Saudi PVC market sees growth over next 5 years

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Arabia PVC market is anticipated to outstrip USD892 million by 2020. Rigid as well as flexible PVCs are vastly used in construction industry in the form of PVC pipes, window profiles, cables, flooring, etc, reported Zawya.

Additionally, PVC is also used in apparels in form of synthetic leather to create a leather-like material.

PVC fabric is less expensive than leather and is water-resistant, so it is being increasingly used in coats, skiing equipment, shoes, jackets, aprons, and bags.

Saudi Basic Industries Cooperation (SABIC) hold absolute dominance as the largest producer and supplier of PVC resin in Saudi Arabia.

Other players operating in the country's PVC market include Arabian Plastic Compounds Co. Ltd. (APC), Interplast Co. Ltd., ALRajhi Industrial Group, TIB Plastic Industries, Middle East Specialized Cables Co (MESC), Bahra Cables Company, Al Thinayyan Holding Group and Intergulf-Empol, with their focus mainly concentrated in the production of PVC compounds.

The expansion of construction industry and upcoming infrastructural developments in the Central and Western regions of the country is boosting the demand for PVC.

Government initiatives towards encouraging active private sector participation in major infrastructure projects through Public Private Partnership (PPP) and Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) models, as well as setting up of industrial parks and clusters for plastic conversion in Central & Western regions is anticipated to significantly benefit PVC market in Saudi Arabia.

"Saudi Arabia PVC market is set to show promising growth over the next five years on account of various ongoing and upcoming infrastructural developments in the country.

Major players such as Saudi Basic Industries Cooperation (SABIC) have started incorporating backward integration to counter the fluctuations in prices of feedstock and volatility in crude oil prices.

Moreover, in-house compounding is another trend noticeable in the Saudi Arabian PVC market," said Karan Chechi, Research Director, with TechSci Research, a research based global management consulting firm.

We remind that, as MRC wrote before, in November 2014, KBR was awarded a front-end engineering design (FEED) contract by SABIC for the debottlenecking and expansion of its Petrokemya butadiene extraction plant in Al Jubail, Saudi Arabia. Arabian Petrochemical Company (Petrokemya), a wholly-owned affiliate of SABIC, is one of the largest manufacturing sites in Al Jubail. The site has an installed capacity of approximately 5.15 million tpy of petrochemicals including olefins, PVC/VCM, polystyrene and polyethylene plants, in addition to utilities and steam generation.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China General Plastics Corp (CGPC) has restarted its polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plant for maintenance turnaround, reported Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Taiwan informed that the plant resumed production on July 31, 2015. It was taken off-stream for maintenance turnaround on July 20, 2015.

Located in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, the plant has a production capacity of 170,000 mt/year.

As MRC reported before, in late July 2015, CGPC Polymer Corporation shut its PVC plant in Toufen, Taiwan, for maintenance turnaround. It is expected to remain off-stream for around 10-12 days. The plant has a production capacity of 180,000 mt/year.

We also remind that, in H2 April, 2015, Formosa Plastics shut its PVC plant for maintenance turnaround. It remained off-stream till May 1, 2015. Located at Kaohsiung in Taiwan, the plant has a production capacity of 450,000 mt/year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Grand Pacific Petrochemical Corp (GPPC) is likely to shut a styrene monomer (SM) plant for maintenance turnaround, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Taiwan informed that the plant is planned to be shut in September 2015. It is likely to remain off-stream for around one month.

Located in Tashe, Taiwan, the plant has a capacity of 240,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote before, GPPC is likely to shut its SM plant in Taiwan with a production capacity of 130,000 mt/year for maintenance turnaround in November 2015. It is planned to remain off-stream for around one month.

Earlier, GPPC shut down its SM plant for maintenance on February 15, 2014. It remained off-stream till March 11, 2014. Located at Tashe in Taiwan, the plant has a production capacity of 130,000 mt/year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Teknor Apex Company has sold its Beetle brand, certain manufacturing assets, and related customer lists to UK-based Petlon Polymers Ltd, as per GV.

The deal with Petlon, expected to be finalised by the end of September, involves a small portion of Teknor Apex’s nylon business. The company said that it will continue to supply nylon compounds throughout the world under the Chemlon brand.

The sale follows a fire on 29 April 2015 that devastated a compounding facility of the company at Oldbury, UK, which produced engineering thermoplastics and thermoplastic elastomers. Teknor Apex will continue to produce nylon compounds in the United States and Singapore under the Chemlon brand and supply them worldwide.

"While Teknor Apex is well positioned to supply nylon and TPEs in Europe and throughout the world, we determined that we could not serve some ETP accounts at a level of service that their business required," said William J. Murray, president of Teknor Apex. "The accounts that we are relinquishing represent a small portion of our worldwide nylon business and include some engineering-grade PET business as well as nylon."

As MRC informed previously, in July 2015, Teknor Apex Company introduced a new series of styrenic block copolymer elastomers, which exhibits performance comparable to that of thermoplastic vulcanizates (TPVs) widely used in window gaskets while offering new options for building product manufacturers.

Teknor Apex is one of the world's leading custom compounders headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, USA. The company produces PA compounds in the UK, the U.S.A., and Singapore. Teknor Apex is one of the world's leaders of specialty PVC compounds which are used in a wide range of applications from wire and cable to automotive, medical, consumer and industrial products. The company also produces thermoplastic elastomers, nylon, bioplastics, chemicals, specialty compounds.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The leading private conglomerate Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has announced that it will be investing USD5 bln for its refining and petrochemicals business by March, 2016, reported Plastemart.

The decision came after the strong refining margins led to higher profits for the company in Q1. The Mukesh Ambani-led company operates the largest refinery complex of the world. The company witnessed a 12% increase in its net profit of April-June 2015 quarter. It recorded profits of Rs. 63.18 bln.

Analysts had predicted the profit to be Rs. 63.08 bln but the company exceeded expectations. Refining margins are the highest in six years. The company is making heavy investments to increase the capacity.

We remind that, as MRC informed earlier, in April 2015, RIL successfully put into operation two plants in Dahej, Gujarat, India. The first was a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resin plant, which consists of two lines with a combined manufacturing capacity of 650 KTA. The plant has been built with Invista technology for continuous polymerization and Buhler AG technology for solid state polymerization. This is one of the largest bottle-grade PET resin capacity at a single location globally, and consolidates Reliance’s position as a leading PET resin producer with a global capacity of 1.15 MMTPA, the company said. PET resin from the new capacity would find application in packaging for water, carbonated soft drinks, pharmaceuticals and other food and beverages.

The second facility is a new purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant that provides a capacity of 1,150 KTA. With the commissioning of this plant, also built with Invista technology, Reliance’s total PTA capacity will increase to 3.2 MMTPA, and its global capacity share will rise to 4%.

Reliance Industries is one of the world's largest producers of polymers. The company's polymer production in 2010-11 (polypropylene, polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride) made 4,094 kilo tonnes.
MRC