Middle East crude values extended a rally on Wednesday

(Reuters) - Middle East crude values extended a rally on Wednesday as expected tighter supplies from Yemen added to bullish sentiment related to improving naphtha margins and a well-bid market for July cargoes.

The lighter grades with higher naphtha content strengthened further, as refiners attempted to boost gasoline production. Abu Dhabi Murban was heard to have traded at a premium bigger than 70 cents to the ADNOC price, up from 60 cents on Tuesday.

That imbued the rest of the market with stamina, sending notional premiums for July spot Oman crude to at least USD 1.45 a barrel over Dubai quotes, matching the peak reached for June supplies last month. Some traders said premiums were already close to USD 1.50, although this could not be confirmed.

MRC

(Milliken) -- High-clarity polypropylene dosage caps being launched this month at Interpack benefit from the optic- and process-enhancing properties of Milliken's next-generation clarifying agent Millad NX 8000. Leading packaging producer Bormioli Rocco is using a new PP random copolymer containing the class-leading additive to make the caps, intended for pharmaceutical syrups.

Bormioli Rocco already has a very wide range of dosage caps, moulded in polypropylene. It plans to shift production of much of that range to PP containing Millad NX 8000 in the coming months. Bormioli Rocco will make the caps in processing facilities at the headquarters of its plastics business unit in Castelguelfo di Fontevivo, just outside Parma, Italy, as well as in Rivanazzano, close to Milan in Italy, and in Saint Sulpice, near Toulouse in France.

The company wanted to improve the transparency of its dosage caps to give the final user the best view possible of the level of liquid inside. It has used clarified PP in the past, but Millad NX 8000 takes it to the next level. In fact, Bormioli Rocco says it has already received positive feedback from key customers.

MRC

(ICIS) -- Toyota Motor and other major Japanese automakers are expected to post a further decline in their financial performance in the second quarter of this year after a slump in production and profits during the first three months of 2011, analysts said on Thursday.

The twin natural disasters that struck northeast Japan on 11 March paralysed auto parts supply chains, triggering production shutdowns and delays as well as cancellation of orders. The operations of 40 auto parts manufacturers in Japan have been jeopardised by plant outages and power shortages following the earthquake, said a report by Zacks Equity Research.

The automobile industry is a large end-market for materials, such as polypropylene (PP), nylon, acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS), polyurethane (PU) flexible foam, synthetic rubber as well as paintings and coatings.

Toyota, the world's biggest automaker, said on 11 May that its net income for the first quarter of this year slumped to yen (Y) 25.4bn (USD 314m), compared with the Y112.2bn gain in the same period a year earlier. Sales during the period fell 12% year on year to Y4,642bn.

Meanwhile, Honda Motor posted a 27.6% year-on-year fall in net income during the first quarter of 2011 to Y44.5bn, while sales plunged 66.4% to Y2,213bn.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Export limits from North American and Chinese producers affected suspension PVC (PVC-S) imports to Russia, according to MRC DataScope. In April imports fell by 15% compared to March and made 36 KT. In March it was 43 KT.

Supplies of suspension PVC from North America reduced to 15 KT, the material that comes to the market was contracted in February-early March. In May a further reduction of resin supplies from USA is expected because of constant reduction of export quotations and growing export prices (above USD 200/mt within March-April).

Supplies of acetylene PVC from China have considerably reduced. In April total imports of resin reduced to 14 KT. Stable demand in the domestic market along with problems with railway vehicles are main reasons for reduction of imports. Terms of delivery breakdowns reach three weeks. Russian converters have already felt limited supplies of acetylene resin from China: there is a small deficit of offer of PVC with К=70 in the market.

MRC

(ICIS) -- Chemical producers along the Mississippi river may rely increasingly on trucks and railcars to move material because of high water and flooding, sources said on Tuesday. The river already has crested at Memphis, Tennessee, and it could crest on the lower Mississippi on 24 May. If water levels become too high, shipping could be prohibited on the river. As a result, chemical plants would have to rely on trucks and rail to receive feedstock and ship out product.

In fact, some trucks were freed up in Memphis, Tennessee, because of the flooding, Tapscott said. Miller Transporters expects more truck interest to emerge next week should the river crest.

Most likely, chemical distributors are already preparing for more traffic, said Matthew Glaser, director of member advancement and strategic communications for the National Association of Chemical Distributors (NACD).

The lower Mississippi is home to several chemical plants. Plaquemine and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, have plants of such companies as Georgia Gulf, Dow Chemical, Shintech, ExxonMobil, Formosa Plastics and Lion Copolymer.

MRC