PET consumption in Russia decreased by 22%

MOSCOW (MRC) - The market capacity of PET chips in Russia decreased to 83,900 tonnes in January-February 2015, down 22%, according MRC ScanPlast.

The reduction of the consumption from Russian converters was in line with the decrease of import purchases and increased demand for Russian PET. As it was previously reported, PET production in Russia in January-February 2015 was 79,300 tonnes, up 13% year on year.

The growth of the capacity utilisation at Senege and Alco-Naphtha in the season will help to further increase the share of Russian PET consumption.
Russia's PET imports decreased to 8,140 tonnes tonnes in January and February, down 5 times compared to the same period a year earlier.

Russia's imports of Lithuanian PET decreased in January and February 2015. January's imports Lithuanian PET produced by Neo Group were about 600 tonnes. February's imports of PET from Neo Group into Russia reduced to 122 tonnes.

The drop of the euro against the dollar will lead to a temporary increase in the buying interest for European PET. Imports of Lithuanian PET continued to be low so far.
Export shipments to foreign markets in January-February increased by 42% compared to the same period a year earlier, but generally remained low, compared with the total PET production in the country. Russia's exports of PET totalled 3,800 tonnes in the first two months of the year. The main exporter of PET to foreign markets remains Alco-Naphtha, based in Kaliningrad.


MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- SIBUR has announced an increase of USD120-130/tonne from March in its export prices of expandable polystyrene (EPS) for April shipments, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

Initially, buyers received higher offer prices. Importers in Ukraine received the price of USD1,580/tonne FCA Voronezh, excluding VAT, up by USD140-150/tonne from March. Later, the plant reduced its April prices from the initially announced level. Thus, export prices were set at USD1,550/tonne FCA Voronezh (USD1,520/tonne FCA Perm), excluding VAT.

Buyers of EPS of Alphapor grade (SIBUR-Khimprom) in the Russian domestic market said they also expect contract prices to increase in April. Some market players said the plant's prices might grow by Rb3,000/tonne FCA, including VAT.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The overall production of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) chips in Russia rose in January and February 2015 by 13% year on year and totalled 79,300 tonnes, according MRC ScanPlast report.

Polief and Alco-Naphtha increased their output in January and February. Polief's increased production over the stated period was caused by the launch of a new line in February 2014. In January 2014, Bashkir Polief produced 13,300 tonnes of PET chips, whereas the plant's output was almost 19,000 tonnes in January 2015.

In its turn, the increase production at Alco-Naphtha (in January-February 2015 compared to the same period of 2014) was caused by the outage of the plant in February 2014.
Traditionally, production decreases in February compared to January mainly because of fewer days in the month. This year was no exception. The February PET production in Russia totalled 37,500 tonnes, down by 10% from January. The average capacity utilisation of the industry was almost 74%. At the same time, Kaliningrad plant Alco-Naphtha and Solnechnogorskiy plant - Senezh - remained with underutilized capacities.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Celanese Corporation, a global technology and specialty materials company and a global leader in vinyl acetate ethylene (EVA) emulsions, has increased the price of vinyl acetate-based emulsions sold in Asia, said the producer on its site.

EVA emulsions will increase by Yuan 200/tonne for China and USD30/tonne for the rest of Asia effective March 20, 2015, or as contracts allow.

This price increase affects all applications including, but not limited to, adhesives, paints and coatings, waterproofing, building and construction, glass fiber, carpet and paper.

This increase is attributed to the continued pressures on raw materials, notably ethylene and vinyl acetate monomer (VAM).

As MRC reported earlier, in May 2014, Celanese Corporation announced its intent to construct a EVA emulsions production unit in Southeast Asia. The unit is expected to begin production by mid-2016.

Celanese Corporation is a global technology leader in the production of differentiated chemistry solutions and specialty materials used in most major industries and consumer applications. Based in Dallas, Texas, Celanese employs approximately 7,500 employees worldwide and had 2014 net sales of USD6.8 billion.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - The shortage of low density polyethylene (LDPE) is felt in the Russian market in the late March.
Spot market practically froze because of the tight supply polyethylene (PE), according to ICIS-MRC Price Report.

Back in February, the low demand from local converters made Russian producers significantly increase in the volume LDPE exports to balance the domestic market. The demand for LDPE has strengthened in tune with the seasonal factor in March. The demand has also increased because of the desire of some market participants to build up additional stock inventories for April. At the same time, Russian producers have kept exports at a high level.

All these factors have led to a shortage of LDPE in the spot market, the deals in the last week of the month were not actually done. Most Russian producers have completed all their March LDPE deals last week. This week the producers have been completing debts on their contractual obligations, and they will begin discussions for April contract prices from next Monday, with a high probability of serious price rise.

Many traders suspended their sales of LDPE in the spot market at the end of last week; there was only available 108 PE in the spot market. In most cases, this resulted from the lack of stock inventories of PE. This week the market froze almost completely on the back of the lack of any material offer.

The situation in the domestic LDPE market was aggravated by two factors: traditional restictions of truck movement in most regions in April (from 1, April restrictions were introduced in Bashkortostan, from 15, April in Tatarstan), which can lead to higher prices for logistics and scheduled maintenance works at Kazanorgsintez (the company plans the shutdown of its capacities for almost four weeks from 15, April). There was no alternative offer for LDPE in the local market. The Russian LDPE market is a pure net exporter (exports exceeds imports).

Partly the demand is met by supplies from Belarus, but exports quotas were seriously cut. There were only 700 tonnes of 158 LDPE offered for export trades on 24, March for the delivery eliveries in the first half of April, deals were done at the level of Rb70,300/tonne FCA Novopolotsk.
MRC