ST. PETERSBURG, Russia—Sibur Holding and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (Sinopec) are extending their rubber cooperation with an agreement to resume talks for a second nitrile butadiene rubber production plant and a deal to produce styrene, ethylene and butylene-based block copolymers.
The two companies signed the agreements during a Sept. 17 meeting between the Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev and the Chinese premier Li Keqiang in Saint Petersburg, Sibur said. The parties signed a memorandum of understanding to revive a previously announced NBR joint venture in China.
To be based in Shanghai, the JV will be 60 percent owned by Sinopec and 40 percent owned by Sibur. It is estimated to have a capacity of 50,000 metric tons per year.
The two companies already run an NBR production JV in Kransoyarsk, Siberia, that has an annual capacity of about 42,500 tons.
It is expected that the new unit, also will feed growing demand for NBR in China and South East Asia.
"We have resumed our efforts to set up a JV on the back of strong consumer demand for NBR in China, and we plan to leverage this opportunity to expand our business in the growing market," said Pavel Lyakhovich, managing director at Sibur.
Separately, the two companies signed a framework cooperation agreement to build a plant in Russia that would 20,000 tons of SEBS each year.
The 50:50 joint venture will be Russia's first SEBS production facility, and will aim to reduce the country's reliance on imports, according to Lyakhovich.
SEBS is a palletized modifier for thermoplastics used to impart elasticity to plastic materials or as a primary polymer to produce elastic components. The product offers high durability and is used in a variety of applications such as plastics and bitumen modification, adhesives, modification compounds and toys.