Mexican President Felipe Calderón announced new electricity and natural gas coverage programs for industries that will be crucial in relaunching the petrochemicals sector, according to a transcript of a speech posted on the presidential website.
During the closing ceremony of the XL national forum of the chemical industry, the president explained the country's industrialists would be able to opt for fixed annual electricity rates to protect them against price variations.
Through the second program firms will be able to acquire a natural gas coverage contract to protect them from sharp variations in price.
"In other words, there will be predictable, set prices, the closest there is to market mechanisms in terms of natural gas and electricity. We will be able to create greater certainty in a time of enormous volatility in the prices of raw materials, and thereby provide a longer planning horizon for national industry and obviously petrochemicals," Calderón said.
The president suggested relaunching the petrochemicals industry to trigger industrial development.
Specific projects are being implemented in order to revitalize the industry, such as Ethylene XXI, which involves tenders for long-term projects to provide ethane for ethylene production that would make it possible to construct an ethane processing plant with annual ethylene capacity of 1Mt.
Calderón said the project provides a great opportunity for raising the productivity of the petrochemicals industry, since it is estimated that if constructed, the plant would cover 75% of current high-density polyethylene imports and other materials used in the industry.
The president stressed the importance of the recently approved energy reform, since the hydrocarbons and petrochemicals sectors are directly linked.
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