PP imports to Belarus up by 6% in Jan-Oct 2020

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Overall polypropylene (PP) imports into Belarus rose in the first ten months of 2020 by 6% year on year to 95,500 tonnes. At the same time, homopolymer of propylene (homopolymer PP) accounted for the greatest increase in demand, according to MRC's DataScope report.
October PP imports to the Republic of Belarus were 11,600 tonnes, which virtually corresponded to the same figure a month earlier. Local companies maintained high volumes of purchases of all grades of propylene polymers in Europe and Russia. Overall imports of propylene polymers reached 95,500 tonnes in January-October 2020, compared to 90,000 tonnes a year earlier; demand only for homopolymer PP increased, whereas demand for propylene copolymers decreased. The supply structure by PP grades looked the following way over the stated period.

October imports of homopolymer PP dropped to 7,700 tonnes from 8,300 tonnes a month earlier, purchases of injection moulding homopolymer PP from Middle Eastern producers decreased. Overall imports of homopolymer PP reached 69,000 tonnes in the first ten months of 2020, up by 14% year on year.

October imports of propylene copolymers to Belarus were 3,900 tonnes versus 3,300 tonnes a month earlier, local companies significantly raised their procurement of injection moulding block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymer) from Middle Eastern producers. Thus, overall imports of propylene copolymers reached 26,500 tonnes in January-October 2020, down by 11% year on year.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Overall imports of unmixed polyvinyl chloride (PVC) into Belarus totalled 44,600 tonnes in the first ten months of 2020, up by 39% year on year, according to MRC's DataScope report.

According to the statistics committee of the Republic of Belarus, local converters reduced their purchasing of PVC in October 2020 on the back of a slight seasonal reduction in demand for finished products, total imports were 5,800 tonnes, whereas this figure was 6,200 tonnes a month earlier. Russian resin accounted for the main decrease in purchasing.

Thus, imports of unmixed PVC reached 44,600 tonnes in January-October 2020, compared to 32,200 tonnes a year earlier.

Russian producers with the share of about 85% 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 5%, respectively, were the second and third largest suppliers.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Thomas Kloster, Senior Vice President, Automotive OEM Coatings Solutions EMEA, BASF Coatings GmbH, Munster, will, as President, assume responsibility for Performance Chemicals, effective February 1, 2021, as per the company's press release.

Kloster will take over from Anup Kothari.

Anup Kothari, President, Performance Chemicals, Ludwigshafen, will assume responsibility for the Division Nutrition & Health, Lampertheim at the same time.

As MRC informed before, Jose Carlos Corral Montilla has succeeded Dr. Marko Grozdanovic to become BTC Europe’s new Managing Director and Vice President. The company is BASF’s European sales organisation which focuses on specialty chemicals. Thus, as of November 1, 2020, Jose Carlos Corral Montilla has become the new Managing Director and Vice President of BTC Europe.

We remind that German chemicals maker BASF said in early November it had put a project to build a petrochemicals complex in India worth up to USD4 billion on hold due to the economic uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. BASF signed a memorandum of understanding with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), Adani Group and Borealis AG in October 2019 to evaluate a collaboration to build the chemical site in Mundra, in India’s Gujarat state.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,760,950 tonnes in the first ten months of 2020, up by 3% year on year. Only high density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 978,870 tonnes in January-October 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports plus imports minus producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply of exclusively of PP random copolymer increased.

BASF is the leading chemical company. It produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Following a 33-year career with Shell, Shell Canada President and Country Chair Michael Crothers has announced he will retire from the company in 2021. Crothers will be succeeded by Susannah Pierce, currently Director of Corporate Affairs, LNG Canada, and a Shell secondee. Both will remain in their current roles until the transition takes place, as per the company's press release.

“I am grateful to have had a long and rewarding career with a company that aligns with my values, working alongside exceptional people who deliver extraordinary results,” said Michael Crothers, Shell Canada President and Country Chair. “We have set Shell Canada on a course for a lower-carbon future and when I pass the baton to Susannah and an excellent team, I have every confidence they will continue to lead Shell Canada into that energy future to provide cleaner energy for Canadians and the world.”

