Polymers Petrochemicals Biodegradable Plastics 23-04-2019 - Arhive
- China – Polyethylene Terephthalate
- PET and its chain are assessed mixed.
- Crude oil goes still up owing to US sanctions to Iran .
- Polyamide 6 and its chain are steady.
PET Bottle grade export 1,050/1,090 $/ton – PET Bottle grade domestic market 8,300/8,400 yuan/ton – PET Filament grade SD domestic market 7,650/7,750 yuan/ton – PET Filament grade BR domestic market 7,800/7,900 yuan/ton
- PTA Taiwan 8450/860 $/ton – PTA domestic market 6,500/6,600 yuan/ton – MEG 595/605 $/ton – MEG domestic market 4,600/4,700 yuan/ton – PX Korea 940/955 $/ton
- Polyester POY 150D/48F domestic market 8,800/8,900 yuan/ton – Polyester DTY 150D/48F domestic market 10,300/10,400 yuan/ton – Polyester Staple PSF domestic market 8,800/9,000 yuan/ton
Crude Oil Prices Trend
-Oil prices spike as White House ends Iran sanctions waivers
Oil prices rose sharply Monday to their highest levels since November as the White House confirmed it will end sanctions waivers for countries that still purchase Iranian oil.
Driving the news: The U.S. will seek to further drive down Iranian exports by ending exemptions granted last year to China, India and a handful of others.
“This decision is intended to bring Iran’s oil exports to zero, denying the regime its principal source of revenue,” the White House said Monday.
Why it matters: The move represents an escalation of the Trump administration’s policy toward Iran. It’s also a jolt to global crude oil markets as traders weigh the loss of more Iranian barrels.
-RadiciGroup, sustainable investments in Brazil
At Feiplastic, focus on reducing energy consumption and protecting the environment
Radici Plastics Ltda – Brazil, a RadiciGroup company and leader in the South American engineering polymers market, is participating in the Feiplastic trade show (Stand L42), taking place at Expo Center Norte, São Paulo, Brazil, from 22 to 26 April.
The main goal of the company is to draw attention to the high quality of its products and the sustainability of its business.
-ACC pushes chemical recycling legislation
The plastics industry is making a push in states for new laws to make it easier to build next-generation recycling plants that turn waste plastics into feedstocks and fuels, and it recently has secured victories in Iowa and Tennessee.
But the effort — designed to carve out a clearer regulatory approval path for what’s called chemical recycling — is drawing opposition from environmental groups and some state legislators in Rhode Island, South Carolina and Texas.
The new laws sought by plastics companies and the American Chemistry Council would regulate the plants as manufacturing operations, rather than landfills or solid waste disposal facilities, making it easier to get government approvals.
-Technical Analysis &BRENT/WTI : 2019-04-22
WTI prices may fall because of shale oil
In this review, we suggest considering the personal composite instrument (PCI) “Brent vs WTI”. Is there a possibility for BRENT/WTI prices to rise?
Such a movement is observed when Brent oil is in higher demand than WTI. Theoretically, an increase in the share of shale oil in American production may have a negative impact on the cost of West Texas Intermediate (WTI). Shale oil production in the US increased from 1 million barrels per day in 2008 to the current level of about 7-7.5 million barrels per day. Its share in the total US oil production has reached 60%. In 2008, WTI and Brent had nearly the same cost. Now Brent is only 8-10% more expensive.
-China ACN uptrend to slow down as downstream demand shrinks
China’s spot acrylonitrile (ACN) prices have been on an uptrend since the start of the year on the back of tight supply, but the gains may be capped by waning demand from major downstream acrylic fiber (AF) sector.
AF production margins are being eroded by spikes in feedstock ACN values.
On 19 April, spot ACN prices in east China stood at Chinese yuan (CNY) 14,200-14,400/tonne ($2,116-2,146/tonne) ex-tank, up by CNY2,650/tonne or 23% from early January.
Just 10% of U.S. plastic gets recycled. A new kind of plastic could change that
Most plastics have a chemical history that makes starting a new life a challenge. The dyes and flame retardants that make them perfect for say, a couch cushion or a bottle of detergent, make them tough to transform into a desirable end product—one of the reasons just 10% of plastic in the United States gets recycled. Now, researchers have created a plastic with a special chemical bond that helps it separate out from those additives, turning it back into a pure, valuable product that can be reused again and again.
To make the new material, researchers tweaked a type of vitrimer, a glasslike plastic developed in 2011, by adding molecules that change the chemical bonds holding it together. These new bonds, called dynamic covalent diketoenamine bonds, require less energy to break than those in traditional plastics.
-US plastics trade surplus with Mexico grows in 2018
The U.S. plastics industry’s trade surplus with Mexico grew 4 percent in 2018, to $11.5 billion, and a new NAFTA deal could open more plastics trade between the two countries, a senior U.S. industry trade association executive said in a speech at Plastimagen.
Perc Pineda, chief economist for the Washington-based Plastics Industry Association, told a forum at Plastimagen in Mexico City April 2-5, that the global plastics industry faces a more uncertain economy this year.
But he suggested that for 2018 at least, the links between the U.S. and Mexican industries were weathering the heightened political tensions.
-Modified ‘white graphene’ for eco-friendly energy
Catalyst with functionalized hexagonal boron nitride and nickel nanoparticles. Credit: Tomsk Polytechnic University
Scientists from Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU), together with colleagues from the United States and Germany, have found a way to obtain inexpensive catalysts from hexagonal boron nitride or “white graphene.” The technology can be used in the production of environmentally friendly hydrogen fuel.
The researchers have found a new way to functionalize a dielectric, otherwise known as white graphene, i.e. hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), without destroying it or changing its properties. Thanks to the new method, the researchers synthesized a polymer nano carpet with strong covalent bond on the samples.
-Amcor packages up asset sales to soothe US regulators
Those investors worried that Amcor was dragging the chain on the US regulatory side of its mega-packaging buyout of Bemis Company should feel a little better.
Street Talk understands Amcor is poised to offload $300 million worth of packaging assets in the United States to Tekni-Plex Inc. It’s expected the deal should placate US competition regulators and pave the way for a clear run towards the shareholder meetings on May 2 and the completion of the $9 billion Bemis acquisition by May 15.
-Spritzer to spend RM25mil on PET plant and solar projects
GEORGE TOWN: Bottled water company Spritzer Bhd will spend about RM25mil over the next two years to expand its PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plant, water-processing capacity and solar power projects to keep up with the group’s enlarged customer base and enhance its competitive edge.
Group managing director Datuk Lim Kok Boon told StarBiz that the company needed to expand further its PET facilities in Ipoh and Taiping to keep production cost low.
“Although PET resin prices have come down compared to 2018, they are still high, as most of our cost comes from packaging the product.The expansion exercise, scheduled to start at the end of the year, should be completed in two years, raising the PET bottle and cap output by 10%,” said Lim.
