TiO2 imports into Russia dropped by 17% in 2015

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Imports of titanium dioxide (TiO2) into Russia dropped by 17% in 2015. Total consumption of titanium dioxide in Russia reached 64,500 tonnes last year, as per MRC DataScope.

The fall in the external supply occurred for the producers from non-CIS countries. At the same time purchases of TiO2 produced by Crimean Titan and SumyKhimprom, on the contrary, increased last year. Imports of SumyKhimprom's TiO2 rose by 14% to 11,500 tonnes in 2015. Shipments of Crimean TiO2 to Russia grew by 11%, exceeding 15,000 tonnes.

DuPont accounted for the greatest fall in absolute values. The supplier's shipments decreased by 6,300 tonnes and totalled 10,000 tonnes in 2015.

Imports of Kronos' TiO2 dropped by 3.5% to 7,900 tonnes.

Finnish producer - Sachtleben Chemie - showed an increase in deliveries among import suppliers. The company shipped 6,500 tonnes of TiO2 into Russia, up by 14% year on year.

Market players attributed the fall of imports to the rouble devaluation. SumyKhimprom and Crimean Titan's TiO2 is much cheaper for local companies, and their prices are not firmly bound to the exchange rate, which helped to switch to these suppliers.

Last year's stronger demand for Finnish grades was caused by the fall of the euro against the dollar, which also led to lower prices compared to other TiO2 suppliers.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Taiwan’s Oriental Petrochemical (OPTC) has shut its No. 1 purified terephthalic acid (PTA) unit for maintenance, industry sources told TPS.

According to the sources, the unit will be shut for a month.

OPTC currently has two PTA units operating in Taoyuan. Its No. 1 PTA unit, which started up in 1992, has a nameplate capacity of 400,000 mt/year. Its No. 2 PTA unit, which came on-stream in 1997, is able to produce 500,000 mt/year.

A No. 3 PTA unit was originally expected to start in Taoyuan Q4 2014, but was held back to 2015 amid poor market conditions. Once the new 1.52 million mt/year No. 3 unit begins production, OPTC will become the biggest PTA producer in Taiwan with a combined production capacity of 2.42 million mt/year.

We remind that, as MRC wrote before, China's Hanbang Petrochemicals commenced trial runs for its second purified terephthalic acid (PTA) unit on January 22, 2016. The startup of Hanbang's new 2.2 million/year PTA line will increase its total nominal PTA production capacity to 2.8 million mt/year.

Oriental Petrochemical is a subsidiary of Far Eastern Group, which has polyester, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and textile businesses.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Canada's Alberta government, Monday, unveiled a program to boost province’s petrochemical sector under its Petrochemicals Diversification Program, the provincial government announced in a statement, reported TPS.

The Petrochemicals Diversification Program will encourage companies to invest in the development of new Alberta petrochemical facilities by providing up to CAD$500 million (USD356 million) in incentives through royalty credits, said Alberta Energy, the government agency that manages the development of province's non-renewable resources including coal, minerals, natural gas, petrochemicals, conventional oil and oil sands and renewable energy.

The program, announced on is part of the government’s continued action on the economy, helping to create jobs, attract investment and diversify Alberta’s economy, the agency said.

Building on Alberta's large supply of methane and propane, the program will capitalize on the growing global demand for related higher value products and promote greater energy processing right here in Alberta.

We remind that, as MRC informed earlier, in October 2015, Williams announced that it was proceeding to the next phase of development with its planned propane dehydrogenation (PDH) facility located near Edmonton, Alberta. The plant will have a capacity of 525 KTA of polymer grade propylene production and will use low-cost, locally sourced propane as its feedstock.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- ExxonMobil has restarted its aromatics unit in Singapore last week, a customer of the company told TPS.

This unit was shut due to unexpected technical issues on Jan 18. The unit was anticipated to be down for up to one month, but has restarted earlier than foreseen. It was unclear on which date specifically the plant was restarted.

ExxonMobil's aromatics shutdown did not have any impact its paraxylene (PX) supply, according to the source.

"The company faced some tightness in January, but volume was not cut. We are already discussing February supply, and there are no disruptions," the source said.

"They are probably not operating at full capacity, but maybe around 80-90%," the source added.

Exxonmobil did not disclose specific details about why the plant was taken off-stream. Its Singapore refinery spans two operating sites: Jurong on the mainland and Pulau Ayer Chawan (PAC) on Jurong Island, with pipelines connecting both. This integrated refinery has a combined nameplate capacity of about 592,000 b/day, producing fuels, lubricant basestock and chemical feedstock for its customers and sister plants.

As MRC wrote previously, ExxonMobil is studying a proposal to expand its 334,600-bpd refinery in Beaumont, Texas. ExxonMobil has pulled together a group of experts at the plant to do more detailed studies on potentially adding a third crude distillation unit (CDU). The new CDU could make the Beaumont refinery the largest in the US, with capacity rising to as much as 850,000 bpd.

ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world's oil and about 2% of the world's energy.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sumitomo Chemical reports a 79% increase in net profits for its fiscal first nine months ended 31 December 2015 compared with the year-ago period, to ?84.56 billion (USD705 million), said the company on its site.

Nine-month sales decreased 8.4%, however, to ?1.57 trillion. Nine-month sales at Sumitomo's petrochemicals and plastics segment decreased 26.9%, to ?518.4 billion. The segment however reports more than a threefold rise in operating profits, to ?25.77 billion, due to higher margins and temporary licensing revenues, Sumitomo says.

Market prices of petrochemical products and synthetic resins declined because of lower feedstock prices. Shipments of petrochemical products and synthetic resins decreased due to the restructuring of the petrochemical business at the Chiba Works as well as a change in the commercial distribution channel for petrochemical products from Petro Rabigh and periodic plant maintenance there. The weaker yen had a positive effect on sales from overseas subsidiaries in yen terms.

As MRC reported earlier, in May 2015, Sumitomo Chemical Co. announced its plans to mothball the ageing 415,000 tpa naphtha cracker at its Chiba plant from May 11. Though Sumitomo Chemical's cracker is shut for good, the company resumed operations of downstream petrochemical units at the Chiba plant from the beginning of July, using petrochemical feedstock from Keiyo Ethylene's 768,000 tpy cracker located nearby.

Sumitomo Chemical is a Japanese based manufacturer of a diverse range of products, including basic chemicals, petrochemicals and plastics, fine chemicals, agricultural chemicals, IT-related chemicals and pharmaceuticals.

MRC