MOSCOW (MRC) -- Last year the Russian market of basic volume polymers increased by 8% and reached 4.8 million tonnes. The greatest increase in demand was seen in the market of PVC and styrene plastics. The capacity of these markets grew by 14% and 10%, respectively, according to MRC ScanPlast.
In 2011, the Russian market of basic volume polymers (polyethylene, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride, polystyrene, styrene plastics and PET) increased by 8% and reached 4.8 million tonnes. The market of PVC (emulsion and suspension) grew most dynamically. The increase in demand for basic volume polymers was almost twice as the GDP growth, which in 2011 made 4.3%.
In 2011, the Russian market of polyethylene increased by 5% and reached 1.774 million tonnes. Positive dynamics in demand growth was observed in the market of HDPE and linear polyethylene. The capacities of these markets grew by 8% and 19%, respectively. The market of LDPE, on the contrary, decreased by 2%. The growing demand of the Russian market was met by imports of polyethylene. Having loaded their capacities by almost 100%, domestic producers increased output only by 2%, while imports grew by 19%.
Last year the growth of the Russian market of polypropylene (PP) slowed down. In 2011, the market capacity grew by 4% and exceeded the level of 810,000 tonnes, while in 2010 the demand grew by 22%. The growing needs of the market were met by growing production and lowering exports.
Before 2008, the Russian market of polypropylene had been growing on average by 18% per year and after the recession the growth slowed on average by 10% per year. The Russian producers increased the polymer output to 681,400 tonnes. Imports, on the contrary, decreased by 3% and made192,800 tonnes.
The Russian market of unmixed PVC (emulsion and suspension) increased by 14% and reached 1.135 million tonnes. The market suspension PVC in 2011 grew by 15% and exceeded the psychological record of 1 million tonnes. In 2011, the imports of PVC-S rose by 30% to 460,000 tonnes.
Last year North American producers became key players in the Russian market. The market grew only by 7% and reached 120,600 tonnes. The main growth in demand falls on linoleum producers.
In 2011, consumption of basic styrene plastics (HIPS, general purpose polystyrene, EPS and ABS) exceeded 480,000 tonnes that was by 10% more than in 2010. The share of HIPS in the total consumption of polystyrene and styrene plastics grew to 43% (209,800 tonnes).
The market of EPS reached 137,000 tonnes. The launch of Sibur-Khimprom new facilities in Perm helped to reduce the dependence on imports in the Russian market. In 2012, the second line of PVC-S production is expected to be launched in Perm, which will result in the growth of Russian production capacities by 50,000 tonnes of the material per year.
In 2011, the Russian market of general purpose polystyrene grew by 23%. The consumption growth was achieved mainly by imports, which increased from 25,000 tonnes in 2010 to 39,000 tonnes in 2011.
In 2011, consumption of PET granulate in the domestic market grew by 4.3% and made 600,000 tonnes. Domestic producers increased production volume by 31% year on year. The increase of production was reached by the launch of new PET granulate production in Kaliningrad (Alco-Naphtha). Overall imports did not change substantially. Last year total imports made about 273,000 tonnes, while in 2010, the supply of PET from foreign producers made nearly 271,000 tonnes.
MRC