BOPP film industry continued to show robust growth

(polyestertime) -- The BOPP film industry continued to show robust growth during 2011 with demand advancing by 5.5% compared with 2010 to top 6 mln tons for the first time according to a latest report on the global BOPP film market from AMI Consulting.

Demand growth was slightly down on 2010 which had been the bounce back year from the financial crisis for most markets around the world. Global demand is increasingly being driven by developments in Asia, particularly in China, India and Indonesia.

With over 60% of BOPP usage occurring in food packaging, it is the growth in demand in these countries for an ever-widening variety of packaged foods sold through supermarket outlets that is one of the principle drivers for this material. With large, youthful and growing populations, increased urbanisation and rising incomes it is the developing markets of Asia that will continue to underpin growth in BOPP film demand.

AMI's analysis shows that China alone now accounts for 40% of global production and demand and on its own accounted for 2 percentage points of the global growth achieved in 2011. It accounted for 95% of all new capacity installed in 2011. Although production has and will continue to be primarily to serve the domestic market, the volume of output now is such that even modest export volumes have the potential to disrupt other markets.
MRC

IOC offers price protection on PE and PP grades

(plastemart) -- State owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) has offered new price protection on HDPE, LLDPE, PP grades with effect from May 24, 2012 till next price revision or month end whichever is earlier.
Old price protection in HDPE, LLDPE announced on May 17, 2012 is valid till the 23rd of May.

Indian Oil Corporation is an Indian state-owned oil and gas corporation with its headquarters in New Delhi, India. The company is the world's 98th largest public corporation, according to the Fortune Global 500 list, and the largest public corporation in India when ranked by revenue.

IndianOil and its subsidiaries account for a 47% share in the petroleum products market, 34% share in refining capacity and 67% downstream sector pipelines capacity in India. The IndianOil Group of Companies owns and operates 10 of India's 21 refineries with a combined refining capacity of 65.7 million metric tons per year. The President of India owns 78.92% (1.9162 billion shares) in the company.
MRC

Reliance Industries announces price rollover


(plastemart) -- Reliance Industries has announced a rollover in prices of PP, PE and PVC, with effect from May 24, 2012. Price protection has been announced for PP and PVC. Price protection in PE will continue until Jun 1, 2012 or next change. EVA prices have seen a down ward revision by Rs 3.

The Reliance Group, founded by Dhirubhai H. Ambani (1932-2002), is India's largest private sector enterprise, with businesses in the energy and materials value chain. The Group's activities span exploration and production of oil and gas, petroleum refining and marketing, petrochemicals (polyester, fibre intermediates, plastics and chemicals), textiles, retail, infotel and special economic zones.
MRC

Import PVC to Russia still goes down

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russian companies continue to reduce the volumes of purchases of suspension PVC in external markets. Following two weeks of May, the imports of resin fell to 12,500 tonnes. The weakening of the rouble against the dollar makes the imported material is even more unprofitable, as per MRC analysts.

In April, Russian companies reduced their imports of suspension PVC to 33,000 tonnes. May also shows a negative trend. Over the two weeks of this month, the imports of resin to the Russian market amounted to 12,500 tonnes. This is a very low figure, as last year the imports to Russia in May made about 56,600 tonnes of PVC.

This month, the imports from the U.S. and China fell almost by three-fold. The deliveries of resin from Russia reduced also significantly. The decline in imports of PVC to Russia over the last two months resulted from several factors. Firstly, Russian producers, in particular, Caustic (Sterlitamak) increased their supplies. The company this year increased the production of PVC by one and a half.

The second important factor was an excess supply and a moderate rise in prices of PVC in external markets. Last year, on the back of dynamic growth in prices, the tsunami in Japan, Russian companies formed the additional supplies of PVC very actively in the beginning of the year, anticipating the shortages and significant growth in demand for finished goods in the domestic market.

Excess supply of PVC in external markets, particularly in the U.S., and low demand in all the world in May led to a decline in prices. As per market participants, North American PVC for June was below than USD1,000/tonne, CFR St. Petersburg.

However, the May weakening of the rouble against the dollar completely offset the current decline in prices of PVC in external markets, and as a consequence, Russian companies do not hurry to contract PVC. Some companies even refused to buy resin in the external markets.


MRC

In April import of linear PE to Russia decreased by 16%

MOSCOW (MRC) -- In April, Russian companies reduced the import of linear polyethylene to 11,900 tonnes. In January-April this year, the total import of LLDPE to Russia grew by 24% year on year, as per MRC analysts.
Last month, the total import of linear polyethylene by Russian companies decreased by 16% compared with the March figures and made about 11,900 tonnes. The main decline in foreign supplies fell on film polyethylene.

Recently, Russian companies, especially converters, found more difficult to deliver LLDPE to the domestic market. The customs authorities continue to increase pressure on importers: indicative prices at determining the customs value increased unreasonably, and volumes of LLDPE, cleared up with 10% import duties, increased significantly (HS code 3901 90 9000). Many companies-importers freezed their assets seriously enough (cash security for imports of goods).
In January-April this year, the total import of linear polyethylene to Russia amounted to about 46,600 tonnes, up by 24% compared to the same period a year ago.

MRC