SIBUR to boost investments 54% in 2024 to 346 bln rubles

MOSCOW. March 13 (Interfax) - SIBUR will boost investments 54% in 2024 up to 346 billion rubles, CEO Mikhail Karisalov said.

As the company told journalists, the total budget for the portfolio of projects under implementation is more than 1.7 trillion rubles.

According to Karisalov, in 2023 the company maintained oil and gas chemical output at the level of the previous year - about 8 million tonnes. At the same time, about 75% of this volume was supplied to the Russian and CIS markets - 5.9 million tonnes. Another 1.8 million tonnes were shipped to the countries of the Asia-Pacific Region and Middle East, 0.3 million tonnes - to other countries. About 30% of the company's exports were shipped to China, which accounts for about 8% of total product sales.

"In general, we have capacity utilization at the level of 98.7%-99%. There are different trends depending on different processing stages. Things are significantly better in gas processing, for example: there is a large volume of associated petroleum gas supplies, and gas fractionation capacity utilization has been fully maximized," Karisalov said. In particular, the capacities for production of plastics, orgsynthesis products and low-tonnage chemistry are almost 100% utilized.

According to Pavel Lyakhovich, a member of the management board and Executive Director of SIBUR, polymer consumption in Russia has grown by 10% to over 4 million tonnes. Last year the transportation industry grew by about - 5%, medicine - about 0.9%, agriculture - by 2.4%, consumer goods - by 9%, construction - by 7%, the packaging solutions segment - by 1.9%, the company said in a market analysis it shared. Over the last two years, growth in polymer consumption has increased by more than 20% when comparing Q4 2023 and Q1 2022.

At the same time, the volume of polymer consumption in Russia per person at the end of 2023 is only about 30 kg, the board member noted, which is still significantly lower than the same indicator for developed economies, executive director Alexander Petrov said.