MRC team wishes Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Dear readers of MRC!

We congratulate you on Christmas and New Year!

We wish you every happiness this Holiday season and throughout the coming year.

All of MRC staff join in saying "thank you" and wishing you a happy holiday and prosperous new year.

On this special day, we wish you happiness, prosperity and success, hoping that we continue our association through many more wonderful years ahead!

Best wishes,

MRC staff.

MRC

Cangzhou Dahua starts up new PC plant in China

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China's Cangzhou Dahua New Material has announced that it has started up its new polycarbonate (PC) plant at Cangzhou in Hebei province, according to Equalocean.

The new facility can produce 100,000 mt/year of PC. The company has already achieved on-spec production at this plant.

The project will help to improve Cangzhou Dahua's advantages and competitiveness, as per the company's statement.

Construction of the new PC plant began in early 2019.

As MRC reported earlier, the total investment for the plant is estimated at CNY2.1bn (US298m), although initially it was planes at CNY1.6bn.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated consumption of PC granules (excluding imports and exports to\\from Belarus) rose in January-November 2020 by 18% year on year to 83,600 tonnes (70,600 tonnes a year earlier).
MRC

Sabic requests term limit for Clariant board members

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Clariant’s biggest shareholder, Saudi Basic Industries Corporation, on Monday re-ignited a battle over the Swiss chemicals maker’s future by seeking a 12-year board member term limit that would force Chairman Hariolf Kottmann’s ouster, said Reuters.

SABIC, which owns 31.5% of Clariant, asked for the new term limit, including for the chairperson, to be added to the agenda of the annual general meeting of shareholders scheduled for April 7. Aramco-controlled SABIC also proposed a special dividend distribution of 2 Swiss francs per share, Clariant said in a statement, which would total roughly 670 million francs (USD753 million).

That could drain the company’s coffers that new CEO Conrad Keijzer might otherwise use to bulk up via acquisitions that he has said are a priority. Kottmann, who became CEO and joined Clariant’s board in 2008, has been at odds with SABIC since a proposed joint venture between the two companies collapsed in 2019 over disagreements over the price of the Saudi Arabian company’s assets.

The sudden departure of Ernesto Ochiello, a longtime SABIC executive who quit as Clariant CEO in July 2019 after less than a year in the job, further signalled differences between Kottmann and his top shareholder.

Ochiello returned to SABIC after leaving Clariant. A Clariant spokesman said the Swiss company and SABIC continued to have a “professional relationship”, and the Saudi company remained an important customer. He said Clariant’s board would discuss SABIC’s proposals at an upcoming meeting.

Clariant, which is selling its pigments unit and cutting 1,000 jobs amid plans to dispose of divisions that make up two-thirds of annual sales, confirmed adoption of the term limits at the shareholders meeting would force Kottmann out, though other board members have several years before they would be affected.

As MRC informed earlier, Sabic intends to raise the prices of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and polycarbonate (PC) in the United States from January 11. The company increases the prices of LEXAN PC by 20 cents per kg (USD198 per ton), PC compound and CYCOLOY ABS by 20 cents per kg (USD198 per ton), CYCOLAC ABS by 20 cents per kg (USD198 per ton), PC GELOY ASA at 20 cents per kg (USD198 per tonne).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated consumption of PC granules (excluding imports and exports to\\from Belarus) rose in January-November 2020 by 18% year on year to 83,600 tonnes (70,600 tonnes a year earlier).

The Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC), established in 1976, is a diversified company manufacturing chemicals and intermediates, industrial polymers, fertilizers and metals. Today SABIC is the largest industrial concern in the Persian Gulf, producing about 10% of all world petrochemical products. The state owns 70% of the share capital of SABIC.
MRC

Russian LDPE market: 2020 year results

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Demand for low density polyethylene (LDPE) subsided in Russia in 2020 by 2% after an increase a year earlier. At the same time, prices have reached a record level over the past five years and continued to rise, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.
Quarantine restrictions in April-May led to a significant reduction in demand for LDPE in Russia, despite seasonal factors. But already from mid-summer, processing volumes began to recover dynamically and remained at a good level until the end of the year. However, according to preliminary results, demand for LDPE showed a negative result in 2020. At the same time, the dynamically growing polyethylene (PE) prices in Asia have begun to put a major pressure on prices in the Russian market for the past two months of the year, and already in December, prices of Russian LDPE exceeded Rb100,000/tonne.


Russian producers failed to maintain last year's LDPE production figures. LDPE output totalled 574,600 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2020, down by 2% year on year. And lower PE production was largely due to the increase in the time of shutdowns for repairs at some plants.

Exports grew only by 1% to 171,700 tonnes. At the same time, export volumes were quite high in the first quarter, after which Russian producers reduced their sales to foreign markets. Higher exports was also registered in the past two years because of high prices in Asia.

LDPE imports to the Russian market increased. Overall PE imports exceeded 103,400 tonnes in January-November 2020, up by 5% year on year. At the same time, imports grew from both Belarus and Europe.

Thus, demand for LDPE was 506,320 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2020 versus 514,500 tonnes a year earlier.

All five producers shut their production capacities for scheduled maintenances this year. Traditionally, Angarsk Polymers Plant and Gazprom neftekhim Salavat shut their production in July-August. For a number of reasons, Kazanorgsintez took off-stream its production capacities twice this year: in April-May and September-October.

LDPE prices reached their lowest level in the second half of May-early June, and prices of some grades fell below Rb70,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT. But already in the second half of the first month of summer, PE prices began to go up, which was due to the upcoming shutdowns for turnarounds at plants in Angarsk and Salavat. In September, LDPE prices exceeded Rb100,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT, and after a slight decrease in October, prices resumed their upward trend in November under the pressure of the dynamic price growth in Asia.

Thus, December LDPE prices exceeded Rb102,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT, breaking the 2016 year record. And some producers have already announced a further increase in January LDPE prices.

MRC

Enterprise-Navigator JV commissions new tank, benefits USGC ethylene exports

Enterprise-Navigator JV commissions new tank, benefits USGC ethylene exports

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Enterprise Products and Navigator Holdings started service at a new refrigerated ethylene storage tank at an ethylene export terminal on the Houston Shipping Channel, said Chemweek.

The export terminal is owned by a joint venture, in which Enterprise and Navigator Holdings hold equal stakes. The tank has a storage capacity of 30,000 tons, Enterprise and Navigator said. They did not specify if the capacity was listed in short tons or metric tonnes.

The tank will make it faster to load vessels, allowing the terminal to reach its export capacity of 1m tons/year of ethylene, the companies said. Navigator Atlas was the first vessel to use the service. It loaded up on 23 December. Navigator Atlas has a capacity of 21,000 cubic metres of ethylene.

As MRC informed before, Enterprise Products Partners and LyondellBasell Industries said in September 2019 they had executed long-term contracts to support construction of EPD's second propane dehydrogenation plant at the Mont Belvieu, Tex. complex. The decision to build the PDH 2 plant stems from recently executed long-term polymer grade propane (PGP) supply contracts between Enterprise and LyondellBasell Industries N.V.

Besides, we remind that Enterprise Products Partners' Mont Belvieu PDH in Texas restarted from planned maintenance in the first week of December, 2019. The PDH unit went offline for maintenance on November 13, 2019. That day, the company said in a filing with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality that the RAC "B" turbine shut down, which resulted in flaring. The flaring was estimated to last 72 hours. The unit has a capacity of 750,000 mt/year.

Ethylene is a feedstock for producing PE.

According to MRC's DataScope report, PE imports to Russia decreased in January-November 2020 by 17% year on year and reached 569,900 tonnes. High density polyethylene (HDPE) accounted for the greatest reduction in imports.
MRC