PET prices rising on back of weakening rouble

MOSCOW (MRC) -- This week’s prices of Russian polyethylene terephthalate (PET) rose by Rb2,000-5,000/tonne from last week, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

Prices of Russian bottle grade PET ranged from Rb78,000-83,000/tonne FCA the plant’s warehouse, including VAT.

Market players did not expect such a rapid price surge back in early August. On the back of weak demand this summer, some players anticipated PE prices to go down by the end of the month or early autumn. The sharp devaluation of the rouble made changes to the prognosis. Local companies raised prices for the domestic market, despite the fall in prices of imported PET chips (in the foreign currency).

Prices of SIBUR’s bottle grade PET from both production sites in Tver (SIBUR-PETF) and Blagoveshensk (Polief) were announced by the company at Rb83,000/tonne FCA, including VAT.

Prices of Kaliningrad PET of Alko-Naphtha, including delivery to the warehouse in the Central region of Russia, were heard at Rb78,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT. Producers intend to raise their prices by the end of the week, the company’s sources said.

Offer prices of Solnechnogorsk PET of Senezh were announced to buyers in the range of Rb79,000-80,000/tonne CPT, including VAT.

As the same time, prices of Belarusian PET of MogilevKhimvolokno were heard in the range of Rb74,000-75,00/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT. MogilevKhimvolokno might raise its prices for the Russian market in September to the average price level in Russia, market players believe.

The price rise in Russia was caused by the exchange rate factors, PET chips producers said. At the same time, there was no surge in consumer activity in the market. Some buyers also expect prices to stabilize before they resume purchasing in the spot market.
MRC

Sinopec Yangzi Petrochemical to restart LLDPE plant in China after maintenance

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sinopec Yangzi Petrochemical is in plans to restart a linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) plant following a maintenance turnaround, reported Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the plant was shut in end-July 2015. It is likely to remain off-stream till the end of current month. The plant is expected to resume operations early next week.

Located at Nanjing in China, the plant has a production capacity of 200,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed before, PetroChina, China's largest oil and gas producer, restarted a high density polyethylene/linear low density polyethylene (HDPE/LLDPE) plant following maintenance turnaround in early June 2015. It was shut on April 10, 2015. Located in Dushanzi, China, the plant has a production capacity of 660,000 mt/year.

Besides, Sinopec Zhenhai shut down its HDPE/LLDPE swing plant for maintenance turnaround in April 2015. It remained off-stream for around two months. Located at Ningbo in China, the plant has a production capacity of 450,000 mt/year.
MRC

SIBUR opposed restrictions on bottling beer in plastic bottles

MOSCOW (MRC) -- SIBUR, the largest petrochemical holding in Russia and Eastern Europe and Russia’s largest supplier of material for PET containers, has opposed restrictions on bottling beer in plastic bottles, as per RBK.

"By declaring the course for imports substitution, the state does not always support it with the concrete initiatives" - wrote SIBUR’s CEO Dmitriy Konov in the article "The industrial policy: Imports substitution without speculation".

Thus, he gave an example of a possible limitation of circulation of PET packaging (plastic bottles) for bear bottling, "the industry for the production of which has grown in Russia from a scratch to almost a complete coverage of the domestic market for the last 10 years".

"It's a niche for at least three petrochemical segments - PET (bottles), polypropylene (caps), BOPP films (labels)," - said D.Konov.

SIBUR is a vertically integrated gas processing and petrochemicals company. SIBUR owns and operates Russia’s largest gas processing business in terms of associated petroleum gas processing volumes and is a leader in the Russian petrochemicals industry. SIBUR operates 26 production sites in various regions of Russia. The Group employs 26,000 people. The Company sells its products to over 1,400 major customers engaged in the energy, automotive, construction, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), chemical and other industries in approximately 70 countries worldwide.
MRC

New Jersey judge approves USD225 mln of ExxonMobil to settle refinery pollution

MOSCOW (MRC) -- New Jersey Governor Chris Christie won a judge’s approval of a USD225 million settlement with ExxonMobil to end litigation over decades-old pollution, an accord Democratic lawmakers and environmental groups call inadequate, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The deal is a "reasonable compromise," a state judge ruled Tuesday, even though New Jersey sought damages of USD8.9 billion to resolve a 2004 case over the company’s refinery and petrochemical plants in Bayonne and Linden. The accord will pay for Exxon’s damage to natural resources.

Exxon and the Department of Environmental Protection settled the case in February after an eight-month trial, sparking an outcry from activists who said the state sold out to corporate interests for 3 cents on the dollar.

Acting New Jersey Attorney General John Hoffman said the deal would ensure Exxon would continue remediation work at polluted sites.

Michael Hogan, a retired Superior Court judge who heard the case, said the deal was fair, in the public interest and faithful to the state’s Spill Compensation and Control Act. New Jersey will retain the right to pursue litigation against Exxon, according to Hogan.

"The DEP applied rational methods in order to estimate total damages and determine what a fair payment would be for those damages," Hogan ruled. "Although far smaller than the estimated $8.9 billion in damages, Exxon’s payment represents a reasonable compromise given the substantial litigation risks the DEP faced at trial and would face on appeal."

Exxon agreed in 1991 to clean up almost 1,600 acres on the site near New York Harbor, and has paid almost USD258 million since then to do so, Hogan wrote in his 81-page opinion.

As MRC informed previously, in early 2014, ExxonMobil officially opened its multi-billion dollar Singapore chemical plant expansion on Jurong Island, to serve growth markets in the Asia-Pacific region. The expansion included a second 1-million-t/y steam cracker, two 650,000-t/y polyethylene plants, a 450,000-t/y polypropylene plant, a 300,000-t/y specialty elastomers unit, an aromatics extraction facility to produce 340,000 t/y of benzene, and a 125,000-t/y oxo-alcohol expansion.

ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world's oil and about 2% of the world's energy.
MRC

Uzbekistan introduces excise duty on LDPE from 1 September

MOSCOW (MRC) -- According to the act of President of Uzbekistan, the excise duty on the excise goods will be introduced from September, low density polyethylene (LDPE) is among the other products, according to the decision of the president.

An act of President of Uzbekistan "On further measures to streamline the foreign trade activities of the Republic of Uzbekistan" PP-2388 was published on 13 August. According to the act, the duties on import goods and the excise duties on excise goods will be introduced from 1 September 2015, in order establish favourable conditions for a sustainable development of the national production of high quality finished products.

The act introduces the excise duty on the commodity item "other polyethylene with a specific density of less than 0.94" (HS code 3901 10 900 0) in the amount of 10% of the value of the goods. In other words, an additional excise duty on LDPE will be introduced. For finished products from polymers (pipes, fittings and films), the import duty will increase up to 30% of the value of the goods.
MRC