PVC prices rose by Rb6,000/tonne and more in July in Russia

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Negotiations on July shipments of suspension polyvinyl chloride (SPVC) to the domestic market began in the Russian market in the end of last week. Because of scheduled shutdowns and a significant increase in prices in foreign markets, producers announced a price increase in July of Rb6,000/tonne or more, according to the ICIS-MRC Price Report.

Due to quarantine restrictions on coronavirus pandemic, demand for PVC reduced significantly in April - May, some converters even had to suspend their work. But the situation has changed dramatically since June due to both the seasonal factor and the relaxation of quarantine.

Demand began to recover dynamically, while the supply from domestic manufacturers was limited due to two turnarounds. PVC prices also increased significantly in foreign markets, which was one of the reasons for the serious increase in PVC prices in the Russian market in July.

SayanskKhimPlast (from 8 July for 30 days) and RusVinyl (from 13 July for 14 days), with a total capacity of about 680,000/tonnes plan to stop their capacities in July. The shutdowns were were announced back in the spring; for the most part, converters were not able to build additional stocks.

Due to quarantine limited demand for finished PVC products reduced significantly in April-May, and no one understood what would happen next with demand. Also, the converters did not have sufficient financial funds to build up stocks.

Demand for PVC began to grow dynamically in various regions of the world, the largest increase in demand was seen in Asia. Because of the recovery in demand and rising oil prices, PVC began to rise in price in world markets.
And if in April the prices of North American PVC for deliveries to Russia reached USD600/tonne, CFR St. Petersburg, and lower, and Chinese acetylene PVC was offered at USD685/tonne DAP Moscow, then by June these prices rose to USD780/tonne CFR St. Petersburg, and USD800/tonne DAP Moscow, respectively.

Demand for PVC from Russian consumers grew quite seriously in June, some converters increased purchases by a third. Buyers were faced with limited quotas from a number of domestic manufacturers in the first month of summer.
The situation with the availability of PVC from Russian suppliers worsened in July, some consumers said that they were not able to fully cover all their needs for PVC.

Some converters intend to cover their current PVC needs with supplies from China and Europe. The prices of the import alternative start from the mark of Rb76,000/tonne, including VAT, and delivery, for Chinese acetylene PVC, European PVC was Rb2,000-4,000/tonne more expensive.

Overall, July deals for Russian PVC with K64/67 were negotiated in the range of Rb78 000 - 81 000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT, up by Rb6,000-7,000/tonne from June, for quantities of up to 500 tonnes.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Air Products (Lehigh Valley, Pa.) announced that its new steam methane reformer (SMR) and cold box in Geismar, Louisiana are onstream and supplying Huntsman’s neighboring industrial operations, said Chemengonline.

Air Products built, owns and operates the facility under a long-term agreement, supplying carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen and steam produced from the facility to Huntsman. Air Products’ SMR is also connected to its Gulf Coast hydrogen pipeline and network system (GCP), which is the world’s largest hydrogen plant and pipeline network system.

"Air Products’ new Geismar facility was successfully placed onstream and met the customer’s desired schedule and product needs. The facility is state-of-the-art and offers high reliability and sustainability, with enhanced energy efficiency and reduced emissions. We have a long-standing relationship with Huntsman, and we are pleased this new world-scale facility and long-term supply agreement expands our support for Huntsman’s operations,” said Dr. Samir J. Serhan, chief operating officer at Air Products.

Tony Hankins, president of Huntsman’s Polyurethanes division said, “We are appreciative of the professionalism and dedication of the Air Products and Huntsman project teams, which enabled the on-time completion of this world scale HyCo facility. The Huntsman Geismar team delivered a significant and complex element of the project, constructing interconnecting facilities and process controls to flow the products and utilities between the sites. The new plant substantially improves HyCo reliability and strengthens the reliability and environmental performance of our upstream MDI-polyurethanes assets at Geismar, which in turn underpins our drive into downstream markets."

The new facility is located on land leased from Huntsman and produces approximately 6.5 million standard cubic feet per day (MMSCFD) of CO, 50 MMSCFD of hydrogen, and up to 50,000 pounds per hour of steam. The facility is also capable of being expanded to increase CO supply in the future to support additional demand.

With the additional hydrogen production facility, Air Products continues to expand the capacity and capabilities of its GCP. Air Products’ GCP, dedicated in 2012, is an over 600-mile pipeline span that currently stretches from the Houston Ship Channel in Texas to New Orleans, Louisiana.

"Additions to our GCP like this one in Louisiana continue to enhance the reliable hydrogen supply to all the customers along the pipeline network. Air Products is always seeking to add product supply capacity from more sources of hydrogen for our customers to build on our well-established pipeline system in the Gulf Coast,” said Bill Hammarstrom, president – HyCO Americas at Air Products.

In January 2020, Air Products announced another addition to the pipeline is coming with an SMR to be built in Texas City, Texas. When the Texas City facility is added to the GCP system, customers will be reliably served by over 1.7 billion feet of hydrogen per day from 24 connected production facilities.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 721,290 tonnes in the first four month of 2020, up by 4% year on year. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments grew partially because of the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 347,440 tonnes in January-April 2020 (calculated by the formula production minus export plus import). Supply exclusively of PP random copolymer increased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sinopec Tianjin Co (Tianjin United Chemical) is in plans to bring on-stream its naphtha cracker following a turnaround, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that, the company is likely to resume operations at the cracker by early-July, 2020. The cracker was shut for maintenance on May 9, 2020.

