MOSCOW (MRC) - The price of polypropylene (PP) peaked in early April in the Russian market, and after that the polymer became cheaper. PP prices increased again in the second half of August on the back of upcoming scheduled maintenance works stops of three producers in September-October, according to the ICIS-MRC Price Report.
The dynamically growing prices of polypropylene in Europe and Turkey in the first quarter have affected the Russian market as well, polymer prices in Russia reached record levels in history. The situation began to gradually improve since the second half of April, and PP prices began to steadily decrease until the beginning of August.
But the situation began to change already in the middle of the month, and the PP prices increased at several sellers.
The supply of polymer has noticeably decreased, and three producers will start preventive repairs at once in September-October. The exact dates of the turnaround were officially announced only by Stavrolen, the maintenance works are scheduled from 13 October. The outage will be quite long and will last for about 26 days.
The plant's annual production capacity is 120,000 tonnes.
Poliom and Ufaorgsintez have not officially announced their plans regarding the dates of preventive maintenance works. They are planned in September and will take no more than two weeks from each side. The plants' production capacities are 230,000 and 140,000 tonnes per year, respectively.
This year, imports of inexpensive polypropylene from Turkmenistan have significantly decreased. Imports of Turkmen PP have slightly exceeded 10.300 tonnes over the seven months, which is almost two times less than a year earlier.
And at the moment, the supply of Turkmen polypropylene on the Russian market is virtually completely absent.
Demand for finished goods was mixed in August.
Some converters have been restricting their purchases for several months, hoping for even greater price reductions.
Demand from the converters have improved this month. By the beginning of August, spot homopolymer PP of the raffia grade at some sellers fell in price to Rb144,000-146,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT.
But already a week later, because of strong demand and a reduction in supply, polypropylene began to rise in price.
By the second decade of August , prices of homopolymer PP grade had increased to Rb147,000 - 152,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT, and lower.
MRC