Russia increased TiO2 imports from January to July 2014

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Imports of titanium dioxide (TiO2) to Russia rose from January to July 2014 by 5% year on year, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

TiO2 imports to the Russian domestic market totalled over 49,000 tonnes over the first seven months of 2014.

Polymer converters and paper producers increased their purchasing, whereas shipments to the needs of the paints and coatings industry dropped by 4.5%.

However, paints and coatings producers remained the largest TiO2 consumers (they account for about 77% of the total consumption of titanium dioxide in the country).
Ukraine remained a reliable and the largest supplier of material for the Russian processing industry, despite possible difficulties in shipments through the East of Ukraine. The overall imports of Ukrainian TiO2 totalled 15,000 tonnes over the first seven months of 2014, which equal the same figure of 2013. At the same time, shipments from the United States, China, Finland and Germany increased.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Negotiations over September contract prices of Russian suspension polyvinyl chloride (SPVC) began last week. Local producers intend to roll over August prices for next month's shipments, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

Scheduled shutdowns for maintenance and a major fall in imports, particularly, from the United States, allowed Russian producers to achieve an increase in August contract prices by an average of Rb4,000/tonne from July. The shortage of resin remained in the market because of a number of factors, on the back of which Russian producers intend to maintain August prices for September shipments.

Scheduled outages for maintenance works will continue in September and October. Thus, Bashkir Soda Company (formerly, Kaustic (Sterlitamak) and Kaustic (Volgograd) will shut down their production for turnarounds, which will add to tight supply from Russian producers.

Converters intend to reduce contract prices of Russian polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The current prices are record high for the last few years, despite lower sales in the finished products market. Another powerful argument that converters state during negotiations is a reduction of the import duty for PVC to 6.5% from 1 September. Lower import prices will make imports less expensive for the Russian market, and import quantities will compete with Russian material.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Russia's imports of polyamide (PA) and engineering plastics based on PA were 7,200 tonnes in January-July 2014, down 18% compared with the same time a year earlier, according to MRC DataScope.

The sharpest decline was seen in the imports of PA 6, which were 1,500 tonnes over the reported period, down 57% compared with the same time a year earlier. PA 6 is used for the production of sausage casings and multilayer packaging films. According to Rosstat, these markets in the first half of the year increased by 9% and 25% respectively.

Producers of packaging have given more preference to PA copolymers (based on PA6) because they improve barrier properties of the package. PA copolymers outperform in quality unfilled PA 6, which is used less and less. However, imports of PA copolymers decreased by 6% over the reported period to 4,200 tonnes.

The decline in demand for imported engineering plastics in the range of 5-7% is now a general trend in Russia. The main reason for this is the fall of the rouble and the high level of domestic prices, as well as a weak consumer activity in the markets of finished products.

Russia's imports of PA-emulsion were 1,000 tonnes in January-July, down 15% year on year. The main scope of the PA-emulsions - pulp and paper industry increased by 6% in the first half of the year.

Russia's imports of PA66 were 400 tonnes over the reported period, down 9% year on year. PA 66 is used for moulding of automotive components and parts in mechanical engineering.

Because of the high cost of PA66 it can be replaced by other engineering plastics. In the Russian market of PA and PA-plastics are the following types of product: unfilled PA 6 (with a share of about 20%), unfilled PA 66 (6%).

The rest volumes are divided between the PA copolymers (60%) and PA-emulsions (14%).


MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- PT Indo Thai Trading (ITT) has launched operations as a joint venture of Indonesia's Pertamina and Thailand’s PTT Global Chemical (PTTGC), which will ultimately be responsible for marketing and distributing production from an integrated petrochemical complex planned by the two companies, as per Apic-online.

The incorporation of ITT is a "significant milestone" in the implementation of Pertamina and PTTGC's joint cooperation, noted Pertamina.

The proposed complex, which is scheduled to come on stream by 2019 in Balongan, West Java, is expected to include the production of about 1.2-million t/y of polyethylene and polypropylene and nearly 1-million t/y of other petrochemical derivatives such as monoethylene glycol and butadiene. ITT will be responsible for the marketing and sales of all production from this complex.

Prior to the complex coming on stream, ITT will serve as the exclusive distributor for Pertamina and PTTGC’s products in Indonesia. In order to diversify its portfolio, ITT also plans to outsource products from third parties.

As MRC wrote previously, in late 2013, Thailand's PTTGC signed a joint-venture agreement with Indonesian state-owned energy company Pertamina to set up a petrochemical complex with an investment of around USd4-5 billion (Bt127 billion to Bt158 billion). Both companies will have a 50:50 stake in this downstream-to-upstream project. They also signed a deal to market products from the project jointly.

Pertamina is an Indonesian state-owned oil and natural gas corporation based in Jakarta. It was created in August 1968 by the merger of Pertamin (established 1961) and Permina (established 1957). Pertamina is the world's largest producer and exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

PTT Global Chemical is a leading player in the petrochemical industry and owns several petrochemical facilities with a combined capacity of 8.45 million tonnes a year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sahara Petrochemical Company has declared that its subsidiary Al Waha petrochemicals Company affected in this morning Sunday August 17, 2014 a technical fault in utilities unit, leading to the interruption of production processes in all operating units, reported Tadawul.

The repairing process at the plants is expected to end in a period not exceeding 9 days starting of 17 August, which means missed opportunity for the profitability of nearly 9 millions SR of polypropylene (PP) prices currently prevailing in the third quarter which will affect the expected profits in the third quarter of this year.

During the shutdown period some of the periodical maintenance items will get repaired, the company clients will be supplied from the standby reserves available in its warehouse. There will be an update in case of any developments in this regard.

As MRC wrote previously, the world-scale petrochemical complex in Jubail Industrial City in Saudi Arabia has a capacity of 467,000 tonnes of propylene utilising Oleflex technology, which serves as a feedstock for the 450,000 tonnes PP unit. The plant is considered to be largest, producing high-quality polypropylene using LBI's technology, sphereizone.

Al Waha Petrochemicals Company is owned by Sahara Petrochemicals Company, which holds 75% of its share capital with LyondelBasell owning 25%.
MRC