Capital construction and technical renovation

In April 2000, a 15,000 tons per annum NBR unit set up by Lanhua Rubber Plant began operation. Chengdu Fertilizer Plant also put an acrylate special synthetic rubber unit into production, which developed, designed and installed itself. The Rubber Plant of Qilu Petrochemical Co., based on the two new oil-extended rubbers, invested further to build another pilot unit of chlorinated BR, put successfully on stream in December 2000. Gaoqiao BASF Co. also expanded its SBR latex output from 50,000 to 110,000 tons per annum in March 2000, and prepared to make further expansion to 160,000 tons per annum in the future.

Dow Chemical Co, the world's largest latex producer, began in March 2000 to build a 45,000 tons per annum SBR latex plant in Zhangjiagang Economic Development Zone, Jiangsu Province, with an investment of 28.7 million yuan. The products made by the plant will be used for paper production. The French company invested US$30 million to set up a 100,000 tons per annum SBR plant in Zhenjiang Xinqu, Jiangsu Province, scheduled to be on stream in 2002, with 80 per cent of its products supplying a nearby large-scale paper mill.

The letter of intention to build a 20,000 tons per annum SBR latex plant was jointly signed by the Management Committee of the Economic Technology Development Zone, Nantong City and Shenhua Chemical Co Ltd. with an investment of US$15 million.

In addition, a project by China Petrochemical Co Ltd, to construct a 100,000 tons per annum S-SBR unit was approved by the State Planning Committee. It is intended to introduce capital and key equipment from foreign countries and has a total investment of 0.7 billion yuan and a construction cycle from 2002 to 2003. The main products and design capacity are 66,000 tons per annum cis-BR Asadene series and 34,000 tons per annum non-oil extended S-SBR 'Tufdene' series respectively. Also, a joint venture agreement to set up a 30,000-37,500 tons per annum CR unit using the calcium carbide acetylene process was reached by Shanxi Synthetic Rubber Group and the Ministry of Ecomony of Armenia.

During the overhaul in 2000, the Organic Synthetic Plant of Jilin Chemical Co completed the renovation of its SBR unit involving an additional condensation trough and a double line automatic package system line in line with a condensation system. Yueyang Petro- chemical Rubber Plant, by exploiting its potential and optimizing processes, made the actual total output of the SBS unit surpass that of the design level by 1.4 times in 2000. The yearly output reached over 70,000 tons. In addition, Maoming Petrochemical Ethylene Plant, after the technical renovation of its synthetic rubber facilities, successfully produced cis-butadiene rubber (F-250) in April 2000. Yanshan Petrochemical Rubber Plant completed industrial tests on the use of hot pumps to recover low temperature waste heat from synthetic rubber production, and succeeded in reducing the cost of steam by 1.0 “1.5 tons per ton of rubber. The plant also introduced a SBS after-treatment line to upgrade product quality and stability.