Sasol Limited board approved construction of new ethylene purification unit

(Sasol) -- The Sasol Limited board has recently approved the construction of a R1.9 billion ethylene purification unit at its Sasol Polymers plant in Sasolburg. The plant is expected to go on stream in the second half of 2013 and will be ramped up to full capacity by 2015.

The unit will enable the Sasol Group to add further value to its monomers feed streams originating from the Secunda complex and will boost ethylene production by approximately 48 000 tons per year. The ethylene will be used in the manufacturing of polyethylene and will greatly benefit the plastics conversion industry in South Africa that currently imports large quantities of this raw material.

This investment confirms Sasol's commitment to the South African chemical industry and will enable significant downstream value addition in terms of locally manufactured consumer products such as plastic bags, packaging materials and containers.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - PP-homo imports into Ukraine went up by 25% (to 10.99 kt) in January - March 2010 comparing with same period last year. Feedstocks from Russia increased 2 times - according to MRC DataScope report.

In March imports of PP-homo by LyondellBasell went up almost 2.5 times (to 0.89 kt) comparing with February 2010. Ukrainian companies increased PP-homo supply from Poland over 2 times. Imports of Polish material formed 0,56 kt.

The situation with imports of European PP is expected to get worse in April. The main reasons are suspensions for scheduled maintenance of some European PP producers being traditional material suppliers into Ukrainian market.

MRC

For more information please refer to MRC DataScope reports.

MOSCOW (MRC) -- In January - March 2010, PVC-S imports in Ukraine increased nearly 2 times (to 22 kt) comparing with same period last year. The share of US resin exceeded 55% of overall imports - according to MRC DataScope Report.

Ukrainian companies have begun to import Fromosa's PVC-S actively since the beginning of the year. In March, record volumes of Formosa's material (4.5 kt) were imported; all came from the USA. Imports of S-65 grade into Ukraine were stopped this year.

In March, PVC-S supply of Vinnolit's material fell almost 2.5 times comparing with February 2010 due to the maintenance at capacities in Germany.

Sabic's resin (grade Sabic 67S) appeared in the Ukrainian market at the end of Q1. Imports of that material moved at 206 ton.

MRC

For more information please refer to MRC DataScope report.

BEIJING (China Knowledge) -- China Petrochemical Corp, which is also known as Sinopec Group, last week said that subsidiary firm Sinopec, Asia's largest oil refiner, has kicked off operations at a new ethylene project at the Zhenhai refinery in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, sources reported.

Sinopec Group said in a statement that Zhenhai Refining & Chemical Co is the operator of the ethylene facility.

The project, which will be able to produce 1 million tons of ethylene annually, is expected to increase the Chinese oil giant's sales revenue by RMB 30 billion per year and will help promote the development of downstream industries that will generate more than RMB 100 billion in sales revenue a year.

Sinopec invested a total of RMB 23.5 billion in the construction of the ethylene project and the related supporting facilities. The Zhenhai refinery is now the country's largest refinery and the biggest ethylene production base.

MRC

LONDON (ICIS news)--Ineos Nova has sold out of European polystyrene (PS) for April and is already reporting a strong order book for May, Pierre Minguet, business director for PS, said on Tuesday.

⌠Demand is increasing, particularly in XPS [expanded PS]. Things are not super rosy but they are definitely improving and the order book for May is already strong today, he said. ⌠We will be able to supply all our customers, but availability is tight, he added.

The current styrene spot price was leading to some concern among PS producers who had earlier been expecting a rollover for the styrene contract in May. ⌠We now think we might be facing an increase in May [styrene], said another major PS producer, ⌠and this will inevitably translate into higher prices for PS.

One major PS buyer said that it would probably have to accept an increase if the May styrene contract rose, as supply in the PS market had been matched with demand for many months, and that there was limited room for negotiation.

MRCMRC Reference

Ineos is a petrochemical group.
In Russia Ineos's interests are represented by Ineos Polyolefins and IneosChlorVinyls.

The share in the Russian market in 2008:
PVC - 4.5%;

polyethylene - 1.9%
(HDPE - 2.8%, LDPE - 1.2%);
polypropylene - 1.4%
(PP-random - 22.1%, PP-impact - 2.0%);
polystyrene - 0.9%.

Imports by polymers processing technologies:
profile extrusion;
pipe extrusion;
film extrusion;
injection molding.