Ineos-Solvay PVC venture wins conditional EU approval

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ineos Group Holdings Ltd. and Solvay SA (SOLB), Europe’s two biggest makers of polyvinyl chloride, won European Union approval for a 4.3 billion-euro (USD6 billion) joint venture of their PVC units after agreeing to sell plants, said Bloomberg.

Ineos will seek a buyer for sites producing suspension polyvinyl chloride and related assets, giving the purchaser a "self-standing S-PVC business capable of competing with the new joint venture," the European Commission said in an e-mailed statement today. Ineos and Solvay won’t close their deal until they have a binding agreement with a purchaser approved by EU regulators, the commission said.

The venture, announced last year, would allow the companies to cut costs in areas from transport to marketing and raise profitability amid a European industry suffering from inflated raw material and energy costs. The PVC market is facing overcapacity and weak demand in Europe, prompting companies in the labor-intensive industry to explore deals. Solvay has said it plans to exit the PVC venture at a later stage.

"PVC is an important raw material used in the construction sector and in many other industries," said EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia in an e-mailed statement. "The proposed commitments will ensure that the transaction will not result in higher prices to the detriment of businesses and consumers in Europe."

Ineos and Solvay said they’d comment later on the EU decision.

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.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Henan Shenma Chlorine Alkali is likely to shut a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plant for maintenance turnaround, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the plant is planned to be shut on May 6, 2014. It is likely to stay off-stream for around two weeks.

Located in Henan province of China, the plant has a production capacity of 450,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote earlier, Xinxiang Shenma Zhenghua Chemical shut down its PVC plant for maintenance turnaround on April 16, 2014. It is likely to remain off-stream for around one month. Located in Henan province, China, the plant has a production capacity of 50,000 mt/year.

Earlier, Erdos Chlor-Alkali Chemical took off-stream its PVC plant for a one-month turnaround on April 1, 2014. Located in Inner Mongolia, the plant has a production capacity of 300,000 mt/year.

Besides, Japanese petrochemical producer - Taiyo Vinyl Corp., a subsidiary of Tosoh Group, shut down its PVC plant for maintenance turnaround on March 13, 2014. The plant remained off-stream for around one month. Located in Yokkaichi, Japan, the plant has a production capacity of 310,000 mt/year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Russia's production of polycarbonate (PC) was 24,730 tonnes in the first four months in 2014, up 4% compared with the same period a year earlier, according to MRC ScanPlast.

Kazanorgsintez, the only PC producer in Russia, produced only 6,400 tonnes of PC in the reported period. All volumes of PC, produced by the producer, were of extrusion grade.

Russia's production of extrusion PC over the reported period exceeded 19,000 tonnes, the share of it occurred for 77% from the total PC production in the country. Most of the PC volumes for sheets production were sold in the domestic market. Exports volumes of Russian PC delivered to the foreign markets were only 773 tonnes over the reported period.
Russia's consumption of extrusion PC over the reported period exceeded 18,000 tonnes. Peak of the demand in the extrusion sector traditionally occurs for May, driven by stronger demand in the agricultural sector (construction of hothouse plants in spring and summer).

Producers of PC sheets have actively buying feedstock since January and February and building up finished products in the warehouses, with intention to sell in March and April. Most converters have increased feedstock purchases to ensure uninterrupted supply of PC-sheets in May. Then, with the beginning of summer the demand for extrusion PC is expected to decline until September and October, when the demand in the construction sector will be stronger.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- European producers of polypropylene (PP) has announced a price increase of EUR20-30/tonne from April for May shipments to the CIS markets, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

The May contract price of propylene in Europe was agreed up by EUR10/tonne from April on the back of a shortage of material. The deficit of monomer puts restricitions on PP production. As a consequence, amid tight supply, European producers announced a more substantial increase in PP prices for the CIS countries than the price rise of monomer.

Deals for European homopolymers of propylene (homopolymer PP) were negotiated this week in the range of EUR1,200-1,280/tonne FCA. Offer prices of block copolymers (PP-impact) start from EUR1,260/tonne FCA.

Some European producers have reported that they have already sold out all their export PP quotas for May.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF and SINOPEC will build a new world-scale production plant for neopentylglycol (NPG) at their state-of-the-art Verbund site, BASF-YPC Co., Ltd., a 50-50 joint venture in Nanjing, China, as per BASF's press release.

The plant, with a total annual capacity of about 40,000 metric tons is planned to go on stream at the end of 2015. The new NPG plant will benefit from backward integration into the Nanjing Verbund site, allowing high delivery reliability and maximizing efficient use of energy and resources.

NPG is a unique polyalcohol offering superior performance in many end-use applications such as coatings, textiles and construction due to its high chemical and thermal stability. It is mainly used as a building block in polyester resins for coatings, unsaturated polyester and alkyd resins, lubricants and plasticizers. As the global market leader, BASF has NPG production facilities in Ludwigshafen, Germany; Freeport, USA and Jilin, China.

"With this new plant, we are responding to our customers’ growing demand for high-quality neopentylglycol, especially in the Asia Pacific region, and at the same time strengthening our position as the global leading supplier of NPG," said Sanjeev Gandhi, President, BASF Intermediates division.

As MRC informed previously, in April 2014, BASF and Sinopec inaugurated two new plants for acrylic acid and superabsorbent polymers (SAP) at their state-of-the-art Verbund site, BASF-YPC Co., Ltd., a 50-50 joint venture in Nanjing, China. Additionally, a new butyl acrylate plant will begin production later this year.

BASF-YPC Co., Ltd. is a 50-50 joint venture between BASF and Sinopec, founded in 2000, with a total investment of USD4.5 billion. The integrated petrochemical site produces 3 million tons of chemicals and polymers for the Chinese market annually. The products serve the rapid-growing demand in multiple industries including agriculture, construction, electronics, pharmaceutical, automotive and chemical manufacturing. BASF-YPC posted sales of EUR2.84 billion in 2013 employed 1,993 people as of the end of that year.

China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (SINOPEC) is a large scale integrated energy and chemical company with upstream, midstream and downstream operations. SINOPEC is China"s largest manufacturer and supplier of major petrochemical products.

BASF is the worldпїЅs leading chemical company. Its portfolio ranges from chemicals, plastics, performance products and crop protection products to oil and gas.
MRC