Kuwait's QPIC to launch a new petrochemical project

(Arabian Oil and Gas) -- Kuwaiti firm Qurain Petrochemical Industries Company (QPIC) is set to receive approval from the Saudi authorities for a new petrochemical project very soon, according to Issa al-Issa, vice-chairman.

Al-Issa said that the new project, to be located in Jubail Industrial City, will produce PTA and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) feedstocks. He anticipates construction work will begin by the second half 2012. Al-Issa also said that the cost of the project will be at around USD 1bn, and employ between 400 and 500 employees when complete.

MRC

(ICIS) -- US ethylene spot margins remained on an uptrend last week, lifted by higher spot prices and mostly steady feedstock costs, the ICIS margin report showed on Monday. Using ethane as a feedstock, margins were at 35.45 cents/lb (USD 782/tonne, EUR 547/tonne) in the week ended 10 June, up from 34.72 cents/lb a week earlier.

The 2% increased followed higher spot prices last week, as ethylene for June traded at 65.00-67.50 cents/lb, rising from deals done at 64.500-65.125 cents/lb in the week ended 3 June.

Market sources cited an outage at the Williams cracker in Geismar, Louisiana, early last week, as one of the reasons for the increase in spot prices. The 612 KTa unit went down following a power outage on 4 June, the company said.

Williams restarted the cracker on 9 June, a spokesperson said, adding that the unit was expected to be running at full rates within one week.

Ethylene bids and offers for June were wide apart on Monday at 65-69 cents/lb.

MRC

(SABIC) -- SABIC is adding to its range of polypropylenes for thin-wall injection moulding applications with a new impact copolymer grade, SABIC PP Flowpact FPC 100. SABIC has developed the new material for the production of thin wall containers for yellow fats and packaging for dairy products such as yoghurts, cream, flavoured milk and cheese spreads.

With the introduction of FPC100, SABIC now has two impact copolymers and one homopolymer in its Flowpact range.

As with existing grades SABIC PP FPC55 and SABIC PP FPH50, the new grade contains a state-of-the-art package of processing and antistatic additives. It is distinguished by high flow and high crystallisation speed, which together result in reduced cycle times for moulders. It also features an excellent balance of impact strength and stiffness.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russia becomes the forth global net importer of PVC, Sergey Yaremenko, MRC said during the 6th Global Chlor-Vinyl Conference.

Consumption of PVC in Russia in 2010 reached historical peak of 1 million tons. This growth was conditioned by dramatic increase of import PVC in profile industry. Net import of PVC in 2010 exceeded 0.5 million tons.

Currently USA is the biggest foreign PVC supplier. During 4 months of 2011, the Russian PVC market grew by 29%. The share of imported PVC in Jan-Apr of 2011 was 62%.

Russian market remains a regional imbalance. Moscow region alone consumes PVC in the volume which is equal to consumption of Polish market and is 6 times bigger than consumption of Hungarian market.

MRC

(ICIS) -- The balance of trade in chemicals between the 27 EU member states and Russia has soared over a decade to reach EUR 11.1bn (USD 16.1bn) in 2010 from EUR 761m in 2000, statistics office Eurostat said on Thursday.

EU chemical exports to Russia jumped to EUR 15.8bn in 2010 from EUR 3.28bn in 2000. Imports from Russia into the region were up by 86.8% to EUR 4.71bn in 2010, from EUR 2.52bn in 2000, said the statistics office.However, the EU's overall trade with Russia remains in deficit. The EU trade deficit with Russia increased from ┬41.0bn in 2000 to ┬71.9bn in 2010.

In 2010, Russia was the EU's third most important trading partner after the US and China, accounting for 6% of EU exports and 11% of EU imports.

MRC