Sri Lanka seeks at least USD1.9 MM damage from owner of fire-hit tanker

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sri Lanka is seeking at least 340 million rupees (USD1.9 million) from the owner of the stricken oil supertanker New Diamond for assistance given to the vessel since it caught fire on Sept. 3, the coordinating officer to the country's attorney general said, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Nishara Jayaratne said the cost was for services provided by various departments including the Sri Lankan navy, air force, ports authority and Marine Environment Protection Authority, among others, up until Sept. 15. The fully-loaded vessel is still in Sri Lankan waters, although the fire was completely doused last week.

Greece-based Porto Emporios Shipping Inc is the registered owner of the 20-year old Panama-flagged large crude carrier, according to Refinitiv data. New Shipping Ltd is the manager of the vessel. The vessel is chartered by Indian Oil Corp to import 2 MM barrels of oil from Kuwait to Paradip in eastern India.

The supertanker was about 90 nautical miles (167 kilometers) from Batticaloa, the eastern province of Sri Lanka, Navy spokesman Indika de Silva said. "We decided to let the salvage master do his job with no restrictions from us on maintaining distance. There is strong current in the area that pulls ship further away. Its hard to pull it back closer to land due to the heavy current," de Silva said.

The ship has left long trails of marine oil slicks. De Silva said all Indian vessels engaged in dousing the fire and subsequent activities had left Sri Lanka.

He also said the USD1.9 million claim was a preliminary sum, as the Sri Lankan Navy was still engaged in the operation. New Shipping Ltd has appointed SMIT Singapore Pte Ltd to lead salvage operations. Salvagers have already vacated the ruptured tank in the engine room and transferred the dirty water into the ballast section.

As MRC informed previously, Indian Oil Corp, the country’s top refiner, is close to winning its first contract to export up to 720,000 tons of clean products to Mauritius under an annual deal from November.

We remind that Indian Oil says it will build an integrated paraxylene (PX) and purified terephthalic acid (PTA) facility at Paradip in Odisha State, India, at an estimated investment of 138 billion Indian rupees (USD1.84 billion). The project will be completed by early 2024, with the complex planned to produce 800,000 metric tons/year of PX and 1.2 million metric tons/year of PTA, it says.

PTA is used to produce polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is used in the manufacturing of plastic bottles, films, packaging containers, in the textile and food industries.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PET consumption totalled 367,720 tonnes in the first six months of 2020, up by 19% year on year. Russian companies processed 62,910 tonnes of material in June.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Datang International Duo Lun Coal Chemical has restarted its two polypropylene (PP) units following a turnaround, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that, the company resumed operations at the units on September 10, 2020. The units were shut for maintenance on July 28, 2020.

Located at Duolun in Inner Mongolia, the two PP units have a production capacity of 230,000 mt/year each.

As MRC reported earlier, in October 2019, Datang International Power Generation, the listed subsidiary of the nation's second largest power producer, China Datang Group, said it expected its profits to be helped by lower coal prices again last year.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, overall PP production in Russia increased in January-July 2020 by 24% year on year to 1,063,700 tonne. ZapSibNeftekhim accounted for the main increase in the output.

Datang International Power Generation Co., Ltd. is a power generation company. The principal activities of the Company are power generation and power plant development in the People's Republic of China (PRC). It is also engaged in activities, including the sale of electricity and thermal power, repair and testing of power equipment, power related technical services, coal trading, chemical products manufacturing and selling, coal chemistry, transportation and recycling.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Celanese Corporation, a global chemical and specialty materials company, has increased September list and off-list selling prices for Vinyl Acetate Monomer (VAM) sold in the Americas, said the producer on its site.

The price increases below are effective for orders shipped on or after 15 September 2020, or as contracts otherwise allow, and are incremental to any previously announced increases.

Thus, VAM prices rose, as follows:

- by USD0.10/lb - for the USA and Canada;
- by USD250/mt - for Mexico & South America.

As MRC reported earlier, Celanese last raised its VAM prices in the Americas on 14 August, 2020, as stated below:

- by USD0.03/lb - for the USA and Canada;
- by USD125/mt - for Mexico & South America.

According to MRC's DataScope report, June EVA imports to Russia fell by 22,5% year on year to 2,940 tonnes from 3,800 tonnes a year earlier, and overall imports of this grade of ethylene copolymer into the Russian Federation dropped in January-June 2020 by 8,16% year on year to 17,440 tonnes (18,980 tonnes a year earlier).

Celanese Corporation is a global technology leader in the production of differentiated chemistry solutions and specialty materials used in most major industries and consumer applications. Based in Dallas, Celanese employs approximately 7,700 employees worldwide and had 2019 net sales of USD6.3 billion.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Overall imports of unmixed polyvinyl chloride (PVC) into Belarus totalled 26,800 tonnes in the first seven months of 2020, up by 17% year on year, according to MRC's DataScope report.

According to the Statistical Committee of the Republic of Belarus, local converters maintained high level of PVC purchasing in July 2020 on the back of strong seasonal demand for finished products, overall imports totalled 5,600 tonnes, as a month earlier. Russian resin accounted for the main increase in purchasing.

Thus, imports of unmixed PVC reached 26,800 tonnes in January-July 2020, compared to 22,900 tonnes a year earlier.
Russian producers with the share of about 83% of the Belarusian market were the key suppliers of resin to Belarus over the stated period. Producers from Germany and Ukraine with the share of approximately 8% and 6%, respectively, were the second and third largest suppliers, respectively.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Imports of polypropylene (PP) into Belarus decreased to about 62,800 tonnes in first seven months of this year, down 3% year on year, compared to the same period of 2019. The greatest decrease in imports accounted for propylene copolymers, according to MRC DataScope.

July imports of polypropylene in Belarus decreased to 7,300 tonnes, while a month earlier this figure was about 11,000 tonnes, local companies reduced the volume of purchases of all types of propylene polymers in Russia. Total PP imports into the country reached 62,800 tonnes in January - July, compared with 64,600 tonnes year on year. The demand for homopolymer PP increased, but demand for propylene copolymers decreased.

The structure of PP imports by grades looked the following way over the stated period.

July imports of homopolymer PP to the Belarusian market decreased to 6,300 tonnes from 7,500 tonnes a month earlier, shipments of injection moulding homopolymer PP from Russia decreased. Overall imports of homopolymer PP reached 45,900 tonnes in the first seven months of 2020, up by 7% year on year.

July imports of propylene copolymers to Belarus were about 1,000 tonnes versus 3,500 tonnes a month earlier, local companies decreased significantly their procurement of injection moulding block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymer) from Russian producers. Thus, overall imports of propylene copolymers reached 16,900 tonnes in January-July, down by 22% year on year.

MRC