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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ineos has invited the Unite union for talks in a bid to prevent workers at Ineos’s Grangemouth, United Kingdom operations from going on strike on 20 October, according to the company's announcement.
"We hope to be able to resolve the dispute to address the financial issues that threaten the survival of the entire site," says Calum MacLean, Ineos’s Grangemouth chairman.
Ineos said on Sunday that it will begin talks on Monday afternoon with Unite at the offices of the Arbitration and Conciliation Service (ACAS) in Glasgow. These talks are intended to find a way to resolve the dispute over Stephen Deans, an employee representative on the site and to prevent strike action planned by the union, Ineos said. Unite has informed the company that it intends to hold a 48-hour strike at the site from 20 October. Ineos says it has started the process of taking the plants down in anticipation of the strike.
Grangemouth Petrochemicals (UK) is currently facing serious trading issues, Ineos says.
"The North Sea gases that it relies on for raw materials are in decline and the company’s major contract with BP runs out in 2017," Ineos says. The site has lost more than 576 million pounds (USD919.8 million) in the last four years and is currently losing 10 million pounds every month. The pension scheme is 200 million pounds in deficit and pension costs are an unsustainable 65% of salary.
The Grangemouth site employs 1,400 people, including 700 at the petchem operations. Ineos under its ‘survival plan’ proposal is seeking to reduce the number of workers at the petchem operations by an unspecified number and make changes to the pension benefits. The proposed job cuts would not affect the refining operations, which are run by a joint venture between Ineos and PetroChina.
As MRC informed previously, Ineos is considering closing its Grangemouth facility in what has been described by union representatives as a "shocking" attempt to browbeat the work. Company chairman Jim Ratcliffe described the plant as "expensive", citing "old-fashioned pensions" as a being a prime cause for concern. He was quoted as saying: "To have a future, it needs cheap feedstocks and a sensible cost structure. If we can’t resolve those issues it would need to shut down."
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.
MRC
Ineos agrees to arbitration talks to prevent strike at Grangemouth
Imports of PVC in Russia grew by 6% in January - September 2013
MOSCOW (MRC) - The rate of growth in demand for suspension polyvinyl chloride (SPVC) has slowed in Russia. Russia's PVC imports grew by only 6% in the nine months of this year, compared to the same period in 2012, according to MRC analytical report DataScope.
The volume of PVC imports to Russia totalled 317,800 tonnes in the nine months of this year, from 301,000 tonnes year on year. After a record high in March - April imports of SPVC to Russia began to fall on the back of excess supply and weaker demand from major customers - producers of profile-moulded PVC products.
September SPVC imports to Russia set an anti-record - about 16,400 tonnes, which is the smallest imports of SPVC from March 2010. Key suppliers of SPVC to Russia are the producers from the United States and China.
US PVC imports to Russia exceeded 158,000 tonnes in the nine months of this year compared to 131,200 tonnes a year earlier. Import of Chinese acetylene PVC rose to 118,700 tonnes in the current year against 64,800 tonnes in 2012.
European producers have reduced the supply of SPVC to Russia for various reasons. Imports of European SPVC in the nine months of 2013 fell to 23,200 tonnes against 30,200 tonnes in 2012.
Russia's PVC imports are expected to be reduced further in the last three months of this year because of the seasonal decline in demand.
MRC
LLDPE imports to Russia increased by 26% in January - September
MOSCOW (MRC) - The Russian market of linear polyethylene continues to be the most dynamic in the Russian market.
Imports of linear polyethylene (LLDPE) to Russia increased by 26% in the nine months of this year, according to a MRC DataScope.
Lack of own production and rapidly rising demand increase dependence of Russian market on LLDPE imports. LLDPE imports to Russia totalled about 152,000 tonnes in January - September 2013, from 120,500 tonnes year on year.
Middle Eastern and Asian producers have strengthened their position in the Russian LLDPE market.
The main volume of LLDPE imports accounted for the sector of extrusion film, which grew by 30% over the reported period to 132,600 tonnes.
Producers of stretch film and multilayer packaging films were the main drivers of demand for LLDPE in Russia.
The second largest consumption sector of rotational moulding products reduced the volume of imports to 7,100 tonnes over the reported period from 8,800 tonnes year on year.
Demand for linear polyethylene in the injection moulding sector rose to 3,400 tonnes in January - September of this year from 2,100 tonnes in the same period of 2012.
PS imports to Russia dropped by 7.7% in January-September 2013
MOSCOW (MRC) -- Imports of polystyrene (PS) to the Russian market in January-September fell by 7.7 % year on year and totalled about 160,000 tonnes, according to MRC ScanPlast.
The most capacious (in terms of imports) market of expandable polystyrene (EPS) showed a decline in foreign purchases amid rising consumption of Russian EPS. Overall in the reporting period, the market received a little more than 54,000 tonnes of EPS, major suppliers of which still were Asian countries (China and South Korea). Russian companies imported 65,000 tonnes during the same period in 2012 (by 17% more than this year). This trend was caused by import substitution by Russian grades, which also gave customers a price advantage in comparison to Asian counterparts.
Imports of general purpose polystyrene (GPPS) fell by 23% (11,000 tonnes). The overall GPPS imports in January-September totalled 36,300 tonnes. As with the EPS market, the substitution of imported grades was caused by increased supply of Russian material. Nizhnekamskneftekhim increased GPPS output because of the launch of a new production line this year.
At the same time, imports grew slightly in the market of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymer (ABS) and high impact polystyrene (HIPS). ABS and HIPS imports rose in January-September, 2013, by 9.5% and 16.2%, respectively, and totalled, as follows: ABS -31,800 tonnes, HIPS - 22,200 tonnes.
There were no significant changes in the structure of imports in September. ABS imports to the market increased because of a shortage of the domestic material, which was caused by an outage at Plastik (Uzlovaya). The overall ABS imports to the Russian market grew by 18% in September from August and reached 4,700 tonnes.
MRC
Dioki petrochemical company to file for bankruptcy
Creditors which claim 52.88% of Dioki's debt voted against the restructuring plan, while those claiming 41.22% were in favour. The hearing was attended by creditors whose claims from Dioki amount to HRK 905.4 million.
Shortly after 1300 hours, the Zagreb Stock Exchange suspended trading in Dioki stock until the public is informed about the outcome of the hearing on pre-bankruptcy settlement proceedings. Before the trading was suspended, Dioki was among the stocks which generated the biggest losses. The price of its stock was down 5.4%, closing at HRK 24.52 per share and generating a turnover of HRK 452,000.
As MRC wrote before, Crodux Plin submitted a takeover and restructuring plan for Dioki and its low density polyethylene (LDPE) subsidiary Dina Petrokemija in summer 2013.
MRC