Slovnaft AS said construction of the logistics plant for a new polyethylene production unit plant, LDPE 4, at its existing 220,000-tonnes/year (tpy) ethylene production site in Bratislava, Slovakia, is nearing completion.
In early June, Talke Group, general contractor on the project, completed the installation of 28 silos for low-density polyethylene storage, according to a recent release from Slovnaft.
The silos will have a total storage capacity of 13,500 tonnes and will be directly linked to a polyethylene production line with an annual capacity of 220,000-tpy, the company said.
Construction of the logistics infrastructure is continuing according to plan and is scheduled to be commissioned along with the new LDPE 4 production plant in second-quarter 2015, the company said.
At a cost of about $30 million, the logistics plant is part of Slovnaft’s more than $400 million investment in its long-term strategy to revitalize its petrochemicals business, which includes reconstructing ethylene production units and building the LDPE 4 production unit designed to gradually replace three obsolete units, according to the company’s yearend 2013 report to investors.
Slovnaft said it expects its final investment for LDPE 4 alone will exceed $270 million, with the remaining $130 million allotted for reconstruction of the ethylene unit, an ethylene storage tank, and associated installations, including the logistics plant.
Slovnaft Petrochemicals SRO, which was dissolved and integrated into Slovnaft AS on Jan. 1, 2013, began construction on the LDPE 4 project in 2012, the company said in its yearend 2013 report.
