PVC-S imports up 1.5 times in Ukraine

Resin demand in May in the Ukrainian market mainly was in April level. No serious sales increase and appearance of additional circulating assets of converters was observed. Only single companies could manage to increase the consumption.

In 2010 share of PVC-S imports from USA totaled over 39% (14.2 kt) from all the imports. Over half of these volumes was of American Formolon 622/Formosa resin.

In May European suspension was more preferable because of decrease of Euro exchange rate. Imports of European resin went up by 11% (to 6,2 kt) comparing with April 2010. Ukrainian companies increased supplies of Hungarian material made by BorsodChem by 24%.

MRC

For more detailed information about Ukrainian PVC market please refer to MRC DataScope reports.

(plastemart) -- Huntsman Corp., a leading polypropylene manufacturer, has announced prepayment of a US$110 mln under its senior secured credit facilities. Commenting on the pre-payment, Kimo Esplin, EVP and CFO, stated, "The pre-payment equates to the amount we received from our reinsurance carriers in settlement of Huntsman's claims related to losses occurring as a result of the April 29, 2006, fire at our Port Arthur, Texas, olefins facility. Since the beginning of the year we have pre-paid approximately $300 million of our bank term debt. We remain committed to further reducing our indebtedness in the future."

MRC

(Dow) -- Effective July 1st, 2010, or as contract terms allow, Dow Europe GmbH will increase prices for all its Polystyrene Films in Europe by 150 Euro per metric ton. These increases are driven by strong demand and continued escalation of raw material costs used to manufacture these products.

MRC

MRC Reference

Share in the Russian market, 2008:

polyethylene - 2.5% (including LLDPE - 33.1%);

polypropylene - 0.8% (including PP-impact - 1.1%);

polystyrene - 2.6%.

Annual sales growth in Russia, recent 5 years:

polyethylene - 55%;

polypropylene - 28%;

polystyrene - 2%.

Imports by processing technologies:

pipe extrusion;

film extrusion;

sheet extrusion;

foaming.

(omnexus) -- Borealis, a leading provider of chemical and innovative plastics solutions, announced the launch of two new generation BorPure materials for transparent food containers that offer a step change in organoleptics, a 10% reduction in cycle times and energy, and CO2 reduction of up to 4 tonnes per year for the converter.

BorPure RG466MO and BorPure RJ377MO are high transparency polypropylene (PP) random copolymers targeted primarily at the different market segments of house- and kitchenware (RG466MO) and thin wall packaging (RJ377MO). Based on proprietary Borealis Nucleation Technology (BNT) the high melt flow rate (MFR) and high purity materials meet market preferences towards no tainting of taste and odor of food.

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.

SINGAPORE (ICIS news) -- A likelihood of oversupply and softening demand growth in the key China market has unleashed anxiety among chlor-alkali players in Asia, ahead of the 14th Asian Chlor-alkali Conference, which starts on Thursday in Shanghai, China.

However, strong performance of the Indian PVC market has provided a cause for cheer, they said. China's consumption of PVC was expected to hit 10.6m tonnes/year in 2010.

Demand growth for PVC in China was expected to slow further to 7.5% in 2011, amid a slowing down of the construction sector due to the government's measures to cool the economy.

Another reason to cheer is a decline in feedstock ethylene costs, which would improve stand-alone PVC producers' margins. Ethylene spot prices in northeast Asia were hovering at an eight-month low of $900-950/tonne (┬729-770/tonne) CFR (cost and freight) NE (north east) Asia last week, according to data from ICIS.

MRC