PET imports to Russia down 7% in July

MOSCOW (MRC) - Deliveries of imported polyethylene terephthalate (PET) to the Russian market in July decreased by 7% compared to July 2018 and amounted to 15,580 tonnes of PET, according to MRC ScanPlast.

Total imports of PET to Russia in seven months of 2019 reached 117,840 tonnes, up 19% year on year.

Earlier it was reported that the import of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in Europe in June increased by 24% year on year to 67,560 tonnes.

At the same time, exports fell to below 10,000 tonnes in June 2019. South Korea, China and India were among the three largest importers to Europe in June.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Oil and gas explorer Woodside Petroleum has offered the first Vincent crude cargo for export since production from the USD1.9 billion Greater Enfield project off western Australia restarted following more than a year’s suspension, reported Reuters with reference to two trade sources with direct knowledge of the matter.

The cargo was offered to load over Sept. 26-30 in a tender due to be closed on Wednesday, with bids valid till Thursday, the sources said.

Woodside operates the Greater Enfield project with a 60% stake, while Mitsui E&P Australia Pty Ltd, a unit of Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co, holds the remainder.

As MRC informed earlier, Mitsui Chemicals, a part of the Mitsui conglomerate, restarted its naphtha cracker on 11-12 May 2019, following an unplanned outage. The cracker was shut in end-April, 2019 owing to power failure. Located at Chiba in Japan, the cracker has an ethylene capacity of 600,000 mt/year and propylene capacity of 331,000 mt/year.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polyprolypele (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,255,800 tonnes in the first seven months of 2019, up by 9% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, the estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 796,120 tonnes in January-July 2019, up by 11% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.

Mitsui Chemicals is a leading manufacturer and supplier of value added specialty chemicals, plastics and materials for the automotive, healthcare, packaging, agricultural, building, and semiconductor and electronics markets. Mitsui Chemicals is a Japanese Chemicals company, a part of the Mitsui conglomerate. The company has a turnover of around 15 billion USD and has business interests in Japan, Europe, China, Southeast Asia and the USA. The company mainly deals in performance materials, petro and basic chemicals and functional polymeric materials.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russian state gas producer Gazprom on Monday reported a 4.5% fall in January-August natural gas exports outside the former Soviet Union to 127.3 billion cubic metres (bcm), reported Reuters.

Its output over the same period rose 1.7% to 331 bcm.

The company on Thursday conceded for the first time that its gas exports to Europe, as well as its prices, will decline in 2019 following record-high volumes last year.

As MRC wrote previously, Gazprom has started pumping gas into the Power of Siberia Pipeline bound for China. The pipeline will deliver 38 billion cubic meter per year (Bcm/y) of natural gas from eastern Siberian fields to China. Under the 30-year contract signed in 2014, deliveries start of Dec. 1.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - North American PVC suppliers in Russia raised their prices for September shipments to USD860-880/tonne CFR St. Petersburg last week, according to the ICIS-MRC Price Report.

At the same time, there was no demand from Russian companies, since the weakening of the rouble against the dollar made PVC purchases in the US unprofitable, although a month ago the situation was opposite.

A week earlier, price offers for the shipment of PVC from the United States in the second half of August - September were in the range of USD850-870/tonne CIF St. Petersburg.
MRC

(MOSCOW (MRC) -- China Petrochemical Corp, known as Sinopec, said on Friday it had commissioned additional crude oil storage totalling 375,000 cubic metres, or about 2.36 million barrels, in eastern China’s Jiangsu province, reported Reuters.

Asia’s biggest refiner put three commercial crude storage tanks in the city of Yizheng, each with a capacity of 125,000 cubic metres, into operation on Aug. 28, according to a statement on its website.

Sinopec said the Yizheng commercial storage base, which serves refineries along the Yangtze river and in the Nanjing area, is now fully utilising its total 975,000 cubic meters of storage.

The base previously had six tanks each of 100,000 cubic metres capacity.

As MRC informed before, in September 2018, Sinopec Corp joined a group planning to build an oil refinery in Alberta, an enterprise that would strengthen demand for the Canadian province's heavily discounted crude.

Sinopec Corp. is one of the largest scale integrated energy and chemical company with upstream, midstream and downstream operations. Its principal business includes: exploring, developing, producing and trading crude oil and natural gas; producing, storing, transporting and distributing and marketing petroleum products, petrochemical products, synthetic fiber, fertilizer and other chemical products. Its refining capacity and ethylene capacity rank No.2 and No.4 globally. Sinopec listed in Hong Kong, New York, London and Shanghai in August 2001. Sinopec Group, the parent company of Sinopec Corp., is ranked the 5th in Fortune Global 500 in 2012.
MRC