ABS imports to Belarus down by 15% in Jan-Mar 2020

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Overall imports of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) to the Belarusian market dropped in the first quarter of 2020 by 15% year on year to 1,360 tonnes, according to MRC's DataScope report.

This figure was at 1,590 tonnes in January-March 2019.

March ABS imports to Belarus decreased by 31% year on year. Thus, imports of material into the country were 457 tonnes over the stated period versus 667 tonnes in March 2019. Imports were at 467 tonnes in February 2020.

Belgium, Russia and South Korea are the main countries-importers of ABS to Belarus.

Imports of material from Belgium increased in the first three months of 2020 by 23% year on year: from 446 tonnes to 550 tonnes. The share of Belgian material imports in the total shipments was 41%, compared to 33% in the first quarter of 2019. However, March ABS imports from Belgium fell by 22% from February, totalling 154 tonnes.


Deliveries of Russian material decreased in the first quarter of 2020 by 16% year on year: from 468 tonnes to 392 tonnes. The share of Russian companies' ABS in the total imports to the country remained in January-March 2020 at the last year's level - 29%. Shipments of Russian material to Belarus reached 169 tonnes in March 2020 versus 116 tonnes a month earlier, whereas imports of Russian material were 134 tonnes in March 2019.

Imports of Korean material to the Belarusian market slumped in January-March 2020 by 56% year on year: to 231 tonnes from 522 tonnes a year earlier. The share of ABS imports from South Korea in the total shipments to the country decreased in the first quarter of 2020 to 17% from 33% a year earlier. March 2020 shipments of Korean ABS into the Republic of Belarus were 169 tonnes versus 115 tonnes in February, whereas imports of material were 134 tonnes in March 2019.

MRC

COVID-19 - News digest as of 27.05.2020

1. Crude hits 10-week high as economic restarts prompt demand optimism

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Crude futures settled higher amid signs that the continued reopening of economies in the US and Europe could bring balance to oversupplied oil markets in coming weeks, reported S&P Global. NYMEX July WTI settled USD1.10 higher at USD24.35/b and ICE July Brent climbed 64 cents on the day to finish at USD36.17/b. Front-month WTI and Brent was last higher on March 10. Oil demand outlooks continue to improve as more state and local governments ease restrictions on non-essential travel and trade aimed at slowing the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.


MRC

Toho Titanium mulls further sponge Ti output cuts

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Japanese producer Toho Titanium is considering further output cuts at its sponge titanium plants in Japan and Saudi Arabia in response to weaker demand, particularly from the aircraft industry, brought on by the Covid-19 outbreak, said Chemweek.

The Covid-19 pandemic has taken has taken its toll on the aircraft industry, which is scaling back production of commercial planes in the face of a slump in global air travel demand.

Toho Titanium said it has been notified by some customers to reduce delivery volumes of contracted sponge titanium used in aircraft manufacturing. Demand from other manufacturing sectors is also expected to remain sluggish over the months to come, it added.

The company has reduced sponge titanium production by 10pc since May but is considering whether to curb output further amid falling demand. It has a combined 25,200 t/yr of sponge titanium production capacity at its Chigasaki and Wakamatsu plants in Japan, in addition to its joint-venture plant in Saudi Arabia.

Toho Titanium is negotiating with Saudi sponge titanium venture partner Advanced Metal Industries Cluster to review plans for the Yanbu plant, which started commercial production in September last year. The Advanced Metal Industries Cluster and Toho Titanium Metal venture was originally targeting to increase output to a full 15,600 t/yr by the end of 2020.

Toho Titanium is a 50.38pc-owned subsidiary of Japanese resource firm JXTG. The company is planning to start output at a new nickel powder production line at Wakamatsu in April next year.

As MRC informed earlier, JXTG Nippon Oil and Energy, is in plans to restart its cracker following an unplanned outage. The company is likely to resume operations at the cracker early this week. The cracker was shut owing to technical issues on May 4, 2020. Located at Kawasaki in Japan, the cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 460,000 mt/year and propylene production capacity of 235,000 mt/year.

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 557,060 tonnes in the first three month of 2020, up by 7% year on year. High density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments rose because of the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. Demand for LDPE subsided. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market was 267,630 tonnes in January-March 2020, down 20% year on year. Homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers accounted for the main decrease in imports.
MRC

SIBUR shut PE plants in Russia for scheduled turnaround

MOSCOW (MRC) -- SIBUR Holdinghas has shut its polyethylene (PE) plants for a planned maintenance since 23 May 2020, reported CommoPlast with reference to market sources.

Based in Russia, the turnaround includes both old and new PE plants of SIBUR which consists of Tomskneftekhim with 270,000 tons/year of low density polyethylene (LDPE) unit, as well as ZapSibNeftekhim with a 700,000 tons/year high density polyethylene (HDPE) unit and 800,000 tons/year linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE)/HDPE swing plant.

All PE plants are expected to remain off-stream for about 20 days.

A source closed to the company informed that previously the lines have been operating at lower rates, and expected production rate shall be ramp up higher after resume from maintenance shutdown.

As MRC informed earlier, in February 2020, Linde PLC recieved a contract to provide technology for PJSC SIBUR Holding’s cracker at Amur gas chemical complex (GCC). GCC is an integrated 1.5 million tons per year polyethylene and polypropylene production complex to be built near Svobodny in Russia’s far-east Amur region. The contract was awarded to Linde under a consortium with SIBUR subsidiary and project contractor NIPIgazpererabotka (Nipigaz).

