Trends in the Polypropylene Market of the CIS Countries

     The outlook for polypropylene market trends in Russia together with new production and processing technologies were discussed at the 5th Polypropylene Conference held by Creon CJSC in Moscow on 25 March 2008. Polypropylene (PP) is rated the world’s second polymer after polyethylene in terms of processing output (24% PP vs. 39% PE). The PP market has been intensively developing of late, with expanding application fields, and, as a result, the polymer has been entering more and more market niches, pushing out polystyrene and PVC. When speaking about the Commonwealth of Independent States in general, we should point out the dominating position of Russian companies, to date yielding the PP volumes 3 times higher than the combined production output of Ukraine’s Linik CJSC (TM Lipol) and Turkmenistan’s Oil Refinery (TM Turkmenplen). In addition, the Russian polypropylene market itself is the largest and the most developed one all across the post-Soviet territory. In the case of Russia, certain segments of its PP market has experienced a brisk growth, these are PP pipes, BOPP films, Spunbond non-woven materials, and furniture and packaging industries. Yet the larger companies have currently detained the expansion of their manufacturing capacities to a certain degree. This, as well as PP prices that maintain at a high level in spite of the abundance of the product on market cause many problems for processors.

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