INEOS ChlorVinyls raises caustic soda prices

(INEOS) -- INEOS ChlorVinyls has today announced a price increase of Euro 50 per dry metric tonne, for Quarter Three 2010 caustic soda business, due to reduced margins on the electro-chemical unit and the continuing low stocks position. This will be applied as contracts permit.

MRC

Borouge to activate the cracker by the end of June

(EmiratesBusiness) -- Borouge, the Abu Dhabi-based petrochemicals giant, will activate the first cracker of its second unit by the end of this month.

The company, a joint venture between Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and Austria's Borealis, will activate units to convert ethylene to polyethylene and polyethylene to polypropylene in a phased manner, and will begin exports from its completed Borouge II unit by November this year.

The company now manufactures about 600,000 tonnes of polyethylene. The new additions will add 800,000 tonnes of polypropylene and 540,000 tonnes of polyethylene manufacturing capacity.

MRCMRC Reference

Borealis. The share in the Russian market in 2008:

polyethylene - 4.1% (including HDPE - 4.7%, LLDPE - 8.7%);
polypropylene - 3.2% (PP-impact - 7.5%).

Annual sales growth in Russia over the last 5 years:
polyethylene - 11%;
polypropylene - 6%.

Leader in polymers processing technologies:
extrusion coating;
cable extrusion;
injection molding.

HDPE production reinforced in Iran

(plastemart) -- Rising from 60,000 tpa, annual production of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) at Iran's Bandar Imam Khomeini Petrochemical Company will rise to 150,000 tons. 445 billion rials have been spent on implementation of the expansion project.

MRC

Haitian confident about its future

(PlasticsToday) -- Its exports sank last year but the Chinese domestic market proved strong enough to drive sales and earnings higher for Haitian, the world's largest manufacturer of injection molding machinery. CTO Helmar Franz predicts continued growth for the company.

Haitian's (Ningbo, China) 2009 sales increased 4.5% versus 2008, with profits also up by 1.3% on sales of about 18,000 molding machines. According to the Association of the Plastics Industry China, the total value of output of the Chinese plastics processing industry declined just 0.2% in 2009. "Our goal remains to be the largest injection molding machine manufacturer in number of machines made and sales...e think we're number 3 or 4 in sales now. We predict we'll be number 1 in the net three years," said Franz.

For Haitian, almost as important to the continued level of business was Chinese processors' willingness to invest in domestically made processing machinery. Franz said that in 2008, about 49% of all processing machinery was imported to China; for 2009 that figure shrank to just 29%.

MRC

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%