Reliance Industries (RIL) reported an 8.8 per cent rise in its consolidated net profit for the December quarter. Global financial services firm UBS said the Reliance Industries has the true potential to evolve from an integrated energy company into a consumer giant like Amazon or Alibaba. In a comprehensive 100-page report, UBS said Reliance Industries can become a market leader in telecom and media, while gaining a significant share in retail/e-commerce.

Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) announced a total investment of Rs 16,641 crore in Tamil Nadu. The announcement was made at the Tamil Nadu Global Investors Meet 2019. Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. reported a surprise profit in the third quarter despite lower gross refining margin and sharp fall in crude oil prices. Net profit stood at Rs 717 crore in the October-December period, a 78 percent fall sequentially.

Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL). The Odisha government has started the process of land identification for a mega petrochemical complex proposed by Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd. HPL emerged the biggest Greenfield investor at the second edition of Make in Odisha 2018, a biennial investors’ conclave, pledging Rs 70,000 crore investment.

Gujarat State Fertilizers and Chemicals Ltd (GSFC) reported a 50.42 per cent drop in its standalone net profit

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Issue: CPMA/013/2019

January 2019

Monthly Newsletter from

1 | January 2019

Trading activity would likely be thin in most petrochemical product markets as the Lunar New Year holiday season is approaching. Fundamentals are mixed in the Asia petrochemical sector with the olefins markets expecting a slight rally as buyers return to replenish inventory ahead of the Chinese New Year holidays.

Meanwhile, in the aromatics market, stronger naphtha prices is expected to help boost aromatics prices while the polymers markets turn bearish as trading activity winds down ahead of the lunar new year.

For 2019, the US ethylene market is expected to see a continuation of additional capacity coming online. The market will remain oversupplied and the added capacity would continue to lengthen the market, potentially putting additional downward pricing pressure on the market.

The Asian butadiene market is likely to be stable to firm in the first half of 2019 as tight supplies from heavy plant maintenance may be offset by additional capacity expansions as well as bearish downstream markets.

Taiwan’s Oriental Petrochemical (Taiwan) Co. Ltd. restarted its 1.5 million mt/year purified terephthalic acid line at Taoyuan Tuesday from a maintenance that lasted almost five weeks since end-November, a company source said.

Industry Snippets

continued on page 2

Member Companies in the NewsCPMA

Growth in petrochemicals consumption for a country doesn’t seem to be a welcome development in recent times. More consumption means more waste generation and more carbon emission. Of late environment commitment has taken a central stage. According to one study by 2050, development of EV will reduce consumption of fossil fuel and growth in petrochemical consumption will require more use of feedstock i.e. crude or natural gas. Use of crude for petrochemicals is likely to grow much faster than growth in fuel consumption. Fuel consumption is estimated to peak around 2030-35 and then decline. The plastic floating in oceans of the world has already reached alarming proportions.

This is making the Govt, Environmentalists and policy makers to sit back and have a fresh look on ways to reduce consumption of plastics, increase recycling and ban use of certain single use plastics. The UNEP has already initiated action

Commentary for the month

on it and back home Maharashtra Govt has announced ban on single use plastics. Efforts are towards decarbonisation of transportation, energy and manufacturing. We are also seeing an emergence in number of conferences being organised in India and abroad on subject covering sustainability, circular economy and reducing carbon emission.

How the future will unfold is interesting. Renewable energy sources will be the world’s main source of power within two decades and are establishing a foothold in the global energy system faster than any fuel in history. Wind, solar and other renewables will account for about 30% of the world’s electricity supplies by 2040, from 10% today.

In regions such as Europe, the figure

will be as high as 50% by 2040. The speed of growth is without parallel. Oil took almost 45 years to go from 1% of global energy to 10%, and gas took more than 50 years, renewables are expected to do so within 25 years.

Germany is set to phase out all its coal-fired power stations by 2038. Germany would join a growing number of countries around the world that have decided to end the use of coal, a key source of greenhouse gas emissions. Germany finally has a road map towards becoming coal-free. Green campaigners insist that a speedy end to coal power is necessary for Germany to meets it climate change goals. Berlin has committed to reducing carbon dioxide emissions from the energy sector by more than 60 per cent by 2030, using 1990 as the baseline.

On climate mitigation, India has made commitments through the Paris agreement to reduce its carbon emission intensity by 35% by 2030.

Upcoming Events

19-22 MARCH 2019 | SAN ANTONIO, TX

34TH ANNUAL WORLDPETROCHEMICAL CONFERENCE Asia Petrochemical Industry Conference

2019

2 | January 2019

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Trade Statistics- Key Products

Sr. No.

