LyondellBasell's North American PE margins be pressured by supplier outages

(ICIS) -- LyondellBasell's North American polyethylene (PE) margins have continued to be pressured by supplier outages and rising feedstock costs, its chief executive said on Friday.


Speaking on an earnings conference call, CEO Jim Gallogly said the recent fire at Enterprise Products's natural gas liquids (NGL) plant in Mont Belvieu, Texas, had caused the near-term US market to be ⌠quite volatile.


In particular, US ethane and ethylene prices jumped almost immediately, while PE increases were still being negotiated, Gallogly said.


Producers were citing tight industry supply and the rising raw material costs as their rationale for PE increases, he said.


For LyondellBasell, supply was further tightened following the fire when it had to reduce rates and eventually shut down its 789,000 tonne/year La Porte cracker in Texas.


But the company said Friday that it planned to restart the cracker over the weekend, likely loosening supply.


MRC

Plastic Technologies partners with Brazilian CETEA to provide PET packaging training

(Packaging Essentials) -- Plastic Technologies, Inc. (PTI), a global leader in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) design, development and engineering services, is partnering with the Centro de Tecnologia de Embalagem (CETEA) to produce a second technical training conference for the rapidly-growing Brazilian marketplace.


PTI has been a global pioneer and leader in PET package development and production since its inception in 1982. Because of its three decades of solid PET experience, ⌠CETEA believes that PTI is ideally-suited to share its bottle-making expertise with Brazilian companies, said Assis Garcia, director, CETEA.


CETEA, a non-profit packaging research center was established in 1982. CETEA encourages creative ideas and free technical and scientific thinking among all researchers, employees and collaborators in the search for new paths to the progress of society.


MRC

Clariant's pigments business increases prices

(Clariant) - Clariant's Business Unit Pigments, a world leader in organic pigments and dyes, announces price increases across its product portfolio. The adjustments, which take immediate effect, are necessary to recover significant on-going cost inflation in raw materials, labor, energy and transportation.

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Price increases of up to 8% will affect pigments, pigment preparations and dyes depending on the product range and as contracts allow. Selected individual products will experience higher increases due to the severe impact of their specific raw material cost increase.


MRC

Reliance Industries Limited and BP announced a historic partnership

(BP) -- Reliance Industries Limited and BP today announced a historic partnership between the two companies. Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries Limited, and Robert Dudley, BP Group Chief Executive, signed the relationship framework and transactional greements in London.


The partnership across the full value chain comprises BP taking a 30 per cent stake in 23 oil and gas production sharing contracts that Reliance operates in India, including the producing KG D6 block, and the formation of a 50:50 joint venture between the two companies for the sourcing and marketing of gas in India. The joint venture will also endeavour to accelerate the creation of infrastructure for receiving, transporting and marketing of natural gas in India.


The partnership will combine BP's world-class deepwater exploration and development capabilities with Reliance's project management and operations expertise.


MRC

Polystyrene imports to Russia in January reduced twice

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Import supplies of polystyrene and styrene plastics to the Russian market in January reduced twice and made 7.8 KT, according to MRC DataScope.


The biggest recession fell at EPS. Low buying activity in winter period as well as increased cost of materials in the external markets resulted in lowered volumes of supplies by 2 KT compared to the previous month.


The imports of GPPS reduced by 52% compared to December. Import supplies of this material from Europe under the pressure of seasonal factor decreased by 1.2 KT.


At that the biggest recession of imports fell at GPPS, meant for injection-molding and extrusion.


In February considerable growth of polystyrene imports is not expected. By late February the growth of EPS supplies is expected in connection with the preparation of the Russian companies for a new season in 2011.

MRC