ABS imports to Ukrainian market up by 67% in Jan-Feb 2020

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Overall imports of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) to the Ukrainian market rose in the first two month of 2020 by 67% year on year, according to MRC's DataScope report.

Thus, imports of material into Ukraine totalled 990 tonnes over the stated period. This figure was at 590 tonnes in January-February 2019.

February ABS imports into the country grew by 10% to 5200 tonnes from 470 tonnes in January. This figure was at 340 tonnes in February 2019.

South Korea is the largest ABS supplier into the region. The share of Korean material in the total shipments fell in January-February 2020 to 38% (380 tonnes) year on year from 56% a year earlier (330 tonnes), with Lotte's shipments being at 220 tonnes and LG Chem's imports - at 150 tonnes.

Deliveries of Austrian material to the region grew by two and a half times to 220 tonnes with a share of 22% in the total imports.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Overall imports of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) to the Russian market increased in the first two months of 2020 by 8% year on year to 4,800 tonnes, according to MRC's DataScope report.

This figure was at 4,500 tonnes in January-February 2019.

South Korean companies LG Chem and Lotte Advanced accounted for about 50% of the country's ABS imports.

Styrolution and Trinseo shipped the bulk of European ABS. The share of their shipments is 23% of the total imports.

February imports of material in the Russian Federation rose by 48% year on year to 2,500 tonnes from 2,700 tonnes a year earlier. Imports were 2,300 tonnes in January 2020.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sinopec Zhenhai Refining and Chemical, part of Sinopec Group, has planned to take its No. 3 Polypropylene (PP) unit off-stream in April 2020, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the company is likely to start maintenance at the unit on April 9, 2020. The unit is expected to remain under maintenance for about one week.

Located at Ningbo, China, the No. 3 PP unit has a production capacity of 350,000 mt/year.

As MRC reported earlier, Sinopec Corp is set to launch a new USD5.7 billion refining and petrochemical complex in the south of the country in second-quarter 2020 using crude oil from Kuwait as a key feedstock. The project being developed by Asia’s top refiner, a 200,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) plant in Zhanjiang, a coastal city in Guangdong province, will become the third greenfield refinery-petrochemical complex to be built in China within a space of two years.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market were 192,760 tonnes in January-February 2020, down by 6% year on year. Homopolymer PP accounted for the main decrease in imports.

China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group) is a super-large petroleum and petrochemical enterprise group established in July 1998 on the basis of the former China Petrochemical Corporation. Sinopec Group"s key business activities include the exploration and production of oil and natural gas, petrochemicals and other chemical products, oil refining.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Belarus plans to supply its oil refineries with at least 1 million tons of crude oil in April, reported Reuters with reference to the RIA news agency, which cited Belarus state oil company Belneftekhim.

Russia, the main supplier of oil to Belarus, has yet to restart deliveries in full, which have been suspended since the start of the year due to a pricing row.

The goal is to reach two million tons of crude oil supply, Belneftekhim said.

In late January 2020, as MRC wrote before, the country's Naftan refinery received 80,000 mt of Norwegian oil to test out new routes and compare losses with the current price of Russian oil.

Lukashenko said in mid-December 2019 that Russia had agreed in principle to supply 20-22 Bcm of gas and 24 million-25 million mt of oil in 2020 to Belarus.

According to ICIS-MRC Price report, lower capacity utilisation at Polymir (part of Naftan) in January 2020 did not affect the balance of the local low density polyethylene (LDPE) market, there was no shortage of polyethylene (PE). Local companies partially compensated for the absence of domestic PE by higher shipments from Russia.

Polymir (part of Naftan) is Belarus' largest petrochemical company, producing a wide range of chemical products, such as 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 developments of scientific research institutes and design institutes of the CIS countries. The plant"s annual production capacity is 130,000 tonnes.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The US Supreme Court on Monday found a Citgo partnership liable for USD143 million in cleanup costs from a 2004 oil spill in the Delaware River, which was caused when an abandoned anchor pierced the single hull of the Athos I oil tanker on its final approach to a Philadelphia-area refinery, reported Reuters.

Resolving a split in the federal circuits, the 7-2 court held that the "safe-berth" clause in Citgo Asphalt Refining Company (CARCO)’s contract with the shipping firm’s agent amounted to a warranty that the boat would be able to reach the refinery dock safely.

As informed before, in May 2019, Citgo restarted larger reformer at its US Corpus Christi 52,000 bbl/day refinery with capacity 225,000 benzene; 180,000 toluene tonnes/year.

Benzene is a feedstock for the production of styrene monomer (SM), which, in its turn, is a feedstock for manufacturing polystyrene (PS).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, overall estimated consumption of PS and styrene plastics rose in February 2020 by 14% year on year to 39,890 tonnes. The estimated consumption totalled 80,570 tonnes in the first two months of 2020, which corresponded to the last year's figure.
MRC