PVC imports to Ukraine up by 6% in Jan-Feb 2020, exports rise by 2 times

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Imports of suspension polyvinyl chloride (SPVC) into Ukraine grew in the first two months of 2020 by 6% year on year, totalling 8,300 tonnes, whereas sales of Ukrainian PVC to foreign markets rose by 102% year on year, according to MRC's DataScope report.

Last month's SPVC imports to the Ukrainian market increased to 4,200 tonnes from 4,100 tonnes in January, with European producers accounting for a slight rise in shipments. Overall SPVC imports reached 8,300 tonnes in January-February 2020, compared to 7,800 tonnes a year earlier. Strong demand for polymer from foreign markets allowed the Ukrainian producer to raise exports significantly.

European producers with the share of about 75% of the total imports were the key suppliers of resin to the Ukrainian market over the stated period. Producers from the USA with the share of about 24% were the second largest suppliers.

The high level of capacity utilisation and good demand from India and Turkey allowed the local producer - Karpatneftekhim - to significantly increase export sales. 26,300 tonnes of suspension were shipped to foreign markets in January, whereas this figure was 16,100 tonnes last month. Overall, about 42,300 tonnes were shipped for export in the first two months of 2020, compared to 21,000 tonnes a year earlier.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Nouryon and INEOS Nitriles have broken ground on new facilities to be built at INEOS’ Koln site in Germany, according to INEOS' press release.

The units will produce raw materials for Nouryon’s high-quality, biodegradable chelates, used in detergents and other industries. The plants are due to be completed in 2021-2022.

Demand for chelates has increased strongly following the European ban on phosphates in consumer automatic dishwasher detergents. Chelates are more sustainable than the phosphates they replace.

INEOS will operate and maintain the new facilities as well as provide key raw materials.

"This long-term agreement with INEOS will support the growth of customer demand for biodegradable chelates in home and personal care applications such as detergents, which are a key strategic market for us," said Larry Ryan, Executive Vice President and President of Performance Formulations and the Americas at Nouryon.

INEOS Nitriles is the world’s largest producer of acrylonitrile, a vital raw material for products used in the automotive, home appliance, garment, carbon fibre and water purification sectors. The agreement is similar to an existing partnership between INEOS and Nouryon at their adjacent facilities in Lima, Ohio, United States.

"Our relationship with Nouryon over the past years has proven to be mutually beneficial. We look forward to building on that success, and we are proud that the products developed through this expansion in our partnership will lead to a more sustainable industry," says Hans Casier, CEO of INEOS Nitriles.

The startup of the new facilities will strengthen Nouryon’s global footprint in the supply of biodegradable chelates to Asia, Europe and North America. It follows completion of production facilities at Ningbo, China in 2016 and is the next step to expand Nouryon’s capabilities to meet the needs of its customers in the European market.

"This capacity expansion underlines the company’s strategy of investing in attractive growth markets and its commitment to sustainable growth platforms," said Nouryon CEO Charlie Shaver. "It will enable us to better support the future growth plans of our customers. They will benefit from our continued efforts to improve global supply chain performance and optimization, and the ability to produce more sustainable products."

As MRC informed before, in January 2019, INEOS announced Antwerp as the location for its new petrochemical investment. The EUR3 billion investment will be the biggest ever made by INEOS and is first cracker to be built in Europe in 20 years. The investment is a game changer for the chemical sectors and will bring huge benefits to the Belgium and wider European economies.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 215,390 tonnes in the first month of 2020, up by 23% year on year. Shipments of all grades of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) increased due to higher capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 127,240 tonnes in January 2020, up by 33% year on year. ZapSibNeftekhim's homopolymer PP accounted for the main increase in shipments.

Nouruon is a global specialty chemicals leader.

INEOSis a global manufacturer of petrochemicals, specialty chemicals and oil products employing 22,000 people. It has 34 businesses, with a production network spanning 183 manufacturing facilities in 26 countries.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Malaysia's Pengerang Refining and Petrochemical (PRefChem), a 50:50 JV between Petronas and Saudi Aramco, took its naphtha cracker in Johor off-stream after an explostion and fire at the site with no notice on how long the unit would remain shut, reported CommoPlast with reference to market sources.

The cracker has an annual capacity of 1.2 million tons/year of ethylene and 600,000 tons/year of propylene.

As MRC wrote before, the explosion occurred at PRefChem complex at roughly 10.50 PM on 15 March 2020, which killed five people. The initial report confirmed that the incident took place at the 300,000 barrel per day refinery unit.

CommoPlast has not received any updates pertaining to the production status of downstream polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE) plants following the explosion. PrefChem owns two PP lines at the Johor complex with a combined capacity of 900,000 tons/year, a 400,000 tons/year high density polyethylene (HDPE) line and a 350,000 tons/year linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) line.

As MRC reported earlier, PRefChem abruptly shut down its cracker in Pengerang, Malaysia, on 25 October 2019, due to an unspecified technical issue. The naphtha cracker produces 1.2 million tons/year of ethylene and 600,000 tons/year of propylene. Sources with knowledge of the matter said then that it might take roughly ten days for the cracker to come back online.

