MOSCOW: Russia’s overall imports of polypropylene (PP) fell by 4% in the first seven months, according to MRC’s DataScope report, though not all grades showed a decrease in shipments. July imports of PP into Russia increased to 16,700 tonnes against 14,700 in June, with the rise attributable to homopolymer PP raffia grade from Central Asia. In general, PP imports into Russia totalled 92,600 tonnes in January-July 2017, compared with 96,600 tonnes year on year. The reduction in external supplies was seen only for homopolymer PP and PP random copolymers, while imports of PP block copolymers and other propylene copolymers, on the contrary, increased.
Overall, the structure of PP imports by grades looked the following way over the stated period: July imports of homopolymer PP into the country grew to 7,200 tonnes, compared with 5,200 tonnes in June. Local companies increased their shipments of homopolymer PP raffia grade from Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Overall imports of this PP grade reached 33,300 tonnes in the first seven months of 2017, compared to 45,300 a year earlier. July imports of PP block copolymers in Russia increased to about 3,200 tonnes against 3,500 tonnes in June. Local companies reduced purchasing of PP block copolymers for non-pressure pipes extrusion.
Imports of PP block copolymers into Russia reached 23,600 tonnes in January-July 2017, compared to 18,000 tonnes a year earlier. Last month’s imports of PP random copolymers were about 2,700 tonnes, almost equal to the June figure. Total imports of PP random copolymers in Russia were 16,300 tonnes in January-July 2017, compared with 18,100 tonnes in the same period last year.Imports of other propylene polymers for the reported period increased to about 19,400 tonnes compared with 15,300 tonnes in the same time a year earlier.
