SIBUR considering polystyrene production project with capacity of 250,000 tonnes/year by 2029 in Tatarstan

MOSCOW. April 8 (Interfax) - SIBUR is considering the possibility of implementing a polystyrene production project with capacity of 250,000 tonnes per year with completion of construction no later than 2028, according to company materials seen by Interfax.

Earlier, the company's executive director Alexander Petrov said that several options are being considered for processing ethylene produced at the EP-600 complex under construction at Nizhnekamskneftekhim , including production of styrene and polystyrene.

SIBUR is due to begin production at the EP-600 ethylene complex in Tatarstan in November 2024.

The launch of the EP-600 complex will allow SIBUR to increase polyethylene output by 150,000 tonnes at Kazanorgsintez after reconstruction, SIBUR chief Mikhail Karisalov said. In addition, some of the new ethylene volumes will be used as feedstock in the hexene production chain, a unit for the production of which SIBUR is already building in Nizhnekamsk. At the same time, some of the ethylene volumes from EP-600 have not yet been distributed among further processing projects, he said.

In addition to the existing ethylene production with capacity of 600,000 tonnes, NKNC is building a new olefin complex - the EP-600 ethylene unit with polymer production. EP-600 will allow for processing of 1.8 million tons of straight-run gasoline per year to produce 600,000 tonnes of ethylene and its derivatives.

Nizhnekamskneftekhim is one of the largest producers of synthetic rubbers in the world and of plastics in Russia, and has been a part of SIBUR since October 2021.