Source: ICIS News (17/8)

The Thai government is doing all it can to quickly resolve the Map Ta Phut crisis but full operations at PTT Chem's new cracker is likely only in early 2011.
Feedstock ethane for the 1m tonnes/year cracker will be supplied from PTT's No6 gas separation plant commissioning of which has been held since last year.
A PTT source told the blog that a health impact assessment (HIA) report is being prepared and will be submitted to a government-nominated independent committee for evaluation by September.
Meanwhile, the company is also waiting for the prime minister to announce a list of Map Ta Phut projects that are harmful to the environment and would require HIA.
"As the gas separation plant is not on this list we can appeal to the central court for a waiver of the HIA report once the prime minister that made the announcement," he added.
But when asked to give a precise date for completion of the formalities, he would only said that since it is beyond the company's control they could only target full operations by early 2011.
However, PTT should be able to supply some additional volumes of ethane once revamping of the No2 and No3 gas separation plants is completed this month.
PTT Chem commissioned its cracker last year but has been running it at around 60% because of a shortfall of ethane.
And start of commercial operations at PTT Chem's new 300,000 tonnes/year low-density polyethylene (ldPE) plant has once again been delayed, this time to September due to technical problems.
 

Source: ICIS News (17/8)

Local residents trooped to Formosa’s Mailiao petrochemical complex in Linyuan County, Taiwan on Tuesday to demand bigger compensation for alleged environmental damage caused by recent fires at the company’s upstream facilities.
Two separate fire incidents shut the company's 700,000 tonne/year No 1 naphtha cracker on 7 July and disrupted operations at its 540,000 bbl/day refinery, along with a number of downstream units at the site, on 25 July.
Formosa, which is among the largest cracker operators in Asia, was amenable to paying residents’ damage claims, but set the overall payout cap at New Taiwan dollars (NT$) 500m ($15.6m), a company source said.
“The residents are trying to block the roads leading up to the plants, and are asking for a compensation of NT$50,000 for each resident,” said a source at Formosa on Tuesday.
Mailiao, a township in Taiwan’s northwestern county of Yunlin, has more than 30,000 residents.
“The compensations sought have to be reasonable and losses must be proven in order to make a case. The amount of compensation they’re asking for is unreasonable,” the Formosa source said.
Production at Formosa’s petrochemical plants within the complex was not affected, based on separate checks on the polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) and aromatics plants at the site.
The Mailiao complex has PE facilities, consisting of a 350,000 tonne/year high density PE (HDPE) plant, a 264,000 tonne/year linear low density PE (LLDPE) line and a 240,000 tonne/year low density PE/ethylene vinyl acetate (LDPE/EVA) swing unit, operated by Formosa Plastics Corp.
It also houses three PP plants with a combined capacity of 450,000 tonnes/year operated by Formosa Chemicals & Fibers Corp (FCFC).
FCFC, meanwhile, can produce a total of 1.72m tonnes/year of paraxylene (PX) at the Mailiao complex.
“We have yet to experience any problems as a result of the protest,” said another company source.
“There are three routes leading into the Mailiao refinery and petrochemical complex and I think alternative routes can be taken to avoid the protest sites,” he added.
The first source at Formosa said: “The road blockages are illegal and we expect this to be at most a one-day occurrence.”
The PE and PP plants at the site were running at reduced rates due to an on-site shortage of propylene and ethylene feedstock after fires disrupted its upstream operations and had nothing to do with the ongoing protests, he said.

Source: ICIS News (13/08/10)

Styron plans to idle a Brazilian polystyrene (PS) plant indefinitely following a maintenance turnaround scheduled to start on 23 August, a company spokesperson said on Friday.
The 200,000 tonne/year plant is in Guaruja, Sao Paulo.
Styron told customers that they would continue to receive product, the spokesperson said, but this was expected to happen only while supplies last.
Market sources in Brazil said that Styron could have enough stock for 35-45 days.
Styron declined to comment on stock levels.
Recently, the status of the Styron plant has been the source of persistent speculation in Brazil.
Unigel, the styrene monomer (SM) supplier for Styron, was still supplying feedstock to its client, although at a reduced rate, a source at Unigel said without elaborating.
Styron declined to comment on supplier arrangements.
A source with Dow Chemical, a minority stake holder in Styron, reaffirmed that the plant was running, but said PS sales volumes to Argentina and Brazil were now at only 30-40% of their typical volumes.
The shutdown could become permanent if Styron's owner, Bain Capital, does not find a buyer or another economically viable arrangement for the plant, said market observers in Brazil.
For years, Brazil has had too much PS capacity. Intense competition for market share has kept margins down, prompting players such as BASF and Dow Chemical to exit this market.
BASF sold its Brazilian PS business to Unigel.
Dow Chemical sold Styron to private-equity firm Bain Capital earlier this year. Dow retained a 7.5% equity position in Styron.
 

Source: ICIS News (13/08/10)

LyondellBasell’s 210,000 tonne/year polypropylene (PP) plant at Carrington in the UK is still inactive after going down unplanned during the weekend of 7/8 August, with no set date for a restart, a source at the major plastics producer said on Monday.
PP prices had been easing after a period of tight availability, caused by propylene shortages and reduced PP output.
Buying sources said that shortages they had experienced several weeks before were no longer a feature of the market in mid-August, however.
“The Carrington outage just means that the market is balanced now,” said one buyer.
PP suppliers were fairly confident of maintaining the spread between propylene and PP in August, following the €38/tonne ($49/tonne) drop in the August propylene monomer contract price. They had not built up any excess stock, and a series of upcoming planned cracker shutdowns in Europe led them to expect a balanced situation.
“Buyers will be back in September and availability is still not long with European producers,” said a producer.
The outage of the joint venture Lavera PP plant in France was also influencing availability in the market. The 300,000 tonne/year facility, jointly owned by INEOS and Total Petrochemicals, was expected to be out of action until the end of the month after failing due to technical issues at the end of July.
PP homopolymer injection prices were trading in the mid-€1,200s/tonne FD (free delivered) NWE (northwest Europe) at smaller and medium-sized accounts on a net basis. The propylene contract price for August was settled at €940/tonne FD NWE.
PP buyers were increasingly frustrated by the lack of opportunities to buy material from new plants in the Middle East. Several European producers had joint venture partnerships with Middle Eastern suppliers and material from these units had been slow to arrive in Europe.
This was deemed due to the delay in starting up many of the plants, and a strong pull from Asia where Middle Eastern suppliers preferred to sell.
Buying sources were now hoping for a reduction in the September propylene contract price which they expected to be transferred to the PP market, but most monomer sources, while acknowledging that propylene monomer availability had eased, were not expecting a significant drop in September.