PC production in Russia decreased by 6% in January - October 2014

MOSCOW (MRC) - Russia's output of polycarbonate (PC) reduced to 52,200 tonnes in January-October 2014, down 6% year on year, according to MRC ScanPlast.

The only PC producer in the CIS, Kazanorgsintez (KOS), changed the production structure in line with the needs of the domestic market. So, for ten months of the year its share of PC granules for sheet extrusion in the total output has increased from 76% to 83% compared to last year.

At the same time the producer decreased the output of injection moulding grades. If last year the production of them occurred for 24% from the total output, then in the first ten months of this year it dropped to 17%, reaching 6,800 tonnes.
These changes in the production structure resulted from the suspension of the producer's exports and switching to the domestic market. Russian market of PC granules occurred for 86% of sheet extrusion and 10-11% for injection moulding. For this reason, production of injection moulding grades were reduced to the needed volumes, which are within 200-300 tonnes per month.

Russia's monthly consumption is 800-900 tonnes of injection moulding PC and 6,000-6,500 tonnes of extrusion PC. While injection moulding sector has been shrinking, and the extrusion sector consistently showed an uptrend.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mexico's state run Pemex has approved a post-reform corporate revamp- finalizing a corporate restructuring including the creation of new business units that will focus on fertilizers and ethylene, as per Reuters.

The company's board of directors voted to maintain its money-making exploration and production division while it consolidates poorer performers focused on natural gas, refining and petrochemicals into a single entity that will be known as Industrial Transformation.

The Mexican oil giant will also establish five businesses below the two overarching divisions that will launch next year and focus on drilling services, transport services including pipelines, electric cogeneration, fertilizers and ethylene.

As MRC wrote before, in October 2014, Pemex and Exxon Mobil Corp signed a non-commercial agreement to jointly explore potential upstream and downstream business opportunities. The agreement comes against the backdrop of the landmark constitutional reform, signed into law under Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto last year, that ended Pemex's 75-year-old oil and gas monopoly.

Pemex, Mexican Petroleum, is a Mexican state-owned petroleum company. Pemex has a total asset worth of USD415.75 billion, and is the world's second largest non-publicly listed company by total market value, and Latin America's second largest enterprise by annual revenue as of 2009. Company produces such polymers, as polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Building upon a long-term partnership, Teva, a leading global pharmaceutical company, worked closely with Styrolution, the global leader in styrenics, to identify new styrenic material solutions for its dry powder inhaler, Spiromax, reported Sytrolution in its site.

Teva selects Styrolution for its dry powder inhaler - Spiromax: to differentiate itself from other market players, Teva developed an inhaler design for the Spiromax that is both uniquely simple and intuitive. A significant contributing factor towards Teva's success was sourcing the right materials to create the new inhaler. Also important for Teva was to collaborate with a material provider who understands the requirements of the healthcare industry's often complex regulatory environment and offers long-term recipes for its products. For these reasons, Teva turned to Styrolution for its medical-grade styrenic specialties, Novodur HD and Terlux HD, as well as its HD Service Packages.

Meeting Teva's high performance standards: Teva selected Novodur HD for the inhaler's shaft because it offered a unique combination of high surface quality, dimensional stability, heat resistance and robustness. The inhaler's unique shade of white results from Styrolution's customized color development on behalf of Teva. For the mouth piece, the company selected Styrolution's transparent Terlux HD. The material's inherent impact strength and chemical resistance contribute to the Spiromax's accurate and consistent dosing, leading ultimately to a better patient experience. Furthermore, Terlux lends itself well to self-coloring making it possible for customers like Teva to offer consumers an array of color options suited to their individual tastes.

Novodur and Terlux HD - safe and reliable styrenics for medical applications: Novodur HD grades are specialty acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) polymers which provide good stiffness, impact resistance, chemical resistance and dimensional stability. These well-balanced properties, in combination with excellent surface appearance, often make Novodur HD grades the materials of choice for medical device housings. Furthermore, the high-gloss surface and feel lends products an additional perception of intrinsic value. Styrolution's Novodur HD grades boast a long performance record in the medical device market.Terlux HD belongs to Styrolution's family of methyl methacrylate acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (MABS) polymers, which offer excellent transparency, customizable toughness and good chemical resistance. Terlux can also be solvent bonded very easily to other common materials found in medical applications.

