PKN ORLEN signs agreement with Devonoil for crude oil deliveries

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Polish PKN ORLEN, one of the largest oil and gas companies in Europe, has signed a spot agreement with Devonoil, Switzerland, for crude oil deliveries to PKN ORLEN, according to the company's press release.

The estimated net value of the agreement amounts to approximately USD 80 million (i.e. approximately PLN 254 million.

The total estimated value of agreements signed between PKN ORLEN and Devonoil in the last twelve months amounts to approximately USD 761 million (i.e. approximately PLN 2 428 million.

Agreement dated 31 January 2013 is the agreement with the highest amount from among all agreements concluded between PKN ORLEN and Devonoil in the last twelve months.

As MRC informed previously, in mid-June PKN Orlen offered for sale a second PLN 200m tranche of its bonds and expects the proceeds from the entire bond issue programme to reach approximately PLN 1bn. This move was done in response to the enormous interest in PKN Orlen bonds on the part of investors, who subscribed to the entire PLN 200m of the first series of bonds in just two days.

Polski Koncern Naftowy ORLEN S.A. (PKN Orlen) is a Polish oil and gas company. It has a lot of petrol stations in Poland, Germany, Czech Republic, Lithuania and Slovakia. It is the biggest company in Poland and one of the biggest oil and gas companies in Europe. Polish group PKN Orlen PKNA is a majority owner - 63% of czech polyolefins manufacturer Unipetrol.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ukrainian companies have been increasing actively supplies of Chinese PET grades this year. In January-July the share of Chinese PET chips in the structure of imports grew to 69% year on year, according to MRC DataScope.

In January-July 2012, China's share was 48%.

The overall imports of Chinese bottle PET totalled about 80,000 tonnes in January-July, 2013. (The total PET imports to Ukraine amounted to about 115,000 tonnes over the same period).

The share of Pakistani and Korean suppliers has been falling amid increasing shipments of the Chinese material. If the share of Pakistani suppliers accounted for almost 19% of the overall purchases in January-July 2013, in the current reporting period, their supplies to Ukraine dropped by 1%. Imports of Korean PET decreased from 8% to 0.5% in the total structure of PET chips shipments to the country.

The reason for such a sharp shift towards the Chinese material is mainly the price. Prices for Chinese PET in the Ukrainian port were USD1,495-1,510/tonne CIF Odessa, excluding VAT, last week, whereas prices for Korean material were USD1,530-1,540/tonne CIF Odessa, excluding VAT. This price difference was maintained throughout the year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The injection moulding machine manufacturer Sumitomo Demag Plastics Machinery and its Chinese subsidiary Demag Plastics Machinery (DPG) in Ningbo are planning to expand production capacity in China from 650 to 1,000 injection moulding machines/year, through an investment of EUR7 million, reported the company on its site.

DPG is currently producing the Systec C machine series in Ningbo with a clamping force ranging from 50-1,000 tonnes. In the future, further machine series from the Sumitomo (SHI) Demag product range will be produced in China. In addition, the firm expects to increase its exports of 25%. Besides the local market, DPG also exports the machinery to Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.

The expansion of production capacity allows the company to meet the increased demand in China and other markets and pave the way for further increase in its market share, according to Stephan Greif, CEO of Demag Ningbo, who has been managing the Ningbo site since 2005.

As MRC reported previously, Sumitomo Demag Plastics, with its head office in Schwaig near Nuremberg, has introduced two further injection moulding machines with clamping forces of 1,600 and 10,000 kN for customers' testing. In both plants, a specially equipped Application Centre is used for customer trials, machine acceptances and performance tests, but also for internal tests, presentations and for adding larger production cells.

