LDPE prices continue to rise in Russia on shutdowns of several plants

MOSCOW (MRC) - The limited supply of low density polyethylene (LDPE) in the Russian market continues to put pressure on prices despite low demand. Prices continued their upward trend in early October, according to ICIS-MRC Price Report.

The lack of supply of LDPE in the Russian market, as well as the rise in prices, started in July on the back of scheduled shutdowns of three producers at once: Ufaorgsintez shut its capacities for scheduled turnaround in September; Kazanorgsintez also reduced LDPE production in September-October due to a lack of ethylene.

Demand for LDPE is weak on a seasonal factor, but the shutdowns of some producers continue to push prices up.
Ufaorgsintez resumed LDPE (108) output on 1 October after 30 days of outage but this factor has not affected the market. The other part of Ufaorgsintez’s capacity (158th and 153rd) will began operating from 15 October, after almost a month of inactivity. And, possibly with the launch of the second train, the market situation will stabilise.

In the meantime, market participants reported Kazanorgsintez has continued significant restrictions on the supply of LDPE to the domestic market even in the face of a serious decline in exports since September. According to the company's customers, Angarsk Polymer Plant will cut capacity utilisation at LDPE production in October, the amount of production cuts are not announced.

There have been rumours in the market since the end of August,about the near full halt of LDPE production at the Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat facilities due to economic inefficiency. But for the time being, the company has confirmed full capacity utilisation in October.

Consumer activity in the market is low in the first days of October, some converters were in no hurry to replenish stocks. At the same time, LDPE supply is still limited, and prices continue to rise.

Deals for LDPE 108 were concluded in the range of Rb95,000-96,000/tonne, FCA Ufa, including VAT. The first deals for the October shipments of the Angarsk LDPE started from the level of Rb90,000/tonne FCA Angarsk , including VAT; some companies reported that they had to do deals at Rb93,000/tonne FCA Angarsk, including VAT.

The similar grade of LDPE from Kazanorgsintez has been absent in the market since September. Price offers for the supply of 158 LDPE started from Rb97,000/tonne FCA, including VAT and to a greater extent it can be shipped in the next few weeks.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Clariant, a world leader in specialty chemicals, announced the inauguration of a new state-of-the-art laboratory at its facility in Midland, Texas, as per Hydrocarbonengineering.

This capital investment upgraded several key infrastructure elements of the operations centre. Most prominent is the state-of-the-art laboratory, which is Clariant Oil Services fourth Regional Technical Laboratory in North America. The laboratory has almost doubled in size and is now equipped with industry-leading research and automation equipment. As such, it will increase sample activity undertaken for regional Permian Basin oil and gas producers by up to 45% over the pre-existing test centre.

"The significant investment made at Midland follows on from our major upgrade in Clinton, Oklahoma announced earlier this year,” said John Dunne, Global Head of Oil & Mining Services, Clariant. “It is further testament to Clariant’s strengthened commitment to grow with our customers located in the Permian and Mid-Con regions, which are both strategically important in the US market."

The new laboratory is unique within North America in having on-site access to two inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) units, state of the art solids identification equipment, including X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF), and many other industry leading instruments. All of these are designed to allow Clariant’s chemical specialists to process around 7000 lab samples per month out of this local Permian based lab and meet its customer expectations for turnaround times. Due to the complexity of unconventional shale production in the Permian basin, this equipment gives Clariant the ability to quickly assess risk factors associated with flow assurance, asset integrity, and oil/water quality, in order to rapidly develop solutions that lower overall cost of operations for its customers. Close proximity to the Clariant technical experts on-site and the local operators ensures real time customer interaction, while providing simultaneous trouble-shooting to ensure chemical efficacy, such as scale prevention and paraffin inhibition.

