PE imports to Russia up by 18% in Jan-Sep 2019

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Overall imports of polyethylene (PE) into Russia reached 543,000 tonnes in the first nine months of 2019, up by 18% year on year. High density polyethylene (HDPE) accounted for the greatest increase in imports, according to MRC's DataScope report.


Russian companies raised their PE imports in September, the total figure was 70,400 tonnes versus 67,800 tonnes a months earlier. Shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) from Europe and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) from the USA increased. Thus, overall PE imports to Russia totalled about 543,000 tonnes in January-September 2019, compared to 460,200 tonnes a year earlier. HDPE imports increased by almost 1.5 times, whereas imports of LLDPE and other ethylene copolymers decreased.

Overall, the structure of PE imports by grades looked the following way over the stated period.


Last month's HDPE imports dropped to 34,500 tonnes from 35,900 tonnes in August, Russian companies reduced their PE shipments from Uzbekistan. Overall HDPE shipments totalled 266,900 tonnes in the first nine months of 2019, compared to 181,600 tonnes a year earlier, with pipe grade and film grade HDPE accounting for the greatest increase in imports.

September LLDPE imports rose to 15,400 tonnes from 13,100 tonnes a month earlier, with LLDPE imports from the USA showing a significant rise. Overall LLDPE imports reached 127,100 tonnes over the stated period, down by 7% year on year.

Last month's LDPE imports grew to 12,000 tonnes from 10,700 tonnes a month earlier, with Russian companies having raised their purchasing in Europe. Overall LDPE imports reached 78,500 tonnes in January-September 2019, up by 16% year on year.

September imports of ethylene-vinyl-acetate (EVA) and other ethylene polymers were 8,500 tonnes versus 8,100 tonnes a month earlier. Overall imports of ethylene copolymers reached 70,600 tonnes in the first nine months of 2019, whereas this figure was 74,100 tonnes a year earlier.

MRC

Imports of injection moulding of PET into Russia tripled in September

MOSCOW (MRC) - Imports of injection moulded PET chips to the Russian market in September decreased by 70% compared to September 2018 and amounted to 5,000 tonnes (excluding supplies from Belarus), according to MRC DataScope.

Imports reached 8,910 tonnes in September of this year, up 44% year on year. Nevertheless, the total volume of imports of bottle grade PET grew by 10% to 111,000 tonnes in January-September of this year against 101,000 tonnes in the same period last year.

Every year, demand for injection moulding PET chips has been falling since September. Some producers shut their capacities for maintenances at this time. The price of the material also falls during this period.
Earlier it was reported that the Senege New Polymers Plant stopped the production of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) for scheduled maintenance works on 1 October. According to a source in the company, the shutdown will take about a month. The exact date of the completion of the turnaround was not reported.

Senege cut the spot prices to the level of Rb87,000-89,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT last week.
MRC

SOCAR Energoresource sells vacuum gasoil

MOSCOW (MRC) -- SOCAR Energoresource LLC has sold to Socar Trading up to 1.865 million tonnes of vacuum gasoil through a tender, industry sources told Reuters.

The deal is for vacuum gasoil originating from the Antipinsky refinery for delivery between Oct. 1, 2019, and Sept. 30, 2020, via Baltic ports.

SOCAR Energoresource does not comment on its trading activity.

As MRC informed before, SOCAR Turkey Energy, which is a subsidiary of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), plans to lay the foundation of the Mercury petrochemical complex in Turkey in H1-2020. The plant will be located in Aliaga district, next to the Petkim petrochemical complex and the STAR refinery. With the commissioning of this plant, Turkey will settle the matter with the import of purified terephthalic acid (PTA).

PTA is used to produce polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is used in the manufacturing of plastic bottles, films, packaging containers, in the textile and food industries.

According to MRC's DataScope report, Chinese bottle grade PET deliveries to Russia increased 34% in the first eight months of 2019 to 95,600 tonnes. China accounted for 90% of the total imports, compared to 85% a year earlier.
August imports of material from China decreased by 41% to 7,600 tonnes from 12,800 tonnes in July. Jiangsu Sanfangxiang, Yisheng, Wankai and Sinopec were the leading Chinese suppliersof material to the Russian market.

SOCAR, which is keen on expanding operations in the retail oil products market abroad, is involved in exploring oil and gas fields, producing, processing, and transporting oil, gas, and gas condensate, marketing petroleum and petrochemical products in the domestic and international markets, and supplying natural gas to industry and the public in Azerbaijan.
MRC

PVC imports to Ukraine fell by 33%, exports by 6% in January-September 2019

MOSCOW (MRC) - Imports of suspension polyvinyl chloride (SPVC) into Ukraine decreased by 33% in the first nine months of this year, compared to the same period in 2018 and reached about 35,500 tonnes. At the same time, sales of Ukrainian PVC to foreign markets dropped by 6% year on year, according to a MRC's DataScope report.

Last month's SPVC imports to the Ukrainian market slightly dropped to 4,200 tonnes from 4,300 tonnes in August , with US resin accounting for the main decrease in shipments. Overall SPVC imports reached 35,500 tonnes in January-September 2019, compared to 53,200 tonnes a year earlier.

European producers with the share of about 68% of the total imports were the key suppliers of resin to the Ukrainian market in the first seven months of 2019. Producers from the USA with the share of about 32% were the second largest suppliers. The growth in demand for Ukrainian PVC from the domestic market this year has led to a reduction in exports.

12,900 tonnes of suspension were shipped to foreign markets in September, whereas this figure was 14,000 tonnes a month earlier. Overall, about 119,400 tonnes of PVC were shipped for export in January-September 2019 versus 127,600 tonnes a year earlier.

MRC

Lotte Chemical shut Daesan cracker for maintenance

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Lotte Chemical has shut down its Deasan cracker for maintenance turnaround, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in South Korea informed that the company started maintenance at the cracker on October 14, 2019. The cracker is expected to resume production on November 10, 2019.

Located at Daesan in South Korea, currently the cracker has an ethylene capacity of 1.1 million mt/year and propylene capacity of 540,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote before, Lotte Chemical Titan Holding (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), an affiliate of Lotte Chemical (Seoul, South Korea), has announced that the group's ethane cracker and ethylene glycol (EG) plant at Lake Charles, Louisiana, commenced commercial operations in August, 2019.

Lotte is the first South Korean petrochemical company to enter the ethane-cracking business in North America using shale gas. Lotte Chemical operates naphtha crackers at Yeosu and Daesan, South Korea, and Lotte Chemical Titan operates a cracker at Pasir Gudang, Malaysia. Lotte says that the US cracker increases the group's overall ethylene capacity to 4.5 MMt/y, making it the seventh-biggest producer of ethylene worldwide.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,436,390 tonnes in the first eight months of 2019, up by 9% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, the PP consumption in the Russian market was 909,260 tonnes in January-August 2019, up by 10% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.
MRC