Plastic Futures Available December in Dubai

The Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) and the Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX) will be launching the first ever Middle East and Asia plastics futures contracts targeted to be live in December 2008. The products for the Future Exchange will be polypropylene (PP) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE). More plastic derivatives will be inlcuded in the near future.

The futures will be backed up by physical deliverable in warehouses. DMCC selected various locations for the warehouses including Jebel Ali in Dubai, Busan and Gwang Yang in South Korea, Pasir Gudang and Tejung Pelapas in Malaysia, and Singapore.

UAE Borouge Increasing PP/PE Capacity

United Arab Emirates plastics producer, Borouge is planning to increase its polyolefins including Polyethylene and Polypropylene capacity by 2.5m tonnes per annum by the end of 2014 under a feasibility study for the expansion project, codenamed Borouge 3.

The additional feedstock will be supplied Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) through its planned expansions at upstream which if succeeded will boost Borouge's total production capacity to 4.5m tonnes/year to meet the growing demands of polyethylene and polypropylene markets in the Middle East and Asia.

Analysts expect that the feasibility study will be successful since Borouge is a 40:60 joint venture between Borealis and Adnoc.

Petrovietnam and Vinatex JV for Polyester

A 50:50 Joint Venture between Petrovietnam and Vinatex (PVTEX JSC) for a $200m polyester fibre plant in Haiphong, Vietnam has been set-up with a capacity of 165 thousand tonnes per day. The feedstock for the plant, monoethylene glycol (MEG) and purified terephthalic acid (PTA) will be on import basis.

Under the agreement, Vinatex who is also the parent company for the JV will buy PVTEX JSC’s polyester for its textile and garment production facility. A pre-feasibility study for the project has been laid out to Vietnam's Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI).

300ktpa PET Plant in Russia

A joint-venture between Russia's AK Bars Bank and South Korea's KP Chemical has been set-up to build a new 300 thousand tonnes/year capacity polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plant in Tatarstan, in central Russia. The PET production facility will be built in the special economic zone of Alabuga with investment cost of $149m.

The technology licensors under consideration includes Switzerland's Buhler and Uhde Inventa Fischer and Lurgi Zimmer.

New Polyethylene Plant in Russia by Sibur

Sibur Holding, a Russia-based petrochemical company is planning a $9.6m for a pre-feasibility study for a new polyethylene (PE) chemical plant with a capacity of 450,000-500,000 tonnes/year in the country's southern Astrakhan region.

Petrochemical Outlook 2008: Latin America Growing in Polyethylene

2008 seems to be a growing time for Latin America Polyethylene (PE) industry with growth in 2008 is expected to come from Brazil, Columbia, Venezuela and Chile. This is amidst Brazil's new resolution to become the regional leader of petrochemicals.

Brazil will become the key player in the region with export of polyethylene into Argentina, where growth is very limited due to the political crisis with the victory of Cristina Kirchner.

Argentina's local polyethylene producer, Dow has been actively looking associations with O&G (oil and gas) companies for feedstock guarantee. Brazil will continue exporting its LDPE (low density polyethylene) into Argentina and with raw materials climbing up, revenues would hit Brazil.