Sumitomo Demag Plastics Machinery is a specialist company for the manufacturing of injection moulding machines for plastics processing. Sumitomo (SHI) Demag together with its Japanese parent group ranks among the leading companies in this industry worldwide. At 5 production locations in Germany, Japan and China more than 3,000 employees develop and manufacture a range of all-electric, hybrid and hydraulic injection moulding machines
with clamping forces ranging from 180 kN to 40,000 kN.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Chinese petrochemicals sector is seeing slightly more robust growth, particularly in olefins, but this is insufficient to absorb ongoing increases in capacities, as per Plastemart.

Combined with feedstock cost rises, this will cause a narrowing of margins. As per Business Monitor Index, coal-to-methanol production should ease the situation over the medium term and reduce net imports in some segments.

The total value of petrochemical production in China grew 11.6% year on year to CNY1.72 trn during the first two months of the year with the value of imports rising 24.1% to USD19.6 bln and exports growing 5% to USD13.8 bln.

In the first four months of the year, ethylene output rose by 3.3% y-o-y to 5.3 mln tons while primary plastics output grew 9.6% to 18.27 mln tons and plastic products output rose by 2.2% to 18.96 mln tons.

Growth in ethylene output came after a dismal performance in 2012, when production fell by just over 2% to under 15 mln tons, in spite of 20% growth in cracker capacity to 21.56 mln tons.

As MRC reported earlier, the total profit of China's petrochemical industry for 2012 decreased by 6% year-on-year to approximately CNY 750 billion, according to China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association (CPCIA).

The global petrochemicals market was valued at USD472.06 bln in 2011 and is expected to reach USD791.05 bln by 2018, growing at a CAGR of 6.7% from 2012 to 2018. In terms of volume, the global petrochemicals consumption was 436.86 mln tons in 2011 and is expected to reach 627.51 mln tons by 2018, growing at a CAGR of 5.4% from 2012 to 2018, as per Transparency Market Research.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Expanding its integrated science capabilities at the DuPont Knowledge Center in Hyderabad, India, DuPont has opened an Application Development Center focused on integrating advanced material science with other scientific disciplines for the automotive industry, enabling solutions for light-weighting, engine performance, comfort and safety, according to the company's press release.

These capabilities also are relevant to other industries such as railways, electrical/electronic components, food processing, agriculture, irrigation, textile and many more.

At the Application Development Center, DuPont’s integrated science brings value-added solutions to customers in these industries enabling better, safer and sustainable products for consumers.

"The integration of scientific disciplines in advanced materials, such as high-performance polymers and elastomers, are critical to developing cost-effective and sustainable solutions to some of the big challenges that our company is focusing on, for example, reducing our dependence on fossil fuels," said DuPont Performance Polymers President Diane H. Gulyas.

This new facility is part of the global DuPont community of 10,000 scientists and engineers around the world, thus connecting the company's global science capability to local market needs.

The new Application Development Center at the DuPont Knowledge Center (DKC) houses thermoplastic and elastomer processing and testing equipment and leverages existing analytic equipment shared with several DuPont science disciplines. It complements the manufacturing facilities in Savli, Gujarat, and the DuPont India Innovation Center in Pune.

The DuPont Knowledge Center is one of the four regional R&D centers of DuPont and undertakes research as well as applications development focused on science-based solutions that meet the society’s needs for more and better food, access to reliable and uninterrupted energy, better mobility and protection of people and the environment. In total, DuPont has more than 150 R&D facilities around the world.

As MRC wrote previously, DuPont Co.is considering a spinoff or sale of its performance chemicals unit, which makes titanium dioxide pigment and Teflon coatings, to focus on less cyclical products and boost shareholder returns.

DuPont is an American chemical company that was founded in July 1802. It is the world's ninth largest chemical company based on revenue in 2012. DuPont developed many polymers such as Vespel, neoprene, nylon, Corian, Teflon, Mylar, Kevlar, Zemdrain, M5 fiber, Nomex, Tyvek, Sorona and Lycra. DuPont developed Freon (chlorofluorocarbons) for the refrigerant industry, and later more environmentally friendly refrigerants. It developed synthetic pigments and paints including ChromaFlair.
MRC