Saudi Kayan plans maintenance shutdown of large EG, EO plants

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Kayan, a Sabic affiliate, has announced a 21-day scheduled maintenance shutdown for its ethylene glycol (EG) and ethylene oxide (EO) facilities at Jubail, Saudi Arabia, starting on 1 February, as per Chemweek.

The company says that some of its other facilities that rely on EG and EO feedstocks will also undergo periodic maintenance and improvements.

Saudi Kayan says the stoppages will have a financial impact of 117 million Saudi riyals (USD2 million), which the company will record in its first-quarter 2020 results. The company intends to meet some of the market needs using available stock to reduce the financial impact.

Saudi Kayan is a major producer of EG and EO with capacity of 566,000 metric tons/year and 550,000 metric tons/year, respectively. The downstream plants that are expected to be affected by the shutdown are a 34,000-metric tons/year each mono- and di-ethanolamine units; a 32,000-metric tons/year tri-ethanolamine plant; and a 40,000-metric tons/year ethoxylates production facility.

EO is one of the main feedstocks for the production of purified terephthalic acid (PTA), which is used to produce polyethylene terephthalate (PET). And PET is used in the manufacturing of plastic bottles, films, packaging containers, in the textile and food industries.

Saudi Kayan operates a MEG plant in Jubai, Saudi Arabia, which has a production capacity of 566,000 mt/year.

As per MRC's ScanPlast report, the estimated consumption of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in Russia decreased by 16% year on year in December 2019. Russia's overall estimated PET consumption totalled 696,810 tonnes in 2019, up by 1% year on year (690,130 tonnes in 2018).

Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Company is a manufacturing affiliate of the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Overall imports of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) to the Ukrainian market rose in the first month of 2020 by 85% year on year, according to MRC's DataScope report.

Thus, imports of material into Ukraine were 473 tonnes during the stated period, whereas this figure was at 255 tonnes in January 2019.

However, ABS imports into the country decreased by 11% year on year from December 2019 (534 tonnes). Imports of material to the Ukrainian market have continue to decrease for four consecutive months.

South Korea is the largest ABS supplier into the region. The share of Korean material in the total shipments fell significantly in January 2020 to 30% year on year (143 tonnes) from 71% a year earlier (182 tonnes), with Lotte shipments totalling 97 tonnes, and LG Chem's imports - only 47 tonnes.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Last month's imports of expandable polystyrene (EPS) into Ukraine rose by 37% year on year, totalling 2,100 tonnes, according to MRC's DataScope report.

This figure was at 1,500 tonnes in January 2019.

Imports of this polystyrene (PS) grade have continued to increase for the third month in a row after a sharp drop in October. Imports of material were 1,700 tonnes in December 2019.

The share of Russian material has grown significantly in the total shipments since the beginning of the year, accounting for 79% (1,700 tonnes), compared to 19% (300 tonnes) a year earlier. At the same time, Chinese EPS shipments slumped, totalling only 8% (200 tonnes) over the stated period, compared to 74% (1,100 tonnes) in January 2019.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- JG Summit Holdings, a major petrochemical producer in the Philippines, is due to restart its sole naphtha cracker in the Philippines at the beginning of this week (24-25 February) after major maintenance works, reported CommoPlast with reference to market sources.

The maintenance shutdown took place on 6 October 2019.

During the overhaul, the company also expanded the cracker to add another 160,000 tons/year of ethylene and 50,000 tons of propylene to the existing output. The total production at the cracker increased to 480,000 tons/year of ethylene and 240,000 tons/year of propylene.

we remind that in November 2017, JG Summit Olefins Corp. awarded an engineering, procurement and construction contract to Posco Engineering & Construction to expand an existing naphtha cracker and build a hydrogenation unit in Simlong, Batangas, Philippines.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,093,260 tonnes in 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments rose from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,260,400 tonnes in January-December 2019, up by 4% year on year. Supply of almost all grades of propylene polymers increased, except for statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Imports of bottle grade polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in Ukraine dropped by 37% year on year to 12,500 tonnes in January from 9,100 tonnes a year earlier, according to MRC's DataScope report.

In December of the previous year, shipments of PET chips were 9,400 tonnes. Deliveries of Chinese bottle grade PET to the Ukrainian market fell to the two times in January amounted to 3,100 tonnes compared to 7,000 tonnes in January last year. Imports were at 4,700 tonnes in December 2019. The share of imports from China in the total volume amounted to 50% in January against 77% in January 2019.

The key suppliers of injection moulding Chinese PET chips to the Ukrainian market were producers Dragon, China Resources Chemicals and Yisheng Petrochemical.
Nevertheless, the import of injection moulding PET chips from Lithuania by Neo Group grew four times in January compared to the same period last year and reached the maximum value of the last ten years - 7,300 tonnes. This figure was 1,800 tonnes in January 2019.

In December last year, the volume of external supplies from Lithuania to Ukraine was at the level of 3,800 tonnes. The total volume of Lithuanian PET imports to the country increased to 59% in January 2020 against 40% in December last year. In January 2019, the share of imports was at about 20%. The main buyers of Lithuanian bottled PET were Coca-Cola Beverages Ukraine Limited and Retal.
MRC