Multiple Plant Shutdowns in Russia Constraining Polypropylene Supplies

Russia will be witnessing multiple shutdowns of polypropylene plants in a small span of time. Ufaorgsintez, a petrochemical subsidiary of Bashneft, has announced a 10-days shutdown of its polypropylene plant having a production capacity of 120 KTPA. The shutdown was brought into force on September 3, 2021, for scheduled maintenance.

Another petrochemical player, Poliom, having a polypropylene facility of 230 KTPA capacity has planned to cease plant operations for two-week maintenance with effect from September 28, 2021. On the other hand, Stavrolen will also be scheduling an outage of 26 days on the pretext of maintenance of its polypropylene plant having a production capacity of 120 KTPA. 

The aforementioned shutdowns are temporary in nature, yet their scheduling within 2 months timeframe could create a potential gap in the domestic supplies that in turn could impact Russia’s downstream sectors.

As per ChemAnalyst, the demand for Polypropylene in Russia has weakened in the past few months. Polypropylene is a versatile thermoplastic polymer that has applications in many industrial sectors like automobiles, home appliances, packaging, construction, healthcare, and electronics owing to its excellent properties that include, high mechanical strength, acid and moisture resistance.

The over supply of polypropylene in the petrochemical markets and limited use of finished products by the local masses during the second quarter of this year had resulted in a fall in the prices of polypropylene. However, amid the planned shutdowns by several key polypropylene producers, the prices are expected to rebound due to a shortage of supplies in the downstream sectors. 

Russia, despite being a leading player in the oil and refinery sector does not exhibit a strong foothold in its petrochemicals business with only 2.5% of the global market share to its name. The Russian petrochemical sector is still in its infancy owing to the outdated technologies, few investments, depreciation of fixed assets and large dependency of Russian companies on feedstocks from imports in the past. With support from the government, Russia has been making continuous efforts to set up a robust petrochemical production base that could focus on increasing the economy by generating value-added exports.