Product

2017-18 2018-19 (Apr-Nov) Average monthly Imports

Imports (KT)

Exports (KT)

Imports (KT)

Exports (KT)

2017-18 (KT)

Apr-Nov 18 (KT)

% Change

1 PVC 1861 20 1307 11 155 163 5.3%

2 LLDPE+HDPE 1418 435 803 584 118 100 -15.1%

4 PP 939 552 557 6 78 70 -11.0%

5 SM 789 5 606 471 66 76 15.2%

9 PTA 408 212 447 75 34 56 64.6%

3 MEG 931 137 433 214 78 54 -30.3%

6 EDC 713 45 368 10 59 46 -22.6%

8 VCM 398 0 210 135 33 26 -20.7%

7 LDPE 465 108 289 0 39 36 -6.7%

10 ABS 82 0.3 80 0.3 7 10 45.9%

11 PS 50 69 36 44 4.1 5 9.6%

12 SAN 7 1 6 0 0.6 1 31.9%

13 EPS 3 3 1 2 0.2 0 -54.9%

Source: DGFT

** Quick Estimates PIB

Key Economic Indicators

UoM Oct End Nov End Dec End Jan 19 End

Forex Reserves US $ Bn 393.5 392.8 393.4 397.0

Exchange rates 1 US$ 74.0 69.7 69.8 70.8

1 Euro 83.8 78.9 79.8 80.1

100 Jap Yen 65.6 61.4 63.4 64.0

1 Pound Sterling 94.6 89.0 88.9 91.3

IIP %agePrev month end 8.4%* 0.5% 2.4% NA

WTI Crude Oil US$/MT 65.3 50.9 45.3 54.2

Brent Crude Oil US$/MT 75.5 57.3 50.2 62.2

Naphtha C&F SEA US$/MT 672 469 432 497

C2 C&F SEA UD$/MT 1032 906 823 898

C3 C&F SEA US$/MT 1,070 790 855 870

CPMA MembersChemplast Sanmar Ltd. l DCM Shriram Ltd. l DCW Ltd. l Engineers India Ltd. l Finolex Industries Ltd. l GAIL (India) Ltd. l Gujarat State Fertilizers & Chemicals Ltd. l Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd. l Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. l HPCL – Mittal Energy Ltd. l Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. l Indian Synthetic Rubber Private Limited l INEOS Styrolution India Ltd. l LG Polymers (India) Pvt. Ltd. l MCPI Pvt. Ltd. l Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd. l ONGC Mangalore Petrochemicals Ltd. l ONGC Petro Additions Ltd. l Reliance Industries Ltd. l Supreme Petrochem Ltd. l Tamilnadu Petroproducts Ltd.

Associate Members: Braskem SA l HPL Additives Ltd. l ICIS l Indorama Industries Ltd. l Jindal Poly Films Ltd. l SABIC India Pvt Ltd.

CHEMICALS AND PETROCHEMICALS MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION708, 7th floor, Kailash Building, 26 Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi – 110 001. l Telephone: 011-43612198 l Email: cpmai@airtelmail.in

Nl Key Submissions for enhancing chemical & petrochemical exports were made to DCPC in response to their letter based on inputs received from members.

Nl CPMA delegation met Shri Sudhanshu Pandey, Additional Secretary, and Dept of Commerce to once again reiterate our concerns on RCEP and in particular with China. It was highlighted that offering tariff concessions on petrochemical products in RCEP will threaten the financial viability of the projects.

Nl CPMA made representation stating that Government of India should not consider granting tariff concession on the key petrochemical items and retain the same in India’s Exclusion List under the CEPA with Korea. Industry’s views were forwarded to DGTR on safeguard and other related issues for RCEP subsequent to the meeting held with DG at DGTR.

Nl Matter on inclusion of Polyethylene and Polypropylene under MEIS taken up with Ministry of Commerce & Industry for sustainable growth in India’s exports.

Government Communications and Interactions

CPMA: Member Companies...continued from page 1

to Rs 98.94 crore during the third quarter of the current fiscal on higher expenses.

The net profit had remained higher at Rs 199.57 crore in the year-ago period due to one-time write-off of Rs 100 crore taxes.

GAIL (India) Ltd reported a 33.2 percent jump in third-quarter profit, beating market estimate, buoyed by a surge in revenue from its natural gas marketing segment. Profit for the quarter ended Dec. 31 came in at 16.81 billion rupees ($234.32 million), compared with a profit of 12.62 billion rupees last year.

16-17 May 2019 | TAIPEI, TAIWAN