BASF restructures its EPS business

(BASF) -- BASF is focusing its global Styropor (expandable polystyrene) activities on strategic markets and core products with better profitability due to the high EPS overcapacities in Asia Pacific that have developed in recent years and low margins.

In view of the BASF's strategy stated above, the company will shut down the Styropor plants at its sites in Pasir Gudang, Malaysia and Thane, India. The plan is to stop production by the end of the year. The combined annual EPS production capacity of the two plants is more than 100,000 metric tons.

In South America, BASF is getting ready to take strategic steps. The company has started the preparation of a carve-out of the Styropor business and production at its sites in Argentina and Brazil. In Chile, BASF is evaluating strategic options for the EPS business and is preparing a divestment of Aislapol, BASF’s EPS foam parts producer. The Styropor business in South America has an annual production capacity of 83,500 metric tons.

BASF SE is the largest diversified chemical company in the world and is headquartered in Ludwigshafen, Germany. BASF Styrenics consists of the foams and copolymers. BASF's styrenic copolymers have applications in electronics, building and construction, and automotive components.
MRC

(plastemart) -- Bharat Petroleum has signed a Memorandum of Understanding for its expansion project and the setting up of a petrochemical joint venture to be implemented in three years time at Kochi.

The company will invest Rs.14,225 crore in its Integrated Refinery Expansion Project (IREP) at the Kochi Refinery and Rs.5000 cr for setting up a petrochemical joint venture.

The proposed IREP project envisages increasing the capacity of Kochi refinery from the present 9.5 mln mtpa to 15.5 mln mtpa, modernisation of the refinery to produce auto-fuels complying with Euro-IV/Euro-V specifications, upgradation of low value refinery residue stream to value-added products and production of propylene, which is a major petrochemical feedstock.

The state government has agreed to extend incentives like deferment of various taxes to BPCL for its expansion program. BPCL has already signed an MoU with petrochemical major LG Chem, South Korea in this regard.

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) is an Indian state-controlled oil and gas company headquartered in Mumbai, India. Bharat Petroleum owns refineries at Mumbai, Maharashtra and Kochi, Kerala (Kochi Refineries) with a capacity of 12 and 9.5 million metric tonnes per year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chinese company Xinjiang Zhongtai began a trial run of the third plant for suspension PVC production with the capacity of 900,000 tonnes per year. The Chinese maker is planning to reach the rated capacity by the end of the year, report MRC analysts.

The traditional supplier of acetylene PVC to the Russian market, Chinese company Xinjiang Zhongtai, has announced a trial run of the first line of its third plant in Fukang. According to company representatives, the test run of the first line of the new plant with the capacity of 450,000 tonnes took place on September 16. The company is going to fully reach the industrial volumes of PVC production by the end of September.

The launch of the second line of the plant is scheduled for November. The third plant of Xinjiang Zhongtai in Fukang has a total capacity of 900,000 tonnes of PVC and its production will be aimed at meeting the requirements of the domestic market. In its turn, it will allow to reduce the load on the primary production in Michuan with the capacity of 700,000 tpa.

The launch of the third unit of Xinjiang Zhongtai will allow to increase the total production capacity of acetylene PVC up to 1,600 thous. tonnes and, thus, become a major producer in Northern China and surpass the company Xinjiang Tianye, the total annual capacity of which makes 1,300 thous. tonnes.

Over the past eight months the total import volumes of acetylene PVC of the Chinese company Xinjiang Zhongtai to Russia made slightly more than 29,000 tonnes. In 2011, import of the resin by this company to the Russian market made about 48,400 tonnes.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Azerbaijani PE producer Etilen-polietilen once again postponed the resumption of production after a scheduled outage for maintenance. The plant is going to resume LDPE production starting from September 25, report MRC analysts.

Azerbaijani LDPE producer Etilen-polietilen (Socar group) once again shifted the dates of return to production after a scheduled turnaround. The shutdown for a routine 30-days’ maintenance was carried out on August 1. Yet, the restart of the production did not take place in early September.

On September 4, an unpleasant incident occurred at the plant. KAMAZ, the tank of which holds 20 cubic meters of gas, exploded at E-12 section while ethylene was injecting in the storage. There were no injuries, nor was there a fire or serious damage.

According to plant representative, the resumption of LDPE production is scheduled for September 25.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Starting from August, Russian producers’ PET price-offers have remained unchanged despite a major rise in PTA and PET granulate prices in the Asian markets, report MRC analysts.
In September, Russian producers preferred to keep their PET prices at the level of Rb60,000-61,000/tonne, CPT Moscow, including VAT. Despite the stability of prices in the Russian domestic market, price-offers of Asian bottle PET have increased by USD50-80/tonne since September 17 and made USD1,500-1,540/tonne, DAP Moscow.

The existing demand does not allow the plants to raise prices in the domestic market. The season is almost over and granulate sales are decreasing in the spot market due to the reduction of the bottlers’ buying activity.

Revaluation of the national currency is also an important factor. This completely eliminates the growth of import prices.
The tendency of the strengthening of the Russian rouble will only aggravate the situation as regards the domestic makers’ prices. Given the current exchange rate (USD1= RUB30.57) and the established prices of imported PET, the cost of the Asian material for Russian converters will make Rb56,800-58,300 руб/tonne, СРТ Moscow, including VAT (excluding the cost of borrowing monetary resources).

MRC