Shenhua Baotou restarts coal-to-olefin plant

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Shenhua Baotou has brought on-stream its coal-to-olefin plant following a maintenance turnaround, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the company has completed maintenance turnaround at its plant in early-November, 2019. The plant was taken off-line for maintenance in mid-September, 2019.

Located at Baotou City, China, the plant have ethylene and propylene production capacity of 300,000 mt/year each.

As MRC reported before, Shenhua Baotou shut its polypropylene (PP) plant for a planned maintenance on September 18, 2019. The plant was expected to remain under maintenance for about six weeks. Located at Baotou City, China, the PP plant has a production capacity of 300,000 mt/year.

Shenhua Baotou also runs linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) plant at the same site. The company conducted maintenance at its LLDPE plant from 12 September to late September, 2017. Located at Baotou City, China, the plant has a production capacity of 300,000 mt/year.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,589,580 tonnes in the first nine months of 2019, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 976,790 tonnes in January-September 2019, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Dalian Yisheng Co Ltd has started up its new polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle plant by last weekend, reported CommoPlast with reference to market sources.

Based in Dalian, China, the new plant has a production capacity of 350,000 tons/year. The company is ramping up its production rate and expected to have prime grade by this week.

We remind that, as MRC wrote previously, another major Chinese PET producer - Shaoxing Reignwood Petrochemical - took off-stream a purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant for maintenance on September 20, 2019. The plant was slated to remain under maintenance for about a week. Located at Shaoxing in China, the PTA plant has a production capacity of 1.4 mmt/year.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PET consumption dropped in September 2019 by 10% year on year, totalling 58,210 tonnes. Overall, 551,320 tonnes of PET was processed in Russia in the first nine months of 2019, up 9% year on year.

Yisheng Petrochemical is jointly owned by polyester giants Zhejiang Hengyi Group and Zhejiang RongSheng Group.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Demand for EPS boards in the Ukrainian market subsided in the first ten months of 2019 by 15% year on year, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

It decreased in October 2019 by 12% year on year.

At the same time, consumption of EPS boards remained at the last month's level in late October.

A major converter said sales of finished products had been at the same level since early September.

As reported earlier, a season of strong demand continued in the Ukrainian EPS boards market in October. Demand for finished products was by an average stronger from major converters last month than that from small- and medium-sized ones.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- SIBUR-Khimprom has reduced its expandable polystyrene (EPS) prices for November shipments to Ukrainian buyers by USD45/tonne, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

Thus, November prices of material for the Ukrainian market dropped to USD1,230/tonne FCA Voronezh, excluding VAT.

At the same time, the Russian producer did not limit buyers' orders for this month's shipments.

Meantime, SIBUR-Khimprom raised its October EPS prices for Ukraine by USD5/tonne to USD1,275/tonne FCA Voronezh, excluding VAT.

SIBUR-Khimprom (part of SIBUR Holding) specializes in the processing of liquid hydrocarbons and is one of the leading Russian producers of a number of the most important petrochemical products. The company has three main production capacities: production of butyl alcohols and 2-ethylhexanol with a capacity of 160,000 tonnes per year, production of ethylbenzene (220,000 tonnes per year), styrene monomer (SM) production (135,000 tonnes per year) and polystyrene (PS) production (100,000 tonnes per year), ethylene and propylene unit, production of eco-friendly plasticizer DOTF (100,000 tonnes per year).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Aramco supplied agreed grades and volumes to India's Reliance Industries 1.77 % in October after the world's top oil exporter had to provide alternate heavier grader due to drone attacks on its oil installations, said Economictimes.

The September 14 drone and missile attacks on two giant facilities that process mainly light crude knocked down about 5.7 million barrels per day, more than half of the production of the world's top oil exporter, forcing the Kingdom to supply heavier grade instead of light oil to some refiners.

"Aramco (has) confirmed and reassured that supplies for October will be maintained both in terms of quantity and mix of grades as per our requirement," said the spokesperson.

Aramco has been a major and reliable supplier of crude oil for Reliance for more than twenty years, both in terms of volume of crude supply as well as the mix of various grades of crude oil, the spokesperson added.

"In the immediate aftermath of the incident, Aramco maintained supply with alternate grades of crude oil. The alternate grades being heavier suited Reliance's refining needs," the spokesperson said.

Reliance, owners of the world's biggest refining complex at Jamnagar in western Gujarat state, is a major buyer of Saudi oil and recently announced plans to sell a fifth of its petrochemical and refining business to Aramco in a multibillion dollar deal.

As MRC informed earlier, Saudi Aramco, which temporarily lost half of its oil production following the September 14 attacks on two key oil facilities, is running its local refineries at full capacity and is forging ahead with plans to start up new refineries. The company is also starting up a joint venture refinery in Malaysia next year. According to Aramco's bond prospectus released in April, the refining and petrochemical joint venture with Petronas - the Malaysian national oil company - collectively known as PRefChem, was supposed to start this year.

The PRefChem joint venture includes a 300,000 b/d refinery, an integrated steam cracker with capacity to produce 1.3 million mt of ethylene located in Johor, Malaysia. Aramco was supposed to provide a significant portion of PRefChem's crude supply under a long-term supply agreement. Jazan and PrefChem will help Aramco reach a gross refining capacity of 5.6 million b/d, it said in the prospectus. The company currently owns and has stakes in four refineries abroad with a total refining capacity exceeding 2 million b/d.

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.

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