Iran SM adds to massive deep-sea cargoes bound for China

(ICIS) -- China will receive around 30,000 tonnes of styrene monomer (SM) from Iran in December, adding to the strong flows of deep-sea cargoes that continue to augment the Asian country's inventory and upset SM prices, industry sources said on Wednesday.

Some traders had expressed concerns that inventory levels in east China market will blow up to hit 100,000 tonnes by the end of the year.

Actual inventory was pegged at around 75,000-80,000 tonnes this week, much higher than the usual level of 60,000-70,000 tonne in off-season, market sources said.

The SM price in east China trended lower in the past two weeks, from yuan (CNY) 10,200/tonne ($1,527/tonnes) to CNY 9,650/tonne ex-tank Zhangjiagang, a CNY550/tonne increase from 21st October.

Buying activities were limited, according to traders, as most of them were waiting on the sidelines given the surplus supply that was weighing on prices.

Iran's SM shipment was precipitated by the restart of Pars Petrochemical Co's 600,000 tonne/year plant in Assaluyeh at the end of October. The plant was shut on 20 August due to lack of feedstock benzene as a result of sanctions on Iran due to its nuclear arms programme.

Meanwhile, some 100,000 tonnes of material were heading towards northeast Asia, including China, from the US between October 2010 to January 2011, market sources said. The strong supply of imported SM, however, was not being matched by demand, given seasonal weakness in production of major downstream expandable polystyrene (EPS) in China, they said.

MRC

(Plasticsnews) -- Growth rates for polypropylene and other commodity resins should average 15-30 percent annually in India for the next several years, according to Kamal Nanavaty, cracker and polymers sector president with Indian plastics leader Reliance Industries Ltd.

The 40-year-old Indian plastics sector consumes almost 18 billion pounds of resin per year. That number is expected to double in the next five years, Nanavaty said in an interview at K 2010. Likewise, India's current annual BOPP film capacity of 1.1 billion pounds is expected to double during that same period. Nanavaty cited India's growing consumer retail base and changing lifestyles as reasons for this growth.

Nanavaty declined to comment on Reliance's growth plans, but he said that Indian companies other than Reliance will add 3.5 billion pounds of polyethylene capacity and 2.6 billion pounds of PP capacity by the end of 2013.

The global economic crisis also didn't have much of an impact on India's plastics growth, according to Nanavaty. Nanavaty also is anticipating the start of an Asian ⌠super cycle in 2014, when plastic demand will outstrip supply for many years.

Mumbai-based Reliance dominates India's plastic resin sector with a 70 percent market share. The firm ranks as the world's fourth-largest PP maker, based on annual capacity.


MRC

(Plasticsnews) -- In the first weeks after Dow Chemical Co.'s proposed K-Dow joint venture with Kuwaiti officials fell apart in late 2008, the Midland-based company sought out new partners in hopes of resurrecting some kind of deal.

But at the same time, it had another team looking over the plastics operations to determine what it held and how to focus the operations under Dow's continued ownership.

Dow's sale of its Styron business to Bain Capital earlier this year was the last major move it needed. The company now is focused on a specialty polyolefin-based platform with higher value add products that emphasize packaging - including Dow's low linear density polyethylene films - and materials for the health care industry.

The company is positioned to take advantage of new capacity from lower cost production in the United States. It also has operations in Asia, Europe and South America where demand is increasing.

However, the company may have some minor divestitures or acquisitions in its future, although the company is not discussing any details of what that might involve.

MRC

(Plastemart) -- Petrobras has signed a contract estimated at US$820 mln to supply Toyota Tsusho Corp. (TTC) hydrated ethanol for ten years. The delivery will be of 143,000 cubic meters per year to be used as feedstock in a chemical ethanol project that TTC is deploying with a local partner in Taiwan to produce Bio-PET.

This is the first long-term ethanol supply contract Petrobras signs. Petrobras Biocombustivel will be responsible for providing the contractual volume through a contract with Petrobras.

MRC

(Plastemart) -- South Korea's Honam Petrochemical Corp. has completed the acquisition of Malaysia's Titan Chemicals Corp. Bhd. The acquisition was announced by Honam, South Korea's second largest ethylene maker on July 16.

The deal involved buying a 73% stake in Titan from the Chao Group and a Malaysian state-run fund. Honam's plans include acquisition of Titan shares from the market to gets its stake holding to 100%. The total cost of the acquisition is expected to be Won 1.5 trillion (US$1.28 bln).

Titan is Malaysia's premier and largest integrated olefins and polyolefins producer. It has a capacity to make 1.2 million of olefins, 1.5 million mt of polyolefins, 0.2 million mt of aromatics, 0.1 million mt of butadiene and 38,000 mt of BOPP film through facilities and plants located in Malaysia and Indonesia.

MRC