Saudi Polymers suspended production at Al-Jubail facilities due to technical issues

(tadawul) -- Saudi Polymers Company (SPCo) shut some of the plants in Al-Jubail, Saudi Arabia at the end of last week due to technical issues, causing these units to not operate as designed, according to The National Petrochemical Company (Petrochem) announcement.

The company decided that it is best to stop production at most of the project units in order to perform the necessary maintenance safely. As of Nov 10th 2012 all production at the plant has been suspended. It is expected that it will take around four weeks for the plant to have all units back up and operating, this shutdown will be reflected in Petrochems 4th quarter 2012 results. We remind that, as MRC informed earlier, SPCo's manufacturing facilities located in Al-Jubail, Saudi Arabia, began commercial production in early October.

Saudi Polymers’ petrochemical complex can produce 1.16m tonnes/year of ethylene; 1.1m tonnes/year of polyethylene; 430,000 tonnes/year of propylene; 400,000 tonnes of polypropylene (PP); 200,000 tonnes/year of polystyrene (PS); and 100,000 tonnes/year of 1-hexene.

SPCo is a limited liability company incorporated in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that is owned 65% by Petrochem, a joint-stock company incorporated in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and 35% by Arabian Chevron Phillips Petrochemical Company (ACP), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chevron Phillips Chemical.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- In early November Ukrainian traders raised the price of PET granulate for the domestic market on average by UAH350-400/tonne, from the last week of October, amid the deficit and increase of the price in the foreign markets, as per MRC Price Report.

Last week the spot price of Belarusian PET in the domestic market was voiced at UAH16,000-16,200/tonne, CPT Kiev, including VAT. Chinese material was offered slightly more expensive. Price quotation of PET of Skypet grade was at UAH16,100-16,200/tonne, CPT Kiev, including VAT.

According to market players, the price increase was due to a local shortage of PET in the domestic market. By the late October, some converters worked out their stocks amid problems with logistics which the disruptions of delivery.

That is why the companies made purchases of PET in the spot market. One of the market participants said, that the supply of the material is tightened and many traders do not have PET in the warehouses.

According to market players, this interest to the material will not last for a long. However, a slight recovery in consumer activity is expected in December, when the major makers of PET preforms begin to produce the finished products for the New Year holidays.

Note that on the date, the price of imported Asian PET with the freight at the port makes USD1,445-1,500/tonne, CIF Odessa, without VAT (lower bound of price refers to the offer from Chinese suppliers, the upper bound - Korean). The price of the bottle Belarusian PET, including delivery, makes USD1,490-1,500/tonne, DAP Kiev, excluding VAT.


MRC

(plastemart) -- Honeywell's UOP granted the third technology license for its breakthrough methanol-to-olefins (MTO) technology to China's Shandong Yangmei Hengtong Chemicals.

The Chinese company will use Honeywell UOP's advanced MTO process to convert methanol from gasified coal into ethylene and propylene. The process combines the UOP/Hydro MTO process and the Total Petrochemicals/UOP olefin cracking process to convert methanol from gasified coal into over 295,000 tpa ethylene and propylene at its facility in Tancheng, Linyi City, China. In addition to technology licensing, Honeywell's UOP will provide basic engineering, catalysts, adsorbents, specialty equipment, technical services and training for the project, which is expected to start up in 2014.

"UOP's advanced MTO solution allows petrochemical producers in China such as Shandong to tap abundant and cheap coal resources, produce high yields of valuable petrochemicals, and reduce operating costs," said Pete Piotrowski, senior vice president and general manager of Honeywell's UOP process technology and equipment business unit. This technology will help Shandong meet growing demand in China for ethylene and propylene."

We remind that earlier this year China’s Jiutai Energy (Zhungeer) also licensed Honeywell’s UOP methanol technology. Jiutai will produce 600,000 tpa of ethylene and propylene at its facility in Ordos City, Inner Mongolia Province, China, as MRC reported earlier. Besides, Honeywell plans to take part in the construction of the facility to produce light olefins in Uzbekistan. The unit in Bukharskaya region will produce 500,000 tonnes of methanol with its further processing into 190,000 tonnes of ethylene and propylene.
MRC

(reuters) -- Arkema, French specialty chemicals company, showed a near 4% fall in Q3 sales volumes, showing how tough times could lie ahead for the industrial sector in Europe.

Arkema, which kept its earnings goals for this year and through to 2015, said some clients had become increasingly cautious in managing their stock levels at the end of the third quarter and added this would likely amplify the usual slowdown in its business in the last three months of the year.

Third-quarter sales volumes dropped 3.7%, which Arkema blamed on a tougher construction market in Europe, echoing comments by rivals such as Bayer. Arkema, like its peers, is sensitive to the economic cycle as it makes a range of ingredients for products like paints, detergents and shampoos used in a host of industries including construction, packaging, cars and electronics.

Construction accounts for about 20% of Arkema's sales and the group's activities centre on PVC or plastics in Europe, including pipes for gas or water or window profiles.

Chief Executive Thierry Le Henaff said it was too early to predict what 2012 might entail for the group, but reiterated Arkema's 2011 goal to achieve core earnings of more than 1 billion euros, as MRC informed earlier. He also kept the company's targets for 2015, including sales of some 7.5 billion euros.

We remind that earlier this year, Akrema announced its 2016 ambition to become a world leader in specialty chemicals and advanced materials. The acquisition of Hipro Polymers and Casda Biomaterials in China beginning of this year and the divestment of its Vinyl business beginning of July, were the last steps of the highly successful turnaround of Arkema into a strong player in specialty chemicals.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Amid strong inter-polymer competition and unfavouralbe global economic situation, innovation will become a driver for polypropylene (PP) sales upturn in Europe till 2016, accoring to 'packaging europe' with reference to a recently published study by Applied Market Information Ltd (AMI Consulting), leading industry consultants.

Europe is the kernel of technical development of PP. European makers had done their best in shifting their PP production towards higher value applications.

The largest amount of growth will account for the production PP packaging, despite low consumers spendign and high competitions in the marekt. PP will lose its market share in favor of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) in a segment roof caps and closures. Recycled PET will also displace the polypropylene from the market, for example, in a segment of the thin-walled packaging. Despite such an outlook and situation in the market, PP is gaining sales due to the introduction of new grades of resin offering high clarity and fast cycling. We remind that Borealis, has just launched the next generation transparent polypropylene (PP) grade Borpact SH950MO for packaging of deep freeze products. It is also an excellent choice for broader consumer packaging and housewares. SABIC has also developed a new brand of high clarity polypropylene SABIC PP Qrystal QR681K, as MRC reported earlier. This random copolymer is an economical, transparent and durable material for the production of bottles, small and medium size.

Automotive sector will largerly benifit from the fastest growth driven by penetration gains. PP producers are offering automotive companies solutions which substantially reduce their costs. The fast intake of long fibre PP should be mentioned in this connection. Thus, as MRC informed earlier, Renault is now launching the New Renault Clio with a thermoplastic lift-gate made with Styron's material solutions, which consits of three parts, namely, Styron's polypropylene compound, long glass fiber polypropylene resin (LGF-PP), PP impact copolymer blended with different components. PP help reduce the cost of cars and also provides excellent opportunities for light-weighting which is a key objective in car design.

The textile segment has suffered since the downturn in construction activity. Residential construction was first hit and is now showing some early signs of recovery, whereas civil construction was hit more recently. Generally PP non-wovens have prospered better than other PP textiles, according to the study.
MRC