PP imports to Ukraine decreased by 7% in January-August

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ukraine's polypropylene (PP) imports totalled about 82,700 tonnes in January-August of this year, down 7% year on year.
Only some grades of propylene copolymers imports have grown, according to MRC's DataScope.

August PP imports to Ukraine decreased to 10,900 tonnes from 12,200 tonnes a month earlier, local companies decreased their purchasing of homopolymer PP. Overall imports of propylene polymers reached 82,700 tonnes in January-August 2021, compared to 88,700 tonnes a year earlier. The main decrease in imports accounted for homopolymer PP, while imports of some propylene copolymers increased.

Structure of PP supplies over the reported period looked as follows.

August imports of propylene homopolymers to the Ukrainian market decreased to 8,000 tonnes due to limited export quotas from the Middle East and Russian producers, while a month earlier this figure was about 9,300 tonnes. Thus, overall homopolymer PP imports reached 61,400 tonnes in the first eight months of 2021, down by 10% year on year.

Last month's imports of block copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) were about 1,200 tonnes, compared to 1,100 tonnes in July, a small increase in supplies of injection moulding PP block copolymers was seen. About 8,100 tonnes of PP block copolymers were imported in the eight months of this year, compared to 8,800 tonnes a year earlier.

August imports of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) virtually remained at the previous month's level, totalling 1,500 tonnes. Total PP random copolymer imports to Ukraine reached 10,900 tonnes in the first eight months of the year, compared with 10,200 tonnes year on year.

Overall imports of other propylene copolymers totalled slightly over 2,300 tonnes over the stated period.

MRC

1. Crude oil futures rise in Asia on US pipeline outage and IEA bullish oil demand outlook for 2022

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Crude oil futures were higher in mid-morning trade in Asia Sept. 15 after a storm-related power outage shut the US' largest oil pipeline and the International Energy Agency (IEA) released a bullish oil demand outlook for 2022, reported S&P Global. At 10:25 am Singapore time (0225 GMT), the ICE November Brent futures contract was up 28 cents/b (0.38%) from the previous settle at USD73.88/b, while the NYMEX October WTI contract was 30 cents/b (0.43%) higher at USD70.76/b. The Colonial Pipeline, a major supplier of refined products to the US East Coast that carries 1.5 million b/d of gasoline products from Houston to Greensboro, North Carolina on Line 1 and 885,000 b/d of refined products from Greensboro into New York Harbor on Line 2, shut its main gasoline and distillate line Sept. 14 due to a power outage caused by Hurricane Nicholas, which was subsequently downgraded to a Tropical Storm.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Crude oil futures were higher in mid-morning trade in Asia Sept. 15 after a storm-related power outage shut the US' largest oil pipeline and the International Energy Agency (IEA) released a bullish oil demand outlook for 2022, reported S&P Global.

At 10:25 am Singapore time (0225 GMT), the ICE November Brent futures contract was up 28 cents/b (0.38%) from the previous settle at USD73.88/b, while the NYMEX October WTI contract was 30 cents/b (0.43%) higher at USD70.76/b.

The Colonial Pipeline, a major supplier of refined products to the US East Coast that carries 1.5 million b/d of gasoline products from Houston to Greensboro, North Carolina on Line 1 and 885,000 b/d of refined products from Greensboro into New York Harbor on Line 2, shut its main gasoline and distillate line Sept. 14 due to a power outage caused by Hurricane Nicholas, which was subsequently downgraded to a Tropical Storm.

Around 720,217 b/d or 39.6% of Gulf of Mexico output remains shut in following Ida, the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said Sept. 14.

The disruptions were reflected in American Petroleum Institute data released late Sept. 14 that showed a 5.44 million-barrel draw in US crude inventories for the week ending Sept. 10, while gasoline inventories fell 2.76 million barrels and distillate stocks fell 2.89 million barrels.

"Oil prices continue to find strength with a larger-than-expected drawdown in crude oil inventories shown from the API data," IG market strategist Yeap Jun Rong said Sept 15.

On the demand side, the International Energy Agency Sept. 14 raised its global oil demand estimate for 2022 by 100,000 b/d to 99.4 million b/d and now sees demand rising by 5.2 million b/d in 2021 and 3.2 million b/d in 2022, a 105,000 b/d cut and 85,000 b/d increase, respectively.

