Russia suspended PC exports in July

MOSCOW (MRC) - Russia's exports of polycarbonate (PC) were 4,700 tonnes in the last seven months of 2014, down 49% compared with the same time a year earlier, as per MRC DataScope report.

As it was previously reported, the only PC maker in Russia, Kazanorgsintez had refrained from export deliveries and focused on on domestic consumers. The company aimed at the gradual import substitution and support of Russian converters, which in the seasonal peaks feel shortage of material because of the high prices for imported PC.

The producer's PC exports were 2.0 tonnes in July. Traditionally, almost all export volumes from the producer occurred for injection moulding grades of PC.

Kazanorgsintez in line with its current policy intends to produce PC within the needs of the Russian market. Monthly consumption of PC in Russia makes about 1,000 tonnes (imported and domestic production).

The bulk of the material produced by the company will be PC granules for sheet extrusion. Extrusion sector occupies about 80% of the PC market in Russia.

Kazanorgsintez shut PC production for maintenances on 17, July. The producer plans to resume PC production on 20, August.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Brazilian state-controlled oil company, Petroleo Brasileiro said its profit fell for a fourth consecutive quarter as it continues to grapple with the high cost of subsidizing fuel imports for the domestic market, as per The Wall Street Journal.

Second-quarter net profit declined 20% from a year earlier to 4.96 billion Brazilian reais (USD2.17 billion), the company known as Petrobras said. Weighing on the company's bottom line was its refining division, which imports gasoline and diesel fuels and then sells them at below cost to help the Brazilian government battle inflation, a program the government started in 2011 and which has cost Petrobras billions of dollars.

Petrobras' imports of oil and derivatives surged 33% in the second quarter from a year earlier to 941,000 barrels a day. The refining division's quarterly loss ballooned to 3.88 billion reais, up 54% from the second quarter of 2013. The fuel subsidy, combined with a massive investment budget, has turned Petrobras into the world's most indebted oil major. Net debt as of June 30 stood at USD109.58 billion, up 16% from the end of 2013.

Petrobras said higher interest expenses and a weaker Brazilian real further ate away at its profits in the second quarter. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, fell 10% on the year to 16.26 billion reais.

Revenues, on the other hand, rose 12% to 82.3 billion reais, Petrobras said, bolstered by rising production of crude oil. Second-quarter oil output reached 2.05 million barrels a day in July, up 6.4% from March. Brazil aims to be among the world's top five global oil producers by 2020, when it expects to be producing four million barrels of oil a day. Petrobras reiterated its target of increasing oil production by 7.5%, plus or minus one percentage point, in 2014.

Petrobras Chief Executive Maria das Gracas Foster said that the company's own output of gasoline and diesel will rise in the second half of the year as production at existing refineries improves and the Abreu e Lima refinery, the cost of which has risen past USD18 billion, comes online.

As per MRC, Petrobras plans to begin production of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resin and polyester fibers at its Petroquimica Suape complex in northeastern Brazil.

Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Petrobras is an integrated energy firm. Petrobras' activities include exploration, exploitation and production of oil from reservoir wells, shale and other rocks as well as refining, processing, trade and transport of oil and oil products, natural gas and other fluid hydrocarbons, in addition to other energy-related activities.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Tobolsk-Polymer (par of SIBUR), Russia's largest polypropylene (PP) producer, has moved on to the final stage of the resumption of its PP production after a scheduled outage for maintenance, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

Tobolsk-Polymer already resumed its PP production after a scheduled 30-day turnaround on 31 July, but the plant's PP production was shut down soon again because of technical issues at its propylene production. The plant had resumed its propylene production by Friday, 8 August, and, consequently, it started to produce PP again.

LLC "Tobolsk-Polymer" is a subsidiary of SIBUR and Russia's largest construction project of a modern PP complex with the production capacity of 500,000 tonnes per year. It is located in the industrial zone of Tobolsk, at the production site of Tobolsk-Neftekhim.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Linde Group, a German Technology company, has added a petrochemical plant business unit to its engineering division offices in Houston, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing with reference to the company's announcement.

The new regional business unit broadens Linde Engineering's capabilities in North America and will serve petrochemical customers on a wide range of projects, from consulting and technical support, revamp and expansion studies to EPC (engineering, procurement, and construction) execution of mid-size projects.

In addition, the new unit plays a role in the project execution of mega-projects, such as the large-scale ethylene plant for ExxonMobil at the nearby Baytown complex in Texas. The go-ahead for the Linde-Bechtel consortium to build this plant was announced in May.

Also, the recently-announced framework agreement with Shell Global Solutions will be supported from the Houston office.

"With the increase in raw materials from US shale gas supplies, investment in new and existing production assets is fully underway," said Bruce Hensinger, CEO of Linde Engineering North America.

"This capacity expansion puts our feet on the ground in the center of the North American petrochemical industry," he added. "Our wide range of processes and upgrade solutions for the industry coupled with a long experience in project management qualifies Linde Engineering as one of the top international EPC companies."

As MRC wrote before, last summer, SIBUR, a Russian gas processing and petrochemicals company, and Linde Group signed agreements to build and operate new air separation units in Dzerzhinsk, the Nizhny Novgorod Region. On a long-term basis, SIBUR will provide Linde with a leased site and power supply while Linde, in its turn, will supply technical gases to SIBUR. Linde will be investing EUR 70 million in the ASUs. The new on-site plants are expected to come on stream at the end of 2015.

The Linde Group is a world-leading gases and engineering company with around 62,000 employees in more than 100 countries worldwide. Linde Engineering offers solutions for the petrochemical industry with a focus on olefins, as well as for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mitsubishi Corp. during May 2014 completed the previously announced shutdown of its No. 1 ethylene facility and No. 1 benzene plant in Kashima, Japan, reported Apic-online.

Mitsubishi earlier said the two facilities would be closed during periodic maintenance in 2013 as part of a structural reform of its basic petrochemicals operations at the Kashima complex.

The ethylene plant had a rated capacity of 328,000 t/y. Capacity of the benzene unit was not available.

As MRC informed previously, Japan's Mitsubishi Chemical Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation, shut its 539,000 tpa No.2 naphtha cracker at its Kashima complex in eastern Japan for about nine days from July 19 for an unplanned inspection. The move comes as the cracker, whose capacity has recently been expanded by about 50,000 tpa to offset lost production from the mothballed Kashima No.1 unit, has been having a problem in the cracked gas compression process.

Mitsubishi Chemical with headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, is a diversified chemical company involved in petrochemicals, polymers, agrochemicals, speciality chemicals and pharmaceuticals. The company's main focus is on three business pillars: petrochemicals, performance and functional products, and health care.
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