Ukraine PVC producer to increase exports

Ukrainian petrochemicals manufacturer Karpatneftekhim, part of Russian Lukor-Neftekhim, has opened a new suspension PVC plant, which will supply Eastern Europe.

The €170m facility is located in Ukrainian city of Kalush and is expected not only to fully meet local PVC needs, but will also allow the country to increase exports, mainly to Russia, Belarus, Moldova, Poland and Turkey. There is a possibility that in the near future the plant will start supplying PVC into the EU.

According to Sergei Chmyhalov, general director of Karpatneftekhim, Ukraine currently imports up to 150,000 tonnes of PVC annually. Total capacity of the new plant is estimated at 300,000 tpa.

This will be the second big project completed by Karpatneftekhim in the last eight months. In November 2010 it launched a modern complex to produce chlorine and caustic soda.

Next year the company plans to build a further plant for emulsion PVC, with capacity of up to 30,000 tpa. The location of the plant has not yet been announced. It also has plans to begin making profiles from PVC-S, with a capacity of 20,000 tpa.