PE imports in Kazakhstan decreased by 23% in January - July 2014

MOSCOW (MRC) - Imports of polyethylene in Kazakhstan decreased by 23% in the first seven months of this year. The fall in demand occurred for high density polyethylene (HDPE), while the need for other types of polyethylene increased, according to MRC.

July imports of PE in Kazakhstan seasonally increased to 12,500 tonnes, compared with 7,800 tonnes in June. Total PE imports in the country decreased to 54,800 tonnes in January - July 2014, compared with 70,700 tonnes in the same time a year earlier.

Demand for HDPE from the local pipe producers has weakened, while demand for low density polyethylene (LDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) increased. Structure of PE imports into the country looked as follows.

July HDPE imports in the country grew to 9,600 tonnes, compared with 6,400 tonnes in May. Such a serious increase in the imports resulted from the larger purchases from Russia, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Finland. Total HDPE imports in Kazakhstan decreased to 41,000 tonnes in the first seven months of this year, compared with 59,6000 tonnes in the same time a year earlier. More than 80% of the total HDPE consumption in Kazakhstan occurred for pipe producers.

July LDPE imports in the country grew to 2,400 tonnes (in June it was 1,300 tonnes) on the back of increased purchases in Russia (Kazakh producers shrink films formed additional inventories). Total LDPE imports in Kazakhstan increased to 11,300 tonnes in January - July of this year, compared with 8,800 tonnes year on year.


Key suppliers of LDPE in the country were Russian producers, their share in total imports this year rose to 93%. July LLDPE imports rose to 462 tonnes, compared with 173 tonnes in June. Total LLDPE imports in the country grew to 2,400 tonnes in the first seven months of the year, up 2% year on year. Key suppliers of LLDPE in the country were producers from Asia and Uzbekistan.


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MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Dow Chemical Company has announced that Jack Broodo, president of Dow Chemical Canada ULC and director of feedstocks for the Company’s North and Latin America regions has been named vice president of Investor Relations for the company, reported Dow on its site.

Broodo succeeds Doug May, who will become business president of the Company’s Olefins and Aromatics business unit. Broodo will report to William Weideman, Dow’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, and will work with May to ensure a smooth transition.

"Dow has driven a series of strategic actions over the past several years to reposition the Company and maximize returns for shareholders," said Weideman. "During this time, Doug’s leadership and focus on the investment community has strongly supported our efforts to maintain regular and transparent dialogue with the investment community regarding our progress against key strategic and financial milestones. Jack’s business leadership experience, together with his broad background on the Company’s integrated portfolio and key growth projects, will be instrumental in our efforts to maintain this focus and the quality of this dialogue moving forward."

In 2009, Broodo assumed the senior leadership role for Dow’s business and site operations in Canada - driving results for the company and maintaining positive relationships across the communities in which Dow operates. In 2013, he took on additional responsibility as director of feedstocks for Dow’s North and Latin America regions, where his leadership was instrumental in enhancing Dow's position in Latin America. Notably, during this time, he has served as a key member of the team leading the advancement of the Company’s US Gulf Coast investment program.

As MRC informed before, Hanwha Chemical, one of South Korea's leading polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride producers, has picked Credit Suisse to advise on possible purchases from Dow Chemical"s chloro-alkali business but its interest is still in the early stages.

The Dow Chemical Company is an American multinational chemical corporation. As of 2007, it is the second-largest chemical manufacturer in the world by revenue (after BASF) and as of February 2009, the third-largest chemical company in the world by market capitalization (after BASF and DuPont). Dow is a large producer of plastics, including polystyrene, polyurethane, polyethylene, polypropylene, and synthetic rubber.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Total, Europe’s biggest refiner, plans to adapt its French processing capacity as fuel demand drops, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing with reference to the company's chief executive officer.

"Refining has to be adapted to demand and demand is dropping," CEO Christophe de Margerie said at a meeting of the French employers’ group Medef outside Paris. "When demand drops, producers have to deal with it."

Total has borne the brunt of lower refining margins and a slump in consumption in Europe, where it operates eight plants. In its home market of France, it has joined LyondellBasell and Petroplus in halting surplus capacity, and peers elsewhere in the region have followed suit.

Total doesn't plan to pull out of refining altogether, de Margerie said.

While he said there is no "urgency" in Total’s plans for French refining, he declined to give details on how and when capacity will be cut in France.

