Ineos claims new acrylonitrile plants being built in China with illegal use of its technology

27-Mar-14

Ineos Group AG claims there are at least three new acrylonitrile factories being built in China that are illegally using its technology, and it defended its high-stakes lawsuit against Chinese state-owned petrochemical giant Sinopec by saying it feared a wave of copycat factories there would threaten the future of its business, as per Plastics News. Ineos, which claims that its technology provides the basis of 90% of the world’s acrylonitrile production, accused Sinopec in a lawsuit in China last week of violating Ineos intellectual property and misusing trade secrets to construct new facilities in China. Sinopec has an acrylonitrile facility at Anqing, Anhui province, which Ineos said is licensed to use its technology, but the company recently commissioned a second acrylonitrile plant there. The outcome of the legal battle could have major commercial implications since most of the world’s new acrylonitrile production through 2020 will be in China. “Ineos has clear evidence that SNEC has breached its agreement with Ineos,” the company said, as per PlasticNews, “Specific examples of projects that are proceeding where Ineos believes to have uncovered breaches of the contract are Anqing 2, Secco 2 and Sailboat. These projects all involve SNEC. There are also several other earlier stage projects with SNEC involvement.” Secco refers to Shanghai SECCO Petrochemical Co. Ltd., which is partly-owned by Sinopec. Sailboat is Jiangsu Sailboat Petrochemical Co., Ltd. Ineos said that the agreements with Sinopec also covered any engineering, design or construction work the company would do for other acrylonitrile projects.