Japan's chemicals exports grew 6.7%

(ICIS) -- Japan's chemicals exports grew 6.7% year on year to USD 7.88bn in March while overall exports declined for the first time in 16 months, falling 2.2% from a year ago, data from the Ministry of Finance showed on Wednesday. Exports of organic chemicals rose 12.1% year on year to Y194.5bn in March, but plastics exports slipped 1.1% to Y206.5bn, the preliminary trade data showed. Japanese export volumes of plastic materials fell 5.6% year on year to 610,269 tonnes in March, according to the data.

Meanwhile, exports of motor vehicles slipped 27.8% year on year to Y601.5bn in March, making it the largest contributor to the decline in total exports, according to the data.

The Japanese automobile industry has been affected by the massive earthquake and tsunami that hit the northeast region of the country on 11 March, with automakers struggling to restore pre-quake production levels on the back of power cuts and parts shortages.

All of Japan's major car production facilities are operating again, but many car factories are running at lower production rates, according to local media reports.

MRC

(Plastics today) -- Kuraray's Research and Technical Center in Pasadena, TX has installed a Davis-Standard cast coextrusion film-and-sheet pilot line for its EVAL group to test and develop film structures from seven to 21 layers using a Cloeren NanoLayer feed block. The custom-engineered line features five extruders and is capable of producing cast film and sheet in thicknesses ranging from 1 to 60 mils (25 to 1524 microns) for applications in food packaging, medical, agricultural fumigation, crop protection, and building and construction. The line is also equipped with full gravimetric control via Davis-Standard's EPIC III supervisory control system. Kuraray had existing coextrusion capabilities, including technology for producing seven-layer blown film and multilayer PET/EVAL barrier containers.

MRC

(Cereplast) -- Cereplast, Inc., a leading manufacturer of proprietary biobased, compostable and sustainable plastics, today reported preliminary revenue for its first quarter ended March 31, 2011.

Cereplast expects to report first quarter 2011 revenue of USD 7.2 million, exceeding the high-end of its previous first quarter guidance of USD 5.0 million to USD 6.5 million for the quarter. Based on these preliminary results, the company has raised its full-year 2011 revenue guidance to USD 28.0 million to USD 34.0 million, from its previously stated 2011 guidance of USD 24.0 million to USD 32.0 million, representing a significant increase over its 2010 revenue of USD 6.3 million.

Cereplast, Inc. designs and manufactures proprietary bio-based, sustainable plastics which are used as substitutes for petroleum-based plastics in all major converting processes - such as injection molding, thermoforming, blow molding and extrusions - at a pricing structure that is competitive with petroleum-based plastics.

MRC

(Lukoil) -- Lukoil and Bashneft, signed an agreement in Moscow to establish a joint venture and stipulate conditions for the development of two fields named after Roman Trebs and Anatoly Titov. According to the agreement, Lukoil will purchase 25.1% of an Bashneft subsidiary, while the license and subsoil use rights for R.Trebs and A.Titov fields will be re-issued in favor of this subsidiary. In its turn, the joint venture will purchase from Lukoil 29 exploration wells located in the license area.

The parties also agreed to transport the oil from R.Trebs and A.Titov fields via the Varandey Oil Export Terminal owned by Lukoil to the Barents Sea coast, where the crude will be loaded into tankers.

The parties will consider supplying the produced associated petroleum gas to the energy centre of the Yuzhnoye-Khylchuyu field, which is developed by Naryanmarneftegaz (a joint-venture of Lukoil - 70% and ConocoPhillips - 30%). The associated petroleum gas will be used for generation of electric power to support the activities of the production units at R.Trebs and A.Titov fields.

MRC

Also a type structure of PP production was changed. Under terms of low demand and efficient import offer from Russian producers raffia output reduced in March while homopolymer propylene output increased for BOPP-films production. Nizhnekamskneftehim declared production of new types of propylene. Tomskneftehim increased production of pipe stat copolymer propylene.

MRC