– Future capacities threatened
Joseph Chang,
Global Editor, ICIS
NEW YORK — Disruptions to Russia’s chemicals and polymers exports will change trade flows, particularly to Europe and Asia, as international sanctions, lack of logistics and even “self-sanctions” limit volumes.
While Russia’s capacities are relatively small on a global scale, they can still have a significant impact on regional markets if these exports are disrupted.
Key Russia exports include methanol, polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), styrene and paraxylene (PX).
Russia has increased exports of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (PP) in particular in 2020 and 2021 as new capacity started up from SIBUR’s ZapSibNeftekhim complex in Tobolsk in 2020.
Russia has ramped up HDPE exports from 160,000 tonnes/year in 2019 to over 850,000 tonnes in 2021, according to its own statistics in the ICIS Supply and Demand Database.
Russia’s HDPE exports may be more insulated as China accounted for more than half of such exports in 2021. China has not levelled any sanctions against Russia.
Other major destinations for Russia HDPE in 2021 included Turkey, Belgium, Poland, Kazakhstan and Belarus but none close to the scale of China.
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Russia’s key chemical exports by destination in 2021
