MOSCOW (MRC) -- Overall exports of polypropylene (PP) from Russia totalled 187,600 tonnes in the first seven months of 2016, down by 19% year on year. Lower exports was primarily caused by stronger demand in the domestic market, according to MRC's ScanPlast report.
Russian producers reduced export PP sales in July to 18,500 tonnes, whereas a month earlier, this figure was 26,600 tonnes. The reduction in exports was due to scheduled shutdowns for maintenance at Tobolsk-Polymer and Tomskneftekhim. Overall, Russian producers shipped 187,600 tonnes to foreign markets in January-July 2016, compared to 232,500 tonnes a year earlier. Several factors contributed to the cut in exports: foremost, it was the growth in consumption, import substitution and the need to build up inventories during the strong summer demand and outages for maintenance at the plants.
Tobolsk-Polymer and Poliom with the share of 52% and 12% of the total exports, respectively, are the key exporters of propylene polymers. NPP "Neftekhimia" and Nizhnekamskneftekhim also accounted for quite large quantities.
The geography of Russian PP exports is quite extensive, but Belarus, China and Turkey with 38,600 tonnes, 30,300 tonnes and 21,400 tonnes of export shipments over the stated period, respectively, being the three leading countries in the procurement of Russian polymer.
If we consider the exports structure by grades, then propylene homopolymers (homopolymer PP) accounted for about 89% of the total supplies. Block copolymers of propylene (block copolymer PP) accounted for slightly over 7% and statistical propylene copolymers (PP-random) - for only 4%.
MRC