Egypt removes protection fees on PP imports from Saudi Arabia

MOSCOW (MRC) -- In a move to preserve its public interest, Egypt has lifted anti-dumping fees on polypropylene (PP) imports from Saudi Arabia after a prior investigation of the matter, Saudi Arabia's deputy oil minister Prince Abdul-Aziz bin Salman said in remarks published Tuesday, according to hydrocarbonprocessing.

The investigation on protective measures and anti-dumping fees imposed on Saudi imports due to claims that they are damaging its industry has been conducting by Egypt since April, Prince Salman said, according to state-run Saudi Press Agency, or SPA. The results of the investigation showed that the damage was caused by other factors and that the measures against Saudi imports were not in interest of the Egyptian public.

The fees were imposed on several Saudi petrochemical makers such as Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (Sabic), the world's largest petrochemical maker, Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical Co. and National Industrialization Co.

Early last year, Turkey ended its anti-dumping claims on monoethylene glycol imports from Sabic after it confirmed that the firm was complying with all the regulations. The move came after India scrapped an anti-dumping duty on polypropylene exports from the Middle East's largest listed company.

As MRC informed earlier, the Egyptian government implemented a protection fee of 15% on all homo-PP imports effective for 200 days from June 5 to December 22, 2012. Egyptian PP producer "Egyptian Propylene and Polypropylene Co" (EPPC) pointed to strong competition from lower priced import cargoes as support for the new measures, but buyers have expressed anger regarding the new protection measures, which they feel to be unjustified. However, in early October the Egyptian government froze the 15% import duty on PP from the Gulf (GCC) for an indefinite period. The government took this decision after the closure of the plant of EPPC, the main provider of local PP for Egyptian converters.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Onex Corporation announced that it completed the acquisition of KraussMaffei Group, a leading manufacturer of plastic and rubber processing equipment, for EUR568 million, said Onex in its statement.

Onex Partners III invested USD353 million, of which Onex’ share is approximately USD89 million as a limited partner in the Fund.

Onex also recently completed acquisitions of San Fransisco’s BBAM LLC and New York’s USI Insurance Services Inc.

Onex Corporation is a Toronto based private equity investment firm and holding company. The Company has approximately USD14 billion of assets under management, including USD4.8 billion of proprietary capital, in private equity, credit securities and real estate. Onex invests its proprietary capital directly and as a substantial limited partner in its Funds.

The KraussMaffei Group is a global leader in the plastics and rubber processing industries. The company covers all areas of injection molding machinery, extrusion technology and reaction process machinery, which gives it a unique selling point in the industry.

Through its KraussMaffei, KraussMaffei Berstorff and Netstal brands, the company serves customers in many sectors including the automotive, packaging, medical and construction industries.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (MCC) reached a mutual agreement with Qatar Petroleum (QP)and Shell Chemicals to license its production technology of oxo alcohols through Mitsubishi Chemical Engineering Corporation, the sub licensor of the oxo technology, said Mitsubishi Chemical in its press-release.

Developing a world-scale petrochemicals project in Ras Laffan Industrial City in Qatar, which has been named Al-Karaana Petrochemicals Complex. The project, which is planned to utilize feedstock derived from natural gas, will include a steam cracker, oxo alcohols, mono-ethylene glycol and linear alpha olefins plants. The Front-End Engineering and Design (FEED) contract is expected to be awarded in 2013.

The selection of key technologies for the derivative processes has been completed. The project has selected the "Oxo T-Process", which is MCC's proprietary technology, for the oxo derivative unit with an annual capacity of 250 thousand tons.

The OXO T-Process realizes stable production of first-class quality products. MCC has experience of operating its own oxo unit with this technology for more than twenty years at Mizushima plant site in Japan and in addition licensed the technology to the companies in China, Indonesia, and South Africa. MCC is committed to further expand the oxo technology licensing business in the global market where the continuous growth of the demand for the oxo alcohols is promising.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Aramco Far East (Beijing) Business Services, or Aramco Asia, has started offering polyolefins produced by Fujian Refining and Petrochemical in China effective January 1, as per Nctww.

Aramco Asia will market 200,000 my/year of polyethylene and 130,000 mt/year of polypropylene through a branch office at Xiamen, Fujian province.

On January 5, Aramco Asia handed over its first FREP products, comprising linear low density polyethylene, to Jufu Plastic in Fujian province.

The wholly owned subsidiary of Saudi Aramco plans to offer other petrochemicals in Asia, such as aromatics, via a branch office in Shanghai.

FREP is a joint venture between Fujian Petrochemical Co. (50%), ExxonMobil China Petroleum and Petrochemical Co. (25%) and Saudi Aramco Sino Co. (25%).

FREP operates an 800,000 mt/year steam cracker, a 400,000 mt/year PP plant, a 400,000 mt/year LLDPE plant, a 400,000 mt/year HDPE plant, a 120,000 mt/year butadiene plant, a 700,000 mt/year paraxylene plant and a 260,000 mt/year benzene plant at Quanzhou, Fujian province.

As MRC wrote earlier, Aramco already has two joint ventures in China with Sinopec and ExxonMobil. It holds a 22.5% stake in retail oil products distributor Sinopec SenMei Petroleum Co., and a 25% stake in the Fujian Refining & Petrochemical Co., which operates a 240,000-bpd refinery. The province of Fuji also has a 25% stake in the operation. Saudi Aramco is also planning to sell chemical products from FRPC to tap in to China's lucrative chemical market

Saudi Aramco is considered to be the largest oil company in the world when classified by reserves and production. Officially known as Saudi Arabian Oil Company, it is a national oil and gas company based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. The company’s operations include chemicals, exploration, refining, producing, distribution and marketing. In 2012, Saudi Amarco had oil reserves of 260 billion barrels and also owned 283 trillion cu. ft. of natural gas reserves.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Turkey has raised the customs duties applied on polystyrene (PS) imports from developing nations to 3% as part of a series of decisions regarding the country’s import regime made by the cabinet, according to Plastemart.

PS imports from developing nations were exempt from customs duties before the latest adjustment. With the new regulation, which became effective as of January 1, 2013, any of these cargoes to be cleared from Turkish customs will be subject to 3% duty. In view of this development, Thailand, India and Pakistan are going to be the major sources feeling the impact of the recent upward adjustment in customs duties as they are the main suppliers of import PS in Turkey right after Europe.

Hence, the total value of PS imports is expected to be higher for the full year of 2012 and early 2013 due to rising PS prices and higher customs duties.

As MRC wrote earlier, recently Fitch has withdrawn the ratings of Petkim, the only Turkish petrochemical producer, as the company has chosen to stop participating in the rating process.

According to the MRC DataScope, the exports of Russian polystyrene in Turkey makes about 3% from total Rassia’s PS export. In January-November 2012, exports to Turkey from Russia fell by 70% compared to the previous year and amounted to about 1,200 tonnes of high-impact PS.

MRC