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

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 557,060 tonnes in the first three month of 2020, up by 7% year on year. High density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments rose because of the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. Demand for LDPE subsided. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market was 267,630 tonnes in January-March 2020, down 20% year on year. Homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers accounted for the main decrease in imports.

SIBUR is the largest integrated petrochemicals company in Russia. The Group sells its petrochemical products on the Russian and international markets in two business segments: Olefins & Polyolefins (polypropylene, polyethylene, BOPP films, etc.) Plastics, Elastomers & Intermediates (synthetic rubbers, EPS, PET, etc.). SIBUR’s petrochemicals business utilises mainly own feedstock, which is produced by the Midstream segment using by-products purchased from oil and gas companies. More than 26,000 employees working in SIBUR contribute to the success of customers engaged in the chemical, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), automotive, construction, energy and other industries in 80 countries worldwide. In 2018, SIBUR reported revenue of USD 9.1 billion and adjusted EBITDA of USD 3.3 billion.
MRC

Coronavirus lockdowns depress fuel demand worldwide

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Countries around the world have reported steep falls in fuel demand as lockdowns to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus limit the movement of more than 4 billion people, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

U.S. fuel demand has dropped 28% in the last four weeks, the Energy Information Administration said on April 29. Overall finished motor gasoline demand is still down 44% over the past four weeks from the year-ago period, but a drawdown in stocks in the previous week suggests the consumption declines may be leveling off. Jet fuel demand was down 62%.

China’s crude oil throughput in March sank to a 15-month low of around 11.98 million barrels per day, down 4.6% from a year earlier, National Bureau of Statistics data shows. China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), Asia’s top oil and gas firm, said on March 19 its refined oil sales in February fell 45% year-on-year. The CNPC’s research arm forecasts Chinese refined oil consumption, including diesel, gasoline and jet fuel, will rise in March by 41% on an average daily consumption basis from February, reaching a monthly total of 21.19 million tons. But, March consumption would still be 19.1% lower than a year earlier, and April consumption will remain lower.

Diesel consumption, which normally accounts for two-fifths of overall refined fuel consumption, declined 24.2% in March from a year earlier, its deepest decline since April 1998, data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) of the oil ministry showed.PPAC has only provided monthly growth numbers since April 1998. Sales of gasoline, or petrol, fell by 16.4% from a year earlier, the deepest slide since March 1999, the data showed. Jet fuel consumption declined by 32.4% as the lockdown hit air travel. However, cooking gas or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) sales rose about 1.9% to 2.31 million tons and naphtha sales rose 15.7% to 1.39 million tons. India extended a lockdown of its 1.3 billion people until at least May 3 on Tuesday.

Gasoline consumption fell 80% year-on-year in the last 10 days of March, according to industry body Comite Professionel du Petrole (CPDP). Diesel consumption contracted 75% over the same period. This brought the overall fall in March to 22% for gasoline consumption and 26% for diesel. On April 13, France extended the lockdown of its 67 million population, which began on March 17, until May 11.

Spanish road fuel consumption fell by a quarter year-on-year in March to its lowest since January 1999 as measures to contain the coronavirus stopped vehicles circulating, data from national oil and gas agency CORES showed. Gasoline use fell the most, by 34.4% compared with the same month the previous year. Total gasoline consumption was the lowest registered in the euro zone’s fourth-largest economy since February 1973. Spain's leading fuel distributor CLH reported a 56.3% drop in deliveries of oil products in April to the Spanish market compared with April 2019. Deliveries in April hit 1.5 million cubic metres, with gasoline dropping by 78.6%, automotive diesel by 56.6% and jet/kerosene by 92.8%. [here]

Domestic oil product sales in March fell 11.1% from a year earlier to 2.65 million barrels per day (bpd), Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) data showed. Gasoline sales dropped 8.4 percent to 764,112 bpd, while kerosene sales fell 2.4 percent from a year earlier to 304,634 bpd, the data showed.

Jet fuel and kerosene consumption fell by over 66% in March compared with the same time last year. Consumption was also down 24% in the first quarter year-on-year. Gasoil and diesel consumption, which represent the biggest chunk of Italian fuel use, stood at 1.47 million tons last month, down 34.7% compared with March 2019. Quarterly consumption was down nearly 13%. And gasoline demand was down more than 50% to 285,000 tons in March compared with the previous year. In April, demand fell even further. Jet and kerosene demand dropped by over 92% to 30,000 tons. Gasoline demand fell 73.4% to 164,000 tons, while gasoil and diesel consumption dropped nearly 50% to 1.11 million tons.

German oil refineries scaled back jet fuel output by around 26% last month compared with the year before, while raising heating oil production by over 30%, the country’s Mineral Oil Association (MWV) said. Overall, German refinery oil product output in March was only 2.2% lower than the same time last year, the MWV, which represents the country’s 15 refineries, said. Diesel and gasoline output fell by 7.1% and 4.5% respectively.

Fuel demand down 40-45% year-on-year in the past couple weeks, compared with a 65-70% decline earlier in the country’s lockdown, the chairman of the Petroleum Retailers Association told Reuters on May 18.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing PE and PP.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 383,760 tonnes in the first two month of 2020, up by 14% year on year. High density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments increased due to the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, 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.
MRC