SC rejects plea against Chemplast PVC plant

March 15 (expressbuzz) -- The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a batch of appeals and petitions challenging the clearances granted by Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, and the Tamil Nadu Public Works Department to Chemplast for its PVC plant / Marine Terminal Facility including the pipeline crossing Uppanar river, for drawing the raw material vinyl chloride monomer from the jetty located at Tiyagavalli village to its plant at Semmankuppam village in Cuddalore district.


A three Judge Bench of Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan, Justice R M Lodha and Justice BS Chauhan dismissed a special leave petition filed by M Nizamudeen of Cuddalore against an October 31, 2008 Madras High Court judgment, rejecting his petition challenging the clearance granted by the Public Works Department dated February 27, 2008, to Chemplast.


By its order, a writ petition filed by A Bhuvaenthiran of Cuddalore directly in the Supreme Court challenging the MoEF approval dated 19.12.2005 and three more writ petitions transferred to Supreme Court from Madras High Court, were also dismissed.


The Supreme Court observed that ⌠the PVC project of Chemplast had been established by investing a huge amount of about Rs 600 crore after obtaining necessary approvals and therefore it shall not be in the interest of justice nor in the public interest now to interfere with the project. In its judgment rejecting all petitions challenging the environmental clearance to the project, the Bench said, ⌠We do not find any infirmity in the permission granted by the Ministry of Environment and Forests on December 19, 2005, and having held so, there is no illegality in the permission granted by PWD in February 2008 either.

MRC


LLDPE prices rising in Russia

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Prices in the Russian LLDPE market had moved at the level of RUB57.000-60.000/mt by the middle of the current week - according to MRC Price Report.

Nizhnekamskneftekhim resumed LLDPE production in mid-February; however, due to technical problems, shipments to the domestic market were limited. Lack of butene-based LLDPE in Europe resulted in a serious decrease in imports of European material in the Russian market. In view of the domestic demand sales of Shurtan Gas-Chemical Plant's feedstock at the exchange were nearly stopped.

The tight Russian PE market and high feedstock prices in Europe and Asia preconditioned growth of prices in Russia.

The price for Nizhenkamskneftekhim's PE5118Q LLDPE grade climbed at RUB60.000/mt; prices for Uzbek polyethylene moved at RUB57.000/mt, including VAT, FCA. European producers raised March LLDPE prices on average by EUR30-40/mt, to EUR1.080-1.100.

MRC

For more detailed information on the Russian polyethylene market, see Price Report.

Cost reductions at Arkema limit fall in 2009 operating profit

March 12 (plasteurope) -- Arkema has reported a 38% year-on-year fall in operating profit (EBITDA) to EUR 310m in 2009. The company said that it had limited the impact of falling volumes by accelerating cost reductions while generating high cash flow.

Sales in the year fell by 21% to EUR 4.44 bn, with volumes showing a 14% decline over 2008 due to the effect falling demand combined with customer destocking in the first six months of the year. Prices fell over the year, reflecting lower raw material costs, in particular ethylene and propylene and a fall in caustic soda prices.

MRC

MRC Reference

Arkema.

Russia's planned large-scale petrochemical to target the Chinese market

March 12 (plastemart) -- Based on Russia's plentiful feedstock resources, petrochemical major Sibur is studying the construction of large-scale petrochemical and polymer production as per ICIS. Since domestic demand is limited, the projects would be export-oriented, targeting China primarily.

But building the necessary pipelines to transport the feedstock across huge distances to the cracker locations will be a mammoth task. Russia has the feedstock and capabilities to convert this feedstock into polyolefins at a competitive cost. Transvalgaz is exploring the feasibility of necessary gas processing and feedstock transportation from Western Siberia to North-West Russia.

Sibur is also discussing with Gazprom a cracker project in Russia's Far East region, either in Vladivostok or Khabarovsk. Vladivostok is the preferred location because the port is ice-free.

MRCMRC Reference

Sibur Holding is the largest Russian petrochemical group.

Shareholders:
Gazprombank (70% minus 1 share);
Gazfond (25% plus 1 share);
5% reserved for option program.

The share in the Russian market in 2008:

polyethylene - 11.1%;

polypropylene - 16% (including PP-random - 11.2%);
ABS - 5.2%;
PVC - 8.1%.

Mitsui Chemicals to restart 553,000 tpa Chiba naphtha cracker end of month

March 12 (plastemart) -- Japan's Mitsui Chemicals Inc expects to restart its 553,000 tpa naphtha cracker in Chiba around late March after repairs.

The cracker was originally shut on Feb. 28 due to a problem and has failed to restart earlier this month, resulting in a loss of about US$33 mln.