MOSCOW (MRC) -- Haldia Petrochemicals (HPL), the showpiece industrial project of industry-starved West Bengal, after being shut for over six months, is trying to hobble back to normalcy aided by lenders’ confidence and fall in naphtha price in world market, as per Business-standard.
Price of naphtha, the main feedstock of the petrochemical plant, is at USD400 a tonne as compared to USD1,000 in July, when the plant was shut due to lack of working capital.
According to company sources, the trial run for the captive power plant and the naphtha cracker unit has already begun. The plant has placed order for fresh naphtha and technicians are joining back.
Following the lender’s meet last week and the private promoter, The Chatterjee Group’s (TCG) promise to bring in margin amount of Rs 100 crore, the banks agreed to infuse fresh funds of Rs 800 crore in to the plant. TCG is one of the principal promoters of HPL, along with the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) and now in management control after WBIDC had agreed to transfer its stake to the group.
Their approval is critical before any of the proposals to revive the firm is accepted. HPL management had asked for Rs 1,000 crore to buy naphtha. The plant, when running at full capacity requires around 2.2 million metric tonne (mmt) in a year.
Officials of HPL also said that the fall in prices of raw materials gave them the confidence that even if the working capital is given in small tranches, they can restart operation. Industry experts say that currently the market for injection-moulded products such as syringes, crates, buckets, filaments is showing an uptrend.
But there is caveat. During the long closure of the plant, many longtime customers of the plant, especially the downstream units have started buying products from abroad. At its prime, HPL had a market share of 12.8 percent and a near monopoly in the eastern region.
As MRC wrote before, IndianOil Corporation (IOC) is likely to call off its planned acquisition of the West Bengal government’s 40% in Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL) if The Chatterjee Group (TCG) chief Purnendu Chatterjee is appointed HPL chairman.
Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd is a modern naphtha based petrochemical complex at Haldia, West Bengal, India. Haldia has played the role of a catalyst in emergence of more than 500 downstream processing industries in West Bengal with a capacity to process more than 3,50,000 TPA of polymers, among which are polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
MRC
MOSCOW (MRC) -- Advanced Petrochemical Company is pleased to announce the signing of long-term off-take agreements on January 29, 2015 for the sale of Polypropylene with Mitsubishi Corporation of Japan (150,000 metric ton per annum) and Domo Investment Group of Belgium (100,000 metric ton per annum), to be effective from January 1, 2019 for a period of ten years after the expiry of existing off-take agreements, said Mubasher.
The company also signed on the same date short-term off-take agreements with Mitsubishi Corporation and Domo Chemicals Asia Ltd. (subsidiary of Domo Investment Group) for the sale of additional 50,000 metric ton per annum of Polypropylene for each, to be effective from February 1, 2015 for a period of four years. Such additional Polypropylene will be produced from outsourced Propylene (intermediate product) purchased from a local supplier.
The signing of these off-take agreements will impact the financial results for these years based on prevailing market prices.
Advanced Chairman, Mr. Khalifa Al-Mulhem, commented that securing a long-term off-take commitment from these renowned and experienced off-takers will help to achieve the Company's long term strategic plans and will also improve the profitability of the Company due to improved marketing fee and better terms and conditions.
As MRC wrote before, Saudi Arabia's Advanced Petrochemical Company will raise the production capacity of its polypropylene plant in Jubail to more than 500,000 mt/year, from the current 450,000 mt/year, by mid-2105.
Advanced Petrochemical Company (before Advanced Polypropylene) is a Saudi Joint Stock Company, established in October 2005. The company was initially launched by National Polypropylene Limited, jointly owned by Mr. Khalifa Al Mulhim, the chief executive officer of Advanced, and Mr. Monther Laheeq, who negotiated all the main deals related to the project, either before or after the establishment of Advanced Petrochemical. Currently, National Polypropylene Limited controls 7.9% of Advanced Petrochemical. Advanced Petrochemical started the construction of its plants in May 2005. The company produces 455,000 tons per year of propylene and 450,000 tons per year of polypropylene from its production facility located in Jubail Industrial City, in the Eastern coast of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
MRC
MOSCOW (MRC) -- Imports of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) to the Russian market increased in 2014 by 7.5% year on year and totalled 184,500 tonnes, according to MRC DataScope.
Russian companies were increasing PET imports, despite the rouble devaluation (which led to higher prices of PET grades in roubles) and expansion of PET production capacity in Russia (the launch of the second line at the Ufa plant - Polief). Imports of PET chips grew by 9% to more than 178,000 tonnes.
At the same time, imports of recycled PET from foreign markets fell by 27% to about 6,000 tonnes.
Imports are still expected to fall in 2015. Prices of imported PET are still higher than prices of Russian material, which will affect the preference in procurement this year. At the same time, the eastern regions of the country remained dependant on imports. Converters in the east of the country traditionally use imported Asian PET. In addition, companies prefer to diversify the suppliers by countries in order to reduce the risks of shipments disruption. Therefore, it will be impossible to completely displace imports.
China continues to increase its presence in the Russian market. The share of Chinese grades in the total imports grew to 74% in 2014, whereas Chinese grades accounted for only 55% of the total imports to Russia a year ago.
MRC