Buoyant demand to keep Asia caustic soda firm in Q1

(ICIS) -- Asian caustic soda prices look set to remain at strong levels in the first quarter on the back of robust demand against a tightening of supply, market players said on Wednesday.


Spot prices were last assessed at $340-360/dmt (dry metric tonne) (┬248-263/dmt) CFR (cost and freight) SE (southeast) Asia on 21 Jan 2011, according to ICIS. In 2010, caustic soda prices jumped by $115-120/dmt.


American buyers had procured cargoes from Asia due to an open arbitrage window, following spikes in US caustic soda prices due to tight supply, market players said.


Meanwhile, demand for caustic soda in Asia surprisingly remained robust ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays in early February, market players said.


Caustic soda is mainly used in the manufacture of pulp and paper, alumina, soap and detergents.


MRC

Bayer adds Albis for Russian distribution

(PRW) -- Bayer MaterialScience is stepping up its activities in Russia by expanding its cooperation with Germany's Albis Group. The move sees the chemicals giant add the distributor to handle the high-performance plastics Makrolon (PC), APEC (PC-HT), Bayblend (PC/ABS) and Makroblend (PC/PBT) for the Russian market.


According to Bayer, Russia offers attractive growth in a number of industries, particularly the automotive and electrical sectors. The cooperation with Albis is therefore regarded as a key factor for long-term success.


The polycarbonate products from Bayer MaterialScience will continue to be distributed in Russia directly by Bayer operations.


MRC

The Rosti group wins new projects at Polish and UK operations

(prw) -- The Rosti group has announced two large new projects for customers, one at its Polish operation and one in the UK.


Rosti Poland has been awarded a new project for the manufacture of a drip filter coffee maker. It says the appliance produced at Rosti will be an uplift of a current coffee maker but with completely new tooling.


The scope of the project includes: manufacturing 14 new tools; injection moulding of 14 components; painting and printing. Production is planned to start in September. The project lifetime is estimated to be three to four years.


The group separately announced that Rosti UK has been awarded a contract from a new customer for production of a range of household power meters. Production is due to commence in March 2011, with refresh versions being rolled out an annual basis.


MRC

Turkmenistan to build US $ 1 billion chemical plant in Mary province

(Turkmenistan) -- Turkmenistan will build a new industrial complex worth US $ 1 billion in Mary province with the assistance of the Japanese and Turkish experts. The official ceremony of laying the foundation stone took place on 25 January. The complex will produce ammonia and urea. The facility will be built by Turkish company ⌠Renaissance Holding.

The Framework Agreement on the construction of factories for the production of ammonia and urea in the town of Mary was signed in December 2009 as part of the 8th joint meeting of the Turkmen-Japanese and Sino-Turkmen economic cooperation committees.


As the President of Turkmenistan said, a project for the construction of the new industrial complex in the town of Mary is ⌠the beginning of the great joint work serving the interest of both sides.


MRC

Southern Africa spot prices for imported polymers up $50-100/tonne

(ICIS) -- Spot prices in the southern Africa polymers markets climbed by $50-100/tonne (┬37-73/tonne) for February business, as importers raised their offers on stronger sentiment and high feedstock costs, sources said on Wednesday.


The strongest increases overall were seen in the globally short polypropylene (PP) market, although low density polyethylene (LDPE), the tightest of the three polyethylene (PE) grades, also came under strong upward pressure on limited supply.


Homopolymer PP prices rose by $70-100/tonne to reach $1,500-1,600/tonne CFR (cost and freight) southern Africa, according to ICIS, while the even shorter availability of copolymer PP forced values up by $100/tonne, leaving the range at $1,650-1,700/tonne CFR southern Africa.


There was a general expectation that import prices of both PE and PP would continue to climb throughout February, as South African producers which were offering aggressive prices into the region had announced their intention to raise their competitive prices in the coming month, market sources said.


MRC