Production of basic polymers in Russia is still at the level of 5.44 million tons

The total capacity for the production of five basic polymers in Russia is still about 5.44 million tons, such information was reported by the Director of the Department of Analytics of CREON group Lola Ogrel at the forum INVENTRA “Polymers of Russia 2018”, writes rcc. Thus, it turns out that Russia lags far behind the CIS in terms of launching new polymer projects and capacity building.

At the same time, according to the speaker, a noticeable surplus of capacity is observed in the polypropylene segment, and the deficit — in the capacities for the production of emulsion PVC, PET film and fiber, linear PE and high density PE. And if in the near future in Russia there will be new capacity for LLDPE and HDPE, the plans to expand the manufacture of emulsion PVC look blurred.

The market of extruded polystyrene in Russia grew by 1% in 2018 and amounted to 5.3 million m3, and by 2023 the figures may increase to 6.4 million m3 in the case of decisions to increase the standards for thermal insulation of buildings, such a forecast was announced by the marketing Director of the Polymer insulation Corporation “TechnoNIKOL” Valery Pitelin. The company’s segment in the Russian market is 40%.

The expert said that the recycling of expanded polystyrene (PS-B) in Russia is less than 5 thousand tons, which is 10 times less than the European data. According to the speaker, polystyrene allows for up to 30 cycles of repolymerization with virtually no loss of original properties.