Tight PVC supply out of the US offset by weak demand

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Market players consider PVC supplies from USA limited as availability from the country is also expected to be curtailed by planned shutdowns at domestic producers, according to Plastemart.

Shintech has halted production at its PVC complex in Louisiana for three weeks in H2-September. OxyVinyls is also slated to undergo a shutdown at its 950,000 tpa PVC plant in Pasedana for 2-3 weeks in October.

The US is the largest import supplier of PVC for Turkey, Egypt and China.

As MRC wrote previously, scheduled and unscheduled maintenance works at the Russian plants as well as a serious decline in imports led to a shortage of PVC with a K value of 70. By early September, prices reached the level of Rb50,000/tonne, according ICIS-MRC Price Report. The deficit began to be felt in the second half of August. And by early September, the lack of the resin in the Russian market increased in anticipation of the shutdowns at Bashkir Soda Company (Sterlitamak) and KAUSTIK (Volgograd).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Foster Wheeler has signed a technical services agreement with OJSC Khabarovsk Oil Processing Refinery to provide construction management services for a hydroprocessing project at the refinery in Russia’s Far East, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The terms of the agreement were not disclosed, and bookings will be recorded as work is released by OJSC.

The objective of the project is to produce more higher-value, lighter products. The complex includes a hydrocracker, hydrotreater, hydrogen unit, amine regeneration unit, sour water stripper, sulfur recovery unit, vapor recovery unit, waste water treatment unit, ground flare, tank farm and pump houses.

"Foster Wheeler has been working at this refinery for ten years," said Umberto della Sala, chief operating officer of Foster Wheeler. "We executed the front-end engineering design for the entire hydroprocessing complex, basic design for the hydrogen production facility, design and supply of the steam reformers for the hydrogen plant, and have been providing on-going project management consultancy services as the project progressed into the engineering, procurement and construction phases."

As MRC reported earlier, Lanxess had awarded a subsidiary of Foster Wheeler's Global Engineering and Construction Group an engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCm) contract for a new ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) rubber plant to be built in Jiangsu Province, China. Besides, Foster Wheeler was awarded a contract by Shell Global Solutions to develop the basic engineering package for a world-scale mono-ethylene glycol (MEG) facility at Ras Laffan, Qatar.

Foster Wheeler supplies the CFB scrubber technology globally through its five operating units located in North America, Europe and Asia which are supported by Foster Wheeler’s scrubber technology center, FW Graf Wulff, located in Friedrichsdorf, Germany.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) will join UzIndoramaGazChemical, a joint venture that will build a USD2.5 bln complex to produce polyethylene at the Mubarek Gas Refinery in Uzbekistan's Kashkadarya region, according to Azernews.

CNPC had signed a memorandum to join Uzbek national oil and gas company Uzbekneftegaz and Singapore's Indorama Group in the joint venture.

The equity is expected to be redistributed by the end of 2013. Uzbekneftegaz and Indorama formed the joint venture on an equal footing in May 2012. The complex will have capacity to produce 500,000 tpa of polyethylene.

The project will be funded by the investors and foreign bank loans.

The Mubarek refinery, which is controlled by Uzbekneftegaz subsidiary Uzneftegazdobycha, is Uzbekistan's biggest and is capable of processing 30 bcm of gas per year. It produces gas condensate, liquefied gas and industrial sulfur.

In recent years Uzbekistan has pursued the course of deep processing of liquefied hydrocarbons and natural gas.

In 2001, Uzbekneftegaz put into operation the Shurtan gas-chemical complex on the basis of the Shurtan gas-condensate field in Kashkadarya worth USD985 million. Its design capacity is 125,000 tons of polyethylene, 100,000 tons of liquefied gas and 100,000 tons of unstable condensate per year.

Uzbekneftegaz and a consortium of Korean companies led by Kogas are implementing a project to build the Ustyurt gas-chemical complex on the basis of the Surgil field. Its capacity will allow processing 4 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year and produce 400,000 tons of polyethylene and 100,000 tons of polypropylene. The cost is USD4.2 billion.

Uzbekistan is among the top 10 largest gas-producing countries in the world with natural gas reserves of about 1.9 trillion cubic meters.

As MRC reported earlier, China's CNCEC, National Chemical Engineering Corporation, has recently won the tender for the construction of a chemical complex for the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) production at "Navoiazot" production site, the largest manufacturer of chemical products in Uzbekistan.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- South Korea's LG Chem will lower the operating rate at its 650,000 mt/year acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) plant at Yeosu to 70% of capacity in October from 80% in September, reported Apic-online with reference to a company source, without providing further details.

LG Chem also plans to start operations at a new 150,000 mt/year ABS plant in Huizhou, southern China's Guangdong province, toward the end of this year or in Q1 2014, sources close to the company said earlier. The plant will be a joint venture with state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corp.

As MRC informed previously, South Korean petrochemical company LG Chem is planning to build an ethylene production plant in Atyrau, Kazakhstan. The project is going to be constacted in collaboration with two other Kazakh firms. The production is expected to begin in late 2016.

LG Chem Ltd., often referred to as LG Chemical, is the largest Korean chemical company and is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. According to ICIS report, it is 15th biggest chemical company in the world in 2011. It has eight domestic factories and global network of 29 business locations in 15 countries. LG Chem is a manufacturer, supplier, and exporter of petrochemical goods, IT&E Materials and Energy Solutions.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Royal DSM, the global Life Sciences and Materials Sciences company, has announced that it has expanded its partnership with the Ravago Group, a leader in distribution, resale, compounding and recycling of plastic and elastomeric raw materials, as per Plastemart.

The two companies have combined DSM’s expertise in polyamide 6 with Ravago’s recycling know-how to develop a portfolio of glass reinforced recycled PA6 compounds.

The materials will be offered by DSM directly and distributed by Ravago Group member Resinex, which has a leading position in the plastics and rubbers distribution market across Europe and Turkey, and which is already a well-established distributor of DSM engineering plastics.

The new recycled PA6 grades, which DSM is marketing under its Akulon brand and which are available now, contain more than 50% post-consumer resin from well-identified and dependable sources. DSM is supplying grades with 30% and 35% glass fiber reinforcement.

Thanks to their inherent strength and performance profile, the grades are particularly suited to automotive under-the-bonnet applications such as air intake manifolds and engine covers, as well as furniture applications, including structural parts in office chairs.

As MRC wrote earlier, in July 2013, DSM signed distribution agreements for Engineering Plastics B.V. with Nevicolor and Nexeo Solutions to strengthen its presence in Italy. DSM entered into new agreements with two distributors for its Engineering Plastics portfolio in Italy to improve its coverage across the entire country. The move means that Italian customers (like DSM customers in other European countries) will now have a choice of distributors for their thermoplastics. The agreements with Nevicolor and Nexeo Solutions apply to the full range of DSM’s engineering plastics products.

DSM delivers innovative solutions that nourish, protect and improve performance in global markets such as food and dietary supplements, personal care, feed, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, automotive, paints, electrical and electronics, life protection, alternative energy and bio-based materials.
MRC