Viridor and Procter & Gamble agree R-HDPE supply contract

MOSCOW (MRC) -- UK recycling and waste management major Viridor has signed a five-year contract with Procter & Gamble (P&G) for the supply of recycled high density polyethylene (R-HDPE), said the company.

The companies, both founding partners of the UK Plastics Pact, are committed to inspiring positive action on the environment and driving circular change.

Consumers will see evidence of this on their supermarket shelves in P&G’s Ariel laundry product range as previously announced which aims to reach up to 50% recycled content in its liquid bottles as of 2020.

Viridor’s supply of HDPE (high-density polyethylene) to P&G will save the equivalent of 200 million bottles of virgin plastic over five years.

P&G Purchases Group Manager Adam Selby commented: "Viridor is an established innovator in the area of sustainable packaging. This collaboration accelerates P&G’s 2030 goal to reduce our use of virgin petroleum plastic in packaging by 50%.

"As a founding member of The Alliance to End Plastic Waste, we are committed to helping to minimise and manage plastic waste and promote solutions like this for used plastics."

However, European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) contamination restrictions on food-grade approved material sourcing mean that only the UK is able to currently produce food-grade R-HDPE.

UK milk bottles are manufactured from HDPE – in the rest of Europe they are manufactured from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) – allowing a separated stream of post-consumer material suitable for food-grade production – although this is limited to 100,000 tonnes/year.

Food-grade pellets are structurally short. Although players in mainland Europe are researching sorting techniques to produce food-grade pellets, most remain cost prohibitive and are not expected to enter the market in 2020. As a result, cosmetics and domestic goods packaging producers are having to turn to other grades of R-HDPE, such as natural.

Long-testing cycles of around 18 months have so far prevented a sharp increase in consumption. Testing cycles are expected to increase in 2020 and consumption is expected to rise as a result. Packaging firms have a preference for natural material because of its higher attractiveness to end-use consumers when on the shelf, and because it is easier to masterbatch. As a result of increased packaging consumption, 2019 saw prices trade above virgin for the first time.

As MRC informed earlier, Karpatneftekhim (Kalush, Ivano-Frankivsk region), Ukraine"s largest petrochemical plant, intends to resume its high density polyethylene (HDPE) production in the third decade of March after a forced outage. The plant"s representative and customers said the Ukrainian producer plans to launch its HDPE production on 20 March. The shutdown of polyethylene (PE) production took place in early January and was caused by high prices of material, which did not match the world prices of polymer.

The situation in the feedstocks markets has changed dramatically for the past several week, thus, oil prices fell significantly, which suggests a proportional reduction in net cost of PE production. As reported earlier, Karpatneftekhim"s overall HDPE output exceeded 93,000 tonnes in 2019, up by 4% year on year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The next Chinaplas trade show will take place Aug. 3-6 in Shanghai, show organizer Adsale Exhibition Services Ltd. announced Feb. 19, said Plasticsnews.

The show originally was scheduled for April 21-24, but it was delayed because of the coronavirus epidemic. The venue for the fair has not changed; it will be at the NECC in Shanghai. Adsale General Manager Ada Leung said that companies "have already resumed work and manufacturing" after the coronavirus scare.

Leung also noted the role that plastics have taken during the epidemic, saying that the materials are used in medical protective clothes, medical masks, goggles, gloves, medical equipment, pharmaceutical packaging and disinfection supplies.

The novel coronavirus first appeared in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019 and began to spread in January. Hong Kong-based Adsale first announced on Feb. 5 that the 2020 show would be delayed. This is not the first time that Chinaplas has been delayed as a result of a health scare. During the SARS outbreak in 2003, Chinaplas was postponed from June until December.

Chinaplas will likely be the largest plastics industry exhibition this year. Last year's Chinaplas, held in Guangzhou, reported an estimated attendance of 163,000. The last time the show was in Shanghai, in 2018, it drew an estimated 180,000 attendees.

Chinaplas is held annually and typically has alternated between Shanghai and Guangzhou. The 2021 show, however, will be held April 13-16 in Shenzhen. Adsale has said that the Guangzhou venue has become too small for Chinaplas.

