded capacities of the Chinese petrochemical producer Oriental Energy New Material Co in Ningbo (Ningbo, China). It is planned that two new lines of 400 thousand tons of PP per year will each start the production of homopolymers PP (PP-homo) and PP-Random in 2020.

As reported by the Market Report company, Dow Chemical in October 2013 signed a final agreement on the sale of its polypropylene division and the catalysts of W. R. Grace & Co.. Dow has channeled revenue from this sale to implement the company’s priority areas, to reward shareholders, and to reduce debt and increase investment.

And in July 2016, the German BASF closed the deal to sell the business for the production of polyolefin catalysts by W. R. Grace & Co.. Thus, W. R. Grace & Co acquired technology, patents, trademarks and manufacturing facilities in the city of Pasadena (Texas, USA) and Tarragona (Spain). BASF sold technology for the production of catalysts, which are used for the production of low pressure polyethylene pipe and film, as well as PP.

According to a review by the DataScope company of the Market Report, in October, Russian companies increased PP imports to 20.7 thousand tons against 15.1 thousand tons in September, local companies significantly increased the supply of homopolymer propylene (PP-homo) raffia and pipe block- copolymer of propylene (PP block). In general, for January-October, 144.4 thousand tons of propylene polymers were imported to Russia against 144.2 thousand tons a year earlier. The reduction in external supplies was recorded only by PP homo and propylene-propylene copolymers (PP-Random), while imports of PP block and other propylene copolymers, on the contrary, increased.

W.R. Grace and Company, headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, USA, is a chemical conglomerate. Grace consists of the following business segments: Grace Catalysts Technologies, Grace Materials Technologies and Grace Construction Products. The company has more than 6.7 thousand employees in 40 countries, and its annual sales volume is more than USD2.5 billion.