Global Plastics Pricing Briefs from Polymerupdate.com

Polymerupdate.com reports that in Asian polypropylene (PP) pricing, bids have climbed from $1160/tonne CFR to the $1170/tonne CFR China mark. Sellers have boosted their offers above the $1220 to $1230/tonne CFR mark, with some climbing as high as $1250/tonne CFR. In polyvinyl chloride (PVC), offers to China from Taiwan rose to a range of $1070 to $1080/tonne CFR for March: a sharp climb from February levels of $1030/tonne CFR. Polymerupdate reports that Japanese PVC makers are offering the material to China for $1100/tonne CFR: up $80/tonne from their February transacted levels. Due to increases in feedstocks like PTA and MEG, bottle-grade polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is on the rise, with reports of $1170/tonne CFR PET up to $1360/tonne FOB prices from PET producers in Taiwan. PP prices were also up in Asia, with aid from a new Formosa Plastics PP plant delayed, pending government approval. The Ningbo site, whose opening has been pushed back to after April, will offer 450,000 tonnes/yr of capacity.

Polymerupdate is reporting that the LDPE plant of Iran’s Laleh Petrochemical Co. is slated to begin production by end of March or early April 2008. The facility is located in Bandar Imam Khomeini and has production capacity of 300,000 tonnes/yr. A joint venture between Iran’s National Petrochemicals Co. (NPC) and Saudi Arabia’s Sabic, the site made some spec material in January.

In Shuaiba, Kuwait, Petrochemical Industries Co. (PIC) will undertake a debottlenecking at its 120,000 tonne/yr PP plant in September or October of this year. Once completed, PP production will be boosted by up to 30,000 tonnes/yr, with propylene feedstock for the expanded unit supplied by an Equate cracker.

In Europe, Equipolymer’s Ottana, Italy PET plant is operating at reduced rates. The total production capacity is 150,000 tonnes/yr, with current operating capacity at 80-85%. Equipolymer has another PET plant with a production capacity of 335,000 tonnes/yr in Schkopau, Germany.

In European pricing news, Polymerupdate reports that PP prices were flat at euro 1275/tonne FD North West Europe for injection grade and euro 1325/mt FD North West Europe for PP copolymer grades. LLDPE prices were also stable at euro 1220 to 1230/tonne FD North West Europe. In injection HDPE, prices came in at euro 1310/tonne FD North West Europe.

On the production side, Polymerupdate reports that Ineos Polyolefins (Cologne, Germany) shut down an LDPE production line. A source told Polymerupdate that release of pressure from the reactors forced the shutdown of the line, with the unit expected to be down 3 to 4 weeks. The plant has two LDPE lines with a combined capacity of 350,000 tonnes/yr. The affected line was the smaller of the two and has a nameplate capacity of 150,000 tonnes/yr.