As MRC informed earlier, the upcoming edition of the Chinaplas trade show, one of the world’s largest plastics and rubber trade fairs, has been postponed indefinitely as a result of the deadly coronavirus outbreak.

As it was written earlier, supply chain disruption from the clampdowns on the spread of the coronavirus will cause major headaches for chemical producers in the coming days and weeks. China’s polyolefin suppliers have cut their post-holiday production due to logistics restrictions amid authorities’ efforts to contain the coronavirus outbreak. Domestic inventories are high as the plants did not stop production during the Lunar New Year holiday period, which started on 24 January, with most storage warehouses now full.

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) -- Sinopec Zhenhai Petrochemical, the subsidiary of one of the world's largest energy and chemical companies - Sinopec, will shut its 8 million mt/year CDU and 1.8 million mt/year FCC over mid-March to early May 2020 for maintenance, reported S&P Global.

As MRC informed before, Sinopec Qilu Petrochemical, another subsidiary of Sinopec, plans to shut the cracker unit in Tianjin in northeast China for scheduled repairs on 15 June, 2020. This cracking unit with a capacity of 900,000 tonnes of ethylene per year and 480,000 tonnes of propylene tons per year will be closed for scheduled repairs until 24 June, 2020.

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).

Sinopec corp. is one of the world's largest integrated energy and chemical companies. Business Sinopec Corp. includes oil and gas exploration, production and transportation of oil and gas, oil refining, petrochemical production, production of mineral fertilizers and other chemical products. In terms of refining capacity, Sinopec Corp. ranks second in the world, in terms of ethylene capacity - fourth.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Arabia’s Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical (Petro Rabigh) is planning to shut down its No. 2 linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) unit in Rabigh, Saudi Arabia for maintenance in late February, 2020, reported NCT with reference to sources familiar with the matte.

At present the restart dates of No. 2 LLDPE unit with the capacity of 250,000 tons/year could not be ascertained.

Petro Rabigh also operates No. 1 LLDPE unit at the same location with a capacty of 350,000 tons/year, which will be also taken off-stream for a turnaround at the same period of time.

Besides, the company has here a 300,000 tons/year high density polyethylene (HDPE) unit and a 160,000 tons/year low density polyethylene (LDPE) unit.

Sources also said they expect no impact on supplies during the shutdown.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, LLDPE shipments to the Russian market grew in 2019 by 13% year on year to 398,000 tonnes. Domestic producers increased their output by 32%, thereby reducing dependence on imports by 6%

PetroRabigh, a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Japan's Sumitomo Chemical, has an annual output capacity of 18 million tonnes of refined products and 2.4 million tonnes of petrochemicals. Thus, the complex currently has a cracker to produce 1.6-million t/y of ethylene, as well as downstream production of polyethylene, polypropylene, propylene oxide, ethylene glycol and butene-1.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Arabia’s Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical (Petro Rabigh) is planning to shut its high density polyethylene (HDPE) plant in Rabigh, Saudi Arabia for maintenance in late February, 2020, reported NCT with reference to sources familiar with the matte.

At present the restart dates of this HDPE plant with the capacity of 300,000 tons/year could not be ascertained.

Petro Rabigh also operates No. 1 and 2 linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) units at the same location with a combined capacty of 600,000 tons/year.

Besides, the company has here a 160,000 tons/year low density polyethylene (LDPE) unit.

Sources also said they expect no impact on supplies during the shutdown.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's HDPE production totalled about 868,000 tonnes in 2019, down by 10% year on year. All manufacturers reduced production volumes, primarily due to long scheduled maintenance works.

PetroRabigh, a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Japan's Sumitomo Chemical, has an annual output capacity of 18 million tonnes of refined products and 2.4 million tonnes of petrochemicals. Thus, the complex currently has a cracker to produce 1.6-million t/y of ethylene, as well as downstream production of polyethylene, polypropylene, propylene oxide, ethylene glycol and butene-1.
MRC