"Signs are emerging of COVID-19 cases abating, with demand now expected to rebound by a sharp 1.6 million b/d in October and continuing to grow until end year," the IEA said in the report, adding that strong pent-up demand and continued progress in vaccination programs should underpin a robust rebound from the fourth quarter.

This came a day after OPEC hiked its forecast for 2022 global demand growth to 4.15 million b/d from 3.28 million b/d a month earlier and projected global oil demand would exceed pre-pandemic levels in 2022.

As informed earlier, Shell said it observed damage from Hurricane Ida to its transfer station West Delta-143 offshore facilities in the Gulf of Mexico. West Delta-143 serves as the transfer station for all production from its assets in the Mars corridor in the Mississippi Canyon area of the Gulf of Mexico to onshore crude terminals. Shell said it is not yet safe to send personnel offshore to learn the full extent of the damage and estimate the effect on production.

We remind that in late August, 2021, US crude stocks dropped sharply while petroleum products supplied by refiners hit an all-time record despite the rise in coronavirus cases nationwide, the Energy Information Administration said. Crude inventories fell by 7.2 million barrels in the week to Aug. 27 to 425.4 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 3.1 million-barrel drop. Product supplied by refineries, a measure of demand, rose to 22.8 million barrels per day in the most recent week. That's a one-week record, and signals strength in consumption for diesel, gasoline and other fuels by consumers and exporters.

We also remind that US crude oil production is expected to fall by 160,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2021 to 11.12 million bpd, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a monthly report, a smaller decline than its previous forecast for a drop of 210,000 bpd.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Shintech, a subsidiary of Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. and the largest US polyvinyl chloride (PVC) producer, has regained access to industrial gases needed to operate its PVC complexes in Plaquemine and Addis, reported S&P Global with reference to sources familiar with the company's operations.

That access, plus restoration of electric power, allowed the company to begin restart activities.

Those sources said the restarts would be gradual, as PVC complexes involve multiple plants that have to be restarted one by one while checking for any storm-related, as-yet-undiscovered damage.

At Plaquemine, Shintech operates the following production capacities: 500,000 mt/year cracker; 600,000 mt/year PVC; 1.77 million mt/year vinyl chloride (VCM); 2 million mt/year ethylene dichloride (EDC); 1.16 million mt/year chlorine; 1.28 million mt/year caustic soda.

And at Addis, the company has a PVC plant with the production capacity of 900,000 mt/year.

Besides, Shintech declared force majeure for caustic soda supplies on September 1, 2021.

As MRC informed previously, Shintech will start up the first phase of an expansion across the PVC production chain at its Louisiana complex in September, 2021.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's overall production of unmixed PVC totalled 580,500 tonnes in the first seven months of 2021, up by 4% year on year. At the same time, one producer reduced its output.

Shintech Inc. is the world's largest producer of polyvinyl chloride (PVC). PVC is a general-use resin that is finding wide application in goods used in daily life and a significant number of industrial materials. Shintech is committed to operating safe and environmentally responsible facilities.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Overall polyethylene (PE) imports to the Ukrainian market totalled 171,100 tonnes in the first eight months of 2021, down by 6% year on year. Imports of all PE grades decreased, as per MRC's DataScope report.

Last month's PE imports to Ukraine grew to 25,900 tonnes from 23,400 tonnes in July, local companies increased their purchasing of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE). At the same time, overall PE imports were 171,100 tonnes in January-August 2021, compared to 182,400 tonnes a year earlier. Imports of all PE grades decreased without exception, with LDPE accounting for the greatest reduction in shipments.

The structure of PE imports by grades looked the following way over the stated period.

Last month's high density polyethylene (HDPE) imports remained at the July's level, totalling about 8,000 tonnes. Overall HDPE imports were 55,400 tonnes in the first eight months of 2021 versus 66,600 tonnes a year earlier.

August LDPE imports were 8,300 tonnes versus 7,300 tonnes a month earlier, Ukrainian companies raised their purchases in Azerbaijan. Overall LDPE imports reached 52,300 tonnes in January-August 2021, down by 4% year on year.

Last month's LLDPE imports reached 7,300 tonnes, compared to 6,400 tonnes in July, shipments of film grade LLDPE from the USA increased. However, overall LLDPE imports were 50,800 tonnes in January-August 2021, down by 2% year on year.

Imports of other PE grades, including ethylene-vinyl-acetate (EVA), totalled 12,600 tonnes over the stated period, compared to 9,300 tonnes a year earlier.

MRC