Little impact seen on acrylonitrile from Chinese antidumping duty on acrylic fiber imports

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China's recent decision to impose antidumping duty on acrylic fiber imported from Japan, South Korea and Turkey will have limited impact on the feedstock acrylonitrile market, reported Apic-online with reference to industry sources.

Last Friday, the Ministry of Commerce announced that importers of acrylic fiber from these countries will be required to pay a deposit to customs ranging from 6.1% to 17.8% from April 2.

About 50% of acrylonitrile buyers are from the acrylic fiber industry while acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene accounts for 30% and acrylamide 20%.

A northeast Asia-based trader said that Chinese fiber makers were likely to seek more discount for ACN to offset the antidumping duty.

There could be an oversupply of acrylic fiber in Japan and South Korea as a result of the antidumping duty, a Chinese trader said. And this could lead to a cut in operation rates in Japan, South Korea and Turkey and lower demand for ACN, he said, adding that they might even decide to export the surplus ACN at lower prices.

A Japanese producer, however, disagreed.

"I don't think Japanese ACN producers could compete with China," he said, adding that they were more likely to cut operation rates.

His company had already taken into account the possible impact of antidumping duty and had significantly reduced both acrylic fiber and ACN production, he said.

Several market participants said they saw little impact on the ACN market.

What they expected was that production of acrylic fiber and ACN in China might increase.

As MRC wrote previously, in November 2015, China's commerce ministry decided to extend anti-dumping duties on imports of a chemicals from South Korea, the United States and the European Union. The decision was made after a one-year investigation into alleged dumping of South Korean, U.S. and European adipic acid, mainly used to make nylon. China first imposed anti-dumping tariffs on the chemical from South Korea, the U.S. and the EU in 2009.

Besides, we also remind that China ended its anti-dumping duties on styrene-butadiene-rubber (SBR) imports from Russia, Japan, and South Korea, effective September 8, 2014.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The US International Trade Commission (ITC) says that the existing antidumping and countervailing duty orders on imports of polyethylene retail carrier bags from six Asian countries will remain in place, said Chemweek.

The ITC says it determined that revoking the existing antidumping and countervailing duty orders on polyethylene retail carrier bags from China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam would be likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of material injury within a reasonably foreseeable time.

As MRC informed earlier, Demand for polyethylene (PE) resins in New Delhi may be dampened by a new ban on plastics bags. The Delhi government has imposed a blanket ban on the manufacture, storage and usage of plastic bags in the capital, regardless of thickness. The new ban will curtail demand for PE film and coating grades, which are the raw materials in the production of plastic bags.


MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Group NanoXplore Inc., a Montreal-based company, has introduced graphene-enhanced plastics, as per the company's statement.

Compounded pellets for different grades of polyethylene (PE) and polycarbonate (PC) are available.

NanoXplore is targeting graphene-enhanced thermoplastics in response to broad customer interest for engineering plastics with enhanced electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties. The company commissioned its 8,500 sq. foot manufacturing facility in December, 2015 and today has a capacity of 400 metric tons per year of compounded master batch pellets. NanoXplore has been taking orders and sampling pellets to customers in Europe and North America since January 2016.

NanoXplore has been focusing recently on polyethylene (PE) thermoplastics and has obtained significant multi-functional improvements in performance compared to base resins. For HDPE at 0.5 weight% graphene loading, a 15% increase in tensile strength was achieved without degrading material toughness. For LLDPE at 15 weight% graphene loading, thermal conductivity was doubled, yield strength increased by more than 30%, and electrical conductivity was increased to the anti-static range.

NanoXplore's ability to tailor the final properties of the plastics by adding graphene paves the way for engineering plastics in real world products such as electric motors, cellphone and tablet casings, and automotive and aerospace parts.

We remind that, as MRC wrote previously, in 2013, Dow Elastomers, a business unit of The Dow Chemical Company unveiled a breakthrough compatibilization technology that offers a tuneable range of new-to-the-world, highly effective solutions for combining both non-polar and polar polymers with polypropylene. INTUNE PP-based Olefin Block Copolymers from Dow offer highly effective solutions for combining polyethylene (PE), polyolefin elastomers (POE) and polar materials such as ethylene vinyl alcohol (EVOH) and polyamide (PA) with polypropylene (PP) to provide the best benefits of each material, while minimizing individual trade-off properties.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Celanese Corporation, a global technology and specialty materials company, has increased list and off-list selling prices for Ateva EVA and LDPE polymers, said the producer on its site.

The price increase is effective April 1, 2016 or as contracts allow.

Prices of Ateva EVA will rise by USD0.03/lb (USD 0.07/kg or USD70/tonne) for North and South America and by USD50/tonne for Asia, whereas LDPE prices will increase by USD0.04/lg (USD 0.09/kg or USD90/tonne) for North and South America and by USD50/tonne for Asia.

We remind that, as MRC informed previously, Celanese Corporation raised its prices of vinyl acetate-based emulsions sold in Asia by Yuan 200/MT for China and USD25/MT for the rest of Asia effective March 10, 2016. This price increase affects all applications including, but not limited to, adhesives, paints and coatings, waterproofing, building and construction, glass fiber, carpet and paper. This increase is attributed to the continued pressures on raw materials, notably ethylene and vinyl acetate monomer (VAM).

Celanese Corporation is a global technology leader in the production of differentiated chemistry solutions and specialty materials used in most major industries and consumer applications. Based in Dallas, Celanese employs approximately 7,000 employees worldwide and had 2015 net sales of USD5.7 billion.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- PTT Global Chemical (PTTGC) has restarted its linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) plant following a maintenance turnaround, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in the Thailand informed that the company has resumed operations at its plant on April 5, 2016 . The plant was shut for maintenance in early-March 2016.

Located at Map Ta Phut in Thailand, the LLDPE plant has a production capacity of 400,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed before, As MRC wrote before, PTTGC is studying several options for supplying sufficient raw material to its petrochemical plants, including imports of oil feedstocks after declines in global crude prices. The move is part of a plan to cope with a potential drop in domestic natural gas supply after Thailand's government put bidding for new oil and gas concessions on hold.

PTT Global Chemical is a leading player in the petrochemical industry and owns several petrochemical facilities with a combined capacity of 8.45 million tonnes a year.
MRC