Slovnaft Petrochemicals (Bratislava / Slovakia; www.slovnaft.sk) has appointed logistics specialist Alfred Talke (Hürth / Germany; www.talke.com) as general contractor of its new logistics facility at its industrial complex in Bratislava. With a projected price of EUR 22m, the contract includes the engineering, procurement and construction of the new facility, which will provide all logistical works for 220,000 t/y of LDPE output. The project, set for completion in Q2 2013, includes 28 silos, a large building for packaging and warehousing, office building and space for traffic and shunting. Two bagging lines and two bulk loading devices will also be installed. A pneumatic conveying system downstream of the degassing silos is planned to complete the facility.

The facility is currently in the initial stage for authority engineering, with building permits expected to be granted in early 2013, after which construction work shall commence. “This logistics facility is the first project that we will carry out in Slovakia,” said Christoph Grunert, director Logistics Europe at Talke. “At a price of EUR 22m, it is also one of our biggest European construction projects to date.”

Late last year Slovnaft touted plans to completely revamp its LDPE production in Bratislava – see Plasteurope.com of 06.12.2011 – which include replacing the site's existing 178,000 t/y line with a new 220,000 t/y one by 2015. The company, which is part of MOL (Budapest / Hungary; www.mol.hu), also operates a 220,000 t/y ethylene and 110,000 t/y propylene cracker as well as a 255,000 t/y PP plant in Bratislava, Plasteurope.com's Polyglobe capacity database (www.polyglobe.net) shows.