As MRC informed previously, last October, Styrolution and Braskem, the largest producer of thermoplastic resins in America and a global leader in biopolymers, announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to investigate the formation of a joint venture in Brazil. The proposed 100,000 tonne plant would supply specialty styrenics, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and styrene acrylonitrile (SAN) copolymers, to customers in Brazil and throughout South America.

Teva is a leading global pharmaceutical company, committed to increasing access to high-quality healthcare through affordable generic drugs, specialty pharmaceuticals and active ingredients.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Japan has urged domestic petrochemical makers to voluntarily close or cut additional ethylene-making capacity to deal with falling local demand for plastics and synthetic fibres, and an influx of cheaper foreign supplies, as per Plastemart.

The push by the government amid existing plans to shut down ethylene plant, will lead to a further reduction in demand for naphtha.

Mitsubishi Chemical has shut one of its ethylene plants in eastern Japan earlier this year, and Sumitomo Chemical and Asahi Kasei are to shut two more of the 14 remaining in 2015 and 2016. Even with the three shutdowns, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) expects excess ethylene output capacity of 1.7 mln tpa by 2020.

METI has twice ordered capacity cuts in Japan's refinery industry, which is beset with similarly bleak conditions. But the ministry doesn't intend to push for mandatory cuts at petrochemicals plants. Japan's ageing crackers, which split naphtha into ethylene and other plastics feedstocks, have also been struggling to compete with newer rivals in South Korea and Singapore with larger and more efficient plants.

New capacity is also expected to come up in the United States and China, threatening to overwhelm petrochemical margins in Asia. In the United States, 11 mln tons of new ethane crackers are planned by 2020 to take advantage of cheap, abundant supplies derived from shale gas.

As MRC reported before, in early November 2014, Japan's Idemitsu Kosan Co began restarting the 687,000-tonne-per-year naphtha cracker at its Tokuyama plant in western Japan, following an unplanned shutdown a week earlier. The shutdown came during a start-up after scheduled maintenance. We remind that Idemitsu Kosan had restarted the plant on 24 October after completing a scheduled maintenance of about 45 days.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Low density polyethylene (LDPE) is one of the most commonly produced plastics and mainly used for packaging. According to a new study published by Ceresana, LDPE worth almost USD33 bln was sold worldwide in 2013. Ceresana expects global sales to rise by 1.5% p.a. until 2021, reported Plastemart.

Asia-Pacific single-handedly processed about 7.1 mln tons of LDPE in 2013. About 58% of this amount were consumed in China. Asian countries, China and India in particular, and the Middle East will remain the largest growth markets for LDPE. Due to strong competition by other types of polyethylene, future growth rates for LDPE demand are likely to fall short of overall economic development.

The LDPE markets in Western Europe and North America are largely saturated already and will grow only slightly. Several world regions are rapidly increasing their production capacities for LDPE. LDPE output in the Middle East is projected to rise at a high growth rate of 5% per year. New large-scale petrochemical complexes will commence production in upcoming years. These are often joint ventures of large international companies and regional enterprises. Various larger productions sites are to be constructed in North America and Asia-Pacific as well. Western Europe, on the other hand, will see the closure of LDPE plants.

LDPE is most commonly used for the production of films. About 63% of total demand stem from film production, especially packaging films as well as bags and sacks. Other important applications are rigid packaging and construction products, which can profit from new investments in infrastructure around the globe.

In Asia, on the other hand, it is especially films, LDPE packaging films in particular, that offer the largest growth potential, since Asian countries are increasingly adapting to Western standards for packaged food. In a global comparison, film extrusion is the most common technology for processing LDPE. Other technologies, namely extrusion coating, injection molding, and other processes like blow molding and rotomolding, account for a market share of only 37%.

The various world regions show only minor differences in regard to processing technologies. For example, extrusion coating is disproportionally often used in North America, while Eastern European countries use large amounts of LDPE not only in film extrusion, but also injection molding.

As MRC informed previously, Russian LDPE producers increased their exports by 23% over the first six months of 2014. As expected, the first months of the year accounted for the peak export sales, according to MRC ScanPlast.
Overall, Russian producers increased their LDPE sales in foreign markets (including the countries of the Customs Union) to 102,800 tonnes in the first half of 2014 versus 83,700 tonnes a year earlier.
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