Jul 24, 2009 Reuters
POSCO, SK Energy to
invest for coal conversion
* Both to
co-develop Korea's first coal conversion technology
* POSCO to invest 1
trln won by 2013
* SK Energy to
spend 2.35 trln won by 2018
South Korea's POSCO
and SK Energy will spend 3.35 trillion won ($2.69 billion) to
convert coal to synthetic natural gas, chemicals and liquid for
the first time in Korea to reduce its oil and gas imports,
joining oil majors in investing in such new technology.
POSCO and SK Energy
are major oil and gas consumers in South Korea, the world's
fifth-largest crude and second-largest liquefied natural gas
buyer.
The
government wants
to boost the economy by creating new jobs in the carbon-reduction
sector, and has set aside separate financing of 25 billion
won for the POSCO and SK Energy projects.
POSCO
1973年、日韓基本条約に伴う対日請求権資金などによる資本導入と、 旧八幡製鉄及び旧富士製鉄と日本鋼管の3社からの技術導入により、慶尚北道浦項市に国営の浦項総合製鉄所第一期設備を建設した。
1992年には全羅南道光陽市に最新鋭の製鉄所である光陽製鉄所が竣工、現在は光陽の製鉄所が主要拠点になっている。
2000年に完全民営化された。
"With growing energy
demand worldwide, I suppose this is another route to diversify
energy supplies and is becoming more popular," said Lachlan
Shaw, a commodities analyst at Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
POSCO, the world's No.6 steel maker,
with spending of 1 trillion won through 2013, will develop
related technologies and build a plant in Gwangyang 光陽, southwest of Seoul. It will
produce 500,000 tonnes of synthetic
natural gas
a year and create over 300,000 jobs a year, the company said in a
statement on Friday.
POSCO expects its
products to replace annual imports of 200 billion won of
liquefied natural gas (LNG).
SK
Energy, the
country's No.1 oil refiner, with investments of 550 billion won through 2013, will develop
coal-to-liquid technologies and build production facilities in
Ulsan, southeast of Seoul. The plants will produce annually 200,000 tonnes of
chemicals including methanol and hydrogen, and to replace
petrochemical feedstock naphtha, the Korean government said in a
separate statement on Friday.
From 2014 through
2018, SK Energy will invest 1.8 trillion won to build a plant with an annual
capacity of 6.3 million barrels of gasoline, or about 2.5 percent of Korea's
fuel demand for transportation in 2008.
The plant will be
built near a low-cost coal mine
overseas.
"The
coal-to-liquids technology has been around since World War II ...
so as a technology, it has been around for awhile. But there are
a range of factors that will determine whether or not it is
viable, such as geology and accessibility of the mines,"
said Shaw.
The world has only
one commercial synthetic natural gas plant in the United States,
the Korean government statement said, citing the business as a
future growth area.
South Africa's
Exxaro Resources this month said it had formed a joint venture
with Sasol, the world's largest maker of motor fuel from coal, to
build a new coal mine to supply Sasol's proposed 80,000 barrels
per day coal-to-liquids project.
Australia's Linc
Energy and China's Xinwen Mining Group also have been developing
gas resources from Chinese coal deposits and building a synthetic
diesel plant in Queensland state using coal.
------
Three Coaｌ-to-olefins (CTO) projects including
包頭神華石炭化学(Baotou Shenhua Coal Chemical Company)
神華集団 76%/上海華誼集団公司 24%
In Feb 2009, Shenhua Baotou 1.8Mt/a coal-based methanol to 600kt/a olefins project was listed in China's Petrochemical Stimulation Package. This project and another two CTO units, by Datang Duolun and Shenhua Ningxia Coal respectively, are expected to start up in 2009 and 2010 successively.
----
Total is interested in CTO project investment in China
2008/10/1
Total Inaugurates Demonstration Unit Signaling a New Direction in Plastics Production
At its petrochemicals complex in Feluy, Belgium, Total today inaugurated a demonstration plant intended to produce olefins and polyolefins from methanol. The integrated unit is the world's first application of an innovative technology that helps to diversify the source of plastic feedstock.
The inauguration was attended by Jean-Claude Marcourt, Minister for Economy, Employment and Foreign Trade for the Belgian region of Wallonia, Francois Cornelis, Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee and President of Chemicals at Total, and Jean-Francois Minster, Senior Vice President, Scientific Development, Total.
Worldwide, the petrochemicals industry currently relies on oil and natural gas derivatives, naphtha or ethane, to produce olefins. These are subsequently converted into polyolefins, the raw material for plastics.
The pilot plant at Feluy was designed to assess, on a quasi-industrial scale, the technical feasibility and cost effectiveness of two integrated processes that produce olefins and subsequently polyolefins from methanol, which can be obtained from natural gas, coal or biomass. First, the UOP*/Hydro Methanol To Olefins (MTO) process converts methanol into light olefins (ethylene and propylene) and heavier olefins. The heavy olefins are in turn converted into light olefins, more specifically into propylene, via the UOP/Total Petrochemicals Olefin Cracking Process (OCP). All of these olefins are then converted into polyolefins at the existing pilot polymerization unit located nearby, at Total's research center in Feluy.
