Output of products from polymers in Russia up 1.3% in H1 2020

MOSCOW (MRC) -- After the May fall in June, Russia's output of products from polymers rose by 16.9% due to the easing of quarantine restrictions and seasonally stronger demand. However, this figure increased by 1.3% year on year in the first six months of 2020, reported MRC analysts.

According to the Russian Federal State Statistics Service, June production of unreinforced and non-combined films grew to 114,700 tonnes from 101,000 tonnes a month earlier. Output of films products rose in the first six months of 2020 by 10.7% year on year to 618,600 tonnes.

June production of non-porous boards, sheets and films went up to 36,200 tonnes from 33,000 tonnes in May. Thus, overall output of these products reached 196,700 tonnes in January-June 2020, up by 6.8% year on year.

June production of porous polymer boards, sheets and films was 27,900 tonnes, up by 25.1% month on month. Overall output of these products reached 135,100 tonnes in the first six months of 2020, compared to 124,000 tonnes a year earlier.

June production of plastic bottles and flasks fell to 1,801,000,000 items from 1,958,000,000 items a month earlier. Overall output of these plastic products totalled 10,720,000,000 units over the stated period, compared to 10,398,000,000 units a year earlier.

June production of polymer pipes, hoses and fittings was 64,500 tonnes versus 56,500 tonnes in May. Overall output of these products was 314,700 tonnes in January-June 2020, up by 16.2% year on year.

June production of sacks and bags from ethylene polymers reached 2,981,000,000 units, compared to 2,547,000,000 units a month earlier. Overall output of these plastic products totalled 14,657,000,000 units in the first six months of 2020, compared to 11,955,000,000 units a year earlier.

June production of linoleum and floor coverings was 15,400,000 square metres, compared to 8,600,000 square metres a month earlier. Overall output of these products totalled 64,000,000 square metres over the stated period versus 67,600,000 square metres a year earlier.

June production of plastic windows and door blocks reached 2,391,000 square metres and 85,600 square metres, respectively, versus 1,816,000 square metres and 69,200 square metres a month earlier. Overall output of these plastic products totalled 11,253,000 square metres and 416,000 square metres, respectively, compared to 9,885,000 square metres and 427,300 square metres a year earlier.
MRC

European producers do not plan to raise PVC prices for CIS markets

MOSOCW (MRC) -- Negotiations on prices of European polyvinyl chloride (PVC) for August shipments to the CIS markets started at the beginning of the week. The rise in the cost of ethylene in Europe has been going on for the third month in a row, but not all producers plan to increase export prices for PVC, according to the ICIS-MRC Price Report.

August contract price of ethylene was agreed up by EUR21/tonne from the previous month, which theoretically allows to talk about an increase of EUR11/tonne in net cost of PVC. Nevertheless, the offers from European producer for August export prices of PVC for CIS markets have been mixed. Both the increase in export prices of PVC for shipments in August and the roll over of the July ones are being discussed.

The demand for PVC from consumers from the CIS countries has remained at a good level in the last two months due to the seasonal factor, while the possibilities of local producers were limited, including due to scheduled shutdowns.
The situation is similar in Europe in the PVC market.

Scheduled maintenance works and good demand from both the domestic market and a number of export markets significantly limited the supply for a number of European producers. Some producers do not intend to carry out their shipments to the markets of the CIS countries in August.

Overall, deals for August shipments of suspension polyvinyl chloride (SPVC) to the CIS markets were negotiated in the range of EUR665-720/tonne FCA, whereas last month's deals were done in the range of EUR660-720/tonne FCA.
MRC

Nan Ya Plastics conducts maintenance at No. 1 MEG plant in Taiwan

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Nan Ya Plastics, part of Formosa Petrochemical, has shut its No. 1 monoethylene glycol (MEG) unit at Mailiao on 8 July for a catalyst change, reported S&P Global with reference to a company source.

The 360,000 mt/year plant is expected to be bought back on-line on 13 August, 2020.

The company's 360,000 mt/year No. 2 MEG unit will undergo a month-long overhaul after the No. 1 MEG plant restarts, and the 360,000 mt/year No. 3 plant will undergo a turnaround from mid-August, the company source added.

As MRC informed before, Nan Ya's 800,000 mt/year MEG plant in Texas is expected to come online by late 2020 or early 2021 rather than the third quarter of 2020. According to Formosa Plastics USA, Nan Ya suspended construction on the project at Formosa's Point Comfort, Texas, complex in March on coronavirus pandemic-related concerns to ensure worker safety and social distancing. The company has not publicly disclosed a new startup timeline. The facility's startup was originally expected to come in the first half of this year, and later pushed back to Q3.

MEG is one of the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene terephthalate (PET).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PET consumption totalled 367,720 tonnes in the first six months of 2020, up by 19% year on year. Russian companies processed 62,910 tonnes of material in June.

