Polymers Petrochemicals Bioplastic rPET 24-01-2019 - Arhive
-China – Polyethylene Terephthalate
PET and its chain continue to be assessed mixed,but weakness tends to prevail.
PET Bottle grade export 1,040/1,080 $/ton – PET Bottle grade domestic market 8,250/8,400 yuan/ton – PET Filament grade SD domestic market 7,800/7,950 yuan/ton – PET Filament grade BR domestic market 7,800/7,900 yuan/ton
PTA Taiwan 825/835 $/ton – PTA domestic market 6,400/6,500 yuan/ton – MEG $ 615/630 $/ton – MEG domestic market 5,000/5,100 yuan/ton – PX Korea 1,050/1,060 $/ton
POY 150D/48F domestic market 8,500/8,600 yuan/ton – DTY 150D/48F domestic market 10,350/10,450 yuan/ton – PSF domestic market 8,900/9,000 yuan/ton
Crude Oil Prices Trend
Germany’s investor confidence improves in January but still underperforming
Investor confidence in Germany rose in January but remains well below its long-term average as Europe’s largest economy continues to underperform, the country’s Zew economic research institute said on Tuesday.
The Zew indicator of economic sentiment for Germany rose by 2.5 points from December to stand at minus 15.0 in January.
The long-term average is 22.4 points.
“It is remarkable that the Zew economic sentiment for Germany has not deteriorated further given the large number of global economic risks,” said the research institute’s president Achim Wambach.
“The financial market experts have already considerably lowered their expectations for economic growth in the past few months,” he added.
The new nordic research brands like dear denier and swedish stockings choose Fulgar’s Q-nova® regenerated nylon 6.6 for its eco-sustainable products
The hosiery industry is facing a series of new challenges. The new lifestyles of Millennial consumers are transforming their clothing choices, too. These rapid but unstoppable changes are also affecting accessories like women’s legwear and manufacturers must now develop the styles and the functional benefits their products are expected to provide.
As Alessandro Gallesi, president of the ADICI (Hosiery and Intimate Wear District Association) of Castel Goffredo explains, “Members of the new generations are increasingly demanding high-performance garments in terms of comfort, well-being and interactivity with electronic devices. At the same time, issues like eco-sustainability of the yarns, biodegrability, the use of recoverable raw materials and non-toxic dyestuffs are now fundamental elements in our consumers’ choices. As a result, innovation that aims to improve fabric performance and eco-sustainability is the core strategy on which Italian manufacturers should focus their resources if they are to remain successful in the competitive framework that lies just around the corner”.
The UK chemicals industry is increasingly stockpiling reserves in anticipation of any disruption brought about by the country’s upcoming departure from the EU is increasing the risk of storage shortages, according to sources.
Fears of supply chain disruption have led many producers and distributors to bolster reserves of key materials, but available storage capacity is becoming limited in parts of the country.
“There certainly is a shortage of storage,” said one distribution industry source. “[It is] not impacting our business yet though, and we have taken up some additional pallet spaces as part of our Brexit preparations.”
“We are trying to buy a little bit more in January,” said a polyethylene (PE) buyer. “As preparations for Brexit we’re already building up stock.”
The issue is particularly pronounced for more heavily-regulated hazardous chemicals.
2019 has begun and bringing a lot of good news for Moretto Spa with it, including the presentation of the new website, which is now online and available on all devices.
Moretto has always been at the forefront of creation in automation for plastics processors and operates globally with eight branches and sales networks in more than 60 countries. Moretto also interfaces with the world’s top players in the plastics industry. With the global nature and specialisation of its customers in mind, Moretto has modified its website that more accurately reflects the company values.
The new graphic layout and a simple, intuitive and easy to navigate interface allows the user to enter in Moretto’s world, to more easily explore the wide range of products and services, and to remain informed about the company’s activities in an increasingly connected and social context.
Downward pressure weighs on Europe, Baltic and Black Sea base oil export markets
Export values for Europe, the Baltic Sea and Black Sea all edged down late on Tuesday on the back of softer price ideas, with players noting a lack of interest from buyers, if not resistance to higher levels.
– Export markets pressured by improved supply, lower price ideas
– Discounts of varying levels in Baltic, Europe export markets
– Outlook clouded by upstream volatility, upcoming turnarounds
European export market values for SN150, SN500 and brightstock were lower by $5/tonne this week, amid talk of discounts of varying levels.
