Import deliveries of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) to the Russian market shrunk by 23% y/y in the Jan-May period, writes Market Report. The country imported a total of 98.1 thousand tonnes of HDPE in the first 5 months of the year, vs. 128.2 thousand tonnes a year earlier. At the same time, the seasonal increase in demand, coupled with the idling of the Stavrolen plant, pushed the April and May imports up to the respective levels of 23.2 and 22 thousand tonnes of HDPE. Russia’s Jan-to-May imports of HDPE for extrusion coating declined by 14% from their previous-year level, with May deliveries shrinking to 3.2 thousand tonnes from 5.3 thousand tonnes in April. The customs duty on the imports of this type of polyethylene, currently set at 9.1%, has been suspended in a relatively recent decision, so we may yet see the imports rising in the months ahead. Pipe-grade HDPE imports […]

Alexey Ivanov, Head of Lukoil’s Production, Optimization and Coordination Department, has said that according to the company’s plans its polypropylene facilities at the Stavrolen plant, standing idle since a fire broke out in February 2014, should resume production in Q1 2015. The exact date will be determined nearer to the end of the year. Mr. Ivanov provided no detail regarding the cost of the repair effort at the plant. In a previous voicing of its plans, Lukoil said production should resume as early as in January 2015. The plant has been technologically prepared to produce polypropylene from (propylene) feedstock brought from outside since June 2014.

The Russian Chemists Union (RCU) has made an appeal to the country’s Minister of Industry and Trade regarding a higher environmental spending burden due to be placed on chemical companies starting from 2015. The matter concerns a bill currently being prepared for its second reading and titled “On introducing amendments to the Federal Law ‘On Environmental Protection’ and to certain other legislative acts of the Russian Federation.” The whole legislative amendment project has as its aim the transition of the environmental regulatory framework to the best available technology (BAT) principle in the years of 2019-2025. “The envisioned adoption of new standards will entail costly procedures in which the sources that emit, discharge, or stockpile pollutants will be re-registered, permit papers reissued, continuous automated environmental monitoring systems installed, and so on,” pointed out RCU’s President Viktor Ivanov, the author of the letter. The draft law also calls for the introduction of […]

A joint meeting, the latest in a series, has taken place at the grounds of OJSC Gazprom. Presiding at the event were Gazprom’s Management Committee Chairman Alexey Miller and the Chairman of the Executive Board of LLC MC Rusnano Anatoly Chubais. The parties discussed the adoption and use of innovative products at Gazprom’s facilities. The participants have agreed to build two pilot sections of pipeline out of composite materials.  The first will be a 90-km reserve branch supplying gas to the towns of Salekhard, Labytnangi and the settlement of Kharp in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. According to the plan, the stretch will be constructed using 300, 700 and 1000 mm diameter pipes designed to operate at a pressure of 7.5 MPa. The second is a 14-km reserve underwater branch crossing the river Ob at a location in the Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug and serving as a part of the Yamburg-Tula-2 trunk […]

The holding company Sibur is looking into the possibility of building in the Tyumen Oblast of Russia a base polymer production complex named ZapSibNeftekhim, with a planned output capacity of up to 2 mn tonnes/year. The ZapSibNeftekhim complex could become the largest integrated complex ever built in the Tyumen Oblast in the Russian petrochemical industry’s history, with the project calling for the construction of crackers as well as polypropylene and polyethylene production units. The designs allow for the production of up to 1.5 mn tonnes of polyethylene and up to 0.5 mn tonnes of polypropylene per year. “Sibur is still looking into the feasibility of the project and should an investment decision be made, the company will communicate it to the general public in a separate statement,” said a company representative to ITAR TASS, a news agency.

According to the document titled ‘The Strategy of Chemical Industry Development in Russia until 2020’, plastic items make up the largest portion of Russia’s chemical imports, with 22% of the whole. The next biggest category is synthetic resins, with 19%. The paints-and-coatings category secures a 7% portion of the whole. When Russia’s exports are analyzed, two major product segments emerge: the mineral fertilizers, securing a 46% portion, and synthetic rubbers with an 8% share.

At the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, a meeting has taken place between Murmansk Oblast acting Governor Marina Kovtun and General Director of OJSC Phosagro Andrey Guryev, at which the issues of implementation of current as well as future projects were discussed. As was pointed out during the meeting, one of the factors limiting the development of new production sites in the Murmansk Oblast is the lack of industrial-scale natural gas deposits in the Kola Peninsula. It was initially thought that this deficit would be overcome with the launch of production from the Shtokman gas condensate field. At the current moment, a new project intended to deal with the deficit of natural gas in the Murmansk Oblast is under consideration. According to this initiative, put forward by the acting Governor Marina Kovtun and now due for discussion with OJSC Gazprom, a pipeline should be built across the Oblast’s border and […]

An agreement has been signed between China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec Corp.) and Sibur for the establishment of a joint venture that will produce 50 thousand tonnes of nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) per year at a site in the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park, located 50 kilometers from Shanghai. Sinopec’s and Sibur’s shares in the JV will amount to 74.9% and 25.1% respectively. The parties have also signed a licensing agreement under which the new plant will make NBR using Sibur’s technology. Specialists from the Russian holding company will become employees of the JV and will play an active role in organizing the launch of the production process and overseeing the commercial-mode operation of the new facilities. “Last year, Sibur and Sinopec set up a rubber JV at the site of OJSC Krasnoyarsk Synthetic Rubber Plant (KSRP), with Sinopec assigned a stake of 25% + 1 share. Deliveries to China’s […]

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Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service Igor Artemiev has signed a document extending the transition period on the apatite concentrate market until the end of 2016, a step that postpones the liberalization of the market for at least a year. A set of recommendations issued by the FAS in 2012 contains a special formula used to calculate concentrate prices during the transition period (with two options provided: 70 % of apatite price in Morocco + 30 % of the average price offered by the producer to domestic customers over the previous year; or 35 % of the minimum export price + 35 % of the Morocco price + 30 % of the domestic market price). The transition period was initially set to last until the end of 2013, and starting in the year of 2014, according to the FAS’s previous proposal, the price was to be “based on the minimum […]