SayanskKhimPlast shut PVC production

MOSCOW (Market Report) -- SayanskKhimplast (Irkutsk region), Russia's second largest polyvinyl chrolide (PVC) producer, shut down its PVC production capacities for a scheduled turnaround, according to the ICIS-MRC Price report.

The plant's representative said SayanskKhimPlast took off-stream its PVC production for maintenance works on Sunday, 15 July, as per the schedule. The outage will be quite long and will last for about 30 days. The plant's annual production capacity is 300,000 tonnes.

As reported earlier, this is the second and last shutdown for maintenance at Russian PVC plants this year. RusVinyl with the annual capacity of 330,000 tonnes/year shut down its production capacities in late April - early May. Bashkir Soda Company and Kaustik Volgograd do not intend to take off-stream their production capacities for turnarounds this year.

JSC "Sayanskkhimplast" (Irkutsk region), established in 1998, is a complex of large-capacity chlororganic production facilities connected in a single production cycle. SayanskKhimPlast produces PVC, caustic soda and bleach. After commissioning of RusVinyl's PVC production (Nizhny Novgorod region), SayanskKhimPlast became Russia's second largest PVC producer.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Imports of polyethylene (PE) into Ukraine increased to 120,500 tonnes in the first six months of 2018, up 2% compared to the same period of 2017. At the same time, a decrease in imports was seen in the segment of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA), according to the DataScope.

Last month's PE imports decreased to 20,100 tonnes from 23,900 tons in May, local companies decreased their purchasing of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE). Total PE production in Ukraine reached 120,500 tonnes in January-June 2018 against 122,700 tonnes year on year. Imports of HDPE and EVA decreased, whule demand for other ethylene polymers increased.

The supply structure by PE grades looked the following way over the stated period.

Ukraine’s HDPE imports decreased in June; decrease in supplies accounted for polyethylene for the production of caps for plastic bottles and film HDPE. June HDPE imports into the country were about 6,100 tonnes in January-June, compared with 7,200 tonnes in May. Overall HDPE imports reached 37,200 tonnes in the first six months of 2018, compared to 52,800 tonnes a year earlier.

Film grade HDPE accounted for the greatest reduction in imports (-60%), which was caused by the resumption of the local production. June imports of low density polyethylene (LDPE) grew to 7,900 tonnes from 7,100 tonnes a month earlier, local companies increased their purchases of LDPE in Russia. Overall LDPE imports reached 39,400 tonnes over the stated period, up by 27% year on year.

June imports of LLDPE into the country decreased to 4,900 tonnes, compared with 8,200 tonnes in May. on a stronger purchases from local producers of stretch films. In general, January - June LLDPE imports into Ukraine increased to 36,900 tonnes compared with 31,100 tonnes year on year. The main increase in demand occurred for the local producers of the film production.

Imports of other grades of polyethylene, including EVA for the period under review reached about 7,000 tonnes against 7,600 tonnes a year earlier.


MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China's refinery runs rose in June as state-controlled oil majors boosted output of fuel products, offsetting cuts by teapots which carried out annual repairs and curbed operations due to high crude prices, data showed, reported Reuters.

Refinery throughput in June rose 8 percent from a year ago to 49.78 million tonnes, or 12.11 million barrels per day, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Runs rose 1.5 percent from May on a daily basis.

The higher refinery run rate was led by state-owned oil refiners while private refiners reduced their processing as higher oil prices, and the more stringent enforcement of consumption taxes, cut their margins, analysts said.

"Teapots cut runs in June due to the less favourable market conditions," said Zhou Guoxia, crude analyst with JLC.

China's independent refiners, also known as teapots, last month were losing an average of 300 yuan (USD44.89) for each tonne of crude oil processed, data provided Zibo Longzong Information Group showed.

For the first half of the year, refinery runs were 299.6 million tonnes, up 8.9 percent from a year ago.

Natural gas production in June rose 5.6 percent from a year ago to 12.2 billion cubic meters (bcm). That was down 3.3 percent from May and the lowest since September.

Output for the first half of the year was 77.5 bcm, up 4.6 percent.

