Polyethylene remained under negative pressure in May in N America

(chemmonitor) -- A large number of ethylene production units in April and this month in North America created increased availability of the material.

This affected performance of downstream polyethylene (PE). The PE market was also impacted by the purchasing activity downturn as local users had previously built their inventories. Lower crude quotes influenced PE operations in May, as well.

North America PE traders could maintain price stability through the first week of the month.

MRC

(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

(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

(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

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