Trinseo introduces new portfolio of polycarbonate resins for medical devices

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Trinseo, a global materials solutions provider and manufacturer of plastics, latex binders and synthetic rubber, continues to support medical industry trends with the launch of a new wear resistant, high lubricity polycarbonate (PC), as per the company's press release.

The global medical industry is constantly evolving to address megatrends such as a rapidly growing and aging population. This is creating a need for home healthcare and self-administered treatments as well as medical wearables and patient-friendly devices.

Trinseo’s wear resistant, high lubricity PC has been designed for drug delivery devices and surgical tools, which are growing in importance for their convenience and cost saving potential. Part of Trinseo’s CALIBRE Polycarbonate Resins series, the new material platform provides a solution for the low friction movement of one material over another, extending product life and minimizing noise without external lubricants.

Beside this latest innovation, Trinseo is also recognized globally for its leadership position in advanced chemical resistant materials and will showcase its EMERGE 9000 product portfolio as well. This product range is used extensively in diagnostic equipment housings to resist the aggressive cleansers and disinfectants used by healthcare professionals to fight healthcare associated infections (HAIs), which remain a growing concern.

"Trinseo plastics satisfy the demand for aesthetically-pleasing devices designed for human interaction," said Aldo Zanetti, Global Market Leader Medical, Personal Care & Household, Trinseo. "At both Pharmapack and MD&M West, we look forward to sharing how Trinseo supports medical device manufacturers and also pharmaceutical companies, particularly with our latest grades for drug delivery device applications."

As MRC informed earlier, Trinseo raised its prices for all PC grades in Europe on 1 February, 2020, by EUR150 per metric ton.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PC consumption (excluding imports and exports to/from Belarus) totalled 78,500 tonnes in 2019, up by 15% year on year (68,100 tonnes a year earlier).

Trinseo is a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex and rubber. Trinseo's technology is used by customers in industries such as home appliances, automotive, building & construction, carpet, consumer electronics, consumer goods, electrical & lighting, medical, packaging, paper & paperboard, rubber goods and tires. Formerly known as Styron, Trinseo completed its renaming process in 1Q 2015. Trinseo had approximately USD4.6 billion in net sales in 2018, with 16 manufacturing sites around the world, and approximately 2,500 employees.
MRC

PVC production in Russia rises by 4% in January

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Contrary to seasonal factors, Russian producers of unmixed polyvinyl chloride (PVC) have maintained a high level of capacity utilisation. Overal PVC output totalled 91,700 tonnes in January 2020, up by 4% year on year, according to MRC's ScanPlast report.

January production of unmixed PVC was 91,700 tonnes versus 87,760 tonnes in January 2019 and 81,400 tonnes in December 2019. Thus, despite relatively weak demand for resin from the domestic market, the average capacity utilisation exceeded 95% last month. Russia's overall PVC production reached 975,000 tonnes in 2019, compared to 958,600 tonnes a year earlier.

The structure of PVC production by plants looked the following way over the stated period.


RusVinyl (joint venture of SIBUR and SolVin) produced 32,400 tonnes of PVC in January, with emulsion polyvinyl chloride (EPVC) accounting for 2,900 tonnes of the whole amount, compared to 29,500 tonnes of PVC in January 2019 and 23,100 tonnes in December 2019. RusViny's overall PVC output reached 339,800 tonnes last year.

SayanskKhimPlast produced 28,200 tonnes of suspension PVC (SPVC) last month, whereas this figure was at 27,700 tonnes in January 2019 and 27,900 tonnes in December 2019. Overall, the Sayansk plant managed to produce 294,500 tonnes of PVC in 2019.

Bashkir Soda Company produced 23,600 tonnes of SPVC in January 2020, compared to 23,000 tonnes a year earlier and 24,100 tonnes in December 2019. Bashkir Soda Company's overall output of resin reached 263,200 tonnes last year.

Kaustik Volgograd produced 7,500 tonnes of SPVC last month, whereas this figure was at 7,600 tonnes in January 2019 and 6,400 tonnes in December 2019. The plant's overall output of resin reached 77,500 tonnes in 2019.

MRC

Ineos, UPM Biofuels announce renewable polymer raw materials production

MOSCOW (MRC) -- INEOS and UPM Biofuels have reached a deal to supply renewable raw materials to produce bio-based polymers in Europe, the companies said in a statement Tuesday.

The renewable raw materials will be supplied to Ineos' Cologne plant in Germany in order to produce polymers suitable for plastic food packaging, medical applications and piping.

The raw material will be UPM Biofuel's BioVerno, which is produced from the residue from wood pulp production. This raw material will be used by Ineos to create material's such as BIOVYNTM, which is used to make bio-based polyvinyl chloride (PVC), called Biovyn.

Announced at the K-Fair in Dusseldorf in October, Biovyn will be manufactured at Inovyn's 320,000 mt/year Rheinberg site, and will receive the bio-feedstock from Ineos' Cologne steam cracker via pipeline.

Biovyn is said to be the first commercially available PVC made without using fossil fuels and will follow strict technical, social and environmental standards set out by the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials.

Inovyn is an Ineos company.

The RSB has now certified the entire production process, from converting the wood-based residue through to creating the final polymer, according to the statement.

"UPM BioVerno products now help to reduce climate and environmental impacts in an even broader range of applications. INEOS's and UPM Biofuels' commitment to RSB certification creates a strong common ground to build on," according to Maiju Helin, head of Sustainability and Market Development at UPM Biofuels.