SN150, SN500 and brightstock were at price levels of $670-715/tonne FOB (free on board) Europe export, $690-740/tonne FOB Europe export and $940-970/tonne FOB Europe export respectively.
For the Heimtextil 2019 home textiles show in Frankfurt, Jennifer Castoldi, design consultant and creative director of Trendease International, developed the concept and design for an extraordinary curated exhibition for HP.
In an explosion of closely co-ordinated colour, it demonstrated the sheer diversity of materials that can now be digitally printed with HP’s latest latex technology.
Jennifer Castoldi, design consultant and creative director of Trendease International. © Innovation in Textiles
“This is the second time I’ve arranged the display for HP, having worked in a consulting capacity with the company for the past six years,” she said. “My team and I attend over 100 design events each year in order to identify the latest hot material innovations.
European injection moulding industry is thriving, says AMI study
A study conducted by Applied Market Information (AMI Consulting), has found that the European injection moulding industry is thriving as most of its markets have recovered from the economic collapse of over a decade ago.
In 2018 the industry value from virgin polymer exceeded €85 billion, an average growth of three per cent per annum since 2007, supported by growing polymer demand and added value opportunities, together with increased polymer prices.
The shale tidal wave may finally be starting to ebb.
The largest oilfield services company in the world says that shale drilling activity is slowing, creating an uncertain outlook for 2019.
The recent volatility in oil prices has created “less visibility and more uncertainty” on spending by shale companies in 2019, Schlumberger’s CEO Paal Kibsgaard said on an earnings call on January 18. Shale drillers are “generally taking a more conservative approach to the start of the year, again delaying the broad based recovery in the E&P spend that we expected only three months ago,” he said.
Loop Industries Inc. (Montreal) achieved a number of milestones in 2018, which it relived in a Jan. 16, 2019, letter to its shareholders.
The power of Loop’s technology lies in the company’s ability to divert and recover what is currently considered plastic waste from landfills, rivers, oceans and natural areas for use as feedstock to create new, infinitely recyclable Loop PET plastic resin and polyester fiber. Loop’s technology can deliver a cost-effective, virgin-quality PET resin that is cleared for use in food-grade packaging.
For several years the Loop team worked diligently on its Generation I technology, a process that yielded polyethylene terephthalate (PTA) and mono-ethylene glycol (MEG), two common monomers of PET, through depolymerization.
Repeat addresses the market need for sustainable packaging and combines multiple advantages. It offers the properties, barrier and functionality of a standard multi-layer structure, while being 100 percent sustainable. It is suitable for recycling in communities with existing PE film recycling stream and can be recycled just like a standard Polyethylene bag (LDPE 4 ). Repeat is suitable for standard flow-pack as well as fill and seal equipment.
Gili Drori, CEO and owner of Tadbik explains the rationale to introduce REPEAT: ‘In recent years we are witnessing criticism regarding the plastics-industry and its ramifications, mainly motivated by environmental movements. While there isn’t binding regulation to collect and recycle food packages in almost any of the developed countries, the packaging industry had already defined its goal to implement 100 percent recyclable packages by the year 2025. We decided there’s no time like the present to accelerate this process.’
When President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stepped up to the podium in Turkey’s presidential palace on January 9, few of the attendees likely expected him to talk about the environment.
Yet his country had just banned plastic bags, so that is precisely what he did. And then his speech took an even stranger turn.
“I remember my mother used to knit bags that we could use for shopping. You don’t throw them away immediately, you can go out shopping with them again. It is earth-friendly, even if you wanted to dispose of it,” he told the Ankara crowd. “These are made of hemp, yet we have destroyed hemp in our country.”
Erdoğan went on to reveal that Turkey is set to renew hemp cultivation and encourage the production of a variety of local products with new incentives. The next day, Agriculture Minister Berat Pakdemirli revealed details of the plan.
The United Kingdom’s auto industry has shifted its tone from quiet resignation to angry bellowing as the government once again failed to gain a consensus within Parliament on its future relationship with the EU.
Automakers such as Jaguar Land Rover, Nissan and BMW have long opposed Brexit because it isolates the U.K. from its biggest trading partner but held out hope that a negotiated settlement would keep in place many of the benefits of the current trading partnership.
However, after Parliament voted down Prime Minister Theresa May’s deal for an orderly separation last week, automakers are now bracing for their most feared outcome: leaving the EU on March 29 with no deal at all.
