PE prices in the Russian market started growing

MOSCOW (MRC) -- As expected, beginning of the year started with PE price rise, on average, by 1.500 - 2.400 RUB/t, according to MRC analysts.


According to the forecast, in the first working week of January the Russian producers jacked up the price for PE. Main reasons are growing prices for oil and considerable growth of PE prices in the external market, particularly, in Europe. The European producers jacked the prices for polymer by EUR 80 - 130/mt depending on type, least of all the price was jacked for linear polyethylene.

The same situation is observed in the Russian market. On average, the prices for HDPE and LDPE from separate Russian producers rose by 1.500 - 2.400 RUB./t. It is expected that prices correction in the Russian PE market will continue next week and only by mid-week the prices will be finally fixed.

MRC

In 2009 import supplies of EPS fell more than by one third in comparison to 2008 and made 76 KT.

Last year the market started to restore the lost positions. Import supplies by the end of the year had grown by 20% and approached the level of 100 KT which was compared to the same index of 2008.

Launch of new EPS production in Perm with total capacity of 50 KTa will correct EPS import supplies to the Russian market this year though serious fall in import volumes is not expected.

MRC

(Arabian Business) -- Saudi Arabia's petrochemical exports will continue to grow in 2011, even as Turkey and Pakistan investigate some products for possible violations of anti-dumping rules, a Saudi industry official said.

Demand in Asia for Saudi petrochemicals exceeded the available supply in the fourth quarter of 2010 and will continue to do so in the first quarter of this year, Abdul Rahman Al Zamil, the head of the country's Export Development Centre, said in a telephone interview yesterday. The Riyadh-based centre promotes the country's non-oil exports.

India imposed a 6.5 percent anti-dumping duty in November on polypropylene exported by Saudi Basic Industries Corp and two other Saudi Arabian companies because it believes they benefit unfairly from government subsidies. China decided in November, after a yearlong investigation, not to impose anti-dumping duties on Saudi shipments of methanol.

MRC

(LUKOIL) -- Today, the OAO LUKOIL Board of Directors held a meeting in Moscow to summarize the Company's performance preliminary results in 2010 and set priority tasks for 2011.

According to preliminary estimates, under the Russian classification, hydrocarbon reserves increment in 2010 reached 123 million tons of reference fuel. Six fields (in the Perm region, Uzbekistan, Egypt and Ghana) and 25 new oil deposits were discovered.

According to preliminary estimates, oil production by LUKOIL (including the share in affiliated companies' production and overseas projects) came to 96 million tons. As compared with 2009, the oil production somewhat dropped, which was due to the depletion of the Western Siberian fields.

According to the preliminary estimates, gas production in 2010 by LUKOIL Group came to about 20 billion cubic meters, which exceeded 2009 level by more than 12%.

The oil stock refining volume at the Company's refineries is expected to come to 66 million tons in 2010, including 45 million tons at the Russian refineries (including mini-refineries). The total refining volume rose by 5.7% compared with 2009.

MRC

(Plastics News) -- After only three years of operations at its Shanghai plant, BASF SE's engineering plastics division has announced plans for expansion on a large scale.

Over the next four years, the company plans to more than double its compounding capacity in nylon and polybutylene terephthalate, creating the largest plant of its kind within BASF's global network.

The expansion, which will add 143 million pounds of additional annual capacity, is vote of confidence in the increasing sophistication and environmental consciousness of China's industry.

While BASF declined to give a specific number, investment in the expansion is said to be in the ⌠double digit million euro range.

Since it opened its doors in 2007, the BASF plant has focused entirely on nylon and PBT products. Last year, Asian consumption of nylon and PBT compounds was more than 2 billion pounds and China accounted for 50 percent of this demand. Over the next five years, demand in Asia is expected to increase by 8 percent every year.

MRC