Wipak opens new plant in Poland

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Wipak Group, based in Finland, is targeted for further growth in Eastern Europe and hence opened a new plant in Poland, reported the company on its site.

This facility, located in Skarbimierz Osiedele, in Southern Poland about 25 miles south-east of the city of Wroclaw, focuses on the processing and finishing of high-quality composite films for the food industry and for the health care market.

High-quality printed packages are setting the trend in Eastern Europe. In order to meet the constantly high demand, the new factory in Poland focuses on the production, the printing and laminating of top quality composite films for the food industry and for the health care market.

The cornerstone has been laid in December 2012. Now a factory has started to operate "which is technically state-of-the-art and which sets the industrial standards", said Mika Surakka, Wipak Polska's Managing Director. Wipak's new factory in Skarbimierz covers the entire spectrum. The site has sufficient potential for further growth.

"Our customers benefit from the additional capacities, the technical capabilities and a constantly high quality", Surakka emphasizes. "Our packaging materials meet all international hygiene and food standards".

As MRC wrote previously, Poland's state-controlled refiner Grupa Lotos along with chemical producer Zaklady Azotowe Tarnow will construct a petrochemical plant in the country. The project will cost 5-6 billion zlotys (USD1.6-1.9 billion) and its construction is scheduled to begin in 2014 or 2015. The plant should be ready by 2018. The new plant would be adjacent to the Gdansk-based Lotos refinery and would use its products.

The Wipak Group is one of the leading global suppliers of quality packaging films. Wipak offers high-quality multilayer films, barrier films, BOPP-fillms and packaging solutions for food industry and medical, pharmaceutical and healthcare sector.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Rabigh Refining & Petrochemical Company (Petro Rabigh) announces that on October 16, 2013, a leak has occurred in the water pipes that are connected to the Ethane Cracker Unit (EC) and the unit was shut down in accordance to preventive and safety procedures and in prevention of any further technical faults to the unit, said Petro Rabigh in its press release.

Maintenance work of the water pipes is currently in progress and startup of the EC will be in 3 days. This shutdown is expected to have a negative financial impact on the company’s fourth quarter results amounting to approximately 81 mln Saudi Riyals. Further developments will be announced as they occur.

As MRC reported previously, Petro Rabigh had signed an agreement with Tasnee and Saudi Advanced Industries (SAIC) for the supply of propylene oxide to the joint venture for the production of polyether polyol. The plant is located in Rabiga, in the west of Saudi Arabia on the Red Sea. The production launch is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2013.

PetroRabigh, a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Japan's Sumitomo Chemical, has an annual output capacity of 18 million tonsne of refined products and 2.4 million tonnes of petrochemicals.


MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Imports of polystyrene (PS) and styrene plastics to Ukraine decreased by 3% over the three quarters of 2013 (January-September), compared to the same period in the previous year and totalled 49,700 tonnes, according to MRC DataScope.

Reduction of imports was seen in the markets of expandable polystyrene (EPS), general purpose polystyrene (GPPS) and acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS). Imports of EPS and GPPS fell by 15% in January-September 2013. Consumption of ABS plastics in the country decreased by 8%. Market of high impact polystyrene (HIPS) showed a slight increase of 1.8%.
Ukraine's consumption of PS imports in the current year resulted from the general macroeconomic situation in the country. Processing industries and construction sector are going through hard times. According to the State Statistics Committee, the volume of construction totalled hryvnyas (UAH) 39.4 bln in the first nine months of this year, down by 16.2% year on year.

However, Ukraine's exports have increased this year. Exports of Ukrainian EPS and GPPS rose 5% to 6,200 tonnes in January-September 2013.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- An outage at LINIK continued to inhance the dependence of the Ukrainian polypropylene (PP) market on imports. PP imports rose by 27% in January-September 2013, according to MRC DataScope.

PP imports to Ukraine increased up to 100,500 tonnes in the first nine months of 2013 from 79,300 tonnes over the same period of 2012. As expected, homopolymer of propylene (homopolymer PP) accounted for the main growth of imports because of the outage at LINIK (from April 2012).

Imports of homopolymer PP to Ukraine totalled around 76,400 tonnes in January-September 2013, up by 41% year on year. Russian producers, as well as Asian and Middle Eastern producers, have increased significantly their presence in the Ukrainian homopolymer PP market (Russian imports of homopolymer PP rose almost 9 times).

Conversely, imports of block copolymers of propylene (PP-impact) dropped by 16% in January-September 2013 amid weaker demand in the injection moulding and pressure pipes extrusion sectors. Consumer demand for PP-impact in these sectors fell by 18% and 24%, respectively, to 10,500 tonnes and 1,000 tonnes.

Imports of statistical copolymers of polypropylene (PP-random) to Ukraine rose almost by a third this year. The nine months' total grew to about 8,800 tonnes from the last year's 6,700 tonnes. Producers of pressure pipes and moulded products accounted for the main increase in demand, which rose by 89% and 35%, respectively, in these sectors up to 4,600 tonnes and 3,100 tonnes.
Import of other copolymers of propylene totalled about 3,100 tonnes in January-September 2013, down by 18% year on year.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The output of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in Russia fell by 3% over three quarters of 2013 year on year - up to 331,800 tonnes, according to MRC ScanPlast.

Reductions in capacity utilisation during the reporting period caused cuts in production in the third quarter of 2013. The August output declined because of an outage at Polief (reason: the shutdown for the plant's expansion) and Senezh (unscheduled maintenance because of a failure).

Despite the restart of operations at Senezh in late August, the September production remained at a low level. The Bashkir plant Polief did resume its operations in September.

The overall September output in Russia totalled about 28,000 tonnes of PET chips, down by 6% from August. The total production capacity utilisation was 64.5%.

The average capacity utilisation remained low in October. Senezh again shut down its production on 4 October for an unscheduled turnaround (according to preleminary information, it will take about three weeks). A positive factor is the restart of operations at Polief. At the same time, SIBUR-PETF and Alco-Naphtha operated normally in Q3 2013.

Russian producers reached the peak output of PET in July. The July total in Russia was 43,400 tonnes of chips , which was a historical high.

MRC