US ethylene exports drop and shift from Asia to Europe as producers focus on restocking inventories

MOSCOW (MRC) -- US ethylene exports have declined and shifted from Asia to Europe as US producers focus on restocking inventories in the aftermath of a deep freeze that hit the US Gulf Coast in mid-February and subsequent operational issues that squeezed output, reported S&P Global with reference toNavigator Gas CEO Henry Deans' statement Aug. 17.

"Although production rates have increased, they have not risen as quickly as predicted and have therefore taken some time to replenish the ethylene pipeline," he said during the company's Q2 2021 earnings call.

"This, coupled with production hiccups, patchy cracker reliability and strong domestic demand and pricing has favored just domestic supply over exports, which had an all-on impact on our shipping business," Deans said.

Navigator is a 50% partner in Enterprise Products Partners' 1 million mt/year ethylene export terminal on the Houston Ship Channel.

The freeze brought sustained subfreezing temperatures to the US Gulf Coast and much of the US in mid-February, forcing more than 70% of 40 million mt/year of US ethylene capacity offline for several weeks.

Subsequent production headwinds continued into Q3 2021, Deans said, "and currently show no signs of abating."

He said US ethylene inventories remain at five-year lows amid hurricane season, and producers remain focused on building inventory. August and September tend to be the months during the June-November US Atlantic hurricane season when major storms are most likely to develop and hit the US Gulf Coast.

As MRC informed previously, Enterprise Product Partners' PDH unit in Mont Belvieu was taken off-line for a turnaround in early February. Thus, the PDH unit was shut for scheduled maintenance on Feb. 1 for approximately six weeks. This PDH unit has the capacity of 750,000 mt/y of propylene.

Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,176,860 tonnes in the first half of 2021, up by 5% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 727,160 tonnes in the first six months of 2021, up by 31% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased. Supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ukraine's polypropylene (PP) imports totalled about 71,800 tonnes in January-July of this year, down 5% year on year.
Only some grades of propylene copolymers imports have grown, according to MRC's DataScope.

July PP imports to Ukraine increased to 12,200 tonnes from 9,800 tonnes a month earlier, local companies increased their purchasing of homopolymer PP in Russia. Overall imports of propylene polymers reached 71,800 tonnes in January-July 2021, compared to 75,600 tonnes a year earlier. The main decrease in imports accounted for homopolymer PP, while imports of some propylene copolymers increased.

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

July imports of propylene homopolymers to the Ukrainian market exceeded 9,300 tonnes from to the Middle Eastern and Russian producers, while in June this figure was about 7,500 tonnes. Thus, overall homopolymer PP imports reached 53,500 tonnes in the first seven months of 2021, down by 10% year on year.

Last month's imports of block copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) were about 1,100 tonnes, compared to 800 tonnes in June, demand for injection moulding PP block copolymers increased. About 6,900 tonnes of PP block copolymers were imported in the seven months of this year, compared to 7,100 tonnes a year earlier.

July PP random copolymers imports increased to 1,500 tonnes from 1,100 tonnes a month earlier, supplies of pipe polypropylene increased.
Total PP random copolymer imports to Ukraine reached 9,300 tonnes in the first seven months of the year, compared with 8,300 tonnes year on year. Overall imports of other propylene copolymers totalled slightly over 2,100 tonnes over the stated period.

MRC

1. Lotte Chemical uses BASF stabilizer to deliver high-clarity medical PP for syringes used in COVID-19 vaccinations

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Lotte Chemical, a major Korean chemical company, has produced the polypropylene (PP) required for medical applications using BASF’s Irgastab, a non-discoloring processing stabilizer. With the rollout of COVID-19 vaccinations worldwide, the need for syringes made from PP has increased exponentially, as per BASF's press release. Lotte Chemical’s medical PP has been applied to the LDS (low dead space) syringes developed by a medical syringe manufacturer in South Korea. These specialized products are designed to minimize the amount of a drug left in the device after injection which leads to reduced vaccine wastage. As a result, LDS syringes are in huge demand globally as it is estimated to enable 20% more people to get the dose with the same amount of vaccine.




MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Crude oil futures were higher during mid-morning trade in Asia Aug. 18 following the decline in US inventories, as per the American Petroleum Institute's latest data, but the upside was capped by a stronger US dollar and prevailing concerns over the spread of the COVID-19 delta variant, reported S&P Global.

At 12.30 pm Singapore time (0430 GMT), the ICE October Brent futures contract was up 24 cents/b (0.34%) from the previous close at USD69.27/b, while the NYMEX September light sweet crude contract was up 23 cents/b (0.34%) at USD66.86/b.

US crude inventories declined by about 1.16 million barrels for the week ended Aug. 13, latest data from the API showed, while China, the world's largest energy consumer, has reported that its daily crude processing in July had dived to its lowest in nearly 15 months. The API data also showed that gasoline inventories declined by about 1.2 million barrels last week, compared with a 1.1 million-barrel draw the prior week.

However, analysts said further upside was capped by a stronger US dollar as disappointing economic data from China and the spread of the delta variant weighed on the risk appetite for commodity prices.

"The strengthening of the dollar has potentially added to the downward pressure of the oil prices," said Vandana Hari, CEO at Vanda Insights on Aug 18, added that oil prices has been impacted by the outbreak of delta variant which has created significant downside risk for the oil market. Despite the grim situation, she expects the impact of the delta variant to be short lived and fall of the oil prices could be nearing its bottom.

ANZ research analysts said that poor data out of China remains a concern as mobility in key cities such as Beijing has been curtailed by authorities trying to curb the outbreak.

As MRC informed earlier, crude oil stockpiles fell modestly last week, while gasoline inventories dipped to their lowest level since November, according to the US Energy Information Administration. Crude inventories fell by 447,000 barrels in the week to Aug. 6 to 438.8 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.3 million-barrel drop. Overall crude inventories have been on the decline for several weeks due to increased demand.

We remind that US crude oil production is expected to fall by 160,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2021 to 11.12 million bpd, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a monthly report, a smaller decline than its previous forecast for a drop of 210,000 bpd.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Zhejiang Petrochemical Co Ltd managed to produce on-specification acrylonitrile (ACN) from its new No. 2 ACN plant at Zhoushan in eastern China's Zhejiang province on 12 August, 2021, reported S&P Global.

This plant's production capacity is 260,000 mt/year of ACN.

The company also operates No.1 ACN plant at the same site. It can produce 260,000 mt/year of ACN.

As MRC informed previously, Zhejiang Petrochemical started up No.1 ACN plant on 23 June, 2020, and produced on-specification material in the week ended 4 July.

We remind that the company started up its ethylene cracker in late December 2019 and its polyolefin plants in late December 2019-January 2020.

ACN is the main feedstock for the production of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS).

According to ICIS-MRC Price report, ABS imports into Russia rose in the first half of 2021 by 40% year on year to 20,900 tonnes from 15,000 tonnes a year earlier. The share of South Korean shipments fell to 56% (11,800 tonnes) from 60% (9,000 tonnes) a year earlier.
MRC