As MRC reported before, in June 2019, petrochemicals company INEOS announced Antwerp as the location for its new petrochemical investment.

And earlier, in July 2018, INEOS announced that it will invest EUR2.7 billion (USD3.15 billion) to build a new chemical cracker and PHD unit in northwest Europe. This is the first cracker to be built in Europe in 20 years and both facilities will benefit from US shale gas economics, adding that the project will be completed in four years.

According to MRC's DataScope report, exports of suspension polyvinyl chloride (SPVC) from Russia totalled 193,700 tonnes in 2019, up by 11% year on year. Imports increased more significantly - by 217% year on year - to 50,900 tonnes.
MRC

PVC imports into Ukraine increased by 7% in January, exports up by 77%

MOSCOW (MRC) - Imports of suspension polyvinyl chloride (SPVC) into Ukraine decreased by 7% in January of this year, compared to the same period in 2019 and reached about 4,100 tonnes. At the same time, sales of Ukrainian PVC to foreign markets dropped by 77% year on year, according to a MRC's DataScope report.

Last month, suspension polyvinyl chloride (SPVC) import supplies to the Ukrainian market grew to 4,100 tonnes against 3,800 tonnes in January and 4,300 tonnes in December a year earlier, a slight increase in supplies fell to European producers. Overall imports of suspension reached 49,000 tonnes in 2019, compared to 66,100 tonnes a year earlier.

Weaker demand for PVC in the domestic market made some producers to increase exports. European producers with the share of about 71% of the total imports were the key suppliers of resin to the Ukrainian market in 2019.

Producers from the USA with the share of about 29% were the second largest suppliers. A high level of capacity utilisation and a seasonal reduction in demand from Ukrainian consumers made the local producer Karpatneftekhim to significantly increase export sales.

Over 26,300 tonnes of SPVC were shipped to foreign markets last month, whereas in January and December 2019, this figure was 14,800 tonnes and 12,900 tonnes, respectively. Last year's PVC exports from the country were more than 163.300 tonnes.


MRC

Hedge funds sell oil as coronavirus stokes recession fear

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Hedge funds were heavy sellers of petroleum last week for the third time in four weeks, amid mounting anxiety about the impact of a coronavirus outbreak on oil consumption in China, reported Reuters.

Hedge funds and other money managers sold the equivalent of 131 million barrels in the six most important futures and options contracts in the week ending Feb. 4.

Portfolio managers have sold a total of 367 million barrels since Jan. 7, reversing a large amount of the 533 million barrels bought during the previous 13 weeks.

Fears about a coronavirus-driven downturn in oil consumption have replaced earlier expectations about a cyclical recovery in oil demand growth.

Selling has been concentrated in crude and the middle distillates used heavily in manufacturing and transportation, including aviation and shipping, the sectors most exposed to China’s economy and the coronavirus.

Hedge funds were heavy sellers last week of NYMEX and ICE WTI (-56 million barrels), Brent (-50 million), European gasoil (-18 million) and US heating oil (-8 million).

In response to the coronavirus, PetroChina has said that it will cut crude processing at its refineries by 320,000 barrels per day in February, around 10% of its average production rate, with even deeper cuts to come in March.

China’s state-owned refiners have now signaled production cuts totaling more than 900,000 bpd this month (“PetroChina to cut February crude runs by 320,000 bpd due to virus”, Reuters, Feb. 10).

By contrast, fund managers made no net change in their position in US gasoline last week, which is more focused on the United States and private motorists.

The economic and oil market impact of the virus outbreak is similar to a severe recession centered on China, which is currently extremely deep but of uncertain duration, and where the full impact on other countries is unclear.

Normal recessions are driven by economic processes, including inventory adjustments, consumer and business confidence, and labor market dynamics.

Even in normal times, recessions have much in common with epidemics as narratives about a deteriorating business environment and increasing risk spread among households and businesses, causing them to reduce spending.

But the coronavirus-recession in China is additionally driven by the success of primary infection control in Hubei province; the probability of secondary outbreaks in the rest of China and worldwide; and decisions by governments, businesses and individuals about the optimal trade-off between the need for infection control and the need to keep normal commercial activities operating.

If the virus can be successfully contained while business activity is normalized, the coronavirus-induced recession could be very short, albeit severe, and localized mostly in China, though with impacts on the country’s supply chain.

China’s government and businesses have started signalling a gradual normalization of commercial and transportation activities after a two-week long extended holiday intended to slow the rate of virus transmission.

However, if there are uncontained secondary outbreaks across the rest of China forcing an extended suspension of normal business activity, the recession could be much longer, with an inevitable worldwide effect.

And if the virus cannot be contained within China, governments and businesses will face an even more uncomfortable choice about how to manage the trade-off between risks to human health and the need to maintain semi-normal operations.

As MRC wrote previously, PetroChina's subsidiary refinery, Dalian Petrochemical Corp, plans to have a major turnaround in April-May of 2020, four industry sources told Reuters in January 2020. The maintenance is scheduled to start from late March or early April and will last for around one and a half months, the sources said. The 410,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) plant in the northeast Chinese port city of Dalian, PetroChina's biggest refinery, is linked to Russia's East Siberia Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline and is China's largest processor of the pipeline ESPO blend crude.

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).
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