Requiring a Euro45 million investment, the new MTO/OCP unit is a major technological and strategic project that will help Total to meet two key challenges. First, it will enable the Group to diversify its sources of petrochemicals feedstock, by reducing its dependence on oil. Second, the integrated unit will increase propylene yield, which is a major market advantage at a time of strong international demand for polypropylene.
"Given that energy demand will continue to grow, petroleum supply will be tight and the prices should stay at a high level, we firmly believe that the methanol to olefins process will play a vital role in the production of petrochemical products in the future," said Francois Cornelis. "Integrating the methanol to olefins and olefin cracking processes makes it possible to produce light olefins at a very reasonable cost."
* UOP is a subsidiary of the Honeywell Group.
ポスコケミカルが年産9万トンの世界最大の陽極材工場を稼動
2011-06-13
ポスコが中国ステンレス鋼生産増設、年産100万トン
ポスコが中国に年間100万トン規模のステンレス鋼生産能力を構築した。同社は6月13日、中国江蘇省の張家港市に位置する子会社「張家港浦項不銹鋼有限公司」で、生産設備増設完工式を開催した。式にはポスコ会長のほか、上海総領事、江蘇省副省長、張家港市党書記、市長らをはじめとする中国側関係者ら380人余りが出席した。
張家港浦項不銹鋼はポスコと中国最大の民営鉄鋼メーカー、江蘇沙鋼集団が1999年に設立した現地合作法人で、持ち分比率は82.5％と17.5％。外資企業としては唯一、中国で製鋼から熱延、冷延まで一貫工手をそなえる製鉄所だ。従来の粗鋼生産能力は年間80万トンで、ステンレス鋼生産時に主にリン成分を除去する電気炉をこのほど新設し、工程の効率化を図り、生産能力を20万トン拡大した。
ステンレス鋼生産にはニッケルが必ず必要だが、今回の電気炉新設で不純物含有量が多いニッケル冷銑の使用率を60％まで引き上げ、毎年4000万ドルの原価節減を可能にした。ステンレス鋼市場における価格競争力確保に期待がかかる。
また今回の増設で、ポスコのステンレス鋼生産能力は韓国・浦項製鉄所の200万トンに張家港浦項不銹鋼の100万トンを加え、年間300万トンとなり、スペインのAcerinox SAに続く世界2位メーカーに浮上した。中国の太原鋼鉄（集団）有限公司も年産300万トンで並ぶ。
張家港浦項不銹鋼では年間20万トン処理規模の冷延工場も新たに設立した。従来の施設とあわせ、年間60万トンの冷延処理が可能になった。
張家港浦項不銹鋼は今後、ポスコ本社と共同でインドネシアのニッケル鉱山を開発する計画だ。現地に精錬工程を新設し、ステンレス鋼生産に必要な原料の自給率を５０％以上に引き上げ、原価競争力アップを図る。
ポスコは中国での成功経験を基にベトナムとトルコでもステンレス鋼生産を拡大し、2020年ごろにステンレス鋼売上高17兆ウォン（約1兆2600億円）を実現させる計画だ。
ポスコなどが7日に明らかにしたところによると、ポスコは中国・江蘇省にある合弁法人「張家港浦項不銹鋼（＝ポスコ張家港ステンレス鋼
POSCO Zhangjiagang Stainless Steel :PZSS）」の売却をこのほど決定し、投資者探しを開始したとのことだ。PZSSは現在、ポスコ・ホールディングスとポスコ・チャイナが株式の82.5％を保有しており、残りは中国第2位の鉄鋼メーカー「沙鋼グループ」が保有している。ポスコ関係者は「現在は諮問会社を選定している段階で、売却などさまざまな方式について検討している」と語った。
ポスコが中国国内で唯一の製鉄所売却に乗り出したのは、赤字の状況が続いているためだ。 昨年は1億3000万ドル（約200億円）の営業赤字を出すなど、ポスコの海外法人38社の中で最大の損失を出した。中国の景気鈍化で建設用ステンレス鋼市場の展望が非常に良くない上、中国国内の鉄鋼メーカーの慢性的な供給過剰で中長期的展望も明るくないことが背景にある。現在、中国の鉄鋼メーカー43社のステンレス鋼生産量は2821万トンで、消費量の2417万トンを上回っている。
ポスコは今年7月、120件の事業改革対象を確定するなど、事業再編に着手した。この内訳は低収益事業51件と非中核資産69件となっている。今回の売却も事業再編の一環で、海外事業所の中ではPZSSが初めての対象となった。業界では、ポスコの赤字海外法人がさらに売却対象になるものとみている。ポスコの海外法人38社のうち、赤字法人はアルゼンチンやトルコなど13法人だ。
さらに、トランプ次期米大統領が中国製鉄鋼輸入品に60％以上の懲罰的関税を課すと宣言している状況で、米中貿易摩擦に伴う不確実性を避けようという意図もあるものと受け止められている。