Oil-rich West African nation will be turned into a regional petrochemical hub

(Canadian Business) -- Nigeria's government says it is building eight industrial plants to turn the oil-rich West African nation into a regional petrochemical hub. Minister of Petroleum Diezani Alison-Madueke said Tuesday at a presidential rally in the commercial capital of Lagos that the president had approved the construction of a petrochemical plant in Nigeria, as per Associated Press.

She said it would be followed by two fertilizer plants and five fertilizer-blending plants. She said the plants would create 300,000 jobs. She offered no further details about where the plants would be built or how money for construction would be raised.

The announcement came less than two months ahead of April polls when Nigerians will decide if they want to extend the mandate of President Goodluck Jonathan.

MRC

(ICIS) -- US polyethylene (PE) sellers implemented a portion of their 5 cent/lb ($110/tonne, ┬79/tonne) February price increase initiatives with support from rising crude oil and international PE prices, buyers said on Thursday. A large film manufacturer said most of its suppliers raised prices by 3 cents/lb in February, but a couple held the increases until 1 March.

Attention is now shifting to March contract prices, and producers were taking firm initial stances, invoicing an 8 cent/lb increase to customers. The 8 cent/lb increment is made up of the remaining 2 cents/lb held over from February and a separate 6 cent/lb price hike that has been pending since January. Dow Chemical notified its customers on 3 March of an additional 5 cent/lb price initiative for April.

Producers maintained that the February price increases covered all grades, but high density PE (HDPE) prices were relatively soft in February. Brokers had ample availability of competitively priced HDPE spot material. However, prices have firmed in March, sources said.

MRC

(ICIS) -- Asian polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle-grade chip prices have hit a 16-year high, supported by prevailing raw material purified terephthalic acid (PTA) and monoethylene glycol (MEG) prices, market sources said on Friday. On Friday morning, offers for PET bottle-grade chip prices were pegged at above $1,850/tonne (┬1,332/tonne) FOB (free on board) China and South Korean producers were heard offering at up to $1,930/tonne FOB Korea.

Last week, spot prices of the material were assessed at $1,810-1,830/tonne FOB China and $1,820-1,880/tonne FOB Korea, based on ICIS data.

On Thursday, PTA prices were $32-35/tonne firmer, at $1,495-1,505/tonne CFR (cost & freight) China Main Port (CMP) for South Korean cargoes and $1,512-1,522/tonne CFR CMP for Taiwanese parcels, reflecting current discussion levels.

Meanwhile, MEG prices were at $1,258-1,265/tonne CFR CMP, up by $23-25/tonne from the previous week.

MRC

(ICIS) -- US butadiene (BD) supply will remain tight for the foreseeable future because olefins plants will crack more ethane, limiting the output of crude C4, an industry executive said on Wednesday.

US ethane feedstock usage will continue to grow, Craig Barry, Dow Chemical's co-monomer and global C4s business director, predicted during a presentation at the 6th ICIS World Olefins Conference in Brussels, Belgium.

Ethane presently accounts for around 65% of US cracker feedstocks, but the Dow executive estimated that number would rise to as much as 70% by 2015.

Meanwhile, the use of naphtha as an ethylene feedstock was seen dropping to around 7% in the same period, he said.

MRC

(ICIS) -- Asian naphtha backwardation is expected to widen further, helped partly by lower deep-sea European inflows in April, while a global crude rally has sparked off higher prices of the petrochemical feedstock, traders said on Thursday.

Backwardation spreads - referring to a market where prompt prices are higher than future prices - between second-half April and second-half May contracts widened to $7/tonne (┬5/tonne) from plus $4.50/tonne on the previous week, ICIS data showed.

Meanwhile, the second-half April contract was valued at $1,000-1,004/tonne CFR (cost & freight) Japan on Thursday morning. The contract closed at $990-992/tonne CFR Japan on Wednesday, according to ICIS data. No deals were done.

The Asian naphtha crack spread versus Brent crude futures closed at $133.50/tonne on Wednesday, up $15.62/tonne from last week, ICIS data showed.

Before that, some 200,000-300,000 tonnes of European arbitrage naphtha was expected to be shipped to Asia in April.

MRC