Firms License Technology In China

Several Western companies have won contracts to license petrochemical technologies to Chinese firms. Invista, the former DuPont fibers unit now owned by Koch Industries, licensed production technology for the spandex fiber intermediates 1,4-butanediol (BDO) and polytetramethylene ether glycol (PTMEG) to Chongqing Jianfeng Industrial. The Chinese firm intends to build a 60,000-metric-ton-per-year BDO unit and a 46,000-metric-ton PTMEG plant as part of a $300 million complex in Chongqing. Dow Chemical is licensing its Unipol polypropylene process technology to Sinochem Quanzhou Petrochemical so it can build a 200,000-metric-ton plant in Quanzhou to be completed by 2011. And PetroChina Dushanzi Petrochemical has started up a 550,000-metric-ton polypropylene plant and a 300,000-metric-ton high-density polyethylene plant in Xinjiang, China, that use Ineos’ Innovene process technology.