Just before the full brunt of the economic crisis made itself felt in 2008, Slovnaft Petrochemicals (Bratislava / Slovakia; www.slovnaft.sk) had touted plans for a new 220,000 t/y LDPE line at its headquarters – see Plasteurope.com of 30.09.2008. In line with these plans, the subsidiary of Hungarian oil and petrochemical giant MOL (Budapest; www.mol.hu) then acquired a “Lupotech T” license from LyondellBasell (Rotterdam / The Netherlands; www.lyondellbasell.com). However, amid the economic woes, the plans were apparently shelved – that is, until just now. Slovnaft recently outlined detailed plans for the new line, which is scheduled to start operations in November 2015 at an investment cost of EUR 300m.

Specifically, the investment is to go towards modernising the cracker in Bratislava, which will then be able to yield the necessary ethylene. Slovnaft will then start construction of its new “LDPE 4” line, which reportedly will be able to turn out about 30 different types of polyethylene. A Lupotech license also allows for the production of EVA, among others.

According to Ivan Dežd, director of Slovnaft Petrochemicals, “The new production unit will not only be able to replace all present 7 lines for the production of polyethylene, but also ensure the increase of polymers production by 42,000 t/y.” That means output at the site will rise from 178,000 t/y to 220,000 t/y. In addition, Slovnaft said the new unit will also significantly reduce power consumption.