Located at Tianjin, China, the cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 240,000 mt/year and propylene capacity of 100,000 mt/year.

As MRC reported earlier, Sinopec SABIC Tianjin Petrochemical Co. (SSTPC), a 50-50 joint venture of Sinopec and SABIC, shut its naphtha cracker in Tianjin on 1 May 2020 for routine maintenance work. The cracker is expected to remain off-line until early July 2020. The naphtha cracker is designed to produce 1 million tons/year of ethylene, which supplies several local buyers in the Tianjin area. Besides, the company is also planning to expand its cracker capacity to 1.3 million tons/year in 2021.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 595,170 tonnes in the first five month of 2020, up by 10% year on year. Deliveries of all ethylene polymers, except for linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE), rose partially because of an increase in capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market was 457,930 tonnes in January-May 2020 (calculated by the formula production minus export plus import). Deliveris of exclusively PP random copolymer increased.

China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group) is a super-large petroleum and petrochemical enterprise group established in July 1998 on the basis of the former China Petrochemical Corporation. Sinopec Group"s key business activities include the exploration and production of oil and natural gas, petrochemicals and other chemical products, oil refining.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mammoet transported 22 pieces of vital equipment to the onshore processing facility compression site, as part of the Sakhalin-2 project, despite extreme conditions, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing.

When live, the OPFС will be a part of one of the biggest oil and gas projects - Sakhalin-2, which is expected to be the premiere energy source for Asia-Pacific.

Sakhalin-2 OPF is located on the east coast of Sakhalin Island. The only access for large equipment delivery is via transportation barges passing through the volatile Sea of Okhotsk, which is known for its high winds and stormy conditions. The island is primarily home to abundant wildlife and therefore lacks enough infrastructure to complete projects of this scale. The biggest challenge was the lack of a sheltered port capable of withstanding the weight of the gas production equipment. For this challenge the client needed a partner who could operate in this remote location and within the testing conditions.

The solution created for this challenge was a three-stage temporary beach landing. First, each of the 22 items were individually transferred from the transportation barge to an intermediate barge that was small enough to dock, then to the temporary beach landing facility and finally to the beach. The existing docking bay couldn’t withstand the 500t three phase inlet separator, so it was built a 200m temporary beach landing facility, which for environmental reasons was dismantled after the execution of works so the beach could be fully restored to its initial condition.

The temporary facility meant that Mammoet could transport the equipment off the barge using SPMTs. This transfer was challenging, especially for the items on the single trailers, because it was executed on open sea. Uncertain sea conditions directly affected the behaviour of the intermediate barge, and therefore Mammoet’s engineers needed to make precise calculations for every possible situation so that the transfer could take place. Once this step had been completed, the third and final stage was the 7km journey from the beach to the site.

“The beach landing had several special requirements. It needed to be strong enough to carry the weight of the load, with an added focus on stability to counteract the extreme wind and sea conditions. The nearest settlement was over 100km away, so the smallest details required extensive preparation," Mammoet’s Project Manager, Dmitry Matsiborko said. “The initial schedule for the load-in to the island was 17 days, but Mammoet completed it in five. This successful execution helped us win additional scope for the installation of the three heaviest items at the OPFС site and transportation of the nine heaviest items to the installation area, so we are very happy with our efforts. We will now be able to adopt this same approach to projects with similar challenges in the future.”

As MRC informed previously, in March 2019, Mammoet safely completed a critical lift at Shell’s Pennsylvania Chemicals Project in Potter Township, utilizing its MSG80 to hoist a 2,000 ton quench tower into position. The facility is the first major US project of its kind to be built outside of the Gulf Coast region in 20 years. Once operational, the facility will boast an ethane cracker and three polyethylene units.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 721,290 tonnes in the first four month of 2020, up by 4% year on year. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments grew partially because of the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 347,440 tonnes in January-April 2020 (calculated by the formula production minus export plus import). Supply exclusively of PP random copolymer increased.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- PTT Global Chemical Public Co Ltd has postponed maintenance schedule at its linear low density polyethylene plant (LLDPE) plant to end of July 2020, reported CommoPlast with reference to market sources.

Based in Map Ta Phut, Thailand, the LLDPE unit has a production capacity of 400,000 tons/year. The plant is expected to remain off-stream for 20 days.

As MRC wrote before, PTT started commercial operations at its new 400,000 mt/year metallocene C6 linear low density polyethylene plant (MLLDPE) at Map Ta Phut, Thailand, in the first quarter of 2018.

Previously, PTT had a total capacity of 800,000 mt/year of high density polyethylene (HDPE), 300,000 mt/year of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and 400,000 mt/year of LLDPE at the same site.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, April LLDPE shipments to Russia rose to 42,830 tonnes from 36,790 tonnes a month earlier, production increased. Russia's overall LLDPE shipments totalled 152,840 tonnes in the first four months of 2020, up by 13% year on year. SabSibNeftekhim accounted for the main increase in shipments.

PTT Global Chemical is a leading player in the petrochemical industry and owns several petrochemical facilities with a combined capacity of 8.45 million tonnes a year.
MRC