Lanxess increases prices for rubber chemicals

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Lanxess, the German specialty chemicals company, will increase its prices worldwide for rubber chemicals supplied by the Rubber Chemicals business unit effective July 1, 2013, reported the company in its press-release.

The increases are required to offset higher production costs.

The price increases will impact the Vulkanox (antidegradant) and Vulkacit (accelerator) product groups, and will range between 0.05 Euro/kg and 0.20 Euro/kg (0.10 USD and 0.30 US$) depending on the product and region.

The rubber chemicals Vulkanox and Vulkacit are primarily used in the manufacture of rubber products such as tires, hoses and profiles and in the production of drive elements.

As MRC wrote previously, Perlon-Monofil GmbH, belongs to the High Performance Materials (HPM) business unit of specialty chemicals group Lanxess, will raise its prices worldwide for synthetic monofilaments by a minimum of 5% depending on the field of application and grade from July 1, 2013. It manufactures an extensive range of polyamide and polyester monofilament products for a wide variety of applications, and markets them worldwide under the brand names Perlon, Atlas and Bayco.

Lanxess is a leading specialty chemicals company with sales of EUR 9.1 billion in 2012 and roughly 17,400 employees in 31 countries. The company is currently represented at 50 production sites worldwide. The core business of LANXESS is the development, manufacturing and marketing of plastics, rubber, intermediates and specialty chemicals. LANXESS posted lower earnings in the first quarter of 2013 as expected due to a weak market environment, particularly in the tire and automotive industries. First-quarter sales were down by 12% year-on-year to EUR 2.1 billion, mainly due to lower volumes and fallen selling prices.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- In Egypt, the local PP producer EPPC has been absent from the market for over two months now, said Apic-online.

The producer, who usually makes monthly price announcements, stopped offering to the market at the end of March, pointing to the higher EGP/USD parity issues and lack of dollar reserves inside the country, which led many Egyptian players to turn to the black market to meet their dollar needs at much higher rates than the officially announced ones by the country’s banks, as their motives behind their decision.

Previously a source from the producer had cited that it would have been difficult to judge a fair price amidst the ongoing financial problems in the country in order to justify their withdrawal from the market. When June was nearing, some players were claiming that the producer was to return to the market although this information was not confirmed by the producer. Yet, in June, the expectancies about EPPC’s return did not materialize. A converter commented, "Most players were preparing to cut their import purchases in order to see EPPC’s new prices but it seems like June will be the third month that EPPC will not offer to the market."

Regional producers were said to hold limited quantities while some of them were already reported to be sold out of their restricted quantities.

Meanwhile, the nearby market of Turkey has also lacked Egyptian raffia offers since the end of April although some Egyptian fibre offers have recently started to be reported in that market.

As MRC wrote before, 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. 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 Egyptl. 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.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Imports of suspension PVC (PVC-S) to Ukraine rose by 6% in May to 9,800 tonnes, according to MRC DataScope.

PVC imports increased to 48,000 tonnes over the first five months of 2013.

The outage at Karpatneftekhim (Lukoil group), the Ukrainian PVC producer, continues to strengthen dependence of the Ukrainian market from import shipments.

PVC-S imports from the US nearly double in May. The total imports of North American PVC to the Ukrainian market amounted to about 4,200 tonnes, while in April this index made 2,200 tonnes. Over five months of 2013, the overall supply volumes of North American PVC to Ukraine totalled 23,400 tonnes, up by 4.5 times year-on-year.

European producers limited their export quotas in May and, as a result, the supply of resin to the Ukrainian market dropped by 13% from April to 5,500 tonnes. Some Ukrainian companies said that they faced limited export PVC quotas from European producers, mainly caused by flooding (the Czech producer Spolana temporarily suspended production).

PVC-S imports to Ukraine over the first five months of the year totalled about 48,000 tonnes, an increase of 90% year-on-year. The main reason for the significant growth in PVC-S imports is the long outage at Karpatneftekhim. PVC producers from the United States offset the shortage of the domestic material.

As MRC analysts reported previously, Karpatneftekhim had stopped its PVC production in the first decade of September 2012. The plant's annual production capacity amounts to 300,000 tonnes (Vinnolit is the licensor of the production technology). In mid-April 2013, the Ukrainian Government and Lukoil signed a memorandum of understanding for providing a number of benefits for the resumption of Karpatneftekhim production, which also includes raising the import duty to 6.5% (the decision to change the duty will be taken in October). According to the Government's statement, the company will resume operations at the plant on 2 August, 2013.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mogilevkhimvolokno, the Belarusian producer of PET granulate, raised its June prices for the domestic market, according to MRC Price report.

Mogilevkhimvolokno's price offers for buyers in the domestic market increased by BRb6.0m/tonne from May. According to local buyers, the new price was announced at BRb15.45m/tonne, FCA Mogilev, excluding VAT.

The plant has raised its price, despite an overall fall in quotations in Europe and drop in prices for Asian imported material. Also, the company has increased its prices for export June shipments to Russia and Ukraine.

Mogilevkhimvolokno is the only PET producer in Belarus. As reported previously, the company's revenues increased by 25% compared with 2011 to Brb3.573 trillion (USD410,7 mln).
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Petrochemical and chemical plants, that were forced to shut down last week under the impact of devastating floods spreading across central Europe, are struggling to re-launch production as the flood waters recede, said Plastemart.

Some, like the polystyrene and synthetic rubber units of the Polish Synthos group at Kralupy and Vltavou, which shut down on 3 June as the River Vltava burst its banks, began a phased restart this week.

As per a brief stock market announcement by the company, the Kralupy facility had suffered "no significant material damage" as a result of the floods. But, smooth restart will be hindered by difficulty in procuring raw materials and shipping products in the short term due to widespread infrastructure disruption caused by flood damage to roads and railways in Germany, Austria as well as across the Czech Republic.

As MRC wrote before, in 2012, Synthos was among the three largest suppliers of EPS to the Ukrainian market. Despite the scale of the disaster in Central Europe, EPS shipments to the Ukrainian market will not be affected in June 2013. The plants are located in the Polish Oswiecim, whose territory was not exposed to the negative effects of the disaster.

Since the beginning of the year, supplies of Synthos EPS were reduced because of the general passivity of the Ukrainian market in January-April 2013. However, Ukrainian consumers bacame active in May and resumed purchases of Polish EPS, to which favorable prices of the producer contributed a great deal.

Operations will not resume immediately at Neratovice plant of Polish owned PVC producer Spolana that was affected by the rising waters of the River Elbe. The company plans not resume production until the site had received a thorough inspection. It has decided to suspend raw material procurement and product collection at least until 20 June.

The Spolchemie chemicals plant at Usti nad Labem, also near the Elbe, began to restart some production last weekend after it escaped serious flooding. The firm said that thanks to a phased shutdown of the entire site, the impact of the flood was kept to a minimum.

On Tuesday, although the level of river level remained at 7 metres, Spolchemie reported it had been able to resume manufacturing fully and was taking orders once more.
MRC