China GPPS imports in August fell 16% on month; HIPS imports increased 10%

(Platts)-- China imported 70,871 mt of general purpose polystyrene in August, a decrease of 16.3% from July and a fall of 24.3% from the same month last year, customs data released Saturday showed.

The main source of GPPS to China was Taiwan with 27,215 mt, followed by Hong Kong with 17,721 mt and South Korea with 16,443 mt.

Asian Petrochemicalscan provides weekly market updates, commentary and assessments ranging from naphtha feedstocks to aromatics, olefins, and polymers in Southeast Asia, Korea, Taiwan and Japan.

Meanwhile, imports of high-impact polystyrene increased 9.7% month on month to 26,949 mt in August, and jumped 30.1% year on year.
MRC

(canplastics) -- Onex Corp., Canadian largest buyout firm, has purchased processing machinery manufacturer KraussMaffei Group from Madison Capital Partners for USD730 million (EUR568 million).

Munich, Germany-based KraussMaffei manufactures machinery for the injection molding, extrusion and reaction process segments. It has approximately 4,000 employees and operates key manufacturing facilities in Germany, Switzerland, Slovakia and China. For the twelve months ended June 30, 2012, the company generated approximately EUR1.0 billion in revenues.

The deal is expected to close by March 2013.

"We’re very pleased to be partnering with Onex given its track record and experience in our industry," commented Jan Siebert, Chief Executive Officer of KraussMaffei. "With Onex' backing, we intend to strengthen our global presence and build on our success at the high-end of the industry."

As per MRC, KraussMaffei Berstorff was selected as the system supplier for high-tech plastics processing machines by Azenco, the largest company in the construction industry in Azerbaijan.

Toronto-based Onex is a conglomerate that typically buys leading companies and holds them for several years with intentions to sell them after their value has appreciated. The company has experience with plastics companies: it previously owned Husky Injection Molding Systems Ltd., and currently owns extrusion equipment supplier Davis-Standard LLC.


MRC

(styron) -- Hong Kong-based Styron has increased prices of general purpose polystyrene grades and high impact polystyrene grades in Asia by USD80/mt on increased manufacturing costs, the company said in a statement this week.

Styron has a 260,000 mt/year polystyrene plant in Hong Kong, and can produce 52,000 mt/year of GPPS and 208,000 mt/year of HIPS.

The price of PS feedstock styrene monomer has increased by USD63/mt, or 4.3%, from USD1,466/mt CFR China on September 3 to USD1,529/mt CFR China on September 25.
SM was assessed at year-to-date high of USD1,572/mt CFR China on September 27.

Styron LLC is a plastics, rubber, and latex company owned by Bain Capital. Styron's annual revenue is approximately USD3.7 billion, and comprises approximately 2,100 employees in 30 countries. Its products primarily serve the automotive, appliances, packaging, electronics.
MRC

(plastopedia) -- The anti-Japanese protests that swept China in the last week prompted injection moulding machine maker Nissei Plastic Industrial to temporarily shut down production there as a safety precaution, as other Japanese plastics firms said they had stepped up monitoring of events.

Nissei said it closed its Taicang factory on 18 September after hearing reports of local demonstrations being planned as part of the territorial dispute between the two countries over ownership of a chain of islands.

It’s not clear if any other Japanese plastics firms closed factories.

Japanese plastic companies said they had not seen any significant impact on business to date, but said the events could have longer-term repercussions. The protests could prompt a rethinking among Japanese businesses about China, Sumitomo said: "All Japanese companies will be forced to review their China businesses in a broad sense."

Nissei said the impact on business and customers was minor. Compounder and material supplier Mitsubishi Plastics said it did not stop production at any of its China facilities. It said it believed that any economic harm would be less than from either the 11 March, 2011, tsunami and nuclear crisis, or the flooding in Thailand last year that damaged many Japanese factories there.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- By the beginning of this week Stavrolen had shut its polypropylene production. The outage at PP production was due to the launch of ethylene production, report MRC analysts.

By the beginning of this week Stavrolen (Lukoil group) had stopped its polypropylene production. The suspension of PP production is connected with the launch of the complex producing ethylene and propylene. The exact dates of the resumption of PP production have not been disclosed yet. It is expected that the outage will last 10 days.

We remind that that following the accident at the ethylene complex on December 15, Stavrolen was forced to suspend production of polypropylene and polyethylene. PP production was resumed in mid-March, 2012, due to the imported propylene. By August PP capacities had been virtually brought to the level of 100% capacity utilization.

The annual PP production capacity at Stavrolen makes 120,000 tonnes. In March-August, the plant produced about 49,000 tonnes of polypropylene.
MRC