Italian PVC market defies global trend, loses premium

(apic-online) -- Local PVC prices in Italy have sustained their softening trend in December, although other products, namely PP and PE, have shrugged off the bearish trend regardless of the lower monomer costs in the region. The ongoing weakness of the PVC market in Italy is also defying the global upturn, which has been in place since mid November in the nearby Turkish market.

This situation caused Italy’s local PVC market to lose its traditional premium over the rest of the globe. Comparing Turkey’s average import PVC k67 range for European and US origins (including customs duties if applicable) on CFR basis with Italy’s average local k67 range, the premium has neared zero as of this week. A similar situation was in place the last time in July and early August, when Italy was trading at a discount when compared to Turkey and this was followed by higher prices in September after players returned from summer holidays.

A pipe manufacturer also commented, “We feel that firmer prices are on the horizon as was the case in January 2012, even though there are some opposing views in the market.” He also highlighted that the construction sector has been showing a really bad performance, which results in consistently low demand. “We hope to see a pick-up in the months ahead,” he commented.

Indeed, the weak stance of the PVC market may really be attributed to the poor economic conditions of the country as PVC is the most sensitive to economic developments. The Italian economy shrank by 0.2% in the third quarter from the second quarter, when it decreased a revised 0.7%, according to the announcement of the National Statistics Institute Istat in November. Another economic indicator, the industrial output index, was revealed early this week showing a decrease of 1.1% in October when compared to September while the confidence index for November in the Italian construction sector declined 1.72% month over month after a stronger month on month fall of 5.45% in October.

According to ICIS-MRC Price Report, the demand for PVC in Russia's market continues to decline gradually. In anticipation of long New Year holidays, Russian converters are trying to sell out their stock inventories of PVC. At the same time, some large converters, on contrary, want to buy large amounts of PVC from Russian producers at fairly low prices in December and January on the back low demand.
Contract prices of Russian PVC last week remained unchanged and were at roubles (Rb)44,000-46,000/tonne, CPT Moscow, including VAT.
MRC

(Ineos) -- INEOS announced a new supply agreement with BP for one of the essential raw materials of the Vinyl Acetate Monomer (VAM) plant located at their joint operations at Saltend, Hull (UK). The agreement secures the supply of acetic acid and services and participates in maintaining the competitiveness of the VAM plant worldwide. INEOS employs around 50 people across its activities at the site.

The Saltend Chemicals Park, is home to one of the largest and most efficient VAM production unit in the world. With a capacity of 300,000 tonnes a year and full integration into its raw materials, it is the only plant of its kind in Europe. INEOS acquired the plant from BP in 2008 and has significantly invested in the technology to further develop the capacity and performance.

The INEOS VAM plant at Saltend Chemicals Park uses ethylene which it gets by pipeline from its steam crackers located in Grangemouth (Scotland) and acetic acid from BP owned plants located on the site. VAM is supplied mainly into UK manufacturing firms and the European merchant market.

Vinyl acetate monomer is an intermediate chemical that is important for the production of paints, adhesives, floor covering, paper coatings and acrylic fibres used in clothing. It is also found in products that give laminated glass its important safety feature. Heavy-duty bags, extrusion coating, wire and cable insulation, adhesives and foam all rely on it as a key raw material.

INEOS Group Limited is a privately owned multinational chemicals company consisting of 15 standalone business units, headquartered in Rolle, Switzerland and with its registered office in Lyndhurst, United Kingdom. It is the fifth largest chemicals company in the world measured by revenues (after BASF, Dow Chemical, LyondellBasell and DuPont) and the largest privately owned company in the United Kingdom.

MRC

(marketwire) -- Royal DSM, the global Life Sciences and Materials Sciences company, announced today that it has completed the acquisition of Fortitech, Inc. (Fortitech), a leader in customized, value added food ingredient blends for food & beverage, infant nutrition and dietary supplements industries. After completion of the announced acquisitions DSM's EBITDA-margin target is expected to be in the range of 20-23% on an annual basis, resulting in stronger and more stable growth and profitability for DSM overall.

