Arkema to aim at world leadership in specialty chemicals and advanced materials

(Arkema) -- Arkema has announced recently its 2016 ambition to become a world leader in specialty chemicals and advanced materials.

With a selective and profitable growth strategy, the Group targets sales of 8 billion euros and an EBITDA margin of 16% in 2016 while maintaining gearing below 40%. The Group also intends to maintain its pace of development and aims to achieve sales of 10 billion euros with an EBITDA margin close to 17% in 2020.

The acquisition of Hipro Polymers and Casda Biomaterials in China beginning of this year and the divestment of its Vinyl business beginning of July, were the last steps of the highly successful turnaround of Arkema into a strong player in specialty chemicals.

To achieve its 2016 targets, the Group will continue to implement its profitable growth strategy focusing on end-markets and countries offering a strong potential for development.

Arkema is a leading European supplier of chlorochemicals and PVC.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Prices keep growing in the foreign markets. This week, Chinese PVC makers announced an increase in export prices. Suppliers of North-American PVC also plan to get a price rise in October, report MRC analysts.

Chinese makers announced a further increase in export prices on the back of a major rise of enquiries for PVC from Russian traders. Chinese PVC makers’ export prices have risen on average by USD30/tonne since early September. Export quotas of Xinjiang Zhongtai company are expected to increase due to the launch of the first line at the third plant in Fukang.

Suppliers of North-American PVC are going to get an increase in prices for October shipments by USD40-60/tonne on the limited export quotas and high demand in the main export markets. Thus, PVC price-offers are voiced at the level of USD1,070/tonne, CFR St Petersburg, while in early September they were voiced for shipments in the first half of October at USD1,030-1,040/tonne, CFR St Petersburg.

European makers have refrained from commentaries regarding the October price-level for the time being. September volumes were contracted on average at EUR840-870/tonne, FCA, which makes European PVC uncompetitive in the Russian market on the back of strengthening of euro exchange rate against the dollar and Russian rouble.
MRC

(plastech) -- Polyethylene manholes, innovative product developed by Asperbras and Brinquedos Bandeirante with the support of Braskem, emerge as a faster and safer option for sewage infrastructure works.

The infrastructure sector now has another solution for expediting and improving the quality of basic sanitation works in Brazil: rotomolded polyethylene (PVs) maintenance holes.

Given its characteristics, rotomolded manholes are adaptable to any soil type. A concrete manhole weighs some 700 kg, while the polyethylene equivalent weighs 70 kg. The product's overall cost is also lower, since it requires zero maintenance and has a lower installation cost.

Braskem is a Brazilian petrochemical company headquartered in Sao Paulo. The company is the largest petrochemical company in the Americas by production capacity and the fifth largest in the world. It is also the largest biopolymer producer in the world and the main Brazil's producer of polyethylene and polypropylene.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- In August, PET production in Russian rose by 2,800 tonnes from July, up 8%, report MRC analysts.

The total August production volumes of PET in Russia made 36,400 tonnes. Despite the increase compared to July levels, the year-on-year August indices of PET production decreased by 5,000 tonnes. The unscheduled outage at Bashkir plant Polief and partial capacity utilization at Kaliningrad plant Alco-Naphtha was the cause of insufficient production of the material last month.

It should also be noted that the total capacity utilization of Russian plants in August 2012 made about 83,7% with project capacities of the plants of around 43.500 tonnes per month. The year-on-year capacity utilization made about 89%.

A significant increase in Russian PET production is not expected in September. As per preliminary estimation, the total granulate production by domestic plants will make about 39,000-40,000 tonnes, up 3,000-4,000 tonnes from August. The growth of production volumes will be achieved due to the stable work of Polief plant. In the meantime, an increase of capacity utilization of the other PET makers are not planned.

MRC

(converting quarterly) -- Despite the economic hardships of recent years, plastic label demand in Europe grew on average by 6% per year since 2008, and the industry had structural changed, states a new report from industry researcher AMI Consulting.

While the end-use applications are relatively mature in Europe, plastic labels converters are taking market share from paper at an increasing rate.

Plastic glue-applied labels illustrated the paper to plastic transition best, through the wrap around labels in the beverage industry, which resulted in 400 million square meters additional demand in the past three years. Plastic dominates the in-mould labels segment as well.

In self-adhesive labels, the key issue is inter-material competition of PP and PE. PP is expanding penetration, driven by the growing demand of clear-on-clear labels allowing for no-label look. Similarly, PET increased its penetration versus PVC in shrink sleeves.
MRC