Price rise of Russian SPVC continued in March

MOSCOW (MRC) - Russian producers of suspension polyvinyl chloride (SPVC) plan to increase contract prices for March delivery by Rb4,000-5,000/tonne, compared with the level in February, according to ICIS-MRC Price Report.

Negotiations on Russian PVC for March delivery have begun this week. Expectedly producers aimed to increase contract prices by Rb4,000-5,000/tonne on the back of the shortage of imported material.

Contracts for Russian SPVC for March delivery were discussed in the range of Rb58,000-60,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT. While the February deals in most cases were done in the range of Rb54,000-55,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT.

Converters reported that they had to accept further price increase because of the imports shortage. Russian rouble strengthened against the dollar in February, which led to a slightly decrease in prices of imported PVC. In particular, with the new exchange rate of the dollar the price for Chinese acetylene PVC with delivery to the central part in Russia was about Rb66,000/tonne, including VAT, which was still much higher than even the March price level for Russian PVC.

Demand for SPVC improved in March on the back of building up stock inventories of "inexpensive PVC." This trend began back in January and February, when the volume of purchases several times exceeded the volumes of processing.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- RT Global Resources, a unit of a state-owned Russian company whose head is subject to European Union sanctions, won a contract to build an oil refinery in Uganda, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

RT Global beat a group led by South Korea’s SK Engineering and Construction Co. after both made final offers in January, Uganda’s Kampala-based Energy Ministry said on Tuesday in an e- mailed statement. The project could cost USD4 billion, the ministry said in November.

The government will start negotiations next month with RT Global on a project that includes a 205-kilometer (127-mile) oil-product pipeline. The winning bidder will hold a 60% stake in the 60,000-bpd refinery, while Uganda has the option of selling part of its 40% interest to the neighboring states of Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi.

"The objective of these negotiations is to conclude the project agreements to the satisfaction of government and the lead investor," Fred Kaliisa-Kabagambe, the energy ministry’s permanent secretary, said in the statement. A joint-venture between the government and the RT Global-led group will organize project finance and engineering, the ministry said.

Other companies in the group include Telconet Capital, VTB Capital, Tatneft JSC and GS Engineering & Construction Corp., the government said. Sergei Chemezov, CEO of Rostec Corp., which controls RT Global, was added to a list in September of those people affected by EU sanctions against Russia.

Tullow Oil, China’s Cnooc, and Total are jointly developing an estimated 6.5 billion bbl of resources near Uganda’s border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. Output from the fields may start by 2018, according to the government.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Denki Kagaku Kabushiki Kaisha (Denka) is in plans to shut its styrene monomer (SM) plant for maintenance turnaround, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Japan informed that the plant is likely to be shut in Q1, 2016. The duration of the shutdown could not be ascertained.

Located at Chiba in Japan, the plant has a production capacity of 270,000 mt/year.

As MRC reported earlier, in 2013, Denka, in order to accelerate business development to meet market demand, reorganized six business divisions into four units and renamed some of its departments.

Thus, the former Electronic Materials, Styrene, Chemicals, Cement and Special Cement Additives, Living and Environmental Products and Medical Sciences Divisions were transformed into the Elastomers & Performance Plastics, Infrastructure & Inorganic Materials, Electronics & Innovative Products and Life Sciences & Environment Products business units.

In addition, the Elastomers & Acetylene Black Dept. was renamed the Organic Chemicals Dept., the Agri-Products Dept. is now the Fertilizer Dept., and the Adhesives & Solutions Dept. is the Tapes & Adhesives Dept.
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МОSCOW (MRC) -- Thailand’s PTT Group recorded a net loss of THB 26.6 bn (USD816.6 mln) in Q4 2014 and took an impairment charge of THB 36.7 bn on assets owned by its subsidiary PTT Exploration and Production (PTTEP), said Interfaxenergy.

The results marked a downturn for PTT, after posting net profits in Q3 2014 and Q4 2013.

The NOC’s gas sales revenue edged up by 0.5% from Q3 to THB 141.2 billion in Q4, because of an increase from its PTT LNG unit, which runs the Map Ta Phut terminal.

PTTEP’s impairment came from its Australasian unit, which dropped plans for the Cash Maple FLNG plant offshore Australia, and from the effect of the oil price on the Marina Oil Sands project in Canada (formerly known as the KKD project).

As MRC reported earlier, last year, Indonesian state-owned energy company Pertamina signed an agreement to purchase petrochemical products from Thailand’s PTT Global Chemical. The agreement serves as a pre-marketing strategy for Pertamina and PTT’s joint Indonesian petrochemical business. Under the agreement, PTT will deliver at least 5,000 tonnes of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) products each month to Pertamina for sale in Indonesia.

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.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Wacker aims to strengthen its commitment to sustainable business practices in the supply chain, reported the company on is site.

To this end, the company now joined the "Together for Sustainability" (TfS) initiative. Established in 2011, the project is targeted on implementing a standardized global program for responsible procurement of goods and services in the chemical industry and improving the ecological and social standards of suppliers. After AkzoNobel, Arkema, BASF, Bayer, Clariant, DSM, Evonik Industries, Henkel, Lanxess, Merck and Solvay, Wacker is the twelfth company to become a TfS member.

The initiative is based on established principles such as those sub-scribed to by United Nations Global Compact and Responsible Care, the chemical industry’s sustainability initiative. Together, the TfS members organize supplier evaluations using questionnaire analyses and audits. Thus, the suppliers’ sustainability performance is assessed by independent auditing bodies based on criteria tailored for the chemical industry. Aspects that are evaluated range from the environment, health and safety, labor and human rights to ethical company management. The audits include on-site checks, for example of production sites and office buildings.

The sustainability information obtained from the supplier assessments is made available to all TfS members via a web-based platform. This avoids individual, company-specific check programs and reduces bureaucracy for suppliers and customers.

"By joining 'Together for Sustainability,' Wacker will be able to improve the sustainability of the entire supply chain," says Dr. Erk Thorsten Heyen, head of Raw Materials Procurement. "This also greatly simplifies matters for the suppliers, because they no longer have to provide proof of sustainable practice separately for each individual customer."

As MRC wrote previously, in 2013, Wacker Chemie AG officially launched its new production plant for ethylene-vinyl-acetate copolymer (EVA) dispersions at its Ulsan site in South Korea. The additional 40,000 tonnes from the second reactor line increases the site's EVA-dispersion capacity to a total of 90,000 tonnes per year. The production capacity of the site has, thus, almost doubled, making the plant complex one of the biggest of its kind in South Korea.

Wacker Chemie AG is a worldwide operating company in the chemical business, founded 1914. The company is controlled by the Wacker-family holding more than 50 percent of the shares. The corporation is operating more than 25 production sites in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. The product range includes silicone rubbers, polymer products like ethylene vinyl acetate redispersible polymer powder, chemical materials, polysilicon and wafers for semiconductor industry.
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