SIBUR unveils its giant LPG transhipment project to potential customers

(SIBUR) -- SIBUR has presented details of its liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and light oil products complex, currently under construction in the Ust-Luga commercial port in the Leningrad Region, to major international companies including Shell, BASF, Repsol and LyondellBasell.

The facility will be the largest terminal in the CIS for the transhipment of LPG and the only one in Russia's Northwest region ideally placed for the Western European export market. The complex is designed to handle up to 1.5 million tonnes of LPG and up to 2.5 million tonnes of light oil products (stable natural gas) per annum. It is due to begin operations in the first quarter of 2013.

Experts predict that LPG production in Russia will grow from 9.7 million tonnes at the end of 2010 to 16.4 million tonnes by 2015. A significant portion of this increase will be supplied to the domestic market as petrochemical feedstock and fuel to the public utility sector.

MRC

(ICIS) -- European polypropylene (PP) buyers and sellers are watching the volatile crude market with interest to gain an idea of where PP prices will land in September, several said on Monday.
⌠Everybody is just watching everybody else to see what will happen, said one producer. August business is now over and European prices have mostly fallen by EUR 15/tonne (USD 21/tonne), in line with the drop in the propylene contract price.

Freely-negotiated PP accounts, as well as those with links to propylene, fell in line but some buyers reported more substantial drops by the middle of the month.

PP prices suffered far less turmoil in August than in June and July, when some fell by as much as EUR 250/tonne over both months as imports made their way to Europe and demand waned on news of economic woes.

The focus of the PP market is now September, and more precisely, where the new European propylene contract will settle.

Economic worries have not gone away, but in spite of volatility in upstream crude and naphtha prices further significant falls have been avoided. Most sources acknowledge that there will be a fall in the new contract, but the extent of that is still open to discussion.


MRC

(Plastemart) -- In addition to two pressure tanks that have been shut, the Taiwanese government has ordered Formosa Plastics Group to suspend use of four more pressure tanks at Mailiao petrochemical complex. The shutdown, with effect from mid-August, is of the tanks run by Formosa Petrochemical and Formosa Chemicals & Fibre, and has been triggered by fear that the materials of the tanks are prone to explosion. Safety checks will likely last for two months.

MRC

(ICIS) -- Diethylene glycol (DEG) prices in Asia fell to their lowest level in nearly one year, and may continue declining in the weeks ahead, given high inventory at ports amid sluggish demand, industry sources said on Tuesday.

In the week ending 19 August 2011, spot DEG values were assessed at an average of USD 1.170/tonne (EUR 819/tonne) CFR (cost and freight) CMP (China Main Port) - levels last seen on 10 September last year, according to ICIS. DEG's average prices have fallen 12.5% since the start of the year, ICIS data showed.

Demand from downstream unsaturated polyester resins (UPR) and polyurethane (PU) sectors in China is seasonally weak, with most UPR plants running at just half their capacity, industry sources said.

The measures taken by the Chinese government to cool the property sector have also significantly trimmed demand for UPR and PU this year, said a trader.


MRC

(ICIS) -- US ethylene margins fell slightly in the third week of August, after an increase in feedstock prices outweighed new gains in ethylene spot prices, the ICIS margin report showed on Monday.
Ethylene margins were at 33.36 cents/lb (USD 735/tonne, EUR 514/tonne) for the week ended 19 August, down by 0.7% from a week earlier using ethane as a feedstock. The small drop, which snapped a six-week uptrend in US margins, resulted from gains in ethane prices.

Ethane accounts for around 60% of the feedstocks used for US ethylene production.
US ethylene spot prices inched up in the third week of August, despite continued losses in the upstream energy complex.

Ethylene for August traded at 61.750-62.750 cents/lb, an average 0.3% increase from deals done at 61.000-63.125 cents/lb a week earlier.


MRC