Dear colleagues,

You are about to start reading the Association RusChlor’s performance report for the year 2017.

The industry's all production facilities functioned steadily last year at the capacity utilization’s averaging out to over 80%. In so doing a few facilities including Volgograd JSC “Kaustik”, Novocheboksarsk PJSC “Khimprom”, and Kstovo LLC “RVL” were getting on even better than that.

The output had risen by 3 to 5% on the average for the reporting period in the basic products being chlorine and caustic soda with the exception for the commodity chlorine. The shares in the basic products' output that are accounted for by the techniques of respectively the membrane, diaphragm, and mercury-cell electrolysis had become virtually equal to each other for the reporting period.

It is particularly worth mentioning the following all-industry problems out of all those tackled by Association “RusChlor” last year:

There was successfully completed last year the work on updating Federal Regulations “Safety Rules for Production of Chlorine and Chlorine-containing Substances”. It is worth noticing in this connection that the work had been initiated by Association “RusChlor” as far back as in 2016. It is also worth noticing in this connection that of all the suggestions that had been both approved by the Federal Regulator and paid due consideration to in the amended Federal Regulations introduced into the legal force on September 18, 2017 almost all those that had been initially made by the industry in the course of the said updating had been first both checked and proved by the RusChlor experts.

Another important line of the RusChlor’s activities had been made in the reporting period by by the cooperation of RusChlor with Non-Commercial Partnership “Neftegazkhimproekt” that had been established at the RusChlor’s assistance. The point is that the RusChlor member-companies that are required under the Russian legislation to be granted by a relevant Self-Regulated Organization hereinafter referred to as the “SRO” of the authorization to establish Design Offices on the companies’ premises have flocked to and entered the aforesaid Non-Commercial Partnership. Almost all the cooperative work of RusChlor with Non-Commercial Partnership has been so far pivoted this year on the latter’s preparedness for an audit expected to be conducted by the Interregional Process Directorate of Federal Service for Ecological, Technological, and Nuclear Supervision of the Russian Federation hereinafter referred to as the “ROSTEKHNADZOR” and the RusChlor’s preparedness for its participation in that audit. The aforesaid audit had been conducted throughout October and December last year. It has resulted in signing an official Deed by ROSTEKHNADZOR (the Deed was duly registered under No. 800-G/33-27/SRO as such of December 14, 2017) in witness of the Non-Commercial Partnership's right to lawfully grant the permits for design engineering to the legal entities.

There was completed the work last year on development of the informational-and-technical reference handbook on Best Available Techniques hereinafter referred to as the “BAT Reference Book”. The document has been officially registered under the code number ITS-34-2017 and entitled “Production of other basic inorganic chemicals”.

 Specialists of both RusChlor itself and its member-companies took part in development of the BAT Reference Book.   By this means RusChlor has helped greatly to its member-companies in their strive for so called "Integrated Environmental Permit” hereinafter referred to as the "IEP”. The point is that under the current Russian legislation obtaining IEP is an absolutely vital precondition for staying in business for  a chlor-alkali production facility.

Owing to the lack of progress in providing the Russian chlor-alkali production facilities with the so called “new generation" innovative railroad tanker cars there was initiated by RusChlor a work last year on official approval under certification system “RusChlorCert” of the use in the bulk transportation of the liquid chlorine over rail in the territory of the Russian Federation of the chlorine tank-containers marketed by a few foreign manufacturers. Nothing of the said above really means though that RusChlor has ceased anything of its activities aimed at assisting the domestic machine builders in their efforts to first develop and then start manufacturing such a chlorine railroad tanker car that would meet all the requirements of the Russian regulators.

World Chlorine Council organized and conducted in the last year’s November its annual International Safety Workshop, which has made up quite a milestone event in the RusChlor’s history. The point is that the Workshop was held in Moscow on the RusChlor’s initiative and  for the first time ever.

In their participating in the Workshop both President of Chlorine Institute of the US Mr. Frank Reiner and Technical Director of Euro Clor Mr. Ton Manders shared the Western experience gathered in safe operation of the chlor-alkali production facilities with the Russian colleagues. Judging from the participants’ comments the dialogue of Russia with the World so to say has been a success at the very least in the aspect of the safe production of chlorine.

Association “RusChlor” organized and held in Moscow its annual Eleventh International Technology Symposium “Chlorine and its Derivatives 2017" in the last year’s March, which was followed by the RusChlor’s participation in the Technology Conference & Exhibition that Euro Chlor staged in Berlin in that year’s May. Euro Chlor keeps staging such events once in every three years.

All the  knowledge that we think are most significant for the chlor-alkali industry of those that RusChlor has learned from the aforementioned international conferences as well as the information on the proceedings of the annual meeting of the World Chlorine Council are embodied in this Report.

It is also worth noticing in this connection that Association “RusChlor” being a member in Russian Chamber of Commerce, Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, and Russian Chemists Union took part in all the significant events staged by the said organizations last year. In so doing RusChlor lobbied heavily for the interests of the Russian chlor-alkali industry.

Sincerely yours,

Executive Director, Association "RusChlor"

 Boris Yagud

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