Taiwan targets more China petrochemical projects

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Taiwan's government may loosen restrictions on investment in petrochemical production in China, where new projects have already attracted some interest from Taiwanese companies, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Taiwan's Investment Commission, which regulates outbound investments and is under the Ministry of Economics Affairs, said Monday it has proposed to let the island's petrochemical producers build naphtha cracker plants and produce ethylene and propylene in China.

Final approval of projects will hinge on conditions concerning ownership and shipment priority, Emile Chang, executive secretary of the Investment Commission, told the Wall Street Journal. Mr. Chang said the projects will have to be at least 50% owned by Taiwanese companies, which will also pledge to ship the output back to Taiwan if there is a shortage at home.

Taiwan currently doesn't allow investment in naphtha cracking in China, likely as part of efforts to avoid capital outflows.

Still, the island's petrochemical industry has been seeking investment opportunities in China after government-linked Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology Co. failed in the past two years to find a suitable site in Taiwan or Malaysia to build a much-needed naphtha cracker.

Analysts have said that Taiwan's downstream petrochemical companies might face a shortage of feedstock. Taiwan is a net importer of ethylene; it produced 3.47 million metric tons of ethylene in 2012 and imported around 348,000 metric tons of the product.

The Investment Commission's proposal has been submitted to the cabinet and is pending approval, Mr. Chang said, declining to give a time frame on the process.

Formosa Plastics Group, among the most active Taiwanese petrochemical firms investing in China, has flagged an interest to build ethylene plants in the provinces of Zhejiang and Fujian. The company currently produces petrochemical products, such as ethylene glycol and polyvinyl chloride, in its Ningbo petrochemical complex in Zhejiang province.

As MRC wrote previously, about NTUSD100 bln (USD3.35 bln) will be invested in Taiwan's petrochemical industry in 2013, including NTUSD15 bln in high-value petrochemical sectors.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Indian economy is passing through very difficult times. During the last few years, the plastics sector was growing at an average rate of 12% per annum and was contributing substantially to the growth of GDP and employment generation, but the last one year growth has taken a ‘U’ turn and at present there is a negative growth in the plastics sector, said Plastemart.

Many units have closed down and many more are on the verge of closure. Most of these units are working at less than 70% of their installed capacity.

This situation has risen due to multiple factor, some of which are highlighted below:
Abnormal increase in the price of raw materials i.e. plastics granules viz. PP, PE, PVC, Polystyrene etc. In the last two years the prices of plastics granules have almost doubled causing hardship to plastics processing units which are unable to pass on the increase to their ultimate consumer. Further working capital requirement has suddenly increased substantially which they are unable to manage.

There has been an increase in customs duty on plastic granules from 5% to 7.5% in the month of May 2013, whereas various plastics finished products are imported from neighbouring countries at zero or concessional duty.

The customs duty on plastics raw materials i.e. plastics granules, should always be lower than the customs duty on finished products. The normal rate of customs duty on finished plastics products is also only 10%. This apart from ensuring growth of manufacturing sector will also help in reducing current account deficit, reducing fiscal deficit as well as help in generating employment.

As MRC wrote before, India and Iraq have signed an energy-cooperation agreement spanning oil exploration and refining as well as work toward establishing a 10-year crude oil supply agreement from the Middle East nation. Iraq is eager to boost oil supplies to India, one of the largest oil consumers, in the face of shrinking demand from the US, which has been getting more of its oil and gas from domestic shale deposits in recent years.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Royal Dutch Shell plc, an international gas and oil major, has announced the appointment of John Abbott as Downstream Director with effect from October 1, 2013, according to the company's press release.

In his new role, Mr Abbott will become a member of the Company’s Executive Committee and will take over from Ben van Beurden who, as previously announced, becomes Chief Executive Officer with effect from January 1, 2014.

John is a British national and currently Executive Vice President Manufacturing, responsible for some 30 oil refineries and petrochemicals plants world-wide. He joined Shell in 1981, and has held a variety of management positions in refining, chemicals and upstream heavy oil, working in the United Kingdom, Singapore, Thailand, the Netherlands, Canada, and the United States.

As MRC informed previously, Ukraine took its first major step away from dependency on Russian gas imports when it signed a USD10 billion shale gas deal with Shell in early 2013.

Royal Dutch Shell plc is an Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the biggest company in the world in terms of revenue and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors". Shell is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- ELIX Polymers, the Spain polymer producer, has announced a necessity to increase prices of ELIX brand acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS), according to the company's press release.

The company explained the present price rise by the additional raw material increases in September. Therefore, the company was forced to raise its ABS prices, which come into effect on 15 September, 2013, as follows:

- ELIX ABS - by EUR100/tonne;
- ELIX 100 series - by EUR60/tonne;
- ELIX 200 series - by EUR90/tonne.

As MRC informed previously, Styrolution sold its Tarragona, Spain acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plant under a previously announced plan. The facility, operating under the name Elix Polymers, was acquired by private equity firm Sun Capital Partners, Gualdoni says.

ELIX Polymers, S.L. is a strong engineering plastics player with more than 35 years experience in precoloured ABS and ABS specialties. In addition to ABS, ELIX Polymers, S.L. offers its product line of high-quality polymer modifiers, mainly based on acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) and styrene-acrylonitrile (SAN) copolymers employed to improve performance of engineering plastics & PVC compounds.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Solvay and Ineos Group Holdings, which plan to merge their European vinyl chloride assets in a EUR4.3 billion (USD5.7 billion) deal, may sell a German site to help win regulatory approval, according to people familiar with the matter, said Bloomberg.

Ineos’s site in Schkopau, with the capacity to make about 150,000 tons of PVC a year, may fetch about 60 million euros, said two of the people, who asked not to be identified because the plan is not public. The two companies are putting together a proposal that may be delivered to European Commission regulators this month in order to divest the plant this year, they said.

The merger of their vinyl chloride assets, announced in May, may allow the companies to cut costs in areas from transport to marketing and raise profitability at a commodity business suffering from inflated raw material and energy costs. The PVC industry is facing overcapacity and weak demand in Europe, contrasting with shortfalls in markets like India.

"We are making good progress in the planned creation of our chlorovinyls joint venture," Lamia Narcisse, a Solvay spokeswoman, said in an e-mail. "It is possible that the European Commission will require us and Ineos to divest some plants in order for them to grant clearance."

The two companies are looking at what remedies the commission may demand and the viability of each option, Narcisse said in an e-mail. Ineos declined to comment.

Solvay S.A. is a Belgian chemical company founded in 1863, with its head office in Neder-Over-Heembeek, Brussels, Belgium. The company has diversified into two major sectors of activity: chemicals and plastics. Solvay supplies over 1500 products across 35 brands of high-performance polymers – fluoropolymers, fluoroelastomers, fluorinated fluids, semi-aromatic polyamides, sulfone polymers, aromatic ultra polymers, high-barrier polymers and cross-linked high-performance compounds.

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 fourth largest chemicals company in the world measured by revenues (after BASF, Dow Chemical and LyondellBasell) and the largest privately owned company in the United Kingdom.
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