Domestic polymer demand starts to improve in India

(plastemart) -- Market players report some improvement in domestic polymer demand in India at the start of March.

Domestic producers opened the month with some increases for PP and PE and these increases did not prevent distributors from reporting an increased number of buying inquiries. PVC continues to be stable. In the PVC market, domestic producers elected not to change their prices at the start of March after producers had achieved some increases in the month of February.

"We elected to purchase some domestic PVC k67 as we found domestic materials to be more competitively priced when compared with the prevailing offer levels in the import market," as per a PVC pipe manufacturer. "We are seeing better demand for our end products today and we believe that demand will remain strong over the next few weeks. We are building some stocks these days and making most of our purchases from the Domestic PP producers opened the month of March with further increases following the significant increases implemented by producers over February."

"We are seeing good demand from the local market for now and supply is a bit limited," commented a source at an Indian producer. "We are seeing greater buying activity these days even after producers' most recent price hikes," stated a distributor.

Domestic producers also opened the month of March with increases on their HDPE, LLDPE and LDPE prices after achieving February increases for HDPE and LLDPE. "We are seeing better demand from the local market at the start of this month even after the most recent price increases and have been receiving a greater number of inquiries from our customers recently," a distributor stated.


MRC

Lukoil plans to resume activity at its PP plant this month

(chemmonitor) -- Lukoil headquartered in Russian has not resumed operations at its polypropylene (PP) production facility yet despite previously announced intention to restart the unit by March.

The plant located in Budyonnovsk (Russia) has been out of line since December of the preceding year following an emergency situation at upstream manufacturing units.

As a result of the accident, a propylene facility and an ethylene unit were closed and supply of feedstock propylene was violated.

MRC

Equate profit jumps 20pc to USD1.05bn

(oilandgasnewsworldwide) -- Kuwait's Equate Petrochemical Company has announced a net profit of USD1.05 billion for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2011, a 20% increase over what was achieved in 2010.

Following its board and general assembly meetings held in Kuwait, Equate president and CEO Hamad Al Terkait said: "These profits were realised due to operational excellence at all production units, as well as the increase in prices of petrochemical products globally as a result of stability in demand."

Al Terkait noted that for the first time in Equate's history, sales value in 2011 exceeded USD2.5 billion as a result of the overall organisational efficiency at Equate.

Meanwhile, Equate's board appreciated Al Terkait's leadership that brought in outstanding global success at all levels since 2001. It also expressed best wishes to Mohammad Husain who will succeed Al Terkait as Equate CEO during April 2012.

Established in 1995, Equate is an international joint venture between Petrochemical Industries Company (PIC), The Dow Chemical Company, Boubyan Petrochemical Company (BPC) and Qurain Petrochemical Industries Company (QPIC).

Equate, which commenced production in 1997, is the operator of a fully integrated world-scale manufacturing facility producing over 5 million tonnes annually of high-quality petrochemical products which are marketed throughout the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Europe.

The Kuwait Styrene Company (TKSC), part of Equate, had also announced a net profit of USD99 million for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2011, in comparison with USD81 million in 2010.
MRC

BASF to increase prices for butanediol and derivatives in Europe

(basf) -- With immediate effect, or as existing contracts permit, BASF SE will increase its European selling prices for the following products: 1,4 Butandiol (BDO) by 125 EUR/mt, Tetrahydrofuran (THF) by 100 EUR/mt, polytetramethylene ether glycol (PolyTHF) by 75 EUR/mt, N-Methyl-2-Pyrrolidone (NMP) by 75 EUR/mt, by Gamma Butyrolactone (GBL) by 100 EUR/mt.

BDO and its derivatives are used for producing engineering plastics, polyurethanes, solvents and elastic spandex and elastane fibers.

PolyTHF is a registered trade mark of BASF Group in many countries.



MRC

PetroChina not seeking extra Russian oil via pipeline

(reuters) -- PetroChina , Asia's largest oil and gas producer, will not buy extra Russian crude oil via the Russia-China pipeline, the company chief said on Monday, after the two sides recently resolved a price dispute.

Jiang Jiemin, chairman of PetroChina, also said China and Russia still differed on prices in protracted gas supply talks, under which Russia aimed to eventually sell up to 68 billion cubic metres of gas per year to China under a 30-year deal.

Russia's Rosneft last month made a small price concession to China, the single largest buyer of oil from its new eastern fields, to resolve a long-running dispute, raising hope that China could bargain for more Russian crude via the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline.

Russia has said China has been underpaying for the 300,000 bpd Russian supples, while China said Russia levies excessive transit fees. "Currently, we don't have a plan to raise the import volume," Jiang said. Asked if PetroChina would in the future raise imports from the current agreed 300,000 bpd level, he said: "We have not yet discussed the issue."

PetroChina, China's second-largest state oil refiner next to Sinopec Corp , suffered more than 50 billion yuan (USD8 billion) losses at its refining department last year and that loss was "still expanding", Jiang told reporters on the sidelines of China's annual parliament session.
MRC