June crude oil production fell 2.3 percent from a year ago to 15.85 million tonnes. That was down from 15.97 million tonnes in May. Year-to-date output was 94.09 million tonnes, down 2 percent from a year earlier.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Fire at Alpek's Altamira Mexico polyethylene terephthalate (PTA) plant to impact Americas and Europe PET resin production, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Following a major fire at Alpek's Altamira Mexico PTA plant, which broke out on Sunday 15th July, PCI Wood Mackenzie Head of PET, Phil Marshall, said: "The fire occurred in one of Alpek's two PTA plants at the site, with each plant having a typical nameplate capacity of 500 kt of PTA.

"Although the extent of the damage is unknown at this time, videos and pictures from the site indicate significant damage which may keep at least one plant offline for an extended period of time. This outage is likely to negatively impact PET resin production in the Americas region as well as in Europe.

"Alpek's PTA plants at Altamira supply PTA to the adjacent M&G Mexico PET resin plant (now being operated by Alpek/DAK Americas), its sister company DAK Americans' PET resin plants at Pearl River Mississippi USA as well as exports to various South American and European polyester producers in Spain, Italy, Lithuania etc.

"This event comes at a particularly critical time for the Americas and European PET resin markets as both regions have been experiencing critically tight PET resin supply due to both PET resin and PTA plant outages."

"Whilst the fire is serious and will impact PTA production, the impact may not be as serious as first thought given that Alpek operates three PTA plants in Mexico and one in Brazil. It is still early to assess the duration of the asset outage but assuming it remains offline for the rest of the year, Mexican H2 2018 PTA production is forecast at 568kt v 673kt in H2 2017 as the other plants will see some increases in operating rate. Overall Mexican H2 2017 PTA operating rates averaged 80.6%, while we forecast H2 2018 to average 67.8%.

"The US is the biggest importer of Mexican PTA at 71kt in the first 4 months of 2018. We forecast H2 2018 Mexico PTA exports to be down by typically 110Kt when compared to H2 2017. Whether the majority of available exports will still be directed at the US remains to be seen. Once new steady state operating conditions are established, we forecast overall PET production in Mexico at similar levels to 2017, which saw disruption due to the M&G outage, but 115kt down on 2016 production."

As MRC informed before, in May 2017, Alpek has completed adding 5,000 mt of propylene storage to its Altamira port terminal.

Alpek is the petrochemicals unit of Mexican conglomerate Alfa.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- South East Asia’s bulk liquid storage market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 8.22% until 2024 as the region continues to be a key market despite previously turbulent market conditions in the oil and gas industry globally, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Singapore in particular has seen record bunker fuel sales of 50.6 million tons in the last year and remains Asia’s top petrochemical hub. Singapore will host industry leaders at Tank Storage Asia, as the exhibition and conference returns to the Marina Bay Sands on the 26th & 27th September, following last year’s successful event.

Tank Storage Asia is the only dedicated exhibition and conference in the region for the bulk liquid storage industry. It brings together the entire supply chain, from terminal suppliers and manufacturers through to tank storage operators, terminal owners, traders and analysts.
The event is supported and attended by major terminals across the region, including Stolthaven Terminals, Vopak, Oiltanking, VTTI and Horizon Terminals. Also supporting the event is the Singapore Manufacturing Federation, the Independent Power Producers’ Forum, RVB Tank Storage Solutions and the Corrosion Association Singapore.

Mark Lim, Assistant Commercial Manager at Stolthaven Singapore, comments: "The show is an excellent platform for networking, getting to know new suppliers and learning about updates within the industry. We’re very much looking forward to attending this year and supporting the event once again."

Attendees will have the opportunity to visit the exhibition where more than 80 local and international suppliers will showcase the latest equipment and state-of-the-art technologies. Exhibitors will include CTS Far East, Endress + Hauser, Kanon Loading Equipment, Krohne, OPW Engineered Systems, Concrete Canvas, BIOex, Larco, Protego, Emerson Automation Solutions and Emco Wheaton to name just a few. These span the entire supply chain, from tank design, construction and maintenance, through to innovations in metering and measuring, pumps and valves, automation and loading equipment, and inspection and certification services.

The exhibition will also include a dedicated Singapore Pavilion and Technology Start-Up Zone where local companies will be exhibiting, with financial backing from the Singapore Manufacturing Federation and iMAP funding initiative.

MRC