To move closer to customers and sharpen its global profile, oIefins and polyolefins giant Borealis (Vienna / Austria; www.borealisgroup.com) is eyeing a new EVA/LDPE production facility in China. The group is currently conducting a feasibility study for the plant, which would supply speciality applications and is planned to be located in the national petrochemicals park at Daya Bay, Huizhou, Guangdong, a centre of the Chinese plastics processing industry. Borealis cites “strong demand” in the People’s Republic for speciality products manufactured with the advanced high-pressure process.

To support its growth ambitions, Borealis said it has “a well-established, ongoing cooperation and dialogue with various authorities and stakeholders” at the coastal site north of Hong Kong. For distributing the output of the new production unit, which is targeted at the wire and cable and solar industries, it expects to leverage the “strong marketing and sales network” of its Borouge joint venture with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc, Abu Dhabi / UAE; www.adnoc.com).

Borealis has been treading the globalisation path for some time, with investments in production facilities for PE in the US and polyolefins in the UAE complementing a PP expansion in Europe. Most recently, it inked two major deals for PE and PP projects in Kazakhstan – see Plasteurope.com of 29.03.2018. At the Chinese site, its activities would flank those of other global players in petrochemicals and plastics.

According to Plasteurope.com’s Polyglobe database (www.polyglobe.net), China’s CNOOC and the Anglo-Dutch Shell group established a presence at Daya Bay in 2010, with the subsequent start-up of a nearly 1m t/y cracker. The jv partners are currently working on a second cracker of similar size, along with related downstream units – see Plasteurope.com of 29.03.2016. Start-up is scheduled for 2019. Swiss speciality chemicals producer Clariant is also active at the site with a 50,000 t/y ethoxylation plant and application laboratory.