Texas edges closer to recovery after Harvey as key pipeline restarts

MOSCOW (MRC) — The US Gulf Coast moves closer to recovery from Hurricane Harvey on Monday when the biggest American fuel system restarts a key segment shut down by devastating rains and officials weigh how to pay for billions of dollars in damage, said Reuters.

The move by Colonial Pipeline to resume transporting distillates such as diesel fuel comes as the Gulf region's energy industry starts to come back online. Flooding from Harvey drove up fuel prices by shutting down almost a quarter of US refining capacity.

The storm came ashore on Aug. 25 as the most powerful hurricane to hit Texas in more than 50 yr. It killed an estimated 50 people, displaced more than 1 MM and damaged some 200,000 homes in a path of destruction stretching for more than 300 mi.

Colonial said it expected to reopen a Texas section of its network from Houston to Hebert, Texas, on Monday, which is the Labor Day holiday. The line would be ready to start moving gasoline on Tuesday, it said. The pipelines' reopening will restore links between refineries along the Gulf Coast, the US petrochemical hub, to markets in the Northeast.

Another fuel system, Explorer Pipeline, said a link running from Texas to Oklahoma restarted on Sunday, with a second pipeline from Oklahoma into the Midwest expected to resume on Monday. Retail fuel costs surged through the weekend amid fears of shortages, despite the restart of several key Gulf refineries that had been crippled by Harvey.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin challenged Congress on Sunday to raise the government's debt limit in order to free up relief spending. Texas Governor Greg Abbott said the storm had caused up to USD180 B in damage.

President Donald Trump's administration has asked Congress for an initial USD7.85 billion for recovery efforts, a small fraction of what will eventually be needed. Even that amount could be delayed unless Congress quickly increases the government's debt ceiling, Mnuchin said. The United States is on track to hit its mandated borrowing limit by the end of the month unless Congress increases it.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said the city expected most public services and businesses to be restored by Tuesday, the first day after the Labor Day holiday. About 37,000 families were staying in 270 shelters in Texas, the highest number reported by the American Red Cross.

The city mandated the evacuation of thousands of people on the western side of Houston on Sunday to accommodate the release of water from reservoirs that otherwise might sustain damage. The storm stalled over Houston, the fourth-largest US city, dumping more than 50 in. on the region.
MRC

Daqing Petrochemical took off-stream HDPE/LLDPE plant in China

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Daqing Petrochemical has shut a high density polyethylene/linear low density polyethylene (HDPE/LLDPE) swing plant for a maintenance turnaround, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the plant was taken off-line for maintenance on September 6, 2017. It is likely to remain under turnaround for about one week.

Located in Daqing city, China, the plant has a production capacity of 250,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed before, in 2012, Daqing Petrochemical successfully commenced production at the newly built 600,000 tpa ethylene unit, which broght the company's annual ethylene production to 1,2 mln tonnes.

Daqing Petrochemical Company is a regional branch company of Petro-China Company Limited. It is a giant-scale petrochemical complex producing oil products, chemicals, fertilizers and chemical fiber with the major raw materials of crude oil, light hydrocarbon and natural gas from Daqing oilfield.
MRC

European PVC prices was rolled over for CIS countries in September

MOSCOW (MRC) - Negotiations on the prices of European polyvinyl chloride (PVC) for September supplies to the markets of the CIS countries had started last week. Despite the rise in ethylene prices in the region, European producers mostly kept the August level of PVC export prices for shipments in September, according to the ICIS-MRC Price Report.

September contract price of ethylene was agreed up EUR30/tonne from the level of August, which makes it possible to talk about reducing the cost of polyvinyl chloride by EUR15/tonne at least.

Some European producers have increased export prices by EUR10/tonne, but in most cases August prices were rolled over.

In general, negotiations on September shipments of suspension polyvinyl chloride (SPVC) to the CIS markets were held in the range of EUR790-850/tonne FCA, which practically corresponds to the August level.

The supply of polyvinyl chloride was sufficient at most producers, although some buyers reported a limited supply of resin with K70 at some producers.
MRC

PE production in Belarus down 47% in the first eight months of 2017

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Belarus's overall production of low density polyethylene (LDPE) totalled 38,000 tonnes in the first eight months of 2017, down by 47% year on year, reported MRC analytsts.

According to the National Statistics Committee of Belarus, Polymir, the local LDPE manufacturer, maintained the July level of capacity utilisation and produced 5,200 tonnes of LDPE. Thus, Polymir's total LDPE output was 38,900 tonnes in January-August 2017 versus 73,000 tonnes a year earlier.

The fire at one of the ethylene units in late June 2016, which led to a two-fold reduction in the olefin production, was the main reason for such a major fall in the output.


It is also worth noting that the plant's clients said Polimir intends to shut down some of its production capacities for maintenance in October. According to preliminary data, the outage will last for about a month.

Polymir (part of Naftan) is Belarus' largest petrochemical company, producing a wide range of chemical products, such as low density polyethylene (LDPE), acrylic fibers, products of organic synthesis, hydrocarbon fractions, etc. Polymir was founded in 1968. The producer uses technologies of the largest foreign companies from Great Britain, Japan, Germany, Italy (Courtaulds, Asahi Chemical Co. Ltd, Kanematsu Gosho, SNIA BPD, etc.), as well as the development of scientific research institutes and design institutes of the CIS countries. The plant's annual production capacity is 130,000 tonnes.

MRC

European PP prices rose by EUR40/tonne in September

MOSCOW (MRC) - September contract price of propylene in Europe was agreed up EUR40/tonne below the level of the August. European producers, in their turn, announced the increase in export PP prices for CIS markets proportionally to the increase in prices of propylene, according to ICIS-MRC Price Report.

Negotiations over September prices of European PP began this week, many market participants said European producers increased their export PP prices because of the price rise of the monomer in the region.

There are no export restrictions of some of the European producers, a few producers still have restrictions due to production shutdowns. Demand for PP was also strong from some CIS countries.

Deals for homopolymer PP are discussed a range of EUR1,040-1,100/tonne FCA, on average up by EUR40/tonne from the level in August.

Deals for copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) are discussed in the range of EUR1,140 -1,200/tonne FCA.

Negotiations over September shipments of PP random copolymers are held in the range of EUR1,200-1,260/tonne FCA.
MRC