is a global distribution & trading company in plastic raw materials with offices and operations in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia. The network structure enables each individual branch to operate in line with the latest short-term trends within world and regional markets.
NCT's strategy is to generate added value to the chain between producers and end-users of commodity polymers. NCT is an ISO Certified Company who trades in polyolefin’s, polystyrene, pet, pvc and other plastic raw materials.
A series of seemingly temporary factors has kept global polyolefins markets very tight as per ICIS. Few long existing factors have also contributed to supply constraints, making it easier to absorb new capacities.
Reduced feedstock availability in the Middle East – including ethane and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). LPG has been tight because of factors including reduced refinery operating rates and increased demand from petrochemicals in the Middle East.
Technical glitches and plant shutdowns in the Middle East amid longer than expected time taken by new plants to stabilise because of manpower, technical and other issues.
Logistics factors, including port congestion, repositioning problems with ethylene vessels, lack of sufficient ethylene vessels and not enough container vessels. Shortage of enough shipping space restricts operating rates because this prevents arbitrage (e.g. polyolefins to Europe from the Middle East).
Europe's inability to sell gasoline in big volumes to the USA, pushing down operating rates at refineries down, thereby restricting the availability of feedstock to petrochemicals.
A fall in US gasoline demand is restricting propylene availability in Europe most of the propylene comes from steam crackers so lack of naphtha is the problem here.
Lack of spending on maintenance is reportedly the cause of numerous outages in Europe.
Lack of enough low-density PE (LDPE) capacity, pushing plants that do exist being pushed so hard to meet demand that outages are occurring very frequently.
Shortage of butene-1 has been restricting linear-low density polyethylene (LLDPE) for over a year.
Fire compels Sinopec to shut a furnace at 800,000 tpa ethylene plant in East China
on 27-08-2010 12:03
Source: Plastemart (27/8)
A fire compelled Sinopec Corp. to shut a furnace at an 800,000 tpa ethylene plant at Qilu, East China. Shutdown duration is unknown. The accident was caused by an oil leak from a pipeline shut in No.7 furnace at Qilu in eastern Shandong province.
C2 & C3 September Settlements
on 27-08-2010 12:02
Source: ICIS Headlines (27/8)
Initial Europe September ethylene agreed up €10/t at €950/t
Initial Europe September propylene agreed down €10/t at €930/t
LyondellBasell Starts up New Hostalen ACP
on 26-08-2010 11:03
Netherlands, August 26, 2010 – LyondellBasell has successfully started up a new 320 KT per year Hostalen Advanced Cascade Process (ACP) high density polyethylene (HDPE) plant at Münchsmünster, Germany. The Münchsmünster HDPE plant enhances LyondellBasell’s flexibility to supply advanced HDPE grades to customers in Europe and the Middle East. LyondellBasell also has HDPE production in Frankfurt and Wesseling, Germany and a joint venture in Plock, Poland, which all use the Hostalen ACP technology. The new plant has 65 full-time employees. Hostalen ACP technology surpasses standard bimodal HDPE performance by producing resins with an advanced toughness/stiffness balance, superior impact resistance, higher stress crack resistance, good organoleptics and processing advantages. Other technology features include excellent plant reliability, fast grade changes and high monomer conversion rates. Typical customer applications include thin-wall packaging, caps and closures, large blow molding and textiles for packaging. “Multimodal HDPE grades offer significant cost savings through processability improvements, downgauging and energy savings,” explained Tassilo Bader, LyondellBasell’s vice president, Polyethylene and Polyolefins Solutions – Europe, Asia and International. source: LyondellBasell (26/8)
Middle Eastern PP, PE offers surfacing for September
on 26-08-2010 10:30
source: Chemorbis (26/8)
New PP and PE offers from the Middle Eastern suppliers for September have been awaited in global markets as they are taken as a reference for the future direction of the market trend. The new offers are now slowly surfacing in China and Turkey at higher levels despite the shadow of falling crude oil prices. Despite the fact that crude oil plunged to $71/bbl as of this week after hovering in the $80-82/bbl spread in the early days of August, spot ethylene and propylene continue to firm up in Asia on the heels of restricted supplies. Spot ethylene was even traded in four digit figures for the first time in three months as of yesterday.
In China, a new Saudi Arabian producer has started to offer LLDPE c4 film for September with large increases of $150-160/ton when compared to their latest offers in August. The producer aims to remain firm on its offers, justifying the price hike by pointing to their limited allocations. However, he complained that they cannot conclude deals as buyers are showing resistance to these high levels as they are being influenced by lower crude oil values. Another producer from Saudi Arabia revealed its September HDPE and LLDPE film prices for next month with $80-90/ton increases over August. A source from the company commented that buyers are hesitant to conclude deals at the new levels. However, the producer opines that they can achieve sales to some trading companies who are bound to maintain their long term relationships with them.
An LDPE producer from the Middle East sustains its offers at the same levels this week after having announced increases of $20/ton for September. The producer says that they are planning to maintain their firm stance at the current levels even though market conditions are slowing. In the PP market, a global producer has started to offer Middle Eastern PP raffia to China this week. Blaming tight supplies caused by the regional shutdowns at PP plants, the producer applied large hikes too as they lifted their new offers by $70/ton when compared to their previous offers. Parallel with these developments in China, buyers in Turkey have recently started to receive offers for PP and PE from the Middle East. Initial offers from the bonded warehouse of a regular Middle Eastern seller have emerged $70-90/ton higher for HDPE film and $50/ton for LLDPE film with respect to August done deals for the same origin. However, buyers receiving these initial offers commented that they found them too high to accept for now. A buyer also received an HDPE film offer for another Middle Eastern origin, representing an $80-100/ton increase over August done deals while an LLDPE film offer for a different origin from the region received by a buyer indicates a $50-70/ton increase over early last month.
In the PP market, buyers are receiving new September offers from different Middle Eastern suppliers at levels standing at least $100/ton above the beginning of August. Suppliers have raised their offers to Turkey gradually throughout this month while there is stiff resistance to the new offer levels with buyers’ bids standing $50/ton below the recent offers.
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