In 2012 imports of PET to Ukraine increased by 15%

MOSCOW (MRC) - In 2012 imports of bottle PET to the domestic market of Ukraine increased by 22,000 tonnes (up 15%) compared with 2011 and amounted to 163,000 tonnes, according to MRC DataScope.

Last year was quite successful for the Ukrainian PET converters. Almost all major makers of PET preforms increased their capacity utilization. Thus, in 2012 the purchases of material for the production of preforms increased by 22,000 tonnes, compared to the previous year and amounted to 163,000 tonnes.

Though, despite the increase in supply in 2012, the total imports of PET granulate were still below pre-crisis level. It should be noted that the peak of imports of PET granulate to Ukraine took place in 2007, when the total volume of imported PET reached 250,000 tonnes.

The leader in sales of bottle PET in Ukraine was a Pakistani maker Gatronova. In 2012, the Gatronova's sales in Ukraine grew by more than three times and totaled 21,800 tonnes. Due to the increase in imports of Pakistani PET, sales of Chinese China Resources Chemicals, leader in the supply of granulate in 2011, fell and took second place in the total imports.

In 2012 China Resources supplied 19,600 tonnes of PET granulate, whereas in 2011 that figure made 27,700 tonnes. The third place in the supplies to Ukraine took Lithuanian NeoGroup (18,000 tonnes).
Among the makers of PET in the CIS, Belarus plant Mogilevkhimvolokno managed to gain considerable success in the supplies of PET to the domestic market of Ukraine. In 2012 Mogilevkhimvolokno shipped to Ukraine about 9,000 tonnes of bottle PET, which is three times higher than over the previous year and hit the record high.


MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- In 2012, the volume of production of polypropylene in Russia decreased by 3% year-on-year and amounted to about 662,000 tonnes. Other Russian producers were not able to fully compensate for a three-months outage at Stavrolen, according to MRC ScanPlast.

In December, Russian makers increased their capacity utilization and produced nearly 63,000 tonnes of polypropylene. The increase in capacity utilization at Tomskneftekhim and Ufaorgsintez did not allow to fully compensate for the three-month shutdown of PP production at Stavrolen (Lukoil group).

Russia's largest PP producer, Nizhnekamskneftekhim, held its capacity utilization at 100% over the past year. Thus, last year the plant produced slightly more than 212,000 tonnes of polypropylene, up 1% year-on-year.

Last year, Tomskneftekhim increased production to 137,000 tonnes, up 6% year-on-year. Such a high level of the output was due to the reduction of duration of the maintenance works. In 2012, the plant switched to the two-year cycle of outages for maintenance.

Last year, Ufaorgsintez increased its production volume to 125,000 tonnes, up 17% year-on-year, due to exports of propane-propylene fraction (PPF).

In 2012, Neftekhimiya (Kapotnya) reduced its output due to a lengthy outage for maintenance. The production volume of polypropylene made about 106,000 tonnes, down 7% year-on-year.

After a serious accident in mid-December, 2011, Stavrolen managed to quickly resume its PP production in March due to the exports of propylene. Over the incomplete ten months of operations, the plant produced about 83,000 tonnes of polypropylene.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- India is one of the leading growing and developing economies of the world today which shows a healthy growth potential for any industry, said Plastemart.

The economy is now witnessing changes in growing consumerism driven lifestyles even outside the metros apart from increased industrial output. This growth is fed by increased industrial production. One such multiple application organic compound which is seeing rapid growth in India is ethylene. Asia Pacific accounted for nearly 50% of the global demand value of USD91 billion in 2010, and India accounted for nearly 9% of the total ethylene capacity in Asia Pacific.

With the Indian ethylene plant capacity crossing 4 MMTPA in the year 2010, the Indian ethylene industry faced tough competition from neighbor China, which is the leader in the Asia Pacific ethylene market. The Asia-Pacific region will continue to dominate the ethylene market in the future and generate more than a third of the worldwide demand.

The leading players in the Indian ethylene industry in 2010 were Reliance Industries, Indian Oil Corporation, Haldia Petrochemicals, and GAIL India Limited.

