SABIC to expand PET unit in Saudi Arabia

DUBAI (ICIS news)--Saudi Basic Industries Corporation's (SABIC) expansion plan for its polyethylene terephthalate (PET) unit in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia, is on track to for completion in 2013, a source close to the matter said on Tuesday.

The expected new addition at Ibn Rushd aromatics complex, which has a total capacity of around 420,000 tonne/year, would be brought on-stream by 2013, as planned.

The proposed unit would lift SABIC's PET output to around 750,000 tonnes/year.

MRCMRC Reference

Sabic. The share in the Russian market in 2008:
PE - 0.2%;
PP - 0.4%;
PS - 0.2%.

Annual sales growth in Russia over the last 5 years:
PE - 33%;
PP - 62%

OMSK (Kommersant) -- Omsk oblast arbitrage has declared Omsk-polymer Ltd., plastics and chemical feedstock manufacturer, bankrupt and included the monitoring procedure. Declaring was made by Russia Sberbank. Omsk-polymer owes this bank about 1,4 mln. Euro by credits. Total debt of the firm to the other 400 creditors forms over 5 bln. Rubles. Monitoring procedure will last till November 2010.

Last Thursday Omsk oblast arbitrage considered the declaration of Omsk department of Russia Sberbank. According to the data, in June 2006 Omsk-polymer received a 2,05 bln. Euro credit in the bank for equipment purchase for phthalic anhydride production. The equipment was formed as pledge. Due to delay of payments for 4 months, according to credit contract from December 31 2009, Omsk oblast arbitrage pronounced judgement about 1,4 mln. Euro debt collection from Omsk-polymer and arrested pledged phthalic anhydride production equipment.

MRC

(RIA Novosti) -- LUKOIL Ltd. will not participate in tender for three big oilfields in Iraq starting on September 1, said Company's Head Vagit Alekperov this Tuesday.

⌠We are not to dispense, our interests are focused on ⌠Zapadnaya Kurna - 2 where we have strict duties - announced LUKOIL's President.

MRC

(plastemart) -- Thailand's PTT Polyethylene expects to decrease run rates by 5% from May at its steam cracker in Map Ta Phut. This will bring down operating rates to an average of 60% for June at the cracker with nameplate capacity of 1 mln tpa ethylene and 25,000 tpa propylene. The cracker has been running well below nameplate capacity since commercial operations started in April due to lack of feedstock ethane from feedstock supplier PTT Plc. 50% of the cracker's ethane is sourced from PTT's recently revamped No. 2 and No. 3 gas separation plants, where operations have yet to stabilize. PTT's No 6 gas separation plant, that is to supply 50% of the feedstock, has not been granted clearance to start from local authorities and the environment office.

MRC

(prw) -- LyondellBasell believes it is in a good position following its emergence from Chapter 11 in April to benefit from growth in demand for polypropylene and polyethylene.

Anton de Vries, senior vice president of olefins and polyolefins, said at a pre-K2010 press briefing in Dusseldorf that there had been ⌠a lot of stress during Chapter 11 as the company shut plants and reduced headcount to its current level of 14,500. Groups fixed costs have been slashed by $1bn to $3.6bn now.

Now the company can look to the future, he said. It expects an additional 30 million tonnes of polyolefins demand worldwide by 2014. Asia-Pacific will account for most of that increase, especially China and the Indian sub-continent.

In its restructuring, LyondellBasell has closed four plants in North America and three in Europe, with another in Terni, Italy set for closure this year. But it has also brought on new capacity at three plants in the Middle East and is expanding its plant in Thailand.

Key to LyondellBasell's confidence is the low cost of its joint venture plants in the Gulf, which benefit from low feedstock costs. De Vries claimed supply from Middle Eastern plants to any part of the world can beat the price of polyolefins produced locally.

MRC

MRC Reference

LyondellBasell. The share in the Russian market in 2008:
PE - 1.4% (including HDPE - 2.5%, LDPE - 0.3%);
PP - 4.1% (including block-copolymers - 9.5%).

Annual sales growth in Russia, during the recent 5 years:
PE - 27%;
PP - 88%.

The leader in the following polymers processing technologies:

pipe extrusion;

film extrusion;

injection molding.