Polymerupdate.com Global Plastics Pricing Briefs

Polymerupdate.com reports that commercial operations are likely to start at Formosa Plastics’ 450,000 tonnes/yr Ningbo polypropylene (PP) plant in early April. Construction was completed in June 2007, but Formosa had to await approval from the Chinese government to use a discharging port for refrigerated propylene. The plant has two propylene discharge ports: one for pressurized propylene and one for refrigerated propylene.

Hanwha Chemical will take its polyethylene (PE) plant off line in May for a maintenance turnaround. The company operates a 285,000 tonne/yr LDPE unit and a 355,000 tonne/yr LLDPE plant in Yeosu, Korea. The Qatar Chemical Company Ltd. (Q-Chem) shut its high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plant in late February 2008 for approximately one month to undertake routine maintenance. The facility, located at Mesaieed industrial city, has 453,000 tonnes/yr production capacity. Q-Chem is a joint venture between Qatar Petroleum Corp. and Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. LLC.

PTT Polyethylene, a wholly owned subsidiary of Thai PTT Chemical will start commercial operations in late 2009, featuring an LDPE plant with a production capacity of 300,000 tonnes/yr and an LLDPE plant with 400,000 tonnes/yr production capacity. Located in Map Ta Phut, the plant will include an ethane-based steam cracker designed to produce 1 million tonnes/yr of ethylene.

In pricing, low-density polyethylene (LDPE) was up $10/tonne in Asia, with Polymerupdate reporting that sellers had pegged their offers to China at above the $1800/tonne CFR level.

Polystyrene (PS) prices were assessed higher in Asia this week, with general-purpose PS at $1475/tonne CFR China levels and high-impact PS at $1515/tonne CFR China. CFR South East Asian GPPS prices were at $1500/tonne, while HIPS prices was up to $1530/mt CFR South East Asia. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) prices in Asia were up by between $10/tonne to $20/tonne, with China at $1150/tonne CFR, and some other parts of Asia hitting $1180/mt CFR.

In European plant news, a fire at Polimeri’s Dunkirk, France steam cracker forced a shutdown. No word on damage at the operation and long-term affects on its 180,000 tonnes/yr of LDPE capacity. Elsewhere, an LDPE plant operated by Ineos Polyolefins at Cologne, Germany resumed operations over the weekend. The LDPE plant has two production lines with a combined production capacity of 350,000 tonnes/yr. A pressure release from one of the plant’s reactors had affected the smaller line with a nameplate capacity of 150,000 mt/year.” In styrenics, BASF of Germany was set to restart its Antwerp styrene monomer (SM) unit last weekend.

In pricing, PVC producers are determined to lift contract prices by between euro 10/tonne and euro 30/tonne. General-purpose acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and ABS natural grade contract prices ended last week flat at euro 1690/tonne FD North West Europe. In the spot market, general-purpose and natural-grade ABS were assessed at euro 1330/tonne FD North West Europe.

LDPE contract prices were also flat last week at euro 1355/tonne FD North West Europe. In the spot market, buyers were pushing for reductions, citing soft regional buying interest and the upcoming Easter holiday break as reasons enough to pull prices down, with general-purpose LDPE prices seen at the euro 1280/tonne FD North West Europe. HDPE contract prices in Europe were flat as well, with HDPE injection grade contract prices were at euro 1310/tonne FD North West Europe and HDPE blowmolding grade at euro 1380/tonne FD North West Europe. HDPE film prices were assessed at euro 1360/tonne FD North West Europe.

In PP, European contract prices last week were unchanged at euro 1265/tonne FD North West Europe for homopolymer injection grades, while copolymer prices were assessed at euro 1315/tonne FD North West Europe levels.

In polystyrene, GPPS contract prices were at euro 1415/tonne FD North West Europe, with HIPS contract prices at euro 1460/tonne FD North West Europe. In the spot market, GPPS was assessed at euro 1220/tonne FD North West Europe while HIPS was at euro 1250/tonne FD North West Europe.