Sinopec Yangzi Petrochemical to take off-stream HDPE/LLDPE swing plant in China

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sinopec Yangzi Petrochemical is in plans to shut its high density polyethylene/linear low density polyethylene (HDPE/LLDPE) swing plant for maintenance turnaround, reported Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the plant is planned to be shut in mid-April 2015. It is likely to remain off-stream for around 15 days.

Located in Nanjing, China, the plant has a production capacity of 200,000 mt/year.

We remind that, as MRC informed earlier, in May 2014, SIBUR, a leading Russian gas processing and petrochemicals company, signed a contract with Sinopec to establish a joint venture for the construction of a 50,000 tpa butadiene nitrile rubber plant at the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park, 50km south of Shanghai. Sinopec’s share in the joint venture will be 74.9% and SIBUR’s will be 25.1%.

Sinopec Corp. is one of the largest scale integrated energy and chemical companies with upstream, midstream and downstream operations. Its refining and ethylene capacity ranks No.2 and No.4 globally. The Company has 30,000 sales and distribution networks of oil products and chemical products, its service stations are now ranked third largest in the world.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Export prices of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in the United States continued to grow. Offer prices for March shipment to the CIS markets came very close to USD900/tonne, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

Stable demand for North American PVC from both the domestic market and foreign markets continued to boost export prices. Offer prices for March PVC shipments from the United States to the CIS countries reached USD880-900/tonne CFR.

The March rise in prices of North American PVC was quite significant, as offer prices for February shipments of the resin were heard in the range of USD780-820/tonne CFR.

At the same time, suppliers of North American PVC said demand for resin from the CIS markets has decreased significantly in recent months. Russian and Belarusian companies completely refused from procurement of resin in the US, whereas Ukrainian companies focused on purchasing in Europe and Russia.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Exxon Mobil Corp. sold USD8 billion of debt in its biggest bond offering ever and the largest energy-related deal since the plunge in crude prices that began in July, according to Bloomberg.

The world’s largest oil company by market value boosted the deal by about 14% after previously marketing USD7 billion of debt, according to a person with knowledge of the transaction who asked not to be identified citing lack of authorization to speak publicly. Irving, Texas-based Exxon issued the securities as a combination of fixed- and floating-rate notes in the seven-part sale.

Exxon holds top triple-A credit ratings from Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s, making it one of only three U.S. corporations - Johnson & Johnson and Microsoft Corp. are the others - that stand on nearly equal footing with governments in debt markets. Investors are hungry for the high-quality bonds, as they offer higher yields than sovereign debt.

"There’s tremendous appetite from the investor community to buy high-value corporate names like Exxon and Chevron," said Dan Heckman, a senior fixed-income strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management in Kansas City, Missouri.

As MRC wrote previously, Exxon Mobil Corp. shook off the chill of sanctions and continued to snap up drilling rights in Russia last year, giving it more exploration holdings in Vladimir Putin’s backyard than in the US. Taking the long view, Exxon boosted its Russian holdings to 63.7 million acres in 2014 from 11.4 million at the end of 2014, according to data from US regulatory filings. That dwarfs the 14.6 million acres of rights Exxon holds in the U.S., which until last year was its largest exploration prospect.

ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world's oil and about 2% of the world's energy.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Tosoh (Guangzhou) Chemical Industries, Inc is in plans to restart its polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plant, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the plant is planned to be restarted in end-March 2015. It was shut in end-February for maintenance turnaround.

Located at Guangzhou in China, the plant has a production capacity of 220,000 mt/year.

We remind that, as MRC reported before, on 9 October 2014, Inner Mongolia Yili shut its PVC plant in China for maintenance turnaround. It remained off-stream for around one month. Located at Erdos in Inner Mongolia, the plant has a production capacity of 500,000 mt/year.

Besides, earlier last year, Formosa Plastics Corp (FPC) shut down its PVC plant in China for maintenance turnaround on September 9, 2014. It was planned to remain shut for around one month. Located at Ningbo in Zhejiang province of China, the plant has a production capacity of 400,000 mt/year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Prices for sheet extrusion polycarbonate (PC) seasonally increased in the Russian market, according to ICIS-MRC Price Report.

March PC price from Kazanorgsintez increased to roubles (Rb) 156,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT, up Rb5,000/tonne compared with the February level. The producer also announced a further price rise by Rb5,000/tonne from 15, March. Prices are expected to rise further in April.

The price for imported PC granules for extrusion in the domestic market more depends on exchange rate fluctuations than the market situation. With the strengthening of the rouble prices for European PC have decreased. The low end of price made Rb160,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT.

Producers admitted that the demand in the retail and small wholesale markets has significantly improved since January, which is unusual for the market in a given period. This resulted from the expectations for a further price rise from the products, so market players buy in stock. However, most converters now can not afford to work at full capacity because of the limited working capital.

The peak of this year demand is expected to occur for the late April, not May. Market players do not expect sharp rise in the prices and exchange rates in the period from March to May. If Russian rouble rate stabilises than Saudi Arabian and Asian PC becomes more attractive. Now the shortage of PC is not felt in the market.
MRC