12th Russian International PET Conference, Moscow, February 18, 2016
The PET market has, for several years, been one of the most promising and rapidly developing segments of the Russian plastics industry. It was driven by a combination of growing demand, new projects and expansion of product application areas. However, the impact of the economic crisis has led to the downward revision of plans and curbing of future development. The issue of whether the PET segment will outperform the downturn or will stagnate further will be discussed at Russia’s Twelfth International PET 2016 Conference, Hosted by Inventra in Moscow on 18 February 2016.
The Russian PET market has traditionally been oriented towards bottling applications but demand is falling across all sectors, including brewing and soft drinks. PET consumption in Russia fell by 50 thousand tonnes in 2015 and it is expected that the trend will continue this year. Expert estimates are that consumption will be no more than 450,000t in 2016, because of factors both external and internal.
Mervyn Toogoog, Senior Research Analyst of PCI PET Packaging , will deliver a global overview. A supply and demand forecast will be presented by Joy Mukherjee, Director of MAK International. Barton Xu, Senior Manager China at GSI, will address the topic of competition from China, whose output is forecast to rise by another 1 million tonnes in 2016, to 8.5 million tonnes. Viktor Kernitsky, Honorary President of ARPET Association, will update delegates on the latest legislative developments; PET packaging is under attack in the brewing and alcoholic beverage markets, in particular.
Igor Sabaev, Deputy General Director of Ivanovo Polyester Complex, will make a presentation on the project’s progress towards its planned date of 2017 for full production of textile polyester fibre. Russia’s consumption of PET fibre was only 4,500t in 2014 but is expected to grow to 30,000t by 2030.
Askhat Battalov, Executive Director of the SafPet plant in Tatarstan, implemented by Ak Bars Holding, will describe the 18.6 bn Rouble project, which has a planned annual capacity of up to 210,000t of PTA for production of PET for food, fibre and bottle applications.
Presentations on plant modernisation and new plant construction will be made by Stefan Bartz, Vice President Sales at Uhde Inventa-Fischer; and Christoph Wöss, Business Development Manager at Erema. Philip Shahinger, Regional Manager of Starlinger Viscotec will discuss the conversion of PET bottles into sheets.
The PET recycling rate in Russia lags behind the rest of the world and currently stands at just 12-14%. Konstantin Rzayev, Managing Director of ChemPartners, will describe the challenges facing rPET production in Russia, including workforce and heritage issues, and discuss profitability and sourcing of feedstock. Lubov Melanevskaya, Executive Director of RusPEK Association, will describe how the recycling landscape will be affected by new legislation that requires producers or importer of goods subject to disposal (including packaging) to recycle these goods or pay an environmental fee.
The Russian PET market is under pressure and its development will not maintain its previous pace. The opportunities for recovery will be maximised only through joint efforts by market players, along with government support.
