Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved the introduction of a 5% duty

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Cabinet of Ministers has decided to introduce an additional 5% import duty on polymers and plastic products. An additional fee of 10% will also be introduced on food and a 5% duty - on the rest of imports, said at the briefing Finance Minister Natalia Yaresko.

She said the decision to impose the additional fee would come into force in the coming days, after the government's preparation of a list of critical imports, which will not be covered by this duty.

As reported earlier, the draft law on import duties, adopted in late 2014, will come into force after the agreement with the commission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

At the beginning of this year, Deputy Finance Minister Denis Fudashkin said the additional import duties of 5% and 10% could be implemented only after a decision of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, which will be issued after the completion of appropriate consultations. They were carried out by the government with relevant international organizations and, primarily, with the IMF, starting from 8 January, when the commission arrived in the country. IMF's commission finished its work on 12 February.

Earlier, 31 December 2014, President of Ukraine Petr Poroshenko signed the law 73-VIII "On measures to stabilize the balance of payments of Ukraine in accordance with Article XII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994", involving the introduction of the additional import duty on 1 January 2014 for a 12-month period.

As MRC reported earlier, the bill provides that the additional import duties should be levied on goods imported into the customs territory of Ukraine in the import regime, regardless of their country of origin. According to the draft law, the import of food products (product groups 1-24, according UKTVED) will be imposed by an additional duty of 10%, the rest goods (group 25-97) - at the rate of 5%. Polymers and products made of them belong to the group 39.

In addition, the rate of 10% government introduces for the goods imported into the territory by Ukraine nationals.
The duties will be introduced during 12 months, "regardless of the country of origin of the goods and trade agreements concluded by Ukraine."

In addition, the rate of 10% is introduced for goods that are imported by citizens on the territory of Ukraine. Under the category of essential commodities for which the fee does not apply, get natural gas, thermal coal, the fuel for nuclear power plants, oil and petroleum products, gold and precious metals, humanitarian aid.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Oman is seeking loans to help finance its USD3.6bn petrochemical project, from banks and export credit agencies, said Researchviews.

The National cited the state-owned Oman Oil Refineries and Petrochemical Industries (Orpic) official as saying that the government plans to develop the 1.1 million ton per year petrochemical plant in the Sohar industrial zone.

Liwa Plastics, an Orpic project, general manager Henk Pauw said that a total of USD600m will be contributed by the government for the USD1bn project.

Pauw said: "We are still talking to banks. We have engaged with export credit agencies." Planned to begin operations in the fourth quarter of 2018, the facility is expected to improve Orpic's petrochemical output to 1.4 million tons annually.

Currently, Orpic is tendering for engineering, procurement and construction contracts, reported the publication. Contracts signing and investment approval are scheduled by October 2015 with construction planned to commence in 2016.

We remind that in late 2012 Orpic announced that its production of world class high quality polypropylene homopolymer at Sohar plant has crossed 1 million tonnes. This was a significant milestone for the polypropylene (PP) plant in Sohar, which began production in October 2006.

Created from the integration of three companies - Oman Refineries and Petrochemicals Company LLC (ORPC), Aromatics Oman LLC (AOL) and Oman Polypropylene (OPP) - Orpic is one of Oman's largest companies and is one of the rapidly growing businesses in the Middle East's oil industry. The refineries at Sohar and Muscat, as well as our aromatics and polypropylene production plants in the Sohar complex, provide fuels, chemicals and feedstock to Oman and to the world.
mrcplsat.com

MOSCOW (MRC) - In January imports of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) in the Russian market decreased by 27% compared to January 2014. Total imports of ABS in the country in January 2015 were 1,750 tonne, according to MRC DataScope.

Injection moulding grades of ABS prevailed in the structure of imports. The share of injection moulding ABS in the total structure of January imports in the country occurred for 93% (1,600 tonnes). The remaining volume of imports occurred for the extrusion grade.

The largest volume of January ABS imports occurred for RS670 by LG Chem production. The producer did not deliver the traditional import brand HF380 in January.

The largest consumers of imported ABS in Russia were foreign companies-producers of home appliances and electronics. Traditionally, these are brands like LG, Samsung and concern BSH (Bosch and Siemens). Koros was the leader among ABS suppliers for Russian companies.

mrcplsat.com

MOSCOW (MRC) -- South Korean petrochemical company LG Chem is in plans to shut a naphtha cracker for maintenance turnaround, reported Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in South Korea informed that the cracker is planned to be shut on March 15, 2015. It is expected to remain off-stream for one month.

Located at Daesan in South Korea, the cracker has an ethylene capacity of 900,000 mt/year, propylene capacity of 450,000 mt/year and butadiene capacity of 145,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote before, LG Chemical is likely to shut its polypropylene (PP) plant in South Korea for a one-month maintenance in late March 2015. Located at Daesan in South Korea, the plant has a production capacity of 600,000 mt/year.

LG Chemical is also likely to shut its ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) plant for maintenance turnaround in end March 2015. It is likely to remain off-stream for around three weeks. Located at Daesan in South Korea, the plant has a production capacity of 140,000 mt/year.

Besides, LG Chem has recently unveiled its plans to shut down a styrene monomer (SM) plant for a one-month maintenance turnaround in South Korea in March 2015. Located in Daesan, South Korea, the plant has a production capacity of 180,000 mt/year.

LG Chem Ltd., often referred to as LG Chemical, is the largest Korean chemical company and is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. According to ICIS report, it is 15th biggest chemical company in the world in 2011. It has eight domestic factories and global network of 29 business locations in 15 countries. LG Chem is a manufacturer, supplier, and exporter of petrochemical goods, IT&E Materials and Energy Solutions.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Russian polycarbonate (PC) was not exported in January 2015, according to MRC DataScope report.

In January 2014 the export of PC granules from Russia were 72 tonnes. Total exports of Russian PC were 7,000 tonnes in 2014, down 63% year on year.
The only PC maker in the CIS, Kazanorgsintez (KOS), last year adopted a strategy of import substitution in the Russian market, which has been successfully implemented within the capacity of the enterprise. It was decided to change the production structure, reducing the proportion of injection moulding grades and increasing the share of extrusion, according to the needs of domestic consumers.

Russian injection moulding PC is in demand in the foreign markets. Despite that Kazanorgsintez's production of injection moulding PC in January significantly exceed domestic demand, the producer does not plan to export it, said the representatives of the plant. The company continues to prepare for the spring season.

Contrary to the deterioration of macroeconomic indicators of the Russian Federation, traders and converters expect a fairly high sales activity in April and May.
MRC