The transaction, for a total enterprise value of USD 634 million (about EUR495 million) strengthens DSM's Human Nutrition and Health business, by expanding the company's value chain presence and adding additional capabilities.
With the acquisition of Fortitech DSM now has announced over EUR2.8 billion worth of growth enhancing acquisitions in just over two years.

Net sales for 2013 are expected to be about USD 270 million with an EBITDA of about USD 70 million, including synergies and excluding exceptional items. DSM has identified attractive cost synergies at about 10% of net sales, which will be fully realized by 2015. In addition, one-time synergies - primarily capital expenditure avoidance- are estimated at USD 70 million. DSM expects the transaction to be EPS accretive in the first year after closing.

As MRC informed earlier, in November DSM entered into an agreement with Borealis, Austria for sale DEXPlastomers, a joint venture of DSM and Exxon Chemical Holland Ventures.
MRC

(upstreamonline) -- Credit-ratings agency Moody's Investors Service cut its credit outlook for Brazilian state-run energy giant Petroleo Brasileiro, raising concerns that the company's prized investment-grade credit rating could be in danger.

Moody's changed the outlook for Petrobras to "negative" from "stable," citing rising debt levels and growing uncertainty over how quickly the oil company can bring new production onstream, Dow Jones reported.

Moody's also questioned how quickly Petrobras can boost cash flow given the company's massive investment plan, rising costs and losses in its refining operations.

The revised outlook by one of the three major credit ratings agencies raises concerns that Petrobras could face greater financial scrutiny as the company embarks on a USD237 billion spending plan to develop recently discovered offshore oil fields.

The potential loss of Petrobras's investment-grade credit rating would mean higher borrowing costs and throw into jeopardy development of the subsalt, a series of ultra-deepwater oil discoveries made off the country's southeast coast.

In August, Petrobras officials said the company was focused on keeping its financial house in order, including greater review of projects under the latest investment plan. The audits were done to ensure returns that would guarantee the investment-grade credit rating.

While Petrobras holds one of the world's best long-term oil production growth profiles, Moody's noted that the company has been outspending cash flow and crude oil production has fallen short of targets. Heavy gasoline and diesel imports have combined with Petrobras's fuel-pricing policy, which doesn't pass along increases in international oil prices to consumers at the pump, to cause steep losses in the company's refining operations, Moody's also noted.

Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. or Petrobras is a semi-public Brazilian multinational energy corporation headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is the largest company in the Southern Hemisphere by market capitalization and the largest in Latin America measured by 2011 revenues.
MRC

(tehrantimes) -- Iran has launched the world’s longest ethylene pipeline, which carries the chemical compound from the southern Persian Gulf port of Assaluyeh to petrochemical complexes in the western provinces of Iran.

Ethylene was injected into the West Ethylene Pipeline in Assaluyeh Port in Bushehr Province on Monday, IRNA reported.

Kavian Petrochemical Complex, situated in Assaluyeh, is the main producer of ethylene for the pipeline with an annual petrochemical production capacity of 2.18 million tons.

That the first phase of the pipeline, which carries ethylene from the Pars Special Economic Energy Zone, is 1,200 kilometers long.

Iran has significantly expanded the range and volume of its petrochemical products over the past few years, and the National Iranian Petrochemical Company has become the second largest producer and exporter of petrochemicals in the Middle East after Saudi Arabia.

The Islamic Republic exported a total of 18.2 million tons of petrochemical and polymer products, worth about USD 14.2 billion, to more than 60 countries in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended March 19, 2012).


"The joint production capacity of Kavian is 2 million tons annually and the tentative production has started early December", said Reza Amiri in a meeting with the media reporters. He also announced the launching of the world's largest ethylene producer unit in Pars Special Economic-Energy Zone.

Kavian Petrochemical Complex Directing Manager said that the operation of this large unit of ethylene production has made the West Ethylene Pipeline the world's largest petrochemical pipeline. He maintained that so far, some of the ethylene produced at Kavian has been pumped to Arvand Petro-chemicals as raw material via the West Pipeline.

MRC