“I’m looking forward to taking on this new challenge with Shell Canada, and am confident that together, we will build on Michael’s positive legacy as we move towards a more sustainable energy future, leveraging the talents of a diverse, equitable and inclusive organization while building relationships with Indigenous Peoples and local communities,” said Susannah Pierce, incoming Shell Canada President and Country Chair. “I’m extremely proud of what LNG Canada has already accomplished, and of the relationships and partnerships we’ve built in developing an LNG industry that aspires to have the highest standards for environmental, social and corporate governance. Rest assured that I will continue to foster those relationships in my new role while building relationships in other parts of the Shell portfolio in Canada.”

Susannah Pierce has held senior positions in the energy and technology sectors in Canada, the United States and Europe, most recently as Director of Corporate Affairs for LNG Canada. She joined LNG Canada in 2013 as a Shell secondee and has been responsible for the project’s federal and provincial regulatory approvals, Indigenous relations and negotiations, government relations, media relations, community consultation and communications. Under her leadership, the project achieved federal and provincial environmental approvals on schedule and received unprecedented support from First Nations, communities and governments. This support underpinned LNG Canada’s Final Investment Decision in October 2018, making it the largest private sector investment in Canadian history.

Prior to joining LNG Canada, Susannah served as Vice President, Value Chain Integration, Shell Canada. In this capacity, she was responsible for identifying new business opportunities across Shell’s multiple businesses in Canada. Prior to this position, Susannah was Vice President, Communications, Upstream International based in The Hague, where she oversaw a diverse communications and government relations team consisting of approximately 200 professionals in Asia, Australia, the Middle East, Africa, Russia/CIS and Europe.

As MRC reported earlier, Royal Dutch Shell plc. said in November that its petrochemical complex of several billion dollars in Western Pennsylvania is about 70% complete and in the process to enter service in the early 2020s. The plant's costs are estimated to be USD6-USD10 billion, where ethane will be transformed into plastic feedstock. The facility is equipped to produce 1.5 million metric tons per year (mmty) of ethylene and 1.6 mmty of polyethylene (PE), two important constituents of plastics.

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

According to MRC"s ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,760,950 tonnes in the first ten months of 2020, up by 3% year on year. Only high density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 978,870 tonnes in January-October 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports plus imports minus producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply of exclusively of PP random copolymer increased.

Royal Dutch Shell plc is an Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the biggest company in the world in terms of revenue and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors". Shell is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Plans for an integrated propane dehydrogenation (PDH) and polypropylene (PP) plant in Alberta, Canada, have been “suspended indefinitely,” according to Pembina Pipeline (Calgary), said Chemweek.

Capital expenditure on the proposed 4.5-billion-Canadian dollar (USD3.5 billion) development by Canada Kuwait Petrochemical Corp. (CKPC), a 50/50 joint venture (JV) between Pembina and Petrochemical Industries Co. (PIC; Kuwait City), was first deferred in March. Pembina now says in a business update that while it continues to believe in the strategic rationale of the project, the “significant risks arising from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, most notably with respect to costs under the lump sum contract for construction of the PDH plant, which remains under force majeure condition, require CKPC to suspend execution of the project indefinitely."

Pembina and PIC will continue to evaluate the PDH and PP facilities, each of which are planned to have a nameplate production capacity of 550,000 metric tons/year, Pembina says. “CKPC is working through a process to manage, defer, or cancel existing agreements with, among others, the lump-sum consortium, lenders, and technology licensers, in order to minimize the need for additional capital contributions,” it says. The JV will continue to take action to safeguard its existing investment associated with long-lead equipment and intellectual property, it adds. Pembina says it will recognize a material financial impairment on its investment in the JV in the fourth quarter.

In March Pembina said planning, engineering, and regulatory work done to date on the deferred project adjacent to its Redwater fractionation complex near Edmonton, Alberta, would allow the company to quickly resume activity to meet customers’ needs when global energy prices and the broader economic environment support such action. The deferred project was due to receive approximately 23,000 b/d of propane feedstock and was expected to come into service in the second half of 2023.

CKPC had signed agreements to use Honeywell UOP’s C3 Oleflex technology for the PDH plant and W.R. Grace’s Unipol process for the PP unit, while a lump-sum engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract was awarded to Heartland Canada Partners, a JV of Fluor and Kiewit.

According to MRC's DataScope report, Russian companies increased external purchases of polypropylene in November, imports reached 20,400 tonnes against 17,900 tonnes a month earlier. Thus, overall PP imports into Russia reached 202,000 tonnes in January-November 2020, compared to 167,400 tonnes a year earlier. Purchasing of all grades of propylene polymers in foreign markets increased, with homopolymer PP imports accounting for the most noticeable rise.
MRC