Russian petrochemicals giant Sibur has announced a start-up date of first-half 2014 for the PET production complex planned by its subsidiary Polief at Ufa in the Republic of Bashkortostan.

During a meeting on the development of the country's chemical and petrochemical industries, prime minister Dmitry Medvedev visited the construction site, where Sibur said all of the production equipment is in place and building activity about 50% complete. Sibur is Polief's main major shareholder; the government of Bashkortostan holds 17.5%.

At full run, the complex, which is on the government's list of priority projects for Bashkortostan, will have capacity to produce 210,000 t/y of PET - up from 140,000 t/y currently. It will be back-integrated into an existing facility for the polymer's main feedstock PTA. Output is earmarked for the bottled beverage market.

Sibur said the new PET production will give Russia a captive use outlet for its PTA production while at the same time reducing the country's dependence on imported polymer for its bottle production. "Despite current tightening of spreads between feedstock and finished product prices between feedstock and finished product prices in the global PET market, the Russian market has substantial growth potential," Sibur said.

According to the company's figures, around 453,000 t of PET was produced in Russia in 2012, and around 185,000 t imported. The country's current per capita consumption of food-grade PET is pegged at 4.1 kg compared with 9.5 kg in the U.S. Polief's product is claimed to "fully meet the Russian and international quality standards for food contact materials." (dw)