Equipment for the Japanese chemical giant Nippon Shokubai and one of the 100 plant modules for ExxonMobil arrived as project cargo in the port of Antwerp during the past month, the Port Authority said in a media release.
The outsize loads formed part of the recent investment programmes by the two petrochemical companies, once again confirming the importance of Antwerp as a major international port for the petrochemical industry. The transport, handling and installation of these complex loads went perfectly without a hitch, thanks to the world-famous expertise built up in Antwerp after so many decades.
The new Delayed Coker Unit (DCU) being built for the ExxonMobil plant comprises more than 100 prefabricated modules that are being carried on pontoons from Tarragona in Spain to Antwerp where they will be delivered directly to the ExxonMobil site. The heaviest module weighs 1,350 tonnes and stands 30 m high. The total weight of the complete installation is estimated at 20,000 tonnes. The investment in a DCU totals over 1 billion euros in the port of Antwerp. It converts higher sulphur residual oils intro transportation fuels products such as marine gas oil and diesel fuel. The DCU also includes construction of a new Tail Gas Clean-up unit that reduces SO2 emissions by 75%.
The equipment was transported overnight by road at a speed of 5 km per hour from the Waasland port (the port area on the Left bank in Antwerp) to the Nippon Shokubai plant in Zwijndrecht where it was hoisted into place with a heavy crane. The reactor forms part of an investment programme for the Japanese chemical giant which is building a new production unit for acrylic acid, the raw material for super-absorbent polymers (SAPs) which absorb water in diapers and incontinence products. The plant will enter service in mid-2018 and will have an annual capacity of 100,000 tonnes. At the same time the existing SAP production capacity will be expanded from 60,000 to 160,000 tonnes, enabling Nippon Shokubai to serve the entire European market (including Central and Eastern Europe) from Antwerp. This mega-investment of 350 million euros will make the Antwerp plant even bigger than the one in Houston, the largest chemical cluster in the world, thus underlining the attractiveness of our chemical cluster for foreign companies.
A new international campaign “Feel the Chemistry” was launched in April 2016 to showcase the logistics, storage and transhipment functions of the port of Antwerp and to attract further investments in the cluster. The investments of, amongst others, Nippon Shokubai and ExxonMobil are excellent exemples of Antwerp as the ideal hub to invest in. The campaign will set the port of Antwerp even more firmly on the world map as the investment location, where the chemistry between city, people and companies can be felt strongly, thanks to the excellent logistical, maritime and industrial platform that has been successfully developed over the past few decades.