Growing trend towards protectionist measures on polymers

(plastemart) -- Governments’ protective measures have recently moved to the forefront in global polymer markets as Egypt, China, Turkey and India have started to apply or are investigating taking measures on polymer imports in an attempt to protect their local producers, as per ChemOrbis. However, converters in these countries are the ones to suffer from these measures as their competitiveness is hurt. Players are also questioning whether the protectionism will solve the problem for these local producers.

It was the beginning of the summer when the Egyptian government imposed temporary protective measures of USD267/ton, or 15%, whichever is higher, on PP imports when an investigation began on the impact of imports on the local market.

Petrochemical producers including PetroRabigh, Borouge, Basell, the Advanced Petrochemical Company and Saudi Polymers looked into the case through their lawyers. The protection fees were to be in place for 200 days, although for now, Omani PP was exempted from the list after the initial hearing.

In Turkey, the government agreed in August to impose a safeguard measure on Iranian LDPE imports for the next three years. This additional duty was added on top of the existing 3% customs duty on Iranian material. As for PET, additional duties of 8% in the first year, 7.5% the next year and 7% in the third year were implemented on imports at the start of this year in Turkey.

More recently, Turkey’s PP and PE markets have been rocked by the news that customs duties on LDPE imports from developing countries have been increased from 3% to 6.5%. Duties on HDPE and homo PP imports from the same group of countries were raised from 3% to 4.8% and duties on these origins will be lifted from 4.8% to 6.5% as of January 1, 2013.

China’s Sinopec has also filed a complaint recently to the Ministry of Commerce regarding the large influx of Iranian LDPE into the country. China is the largest importer of Iranian LDPE and is one of the few remaining export markets for Iranian material following international economic sanctions imposed by the US and the European Union.

Earlier in 2012, India started new antidumping investigations on PVC imports from the US, Taiwan and South Korea. The current anti-dumping duties on PVC are scheduled to expire in January of 2013.

MRC

(upstreamonline) -- Russia’s deputy prime minister with responsibility for energy policy Arkady Dvorkovich has reportedly said he would not support Rosneft buying BP’s share of Anglo-Russian venture TNK-BP.
Dvorkovich said the government had not yet held formal talks on the possible deal with Rosneft, but that "overall, it serves no useful purpose for any state company to expand its role in the economy", according to a report in the Vedomosti financial daily cited by Reuters.

"This purchase won't happen without the government's approval anyway," he added. The deputy prime minister also questioned the Russian state player’s ability to fund the purchase.

"You don't find USD30 billion lying around on the street. This means we have to see how the money would be raised, how quickly it is returned in the form of TNK-BPdividends, how it would affect Rosneft's financial situation, and whether it would bring other projects to a halt," Dvorkovich said.

BP announced in June that it would start the process of selling its half of Russia's third-largest crude producer after years of squabbling with the Alfa-Access Renova consortium of Russian billionaires, which owns the other half of the company.

A month later Rosneft said it was in talks to acquire half of the troubled venture, with talks open to other buyers for 90 days under the TNK-BP shareholders agreement.

Earlier this month Sechin said Rosneft had taken a time-out in talks to buy the TNK-BP stake to avoid falling foul of the shareholder pact.
MRC

(plasteurope) -- Chinese injection moulding machinery maker Haitian International (Hong Kong) generated sales of about CNY 3.2 bn (EUR 391m) in the first six months of 2012 – about 14.2% less than during H1 2011. Total profit even dropped by 19% to about EUR 60m. Haitian said it sold "more than 11,000 units". By comparison, in H1 2011 the company produced almost 15,000 individual units.

The group’s domestic business in particular caved in during H1 2012, as sales in China slumped by 21% as a result largely of fewer sales of small machinery. By comparison, export volumes rose by 2.4% to EUR 123m. Haitian’s sales figures for the first six months of this year also paled in comparison to H2 2011, down by 5.9% overall – a fact for which group CEO Zhang Jianming blames the long holiday period surrounding Chinese New Year.

The Haitian International Holdings Ltd. develops, produces and distributes injection molding machines under the brands ‘Haitian’ , 'Zhafir’ and 'Tianjian' and provides to its worldwide customers comprehensive support services.

As per MRC, the company has imported to Russia more then 400 of injection moulding machinery since 2009; 20% of the total volume has been supplied this year.
MRC

(plastemart) -- After a successful 5-year collaboration Huntsman Polyurethanes and Alberdingk Boley are looking forward to combine their complimentary strengths in a further development in the coating sector by engineering innovative adhesive and elastomer solutions for a diverse range of applications.

Companies partnership started in 2007 with a mutual desire to move the coating industry forward, i.e. to co-develop polyurethane solutions for the coatings market. Their endeavor resulted in development of innovative solutions based on advanced MDI SUPRASEC technology from Huntsman Polyurethanes and Alberdingk Boley’s ALBODUR range of polyols, castor oil-based and solvent-free products, which are helping to deliver high-performance coatings solutions to customers in Europe, America and the Middle East.

At present the two companies are taking their alliance to a new level by targeting applications in the adhesives and elastomers markets.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- In August, imports of suspension PVC to Russia amounted to 36,800 tonnes. Imports volumes of resin from Ukraine and China shrank nearly twofold, while imports from the U.S. exceeded 22,400 tonnes, as per MRC analysts.

Last month, imports of SPVC to Russia made 36,800 tonnes, which is slightly less than imports in July – 38,300 tonnes. Expectedly, a significant increase in imports was provided by the resin from the United States, while the supply of resin from Ukraine decreased almost by half. Import of acetylene resin from China remained at the July level.
Due to the serious decline in export prices in late May and June, Russian companies actively contracted PVC from the U.S.. Cheap North American PVC started to arive to the market in the second half of July and was fully delivered in August. Besides, about 25% of the total imports of the U.S. PVC in August were shipped under the April contracts. As a consequence, last month the total import volume of the North American resin made 22,400 tonnes, up 24% from July.

Supplies of acetylene PVC from China in August actually stayed at the level of July and reached 3,900 tonnes. Serious disruption of the shipments of resin from China (more than 20 days), and suficient supply of PVC to the domestic market made many Russian companies seriously cut purchasing in China. But in late August and early September on the shortage in the market, Russian companies again started actively to import acetylene resin. It is expected that in September, imports of PVC from China will exceed the level of 10,000 tonnes.

Import of suspension from Ukraine in August dropped almost twofold to 4,500 tonnes. The reduction in resin imports resulted from limitation of the Ukrainian rail wagons and planned turnaround of Karpatneftehim. Small volumes of Ukrainian PVC are expected to be delivered in September.

Over the eight months of this year, the total volume of import PVC in Russia amounted to 255,100 tonnes, down 28% year on year.


MRC