In addition to its showcase laboratory, Clariant will be able to provide increased support to its customers through a newly operational blending plant, ensuring security of supply and the flexibility to produce bespoke products. An upgraded tank farm, 10-bay fleet maintenance facility and enhanced customer sales offices will also augment Clariant’s service offerings to customers in the fastest growing oil basin in the US.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Celanese Corporation, a global specialty materials company, has increase October list and off-list selling prices for Vinyl Acetate Monomer (VAM) sold in Europe, Middle East, Africa and the Americas, as per the company"s press release.

The price increases below were effective for orders shipped on or after October 1, 2018, or as contracts otherwise allow, and are incremental to any previously announced increases.

Thus, VAM prices rose, as follows:

- by EUR50/mt - for Europe, Middle East & Africa;
- by USD0.03/lb - for the USA and Canada:
- by USD65/mt - for Mexico & South America.

As MRC reported earlier, Celanese last raised its VAM prices for the stated above regions on 1 July, 2018, as follows:

- by EUR100/mt - for Europe, Middle East & Africa;
- by USD0.05/lb - for the USA and Canada:
- by USD110/mt - for Mexico & South America.

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, Celanese employs approximately 7,600 employees worldwide and had 2017 net sales of USD6.1 billion.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Aramco’s oil facilities in Yanbu are operating normally and safely, an Aramco spokesman said, after unconfirmed reports on Twitter about an explosion at an oil refinery in the Saudi port city, reported Reuters.

The spokesman said there was no such incident at Aramco facilities.

As MRC informed previously, a proposed reshuffle of state assets would allow Saudi Arabia to delay the listing of national oil giant Aramco until 2020 or beyond while still spending on economic development projects, said three sources familiar with the matter in late July 2018. A week earlier, Aramco confirmed a Reuters report that it was working on a possible purchase of a "strategic stake" in local petrochemicals maker Saudi Basic Industries Corp (2010.SE) from the Public Investment Fund (PIF), the kingdom’s top sovereign wealth fund. The deal could inject tens of billions of dollars into the PIF, giving it resources to proceed with its plans to create jobs and diversify the economy beyond oil exports, including a USD500 billion business zone in the northwest of the country.

Saudi Aramco is an integrated oil and chemicals company, a global leader in hydrocarbon production, refining processes and distribution, as well as one of the largest global oil exporters. It manages proven reserves of crude oil and condensate estimated at 261.1bn barrels, and produces 9.54 million bbl daily. Headquartered in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, the company employs over 61,000 staff in 77 countries.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- LyondellBasell has announced that Zhejiang Petroleum & Chemical Co. Ltd (ZPCC) has selected LyondellBasell’s polypropylene (PP), high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and low-density polyethylene (LDPE) technologies for five new plants, said Hydrocarbonengineering.

The plants will be built in ZPCC’s petrochemical complex in Zhoushan City, China.

The complex will include two 450 000 tpy PP plants that will use LyondellBasell’s Spherizone PP process technology and two LDPE plants, 300 000 and 400 000 tpy respectively, which will use Lupotech T process technology. The complex will also include a 350 000 tpy HDPE plant which will use Hostalen ACP process technology.

At a total capacity of almost 2 million t, these new licenses constitute the largest volume of new capacity ever licensed by LyondellBasell in a single location.

As MRC wrote previously, in August 2016, LyondellBasell made the final investment decision to build a high density polyethylene (HDPE) plant on the US Gulf Coast. The plant will have an annual capacity of 1.1 billion pounds (500,000 metric tons) and will be the first commercial plant to employ LyondellBasell's new proprietary Hyperzone PE technology. The start-up of the new plant is scheduled for 2019.

LyondellBasell is one of the largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies in the world. Driven by its 13,000 employees around the globe, LyondellBasell produces materials and products that are key to advancing solutions to modern challenges like enhancing food safety through lightweight and flexible packaging, protecting the purity of water supplies through stronger and more versatile pipes, and improving the safety, comfort and fuel efficiency of many of the cars and trucks on the road. LyondellBasell sells products into approximately 100 countries and is the world's largest licensor of polyolefin technologies.
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