Haldia Petrochemical plans to restart HDPE/LLDPE swing plant in India

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL) is in plans to brought on-stream its high density polyethylene (HDPE)/linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) swing plant at the petrochemical complex located in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in India informed that the plant is likely to be restarted in a day or two following an unplanned outage. The company has encountered technical glitch at the LLDPE line of the swing plant in end-February 2017.

Located at Haldia in the eastern Indian state of west Bengal, the complex can produce 700,000 mt/year of ethylene and 350,000 mt/year of propylene and provides feedstock to a 330,000 mt/year high density PE plant, a 370,000 mt/year HDPE/linear low PE swing plant and a 350,000 mt/year polypropylene unit.

As MRC informed before, in October 2016, HPL reported a massive fire at the petrochemical complex located in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal.

Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd is a modern naphtha based petrochemical complex at Haldia, West Bengal, India. Haldia has played the role of a catalyst in emergence of more than 500 downstream processing industries in West Bengal with a capacity to process more than 3,50,000 TPA of polymers, among which are polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Bayer, the German chemicals and pharmaceuticals conglomerate, had what it described as a "very successful start" to 2017, solidly beating analysts expectations for its first quarter with growth across all sectors of its business, said The Financial Times.

It posted first quarter sales of EUR13.24bn, up 9.4 per cent compared to last year on a constant currency basis, and earnings before interest, tax and depreciation and special items of EUR3.89bn, up 14.9 per cent. Analysts had expected sales of EUR12.6bn and ebitda before special items of EUR3.5bn.

Net income increased by almost 40 per cent to EUR2.1bn. Performance was driven by "very good business development" at its pharmaceuticals unit, and "significant increases in sales and earnings" at Covestro, its former materials science division which now has a separate stock exchange listing. Bayer sold down its stake in Covestro last month from 64 per cent to 53 per cent.

Pharmaceuticals have been a consistent driver of results at the company in recent quarters, raising concerns as the unit is due to become a smaller part of the business once the group completes its acquisition of Monsanto, the seed and crop giant, later this year.

The group credited the performance at Covestro, which remains significantly smaller than its pharmaceuticals, consumer health and crop sciences divisions, as it raised its outlook for 2017.

Bayer said it now expects sales for the year of EUR51bn rather than EUR49bn and ebitda before special items to grow by a "low teens percentage" rather than a "mid-single digit percentage".

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Siam Cement Group (SCG), Thai industrial conglomerate, is setting its sights on developing a petrochemical complex in Indonesia, by conducting a feasibility study on project with potential partner PT Chandra Asri Petrochemical Tbk (CAP), reported Plastemart.

The feasibility study for the petrochemical complex is expected to be completed in 2018.

As per Bangkokpost.com, the two companies have been traditional partners for years, as SCG has owned a 30.6% stake in CAP since 2011. That, in turn, has encouraged the two firms to join together in developing a petrochemical complex in Indonesia.

"CAP wants to expand its second petrochemical plant as well as develop a new petrochemical complex in Indonesia, so it has invited us to join the project, since we have been a good partner for many years," President and chief executive Mr Roongrote said.

As MRC informed earlier, SCG Chemicals' subsidiary plans to invest in a new grade of high value added (HVA) polyethylene (PE), with commercial production beginning by the end of the year.

SCG Chemicals is a subsidiary of SCG and is one of SCG’s 3 core businesses consisting of Chemicals, Paper and Cement-Building Materials. SCG embarked upon the chemicals business in 1989. At present, SCG Chemicals manufactures and supplies a full range of petrochemical products ranging from upstream petrochemicals such as Olefins, intermediate petrochemicals such as Styrene Monomer, PTA, and MMA, to downstream petrochemicals such as Polyethylene, Polypropylene, Polyvinyl Chloride, and Polystyrene resins. SCG Chemicals is now one of the largest integrated petrochemical companies in Thailand and a key industry leader in the Asia-Pacific region.
MRC

According to the National Bureau of Statistics of Belarus, February 2017 PE imports to Belarus increased to 11,500 tonnes from 8,500 tonnes a month earlier. Local companies raised their import purchasing of LLDPE in the Middle East and of LDPE in Russia. Overall PE imports reached 20,000 tonnes in January-February 2017, compared to 13,400 tonnes a year earlier. Imports of all PE grades rose, with LLDPE and LDPE accounting for the greatest increase.

The structure of PE imports to Belarus by grades looked the following way over the stated period.

February total LDPE imports grew to 3,200 tonnes from 1,900 tonnes a month earlier. Local companies increased their PE purchasing in Russia and Azerbaijan. Overall imports of this PE grade into Belarus totalled 5,100 tonnes in the first two months of 2017, compared to 2,600 tonnes a year earlier. An accident at the local producer's ethylene unit and, as a result, a major fall in capacity utilisation at LDPE production in the second half of the year was the main reason for such a great increase in imports.

February LLDPE imports were 4,900 tonnes versus 3,700 tonnes a month earlier. Thus, overall LLDPE imports to Belarus exceeded 8,600 tonnes in January-February 2017, whereas this figure was 5,500 tonnes a year earlier. Market participants said the bulk of LLDPE was redirected further to Russia.

February imports of high density polyethylene (HDPE) grew to 3,500 tonnes from 2,900 tonnes a month earlier. Local companies decreased their purchasing of film grade PE in Uzbekistan and of pipe grade PE in Europe. Thus, HDPE imports totalled 6,400 tonnes in the first two months of 2017, up by 20% year on year.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Negotiations on Russian contract polyvinyl chloride (PVC) prices for May delivery began traditionally in the last week of April. Producers announced intentions to roll over April prices for the delivery next month, as per ICIS-MRC Price Report.

Negotiations on May contract prices of Russian suspension PVC (SPVC) began on Monday, and some converters said they had already managed to agree deals. Producers have taken a firm attitude concerning PVC prices since the beginning of the year and continuously increased them. However, situation in foreign PVC market have changed by the late April, forcing Russian producers to rollover prices. Since the beginning of the year, the Russian rouble has strengthened against the dollar by more than 6%.

The key PVC importers into Russia Chinese producers significantly decreased export prices in April. These two factors resulted in a notable increase of the purchases of Chinese acetylene resin from Russian companies. Some companies also are going to buy quite a large volume of PVC in May. Some converters said Chinese resin became really affordable over the last several weeks.

However, even taking into account attractive prices there are some risky factors, which reduce purchases. In particular, the best way to supply in the central part of Russia in containers is by rail way. But due to the need to purchase rather large volumes of PVC and the time of delivery (at least three weeks from the moment of deal conclusion to delivery) most converters prefer to buy Russian PVC.

Russian producers of suspension PVC do not worry about increase in imports, anticipating seasonally strong demand and future turnarounds of two major producers. Bashkir Soda Company and SayanskKhimPlast are going to shut their capacities for turnaround in July. Producers intend to build up stock inventories in order to satisfy their customers' needs during the season of strong demand for resin.

Supply of K64/67 PVC in the market is more than sufficient. Deals for May delivery are discussed in the range of Rb66,000-68,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT for deals up to 500 tonnes.

A slight tightness of K58/70 PVC supply was felt in the market. There were practically no imports of these PVC grades, while Russian producers have some limitations in the shipments. Deals for May shipments of K58/70 PVC were negotiated in the range of Rb68,500 - 71,000 /tonne, including VAT and delivery.
MRC