Formosa No. 1 naphta cracker force majeur

(plastemart) -- A fire caused by a possible leakage at a distillation tower has forced a shutdown at Taiwan's Formosa Petrochemical Corp's 700,000 tpa naphtha cracker. The fire is currently under control, and there were no fatalities, but it has affected other units in the facility, including a unit that produces pygas. Rectification of the problem could take at least one month.

Formosa's two other crackers are not affected and are still operating at full capacity. However, Formosa will need to re-examine dates of planned maintenance at its No. 2 cracker with a capacity 1.03 mln tpa scheduled from August 20 for 30-40 days.

MRCMRC Reference Formosa

The share in the Russian market in 2008:
PVC-S - 3.0%;

PP - 0.4%.

Annual growth sales in Russia :
PVC - 79 % (over the last year) ;

PP - 272 % (over the last 3 years).

Supply by processing technologies:
profile extrusion

film extrusion

(1news.az) -- Scheduled maintenance at plants being part of Azerkimia and Azerbaijan State Oil Company started. Today, major repairs have started at ⌠Ethylene-Polyethylene plant, and will be carried out at all the plant's units.

The most qualified maintenance crew from Ethylene-Polyethylene, Orgsyntez, Surfactant and Sumgayt Mechanical-Repair Works have been involved into repairs.

MRC

(Kommersant) - Having secured cancellation of ethane supply scheme from Gazprom, Kazanorgsyntez opened negotiations to revise pricing scheme with the Monopoly. At present, feedstock is 2 times odd more expensive for Kazanorgsyntez than it is globally. Gazprom representatives say they are ready to consider their partner's proposals.

TAIF President claimed that Kazanorgsyntez is planning to ⌠raise supply of ethane-based feedstock to 2 mln. tpa.

MRC
MRC Reference

The share in the Russian market in:
LDPE в─⌠ 26.7%;
HDPE - 31.0%.

Leader in polymers processing technologies:
film extrusion;
pipe extrusion;
EBM;
injection molding.

(plastemart) -- Wuhan Petrochemicals is to complete the construction of an 800,000 tpa ethylene plant by end of 2012. The company plans to invest 4 billion Yuan in 2010 in its new ethylene project, to be spent in construction of infrastructure and utilities like water supply, electricity, roads and other facilities.

As announced before (see mrcplast.com from July 2, 2010), the completion of Wuhan project had been scheduled for 2013.

MRC

Five out of seven PE processing sectors demonstrated downward trends in 2009. The exceptions were extrusion coatings (+51%) and extrusion blow molding sectors (+5%). ⌠Drop leaders are pipe extrusion (-32%) and cable extrusion sectors (-27%).

PE consumption growth rates in the extrusion coatings sector had been very high till 2007 inclusive(48% average). Contrariwise, that sector has been demonstrating downward trend since 2008 (-36%). Consumption in that sector was growing mostly due to imports. Share of HDPE used in this sector went up by 74%; though that of LDPE decreased more than 2 times.

PE demand in steel pipes coatings went up by 64% (to 68 kt) in 2009. Extrusion coatings sector is going to remain the key driver of PE market growth in view of resumed works on oil and gas projects (Eastern Siberia - Pacific-2 and Nord Stream). It will be followed by the cable extrusion sector; and the film extrusion sector will be the third attractive sector in the Russian PE market.

MRC

For more detailed information on processing capacities and polyethylene consumption in the context of sectors, markets and types of finished goods by each converter, please refer to ⌠Polyethylene - 2010 Annual report.