The company has already shut a refinery at Dunkirk and a steam cracker at Carling in eastern France to lower capacity. Refiners in France lost EUR00 million (USD951 million) in 2013 as margins shrank and the country imported more than half the diesel it used, the Union Francaise des Industries Petrolieres has said.

Total has a target to reduce its European refining and petrochemicals business by 20% from 2012 to 2017. The Courbevoie-based company faced opposition from workers and the state over the closing of the Dunkirk plant, and it promised the government in 2010 it wouldn’t shut another site for five years.

As MRC wrote before, last year, Total intends to invest EUR160m before 2016 to adapt its petrochemical platform in Carling, in the Lorraine region of eastern France, and to restore its competitiveness. The Carling plant, which makes petrochemicals such as ethylene and propylene at the site near the German border, employs 350 Total workers as well as sub-contractors. These chemicals are used to make plastics.

Total S.A. is a French multinational oil and gas company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world with business in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia. The company's petrochemical products cover two main groups: base chemicals and the consumer polymers (polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene) that are derived from them.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sonoco Products Co.’s acquisition of Weidenhammer Packaging Group GmbH of Germany includes plastic packaging technology that the company is targeting for growth in the United States, said Plasticsnews.

The USD383 million deal, naturally, features plenty of talk about the paper packaging aspects of both companies. That’s the bulk of their respective businesses. But the move also includes Weidenhammer Plastic Packaging with a plant in Zwenkau, Germany, near Leipzig, that includes production of cups, cans and containers with volumes of at least 100 milliliters. Buckets made there range from 1 to 11.4 liters.

Polypropylene, according to Weidenhammer, "is virtually the only raw material used." "Weidenhammer is a leader in thin-walled injection molded containers that utilize in-mold labeling. Production of this thin-wall package should grow to approximately USD20 million in annual sales by the end of 2015," Sonoco CEO M. Jack Sanders said on a conference call Aug. 25 to discuss the deal.

Overall, Sonoco gains 13 locations, including five in Germany. There also are also sites in Kansas City, Mo., as well as Belgium, Chile, France, Greece, the Netherlands, Russia and United Kingdom, Sonoco said. Approximately 1,100 employees will come over to Hartsville, S.C.-based Sonoco in the deal expected to close during the fourth quarter.

Weidenhammer, a family owned business based in Hockenheim, expects sales of approximately USD327 million this year. That compares with Sonoco’s USD4.9 billion in annual sales.

Weidenhammer markets the PermaSafe line of containers that the company touts as a plastic replacement for metal food cans and glass jars that is easier to handle, lighter and more cost effective.

As MRC wrote before, Sonoco commenced commercial production of rigid plastic containers for personal care products at its new USD15 million plant, located in the Beauty and Home Care campus in New Albany, Ohio.

Sonoco Plastics is a leading manufacturer of mono-layer and multi-layer blow-molded bottles and jars, thermoformed cups and trays and engineered molded and extruded containers, spools and trays. The Company has 25 plastics operations in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Ireland, Netherlands and Germany. In addition to the Beauty Park facility, Sonoco Plastics operates a state-of-the-art food-grade, blow-molding and injection molding plant in Columbus, Ohio. The Company is currently reviewing plans for additional expansion of this facility as well.MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The board of directors of Westlake Chemical Corporation has declared a dividend of 16.5 cents per share, an increase of 31% from the 12.6 cents per share paid in the second quarter of 2014, reported the company on its site.

The increased dividend will be payable on September 19, 2014, to stockholders of record on September 5, 2014.

This is the 40th successive quarterly dividend that Westlake has declared since completing its initial public offering in August 2004.

As MRC reported earlier, in early August 2014, Westlake Chemical Corporation announced it had closed the previously announced acquisition of German-based Vinnolit Holdings GmbH and its subsidiary companies from Advent International, a private equity firm. The Vinnolit acquisition includes six production facilities located in Burghausen, Gendorf, Cologne, Knapsack and Schkopau in Germany and Hillhouse in the United Kingdom. These operations have a combined annual capacity of 780,000 metric tons of PVC, including specialty paste, thermoplastic specialties and suspension grades, 665,000 metric tons of vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) and 475,000 metric tons of membrane grade caustic soda.

Westlake Chemical Corporation is an international manufacturer and supplier of petrochemicals, polymers and building products with headquarters in Houston, Texas. The company's range of products includes: ethylene, polyethylene, styrene, propylene, caustic, VCM, PVC resin and PVC building products including pipe and specialty components, windows and fence.
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