Methanol in India soared to highest level in more than seven months

(ICIS) -- Spot methanol prices in India have soared to their highest level in more than seven months because of extremely limited spot supply, market sources said on Thursday. Selling ideas were quoted at USD 360/tonne (EUR 256/tonne) CFR (cost & freight) India - levels last seen on 26 November 2010, according to ICIS data.

Prices have been steadily rising over the past three weeks, racking up 11% of gains to an average of USD 350/tonne CFR India in the week ending 8 July, ICIS data showed.

Methanol inventories at Kandla port are very low, at just around 36 KT at the end of June, with expectations that stocks will fall further given few re-exports of the material from southeast Asia, market sources said. This compares with the usual inventories of about 60 KT at Kandla, according to traders.

MRC

(ICIS) -- Stocks in the European chemical sector were being dragged down by a sharp fall in the global markets on Tuesday, as fears over the eurozone's debt problems continued. In early afternoon trading, the Dow Jones Euro Stoxx Chemicals index was trading down by 1.72%, indicating that many of Europe's major chemical companies had suffered some losses.

Among Europe's top producers, German major BASF's shares dropped by 1.60%, while Bayer's fell by 1.62%. Dutch coatings firm AkzoNobel's shares were down by 1.90%, France's Arkema's shares fell by 1.59%, Belgian producer Solvay's plummeted 2.93% and Germany's Kali and Salz (K+S) were down by 2.78%.

European stock markets were reacting to concerns that Italy and Spain - like Greece, Ireland and Portugal before them - will require a bail out from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.

MRC

(Arabian Oil and Gas) -- Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical Company (Petro Rabigh) said that the High Olefins Fluid Catalytic Cracker (HOFCC) unit will be restarted by end July instead of mid July as announced previously, which will impact the sales of gasoline and polypropylene.

The company said that it has restarted all its units including the crude distillation unit, the ethane cracker, the PE unit and all other units by end June, except the HOFCC, (which produces 900 KTa of propylene) unit will which is set to be re-started in the next coming days.

The company said in early April that the maintenance work to last 60 days, and operations will start gradually after 45 days.

MRC

(Pallman) -- Pallmann, a world-leading German company in size reduction technology, has announced the appointment of Jie Tang as its first Sales Manager in China. As of June 1 Jie Tang is in charge of all Pallmann's services in the Chinese market. Pallmann now has ten employees in China.

Earlier this year, the Pallmann group established Pallmann Refined Material Processing Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd in Beijing, before setting up the Shanghai branch. In May, the group had its own stand at Chinaplas for the first time, and reported considerable interest. A series of activities in the region have marked the entrance of the enterprise into the China market.

The Shanghai branch, Pallmann's second in Asia after the Beijing operation, will become Pallmann's business centre for the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan). Important markets for the company include plastics, chemical processing and recycling (PPR), a powerful complement to the timber area taken care of by its Beijing branch. In the future, Pallmann will be capable of offering complete sales service, equipment installation and technology training in China. It will also further accelerate the growth of the multi-industrial material crushing market in China and the Asia-Pacific region.

MRC

(Plastemart) -- In an effort to diversify its overseas business portfolio, GS Caltex Co. has set up a unit in the Czech Republic to produce and sell polymer compounds. To be located in Karvina, the plant is expected to have annual sales of 100 bln won (USD 93.8 mln), and construction is expected to be completed next year. GS Caltex is South Korea's second-largest refiner. The unit, GS Caltex Czech, will start to build a plant later this year. Europe is one of the biggest polymer compounds markets, with demand estimated to have reached 1.2 mln tpa.

MRC