Iranian petchem export up by 5% in 10 months

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Spokesman of Iran's Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters' Union, Seyyed Hamid Hosseini said that Iran’s export of petrochemical products increased 5 percent in the 10 months of the current year (from March 21, 2019 to Jan. 20, 2020) as compared to the last year’s corresponding period, said Mehrnews.

He made the remarks on Sun. in an interview with IRNA and added, "launching new petrochemical units in the country has been cited as one of the main reasons behind export increase of petrochemicals."

He pointed to the spread of coronavirus in the world and its impact on energy market and added. “outbreak of COVID-19 has left severe effects on oil market and downstream industries from two aspects."

According to him, Islamic Republic of Iran may be affected severely as a result of outbreak of coronavirus, for, a major part of Iran’s petrochemical products is exported to neighboring countries.

Iran’s petrochemicals are mainly exported to two neighboring countries of Turkey and Iraq, he said, adding, "if closure of borders and insecurity continue in this field, it may affect exports market greatly."

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,904,410 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments increased from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers. The PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,161,830 tonnes in January-November 2019, up by 7% year on year. Deliveries of all grades of propylene polymers increased, with the homopolymer PP segment accounting for the largest increase.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China's Jiangsu Sailboat Petrochemical is now running is two acrylonitrile (ACN) plants at Lianyungang in Jiangsu province at 85%, down from near full capacity, due to lackluster demand, reported S&P Global.

The company's two 260,000 mt/year ACN plants are located in Lianyugang, Jiangsu province, China.

As MRC informed before, in March 2018, Honeywell announced that Jiangsu Sailboat Petrochemical Company, Ltd. had accepted a new methanol-to-olefins (MTO) unit provided by Honeywell UOP, and that the plant was operating and had met all guarantees. With a production capacity of 833,000 metric tons per year, the unit is the largest single-train MTO unit in the world. Honeywell UOP, which pioneered MTO technology, started its first MTO unit for China's Wison Clean Energy in 2013.

ACN is a feedstock for the production of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS).

According to MRC's DataScopr report, overall ABS imports to the Russian market decreased in 2019 by 4% year on year to 33,700 tonnes.

Jiangsu Sailboat Petrochemical, part of the Shenghong Holding Group, is a major petrochemical manufacturer in China, including polyethylene (PE) and ethylene-vinyl-acetate (EVA). The company's production facilities are located in the new Xuwei Industrial Park in Lianyungang City, Jiangsu Province.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Lotte Chemical Titan is planning to shut its No. 2 cracker for a scheduled turnaround this week, reported S&P Global.

The planned maintenance at this cracker No. 2 in Pasir Gudang, Malaysia, with a capacity of 522,000 tonnes of ethylene and 360,000 tonnes of propylene per year will take 30 days.

The company also has a cracker No. 1 at this site with a capacity of 285,000 tonnes of ethylene per year.

As MRC informed before, Lotte Chemical Titan plans to add a naphtha-fed steam cracker with an ethylene production capacity of 1 million mt/year to its petrochemical facility in Merak of Banten province, Indonesia by 2023, making it an integrated petrochemical complex.

The company currently has two high density polyethylene (HDPE) plants and one linear low density polyethylene plant (LLDPE) at the same site, with a total production capacity of 450,000 mt/year. The polyethylene (PE) plants source ethylene feedstock from Lotte Chemical Titan's Malaysia facility.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,093,260 tonnes in 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments rose from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,260,400 tonnes in January-December 2019, up by 4% year on year. Supply of almost all grades of propylene polymers increased, except for statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers).

Lotte Chemical Titan produces Malaysia's most comprehensive portfolio of olefins and polyolefins which contribute to the enhancement of everyday life. Lotte Chemical Titan's production site in Malaysia consists of eleven process facilities, two co-generation plants and three tank farms. They are located on 2 sites in Pasir Gudang and Tanjung Langsat in the state of Johor. In 2006, Lotte Chemical Titan acquired PT Lotte Chemical Titan Nusantara, Indonesia’s first and largest polyethylene plant in the country. This acquisition boosted the polyolefins capacity by approximately 50%, thus making the company one of the largest producers in South East Asia. Lotte Chemical Titan was acquired by Lotte Chemical Corp., forming part of the Lotte conglomerate of Korea, in 2010. The company thus became one of Lotte Chemical Corp.’s largest overseas subsidiaries.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- PTT Global Chemical (PTTGC) is expected to fully restart its No. 2 cracker in Map Ta Phut this week after a planned turnaround, according to S&P Global.

The company started resuming operations at the cracker by end-February, 2020. The cracker was shut for maintenance on January 20, 2020.

Located at Map Ta Phut, Thailand, the No. 2 cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 400,000 mt/year.

The company also operates No. 1 cracker at the same site with a capacity of 515,000 tonnes of ethylene and 310,000 tonnes of propylene per year, which was also shut on 23 January, 2020, for a 40-day turnaround.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,093,260 tonnes in 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments rose from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,260,400 tonnes in January-December 2019, up by 4% year on year. Supply of almost all grades of propylene polymers increased, except for statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers).

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

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Negotiations over March shipments of suspension polyvinyl chloride (SPVC) began in the Russian market on Wednesday. Because of small stocks and a weakening rouble, domestic producers announced price increases for the next month, according to the ICIS-MRC Price Report.

Good export sales helped Russian producers to balance the domestic PVC market, and making stocks insignificant in March. In addition, the weakening of the rouble against the dollar has reduced the attractiveness of exports for local producers. Russian producers said they intend to achieve an increase of roubles (Rb) 2,000-3,000/tonne from February in contract prices.

Small converters reported supply restrictions from some producers in mid-February. Some local companies have already shut all their deals for February shipments. And as a result, producers entered March with non-critical stocks, despite the fact that the demand for PVC from converters was growing from month to month.

It is also worth considering that RusVinyl (in April for two weeks) and Kaustik Volgograd (in May) will shut down production for turnaround, with an annual capacity of 330,000 tonnes/year and 90,000 tonnes/year, respectively.
There is essentially no import alternative to Russian PVC.

Export prices for PVC in Europe and the USA significantly increased, and in March they can hardly be expected to decline. Chinese producers reduced the export prices of acetylene PVC in the last two weeks of the month, but the question of the quick of shipments remains open. Due to the situation with coronavirus, it is highly likely that the shipment of PVC to Russia will be seriously delayed.

The Russian rouble weakened noticeably against the dollar and the euro in the past two weeks. And this factor eliminates all chances of Russian producers for cheap imported PVC. Most of the converters understand that it will not be possible to avoid raising the contract prices of domestic PVC, the only question is the magnitude of the growth.

Overall, deals for March shipments of Russian resin with K64/67 PVC were negotiated in the range of Rb 74,000-76,000/tonne CPT Moscow, including VAT, for quantities of less than 500 tonnes. Resin with K70 was offered by Rb1,000-2,000/tonnes higher.
MRC