PP imports in Ukraine decreased by 16% in January - October 2014

MOSCOW (MRC) - Imports of polypropylene (PP) in Ukraine decreased by 16% in the first ten months of this year, the decline in deliveries occurred for all PP grades, with the biggest drop for PP block copolymer, according to MRC DataScope.

Ukraine's PP imports have been decreasing since the surge in September. The decrease in PP purchases in foreign markets resulted from a seasonal factor and the problems with the purchase of currency in the country.

October PP imports in the country decreased to 10,000 tonnes, compared with 12,300 tonnes in September. Total PP imports in Ukraine decreased to 94,000 tonnes in January - October of this year, compared with 112,100 tonnes year on year. The largest drop in demand occurred for PP block copolymers because of the shutdown of some plants.

Structure of PP supplies over the reported period looked as follows. October imports of homopolymer PP in Ukraine decreased to 7,600 tonnes, compared with 10,400 tonnes in September. Total imports of homopolymer PP in the country decreased to 73,000 tonnes in the first ten months of this year, down 14% year on year.

The largest drop in demand occurred for the injection moulding sector (down 44% over the reported period), while demand for raffia remained at the last year's level. Key suppliers of homopolymer PP in the local market were producers from Saudi Arabia and Russia.

October imports of figure external supplies of block copolymers of PP did not exceed the level of 1,000 tonnes. Total imports of PP block copolymers in the country fell to 9,700 tonnes in the first ten months of the year, compared with 13,700 tonnes year on year.

Demand for extrusion copolymers for pipe and sheets production reduced more than two times. Demand for PP in the sector of injection moulding declined by more than 25%. The main suppliers were producers from Europe.

October imports of PP random copolymers in the country grew to 1,200 tonnes. Total imports of PP random copolymers in Ukraine were 8,500 tonnes in January - October 2014, compared with 10,100 tonnes year on year.

Demand from producers of PP pipes reduced by 29%; demand in the injection moulding sector fell by 11% over the reported period.

Total imports of other propylene copolymers over the reporting period were 2,700 tonnes, compared with 3,900 tonnes in the same time a year earlier.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Azerbaijan is planning to commission rigs for the production of polypropylene (PP) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) on the territory of Sumgayit Chemical Industrial Park in 2016-2017, reported Azernews.

It was announced by Mukhtar Babayev, the Head of Azerbaijan’s state energy company SOCAR’s Azerkimya Production Association, the main manufacturer of chemical products in Azerbaijan last week.

He told Trend Agency that according to the plan, construction and commissioning of the new plants will take between two and two and one-half years.

Preparation is carried out and parts of the equipment have been already purchased. Contract works on production of high density polyethylene are underway as well.

"Under the plan, the rigs will be operational in 2016-2017," Babayev said. "Although a review of the plan is possible, but we do not know in which direction this review will be made."

Babayev had previously said that rigs for production of polypropylene will be commissioned first.

It is scheduled to accommodate 35-40 enterprises, which will create 10,000 new jobs on the industrial area of Sumgayit Chemical Industrial Park. The territory of Sumgayit Chemical Industrial Park will be divided into two parts - the administrative and social and industrial zones.

In order to increase the investment attractiveness of the park, its residents are exempt from income, land and property taxes for seven years. Also equipment and technology used in the park are exempt from value added tax. Two residents have already been registered there - SOCAR-Polimer and Azertekhnolayn limited liability companies.

As MRC wrote before, in early 2014, Foster Wheeler AG announced that a subsidiary of its Global Engineering and Construction (E&C) Group had been awarded a contract by STAR Rafineri A.S., a subsidiary of SOCAR Turkey, for project management consultancy (PMC) services for its grassroots Aegean Refinery to be built within the Petkim Petrokimya A.S. (PETKIM) facilities at Aliaga, Turkey. The refinery began its operations in the third week of November 2014, after a gradual start-up process.

The authorized capital of the SOCAR Polimer Company, which was established as part of the development of polymer production in Azerbaijan, was increased from 51 to 100 million manats. SOCAR, a 100% plant founder, sold 49% of the share capital to private companies.

SOCAR is keen on expanding operations in the retail oil products market abroad, and is involved in exploring oil and gas fields, producing, processing, and transporting oil, gas, and gas condensate, marketing petroleum and petrochemical products in the domestic and international markets, and supplying natural gas to industry and the public in Azerbaijan.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Trinseo, a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex and rubber, has announced that it has named Angelo N. Chaclas as Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer effective January 1, 2015, reported the company on its site.

He will be a member of the company’s Executive Leadership Team. Chaclas succeeds Curt Shaw who is retiring at year end.

"We are extremely pleased to name a Chief Legal Officer with Angelo’s strategic understanding of Trinseo’s businesses and the chemical industry," said Chris Pappas, President and CEO of Trinseo. "His vast experience working across geographies and functional areas will be an asset to support our ongoing activity in capital markets, transactions, compliance, governance, intellectual property and other operational activities of the company worldwide."

