LSB plans to sell PET plants to support development

(chemicals-technology) -- Spain-based La Seda de Barcelona (LSB) is planning to dispose of its PET polymer and raw material plants to raise new capital to develop its PET and chemical operations.

"LSB has PET plants in Spain, Italy, Greece and Turkey and raw material chemical units in Spain and Portugal."
The company wants to sell the plants only if it is unable to get the help of other industrial partners to form a joint venture in order to support its chemical operations.

LSB's intention to sell off its business has been revealed by its executive president Carlos Moreira da Silva after an LSB shareholders meeting.

The move is the result of LSB's unsuccessful attempt in July 2012 to raise EUR40m in new share capital for a downstream investment programme.

LSB is also in preliminary talks with five industrial partners to offer a 25% stake in the new business which integrates all its upstream PET, terephthalic acid (PTA), glycol and recycling operations. The company is also anticipating a positive result in March 2013.

LSB has PET plants in Spain, Italy, Greece and Turkey and raw material chemical units in Spain and Portugal.
The company is most likely to begin the PET business disposal initially with its Adana business. As MRC wrote earlier, La Seda de Barcelona sold industrial and intellectual rights to a number of its processes to India's Invista.
MRC

(chemweek) -- Evonik Industries today reported a 5% increase in third-quarter net income to EUR355 million (USD452.7 million) on 6% lower sales of EUR3.42 billion, partly due to the July 2011 divestment of the company’s carbon black business. Organic sales declined 2% year-on-year, with volumes down slightly.

Selling prices were stable. Adjusted Ebitda slipped 2% to EUR731 million while adjusted Ebitda margin was 21.4%, compared with 20.6% in the third quarter of 2011.

"Evonik is still doing well, even in the difficult conditions," says Klaus Engel, chairman. Despite the challenging global economic situation and the weakened demand since the summer, especially in Europe, the company remains confident. Evonik is making good progress with its On Track 2.0 efficiency enhancement program introduced in spring 2012 and targets "sustained annual cost savings of around EUR500 million by the end of 2016. "The company expects to report slightly higher sales for fiscal 2012 while operating result will "probably be in line with or slightly above the excellent 2011 level."

Evonik’s consumer, health & nutrition business reported a 3% increase in sales to EUR1.08 billion and a 3% rise in adjusted Ebitda to EUR279 million.

Evonik is one of the world's leading specialty chemicals companies. The company's specialty chemicals activities focus on high-growth megatrends especially health, nutrition, resource efficiency, and globalization and on entering attractive future-oriented markets.
MRC

(prw) -- Styron of the US has been involved in a two-year development project leading to the launch of a thermoplastic hatch on the new Renault Clio car. The hatch is injection moulded in three PP compounds developed by Styron.

The inner skin is injection moulded using a talc filled PP compound. This connects to the structural part which is produced with a concentrated long glass fibre-filled PP resin (LGF-PP) developed by Styron. The concentrate is blended at the moulding machine with a PP copolymer resin.

Styron supported Renault in the engineering phase with process simulations to develop a thermoplastic hatch, as the company wanted the hinges and the closing mechanism to be hidden.

Styron said LGF-PP was used to help improve impact resistance, expansion and durability of the structural part of the hatch. Using a material with higher glass content improves the stiffness and toughness of the structural part.

In addition, Styron also supported Renault in selecting the appropriate plasticising screw to maintain the required fibre length and also in optimising the injection mould design. As MRC wrote earlier, on 18 October, Styron announced that it is goin to adopt a new pricing approach following significant shifts in supply and demand in the polystyrene (PS) market.
MRC

(bnamericas) -- Brazilian petrochemical company Braskem reported a net loss of 124mn reais (USD61mn) for the third quarter of the year, following a net loss of 1.05bn reais in the same period in 2011.

Net revenue decreased 12% to USD4.7bn, due to lower average prices for resins and petrochemicals.

Braskem said that in Brazil demand for polyolefins was 10% higher than in 3Q11 due to seasonal reasons, as in the third quarter the production chain prepares for year-end sales of manufactured products, and also due to economic stimulus measures introduced by the government. Braskem's domestic production of polyolefins increased by 6% year-on-year and domestic sales rose by 10%.

Braskem said that its production of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in Brazil increased 27% from 2Q12, which reflects the startup of its new PVC plant in Alagoas that is now operating at around 80% capacity. PVC sales volumes increased 14%.

Braskem said earthmoving works at its USD3bn Ethylene XXI joint venture with Idesa in Mexico had reached 95% physical completion, enabling the start of construction work on various areas of the site. It aims to conclude the structuring of project finance in 2012, and has already begun pre-marketing sales for Mexican clients. The complex is due to start up in 2015.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- In October, import of suspension PVC to Ukraine grew twice from September and reached the level of 16,800 tonnes. The growth of import volumes last month was due to a seasonal factor along with an outage for maintenance at Karpatneftekhim, according to MRC Data Scope.

In October, the total import volume of suspension PVC to the Ukrainian market doubled from September and reached 16,800 tonnes, which is an absolute record this year. Such a significant rise of import volumes was due a seasonal factor as well as an outage for a turnaround at Karpatneftekhim (Lukoil group), the domestic producer.

Last month, the USA makers expectedly secured a major rise of import volumes. Supplies of the North American resin grew to 9,300 tonnes, while in September this index made only 1,500 tonnes. Ukrainian companies actively contracted PVC from the USA in August on an upcoming outage for maintenance at Karpatneftekhim and quite a low level of export prices.
In general, over the past nine months the total import volume of suspension PVC to Ukraine made about 80,000 tonne, down 24% year-on-year.

MRC