We also remind that the company received commercial ethylene and propylene at its new cracker in Pengerang on 13 September, 2019.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 215,390 tonnes in the first month of 2020, up by 23% year on year. Shipments of all grades of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) increased due to higher capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 127,240 tonnes in January 2020, up by 33% year on year. ZapSibNeftekhim's homopolymer PP accounted for the main increase in shipments.

PrefChem is a 50:50 joint venture between Malaysia's Petroliam Nasional Bhd, or Petronas, and Saudi Aramco. The Pengerang Refining development, part of Petronas’ USD27 billion Pengerang Integrated Complex, consists of a 300,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) oil refinery and a petrochemical complex with a production capacity of 7.7 million tonnes per year in the southern Malaysian state of Johor.

Petronas, short for Petroliam Nasional Berhad, is a Malaysian oil and gas company wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia. The Group is engaged in a wide spectrum of petroleum activities, including upstream exploration and production of oil and gas to downstream oil refining; marketing and distribution of petroleum products; trading; gas processing and liquefaction; gas transmission pipeline network operations; marketing of liquefied natural gas; petrochemical manufacturing and marketing; shipping; automotive engineering; and property investment.

Saudi Aramco, officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, is a Saudi Arabian national oil and natural gas company based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Aramco"s value has been estimated at up to USD10 trillion in the Financial Times, making it the world"s most valuable company. Saudi Aramco has both the largest proven crude oil reserves, at more than 260 billion barrels, and largest daily oil production.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China’s Jinxi Petrochemical Corp, a refinery unit of state-owned PetroChina, last week loaded its first shipment of very low-sulfur fuel oil (VLSFO) for marine bunker hub Zhoushan, reported Reuters with reference to parent company China National Petroleum Corp's (CNPC) statement.

The 3,000-tonne cargo was Jinxi’s first export of the cleaner marine fuel to supply international vessels at Zhoushan port in east China, following a government tax-waiving policy in January to encourage exporting the fuel that meets the new global emission rules.

The plant, based in the northeastern province of Liaoning, manufactured the marine bunker by blending semi-refined fuels such as catalytic diesel, vacuum residue and gas oil from coking unit, CNPC said.

One of PetroChina’s nine designated producers of VLSFO, Jinxi will be able to make 700,000 tonnes a year of the cleaner shipping fuel, the parent company said.

State refiners China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC), PetroChina, Sinopec and privately-run Zhejiang Petrochemical Corp (ZPC) were among the first to export VLSFO under the new tax regime, putting the oil into bonded storage in the ports of Dalian, Shandong and Zhoushan.

As MRC informed before, state-owned PetroChina shut its Guangxi Petrochemical in southern Guangxi province on February 9 for scheduled 50-day maintenance. The maintenance should help the refinery to offset stock pressure after product demand slumped due to the coronavirus outbreak.

We also remind that Sichuan Petrochemical (part of PetroChina) undertook an emergency shutdown at its naphtha cracker in Sichuan province of China on July 11, 2018 owing to a gas leak at its natural gas supply pipeline. Further details on duration of the outage could not be ascertained. Located at Sichuan province of China, the cracker has an ethylene capacity of 800,000 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 215,390 tonnes in the first month of 2020, up by 23% year on year. Shipments of all grades of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) increased due to higher capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 127,240 tonnes in January 2020, up by 33% year on year. ZapSibNeftekhim's homopolymer PP accounted for the main increase in shipments.

PetroChina Company Limited, is a Chinese oil and gas company and is the listed arm of state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation, headquartered in Dongcheng District, Beijing. It is China's biggest oil producer.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Arabia on Wednesday denied press reports that Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Investment Khalid al-Falih is having any discussions "formal or informal" with Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak to resolve differences in position regarding oil production policies that surfaced during the OPEC+ meetings in Vienna, reported Chemweek.

The Saudi Press Agency says that while Minister Falih "fully supports the efforts being led by…Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's Minister of Energy, he is not playing any role in these discussions nor is he planning on travelling to Moscow as has also been suggested by some media outlets."

Falih said his mandate remains focused on elevating Saudi Arabia’s position as an attractive global investment destination, and urged the media to avoid publication of any claims that have not been properly corroborated from the appropriate and reliable source. Additionally, Alexander Novak, Russia’s minister of energy, has also confirmed that these claims are false.

On 6 March, The Wall Street Journal reported that the two ministers are expected to meet in Russia to discuss the current situation. This followed a row between the two countries, which sent oil prices tumbling to their lowest level since 1991.

Today, the Saudi press reported that Saudi Arabia is keen to provide continuous global cooperation to maintain stability in the global oil market and to achieve cooperation with Russia, another major oil producer, but Russia did not collaborate.

As MRC wrote before, Saudi Aramco expects the coronavirus impact on oil demand to be short-lived and for consumption to rise in the second half of the year, Chief Executive Amin Nasser told Reuters in late February 2020.
MRC