Formosa Petrochemical is involved primarily in the business of refining crude oil, selling refined petroleum products and producing and selling olefins (including ethylene, propylene, butadiene and BTX) from its naphtha cracking operations. Formosa Petrochemical is also the largest olefins producer in Taiwan and its olefins products are mostly sold to companies within the Formosa Group. Among the company's chemical products are paraxylene (PX), phenyl ethylene, acetone and pure terephthalic acid (PTA). The company's plastic products include acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) resins, polystyrene (PS), polypropylene (PP) and panlite (PC).
MRC

COVID-19 - News digest as of 06.08.2020

1. U.S. specialty chemical markets strengthen in June

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The American Chemistry Council (ACC) reported that with continued recovery in the U.S. economy, specialty chemicals market volumes increased by 3.6 percent in June, an improvement from the revised 1.2 percent gain in May and the record 12.6 percent decline in April, said Americanchemistry. Of the 28 specialty chemical segments that ACC monitors, 25 expanded in June, an improvement from the expansion in 22 segments in May and the decline across all segments in April. On a sequential basis, diffusion was 89 percent, an improvement from 79 percent in May and 0 percent in April. In June, 23 segments featured gains of more than 1.0 percent.

MRC

Merck net profit drops sharply on impairments, other expenses; acquisitions boost revenue

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Merck KGaA (Darmstadt, Germany) says its net profits in the second quarter of 2020 dropped 38.5% year on year (YOY), to EUR290 million (USD343 million), despite revenue growing 3.7% YOY, to EUR4.12 billion, driven primarily by acquisition-related growth in the performance materials business and organic growth in the life-science business, reported Chemweek.

The fall in profits is attributed mainly to impairment losses on intangible assets in performance materials, higher interest expenses, and other operating expenses, the company says. EBITDA and EBIT fell by 2.5% and 20.6%, to EUR1.05 billion and €491 million, respectively, Merck says.

“Despite considerable pandemic-related obstacles in some businesses, overall we did well in the second quarter. In recent months, we again proved the strengths of our diversified business model with three strong innovation-driven business sectors,” says Stefan Oschmann, chairman and CEO at Merck.

The company’s healthcare business recorded a 10.6% YOY drop in sales, to EUR1.50 billion, due to the impact of COVID-19, and negative currency and portfolio effects. Fertility was the segment hurt the most by the pandemic, with an organic decrease in sales of 38.9%, Merck says. EBITDA was down 31.3% YOY, to EUR359 million.

Life-science sales rose by 5.9% to EUR1.81 billion, with the process solutions segment the key growth driver due to continued high demand in the underlying business, but also as a result of increased orders in the course of the pandemic that drove 19.8% organic growth in sales, Merck says. However, sales of the research solutions segment declined 7.1% and remained flat in the applied solutions segment, the company says. EBITDA jumped 12.8% YOY, to EUR584 million, it says.

Merck’s performance materials business recorded a 38.1% YOY increase in sales, to EUR814 million, with a 50.1% sales contribution from the acquisitions of Versum Materials and Intermolecular driving the growth, the company says. The display solutions and surface solutions segments posted lower sales by 20.8% and 29.6%, respectively. Meanwhile, organic sales growth of the semiconductor solutions segment was 12.1%. The performance materials business's EBITDA rose 35.9% YOY, to EUR219 million.

Merck has confirmed the assumptions it made, following the COVID-19 outbreak, in a forecast made on 31 March. The company continues to assume that its businesses will be impacted to varying degrees. For full-year 2020, it expects slight-to-moderate organic net sales growth compared with the previous year with sales between EUR16.9 billion and EUR17.7 billion. The company continues to expect that life sciences will be a major driver of its organic growth, healthcare will see a slight organic increase in net sales, and that the performance materials business will see a moderate-to-strong organic decline in net sales.

Merck has also raised the lower end of its expected full-year range for EBITDA before exceptional items and now forecasts slight-to-moderate organic growth to €4.45-4.85 billion. It expects strong organic growth in life sciences and a stable development in healthcare, but forecasts an organic decline in performance materials.

As MRC wrote previously, Merck KGaA has announced the opening its M Lab Collaboration Center in Shanghai, China. Merck Innovation Hub, the first in China, started in late 2019, with the company announcing a 100 million renminbi (USD14 million) seed fund injected into the China Innovation Hub.

We remind that Merck celebrated the opening of its new packaging center at the science and technology company’s headquarters in Darmstadt, Germany, in October, 2018. The new 161,458-square-foot facility is dedicated to the packaging and shipping of Merck’s current portfolio of pharma medicines in more than 90 countries and help meet increasing patient needs for flagship medicines Glucophage, Concor and Euthyrox in the areas of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and thyroid disorders respectively. It will also provide capacity for potential future pharma products currently in clinical development such as evobrutinib in the area of neurology-immunology or tepotinib in the area of oncology.

According to MRC's DataScope report, PE imports to Russia dropped in January-June 2020 by 7% year on year to 328,000 tonnes. High density polyethylene (HDPE) accounted for the main decrease in imports. At the same time, PP imports into Russia rose in the first six months of 2020 by 21% year on year to 105,300 tonnes. Propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) accounted for the main increase in imports.
MRC