Page 164 - CW E-Magazine (21-1-2025)

News from Abroad

BURNING CASH
Plastic recycling firm, Blue Cycle, files for bankruptcy

Blue Cycle, the Netherlands’ first Mr. Witvoet said that he considers a
plastic-to-oil recycling company, has company restart a ‘realistic scenario’,
filed for bankruptcy. adding that the company’s pyrolysis
technology was ‘not the problem’.
According to Dutch media reports, “We have proven that it works, and
the company’s Director Mr. Erik we have been able to make very
Witvoet said that Blue Cycle had faced good oil. That was also already
a “series of setbacks like higher costs, applied in the market and bought in the
high investments, and a delay in the market, so I think that the technique
start-up”. “In short, more money was and the technology have proven
needed than originally thought,” he Despite funding of over Euro 7-mn themselves,” he said, and looked at
said. from Friesland’s sustainability fund, the setback as an opportunity for new
the company could not meet invest- ownership.
The company started operating a ment demands, driving potential buyers
pilot plant in Heerenveen in early 2023. away. The ambitious project, led by Blue Cycle is the latest Dutch plastic
Its capacity was to recycle around Mr. Nico Vos, faced community back- recycler to file for bankruptcy. In 2024,
25,000 tonnes of plastic waste into lash over health complaints linked to six other plastic recyclers shut down
pyrolysis oil per year. chemical odours. operations.

EXTRUDED POLYSTYRENE
BASF divesting Styrodur insulation material business

BASF has signed an agreement a long-standing Styrodur distribution with our well-known brands Neopor
with Karl Bachl Kunststoffverarbei- partner of BASF. The sale also includes and Styropor,” said Dr. Klaus Ries,
tung GmbH & Co. KG (BACHL) the brand Styrodur. However, approxi- Head of Business Management Sty-
for the sale of its business with mately 50 employees associated with renics Europe at BASF. In October
Styrodur, an insulation material made the business will remain with BASF. 2024, BASF underscored its ambition
from extruded polystyrene (XPS). The completion of the sale is expected to continue growing in the European
Financial details of the deal were not by mid-2025. expandable polystyrene (EPS) market
disclosed. with the announcement of an expan-
“With the sale of the Styrodur busi- sion of Neopor production capacity in
BACHL is German XPS and ness, BASF is consistently focusing Ludwigshafen by 50,000 tons to 250,000
insulation materials manufacturer and its strategy on expandable polystyrene tons per year starting in early 2027.
China’s Shandong Yulong shuts newly started PP

production line

Shandong Yulong Petrochemical providing specific reasons. The No. 2 No. 3 PP lines, with a combined name-
has unexpectedly taken offline one of production line was producing on-spec plate capacity of 700,000-tpa, remain
its newly started-up polypropylene (PP) cargoes at the time of the incident. operational.
lines in Shandong, China, on 8 January
2025 without providing specific reasons. The PP line, which has an annual The producer also started up two
Shandong Yulong Petrochemical has production capacity of 400,000 tons, HDPE/LLDPE swing units in December,
reportedly taken offline one of its newly commenced operations in late December bringing 1-million tons in annual output
started-up PP lines in Shandong, 2024 and swiftly stabilised its opera- to the market together with a 300,000-
China, on 8 January 2025 without ting rates. The company’s No. 1 and tpa standalone HDPE line.

164 Chemical Weekly January 21, 2025

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