Russian Polymer Summit - 2010 was held in Moscow

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Yesterday in Moscow, Marriott Grand Hotel, Russian Polymers Summit 2010 was held. It was organized by ICIS and MRC.

One day Summit was for senior managers of leading Russian and international companies involved in the production and processing of polymers.

Among the participants of the summit there were heads and representatives of the following leading petrochemical companies: Nizhnekamskneftechim, Kazanorgsintez, JSC LUKOIL, SIBUR, Salavatnefteorgsintez, BASHCHIM, Sajanskchimplast and biggest polymers converters.

The Summit participants also presented world leading producers: Dow, Borealis, ExxonMobil Chemical, LG Chem, LyondellBasell, SABIC, Total Petrochemicals, Petkim.

The production facilities of those companies provide 80% of the Russian polystyrene market, 75% - PE market, 80% - PVC market and 60% - PP market.

Purchase amounts of the Summit participants are as follows: 65% polystyrene, 80% PVC, 70% PE, 55% PP.

There were in total 165 participants from 15 countries, among them - 65 heads and directors of companies, 7 heads of the representative offices and business owners.

MRC

(SABIC) -- SABIC Innovative Plastics announced that it is adding state-of-the-art specialty polypropylene (PP) compounding to its Bay St. Louis, Miss. site in the first quarter of 2011.

The site will use its existing infrastructure and adopt new processes to produce SABIC PP compounds and SABIC STAMAX long glass fiber-reinforced PP composites.

Adding specialty PP to the site's compounding capabilities enables the company to provide a broader range of high-performance materials to its customers in North America and to help satisfy demand for specialty compounds - which is a market recovering fast from the recent downturn.

MRC

HOUSTON (ICIS) -- A Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plant in Mexico will be stopped in November for programmed maintenance, a company source said on Wednesday.

Both trains at Pemex's 100,000 tonne/year HDPE Asahi plant are scheduled to stop on 1 November and remain that way until 5 December for programmed maintenance procedures, the source said. Average production for the plant is about 74,000-80,000 tonnes/year, depending on a variety of factors.

Demand for PE resins remains high in Mexico, after receiving a boost from short supply that has been exacerbated by logistics problems brought on by copious rains in the southeastern area of the country.

MRC

MOSCOW (ICIS) -- Russian protectionism which aims to shield domestic polymer producers is in fact damaging local polymer converters, said a senior SABIC executive on Thursday.

Making imported polymer more expensive for Russian converters than for those in other Former Soviet Union (FSU) countries like the Ukraine, would mean that imported finished plastic products would be able to undercut Russian products in their home market, Geert Drummen, CEO Eastern Europe for SABIC, told delegates at the ICIS-MRC Russian Polymers Summit in Moscow.

This would eventually be to the detriment of domestic polymer producers, he said.

Drummen added he was hopeful that Russia's entry to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) would help to reduce the level of protectionism.

MRC

SINGAPORE (ICIS) -- India's Bhansali Engineering Polymers (BEPL) has started a debottlenecking process at its 50,000 tonne/year acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) plant at Rajasthan, to expand the plant's capacity by 40%, a company source said on Thursday.

The plant's capacity would be 70,000 tonnes/year when the process was completed in October next year, the source said.

The company has further plans to expand the plant's capacity to 125,000 tonnes/year by 2013, the source added.

MRC