Mr. Chaclas currently serves as Associate General Counsel and Chief Intellectual Property Counsel for Trinseo. During his tenure, Chaclas has had global responsibility for all intellectual property matters, working closely with the Research and Development organization on patents, trade secrets, trademarks, technology licensing agreements, and joint development agreements. He also managed commercial legal activities for several Trinseo businesses, and established internal best practices and optimized law firm relationships during the company’s start-up phase.

Prior to joining Trinseo in 2010, Chaclas was Deputy General Counsel and Chief Counsel for the software division of Pitney Bowes while leading its Intellectual Property, Technology Law and Procurement legal functions.

As MRC informed previously, Trinseo has reported its third quarter of 2014 financial results with revenue of USD1,3 million and adjusted EBITDA of USD62 million. Revenue in the third quarter was roughly flat to prior year as higher SSBR volume and a favorable foreign exchange impact were offset by lower price which was primarily driven by the pass through of lower raw material cost. Sequentially, revenue decreased by 3% due to lower sales volume, with seasonality and weaker economic conditions in Europe, as well as an unfavorable currency impact as the US dollar strengthened compared to the euro.

Formerly known as Styron, Trinseo previously announced plans to change the name of all Styron affiliated companies to Trinseo. Some, but not all, of the Styron companies have completed the name change process and are currently known as Trinseo; Styron companies that have not completed this process will continue to do business as Styron until their respective name changes are complete. Styron's operating companies also continue to do business as Styron at this time.

Trinseo is a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex and rubber. Trinseo’s technology is used by customers in industries such as home appliances, automotive, building & construction, carpet, consumer electronics, consumer goods, electrical & lighting, medical, packaging, paper & paperboard, rubber goods and tires.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BP Zhuhai is in plans to start a new purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant at the BP Zhuhai Chemical Company Limited (BP Zhuhai) site in Guangdong Province, China, a JV between BP and Zhuhai Port Co. in Q4 2014, as per Apic-online.

A source in China informed that the plant is likely to start in Q4, 2014, but the exact start-up schedule of the plant could not be ascertained.

The planned debottleneck at Zhuhai will increase capacity by more than 200,000 tonnes a year from its second unit (Z2), making the total PTA production capacity of the Zhuhai site some 1.25 million tonnes a year. It will be the first to employ BP's latest generation PTA technology and, subject to approval from its shareholders and relevant Chinese government agencies, is expected to come on stream earliest 2014 to meet PTA demand growth in China. This will make Zhuhai the largest PTA site in BP's global PTA system.

As MRC wrote before, BP had completed engineering design work for the Z2 debottleneck in 2011 and expected the expansion to be fully operational in 1Q2012.

BP is one of the world's leading international oil and gas companies, providing its customers with fuel for transportation, energy for heat and light, retail services and petrochemicals products for everyday items.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- EnerG2, a Seattle-based company manufacturing advanced carbon materials for next-generation energy storage devices, and BASF, the world’s leading chemical company, have announced a strategic partnership, as per BASF's press release.

EnerG2 and BASF entered into a comprehensive collaboration to improve and scale-up the production of EnerG2’s proprietary carbon materials for use in supercapacitor electrodes and as a performance additive in start-stop lead-acid batteries. Both technologies play an important role in short-term energy storage for automotive and industrial applications.

Engineered carbons enhance storage performance by providing higher voltage and energy in supercapacitors and by significantly increasing the charging rate of lead-acid batteries at a partial-state-of-charge. EnerG2’s patented carbon technology platform enables large-scale production of carbon materials that surpass the limitations of the carbons traditionally used in energy storage. Controlling the molecular structure and synthesis of these advanced materials at early stages of production provides the ability to tailor the carbon properties to specific applications. This unique manufacturing process results in ultra-high purity material with customizable porosity.

BASF is providing funding, technical expertise, and marketing know-how in a partnership with EnerG2 to enrich its R&D initiatives and to accelerate its market penetration.

"This alliance optimally blends EnerG2’s innovation and responsiveness with BASF’s stability and an unquestionable ability to scale. We will use the funding not only to bolster our operational capacity but also to explore market opportunities with BASF," explains Rick Luebbe, CEO of EnerG2. EnerG2’s technology platform complements the in-house activities of BASF’s research and development as well as BASF’s global business unit for battery materials. Energy storage materials are an essential part of BASF’s strategy to enable electromobility. Furthermore, EnerG2 will also work closely with BASF to broaden its global reach, particularly in Asia and Europe.

As MRC informed previously, in October 2014, BASF and Archroma agreed on the sale of BASF’s global textile chemicals business to Archroma, a supplier of specialty chemicals to the textile, paper and emulsions industries.

EnerG2 has developed a unique approach that engineers the molecular structure of a polymer precursor in order to customize the nanostructure, and, therefore, the performance of the resulting carbon. EnerG2’s proprietary Carbon Technology Platform has two key components: polymer- chemistry-based precursor formulation and processing parameters that transform that precursor into customized carbon. The combination of these elements results in a flexible, competitive process that can produce carbon materials for diverse energy storage applications. EnerG2 operates its state-of-the art manufacturing plant in Albany, Oregon.

BASF is the leading chemical company. It produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries. BASF had sales of about EUR74 billion in 2013 and over 112,000 employees as of the end of the year.
MRC