INEOS ChlorVinyls announces SPVC prices for September

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Switzerland-based producer INEOS ChlorVinyls, the Europe's largest polyvinyl chloride (PVC) producer, has announced PVC prices for September, reported the company on its site.

The announced prices are effective from 1 September 2013, as follows:

- pipe grade suspension PVC (SPVC) delivered in bulk in Europe: EUR1,120/tonne;
- pipe grade suspension PVC delivered in bulk in UK/Ireland: GBR1,005/ tonne.

As MRC informed previously, the company's prices effective from 1 July 2013 were EUR1,035/tonne for pipe grade SPVC delivered in bulk in Europe and GBR935/tonne for pipe grade SPVC delivered in bulk in UK/Ireland.

In June, 2013, INEOS announced its intention to close production of Expandable Polystyrene (EPS) at its Marl site in Germany, at the end of Q4 2013.

INEOS ChlorVinyls is one of the major chlor-alkali producers in Europe, a global leader in chlorine derivatives and Europe's largest PVC manufacturer.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Brazilian petrochemical company Braskem is participating in the bidding to acquire the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) assets of Belgium's Solvay in South America, reported BNAmericas with reference to the company's filing with Brazilian stock market regulator CMV.

Braskem said the negotiations had not yet concluded and it could not say when they would be completed.

Solvay Indupa operates two industrial sites, one in Bahia Blanca, Argentina, and the other in Santo Andre, in Brazil's Sao Paulo state, that produce PVC plastic and caustic soda.

Mexico's Mexichem and Braskem have been seen as the most likely suitors of the assets since Solvay announced its decision to sell them in February this year.

In a May filing to the Mexico City bourse (BMV), Mexichem confirmed it had made an offer to buy the PVC operations of a company based in Argentina and Brazil though it made no reference to Solvay Indupa.

Consultants have speculated that Mexichem could buy the Argentina assets and Braskem the assets in Brazil, although Solvay will likely want to offload the assets to one buyer.

Solvay CEO Jean-Pierre Clamadieu said in July that he expected to make an announcement about the sale "in the next few months."

PVC assets have a value of around USD500mn, according to market sources.

As MRC informed previously, in February 2013, Belgian-based Solvay announced plans to divest its assets in the Argentine petrochemical producer Indupa, as part of a major restructuring and portfolio optimisation at Solvay. The company owns a 69.9% interest in Indupa, while the rest is traded on the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange.

Indupa, with a manufacturing capacity of more than 500,000mtpa of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), runs facilities at Santo Andre, Brazil, and Bahia Blanca, Argentina.

Solvay, with a market share 27%, is the second largest PVC manufacturer in Europe, after Kerling with 29% of the market.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec Corp.), a major global petroleum and petrochemical enterprise group, and SIBUR, a leading Russian gas processing and petrochemicals company, entered into a joint venture developed on the site of the Krasnoyarsk Synthetic Rubber Plant (KZSK), siad Sibur in its press-release.

Sinopec purchased 25% + 1 share of KZSK. The deal was approved by Russian and Chinese regulators.
The joint venture was signed by Dai Houliang, Senior Vice President at Sinopec, and Vladimir Razumov, Executive Director at SIBUR, during Sinopec’s visit to Russia.

Its newly acquired stake in KZSK, will give Sinopec the opportunity to nominate one of its own representatives as a director to the joint venture’s board. Earlier the parties signed a joint venture to produce nitrile butadiene rubbers on the KZSK site. The shareholders will also consider expanding the Krasnoyarsk Synthetic Rubber Plant’s capacity from 42,500 to 56,000 tonnes per year.

In addition, SIBUR and Sinopec are discussing establishing a joint venture to manufacture nitrile butadiene rubber and isoprene rubber in Shanghai. The production lines are expected to have an annual capacity of 50,000 tonnes each, subject to finalisation based on the feasibility study.

Krasnoyarsk Synthetic Rubber Plant JSC is a leading Russian producer of high-quality nitrile butadiene rubbers.
Its production facilities include nitrile butadiene rubber plants with a total annual production capacity of 42,500 tonnes. Major consumers of the synthetic rubbers produced by KZSK are manufacturers of rubber products for the mechanical engineering, automotive, aerospace, and tractor industries.

SIBUR is a uniquely positioned vertically integrated gas processing and petrochemicals company. We own and operate Russia’s largest gas processing business in terms of associated petroleum gas processing volumes and are a leader in the Russian petrochemicals industry. As of 31 March 2013, SIBUR operated 27 production sites across Russia and employed over 30,000 personnel. We serve over 1,500 large customers operating in the energy, automotive, construction, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), chemical and other industries in pproximately 60 countries.

Sinopec Corp. is one of the largest scale integrated energy and chemical company with upstream, midstream and downstream operations. Its principal business includes: exploring, developing, producing and trading crude oil and natural gas; producing, storing, transporting and distributing and marketing petroleum products, petrochemical products, synthetic fiber, fertilizer and other chemical products. Its refining capacity and ethylene capacity rank No.2 and No.4 globally. Sinopec listed in Hong Kong, New York, London and Shanghai in August 2001. Sinopec Group, the parent company of Sinopec Corp., is ranked the 5th in Fortune Global 500 in 2012.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- After the price hike in summer, Russian producers have reduced the prices of dioctyl phthalate (DOP) in September on average by Rb4,000/tonne, according to MRC.

Excess supply of plasticizer DOP in the Russian market resulted in price cuts. Local producers have been forced to reduce prices, despite rising feedstock costs.

Deals for September delivery of Russian plasticizer have started from Rb71,000/tonne FCA, including VAT.

Peak price of Russian DOP occurred in June and August, when the price surge of feedstock and scheduled and unscheduled shutdowns of Gazprom neftekhim Salavat led to an increase in prices to Rb75,000/tonne FCA, including VAT.

As MRC wrote, the import duty on the plasticizer DOP was reduced from 10% to 8.8% from 2 Sep 2013.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Taiwan's Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology Co has abandoned plans to set up an integrated refining and petrochemical complex in Pengerang in the Malaysian state of Johor due to poor project economics, an official from Kuokang shareholder state-owned CPC Corp. as per Plastemart.

"It was meant to be using naphtha as a feedstock to produce ethylene, but because of the rise of shale gas as an alternative, the costs will be too high [to compete with other projects] and we won't be able to export the products," said the official, who declined to be named.

Kuokuang had submitted an environmental impact assessment report for the project to the Malaysian government in May, but the company's shareholders had already completed their feasibility study by then, deciding not to proceed with the project, she added.

This has nothing to do with Malaysia but is based solely on the fact that the project would not be economically feasible," she said. "Right now we are waiting for the results of the report and the EIA process to be concluded. We had not proceeded beyond that so our costs were limited to just the feasibility study. We did not secure any land." The results of the EIA report are expected in the coming days.

CPC is Kuokuang's largest stakeholder with 43%, with the rest held by other private Taiwanese companies. Titled KPTC Malaysia Integrated Refinery and Petrochemical Development, or KPTC-MIRPD, the project was to have included a 150,000 bpd refinery, with development slated to begin by next year and startup scheduled for early 2018, the EIA report said. It was also expected to have the capacity to produce 800,000 m tpa of ethylene and 425,480 m tpa of propylene.

Kuokuang had originally announced a new petrochemical project in Changhua, Taiwan, but that plan was scrapped last year due to environmental concerns. Then, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak announced in May 2012 that Malaysia would work with Kuokuang to launch a project in the country.

MRC