As MRC wrote earlier, Reliance Industries planned to expand capacity at its refineries in the western state of Gujarat. Reliance unveiled an USD18 billion investment plan for India over the next five years.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) will launch four new state-of-the-art technology and innovation facilities in 2013, according to the company's press release.

The new centres include two in Saudi Arabia and one each in India and China, bringing the total number of its research facilities around the world to 18.

SABIC is going to invest around half a billion US dollars into its new facilities. This move represents the company's strategic investment to improve technology, applications and solutions and meet the needs of an increasingly sophisticated marketplace, as well as address a wide variety of sustainability issues, according to Mohamed Al-Mady, SABIC Vice Chairman and CEO.

The two centers in Saudi Arabia are the Corporate Research & Innovation Center (CRI) at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Thuwal, near Jeddah, and the other, the SABIC Plastic Applications Development Center (SPADC) in Riyadh Techno Valley at King Saud University (KSU) in Riyadh.

The SPADC, which is set to open in the second quarter of the year, aims to develop new applications and products that support SABIC’s business growth. The SPADC aims to be the center of excellence for automotive, packaging, consumer, construction, signage, and compounding. It will help develop new plastics applications and extend technical support to local and international customers in various fields, including polymers, elastomers and specialty products.

The Bangalore research center is scheduled to open in the second quarter of 2013, while the center in Shanghai will be opened in the third quarter of 2013. These two centres will deal with application development, strategic business and corporate research. Their aim is to support business as strategic centres of excellence to cater to global and regional needs.

We remind that, as MRC informed previously, in October, 2012, Sabic signed a multi-year agreement with the University of Cambridge, UK, to allow Sabic researchers to work with world class teams of scientists in the areas of chemical engineering, biotechnology, energy, functional materials and modeling. Sabic signed four other research collaboration agreements earlier last year - with the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, China, ETH Zurich, Switzerland, National Research Council, Italy, and Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Germany.

Besides, SABIC and Shell announced in November, 2012, that they were progressing plans for the expansion of various projects at the Saudi Petrochemical Company (Sadaf). The joint venture partners are also looking to expand their partnership beyond Saudi Arabia. Both parties are developing a full range of polyols (a polyurethane building block) and styrene monomer propylene oxide (SMPO) plants at the existing Sadaf site, which is located in one of the world's largest and most competitive petrochemical complexes - the Al Jubail industrial zone on Saudi Arabia's eastern coast. SABIC and Shell will jointly conduct the necessary studies to implement the project.

Sabic is ranked among the world's largest petrochemicals manufacturers. It is the largest public company in Saudi Arabia. The comany manufactures chemicals and intermediates, industrial polymers, fertilizers and metals. It is currently the second largest global ethylene glycol producer. Among its products are propylene, paraxylene, styrene, polystyrene (PS), melamine, vinyl chloride monomer, polyvinyl cloride (PVC), polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyester.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A fire triggered by a release of hydrocarbons was reported to have broken out earlier this week at a Lukoil-operated field in the Timan-Pechora region of Russia, said Upstreamonline.

The blaze at the Vostochno-Sarutayuskoye field, located about 150 kilometres from regional centre Naryan-Mar, started on Tuesday morning after an uncontrolled emission of oil and gas from a facility, the Barents Observer reported, citing Russian-language media sources.

It was spotted by helicopter pilots flying over the Arctic production province and firefighters from the neighbouring Inzyreyskoye and Yuzhno-Khilchuyu had to be called in to tackle the fire, which Lukoil said was extinguished after about four-and-a-half hours.

Company officials said the blaze did not result in any damage to the local environment.

Russia’s environmental watchdog Rosprirodnadzor has now launched an investigation of the incident.

The Russian oil company Lukoil is holding negotiations with the Ukrainian government to remove technical obstacles preventing the start of the Odesa oil refinery belonging to the company, Lukoil President Vagit Alekperov told Interfax on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

The Odesa oil refinery was stopped in October 2010 in light of an economic situation on the Ukrainian oil product market and the amendment of the oil shipment procedure.

Lukoil is Russia's second largest oil company and its second largest producer of oil. Headquartered in Moscow, Lukoil is the second largest public company (next to ExxonMobil) in terms of proven oil and gas reserves. The company has operations in more than 40 countries around the world.

MRC