PolyOne buys US composites company Glasforms

(4-traders) -- PolyOne Corporation, a premier provider of specialized polymer materials, services and solutions, announced the acquisition of Glasforms, Inc., a leading manufacturer of glass and carbon fiber reinforced polymers and advanced composite products.

The purchase marks PolyOne's entry into advanced composite technology, an adjacency consistent with the company's proven strategy of providing specialty solutions that deliver high value to customers.

With a purchase price of USD34 million, PolyOne expects the acquisition to be accretive to earnings in 2013. Glasforms has grown sales at a 36% compound annual growth rate since 2010 and in fiscal year 2012 achieved revenues in excess of USD50 million.

Glasforms manufactures advanced composite products for use in demanding applications across the electrical and telecom, energy, transportation, healthcare, and security and defense markets.

Glasforms will integrate as part of PolyOne's Specialty platform, under the direction of Craig Nikrant, senior vice president and president, Global Specialty Engineered Materials.


Glasforms is one of the world's leading manufacturers of advanced composite products for use in demanding applications across the electrical & telecom, energy, transportation, consumer & recreation and defense & security end markets.

PolyOne Corporation is a global provider of specialized polymer materials, services, and solutions. PolyOne is a provider of specialized polymer materials, services and solutions with operations in specialty polymer formulations, color and additive systems, polymer distribution and specialty vinyl resins.
MRC

(borealisgroup) -- Borealis, a leading provider of chemical and innovative plastics solutions, announces that it will increase all polyolefin prices for January, 2013. Polyethylene prices will increase by EUR 100/tonne, while prices for polypropylene will increase by EUR 75/tonne.

“The decision to increase prices is based on the development in the market over the last couple of months that requires us to react,” comments Alfred Stern, Borealis Executive Vice President Polyolefins.

Borealis AG is Europe's second largest producer of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) and is headquartered in Vienna, Austria.

Borealis is headquartered in Vienna, Austria, and operates in over 120 countries with around 5,300 employees worldwide, generating EUR 7.1 billion in sales revenue in 2011.

The International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) of Abu Dhabi owns 64% of the company, the remaining 36% is owned by OMV, the leading energy group in the European growth belt. Borealis provides services and products to customers around the world in collaboration with Borouge, a joint venture with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC).
MRC

(foxbusiness) -- Indonesia's state oil and gas company PT Pertamina said Thursday that it plans to allocate USD3.1 billion for upstream investments in 2013, equal to 46% of its total investments.

Pertamina didn't provide comparative figures for its 2012 investments.
Earlier this week, it said it has signed an agreement to buy ConocoPhillips's (COP) Algerian assets. The USD1.75 billion transaction is expected to be completed by mid-2013.

The acquisition would be the largest by announced value this year for Pertamina, which last month dropped a bid to buy Houston-based Coastal Energy Co. (CEN) after failing to agree on a price.

In June, it agreed to buy all of Harvest Natural Resources Inc. (HNR)’s interests in Venezuela for $725 million in cash. Pertamina may pump 127,889 barrels of oil a day this year, according to government data, making it Indonesia’s biggest oil producer after a unit of Chevron Corp.

The transaction, expected to close by mid-2013, is subject to approval from the Algerian government and ConocoPhillips’s partners in the fields. It would bring to about USD9 billion the proceeds from ConocoPhillips’s current asset sales program. The company has previously targeted USD8 billion to USD10 billion in asset sales this year and next to focus on investment in more profitable businesses.

Incorporated in late 2011 through a merger of PTT Chemical PCL and PTT Aromatics and Refining PCL, PTT Global Chemical has petrochemical capacity of 8.2 million tpy of olefins and aromatics and refining capacity of 280,000 bpd.
The Polymer product business produce a wide range of plastic products for use in various industries. Among the main products are HDPE, LDPE, LLDPE, PS.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- In January-November, 2012, imports of EPS to Russia made 80,318 tonnes, down 8% year-on-year, according to MRC DataScope.

Imports of EPS to the Russian market increased by 15% in November and made 8,124 tonnes. Since the beginning of the year, market participants imported by 8% less EPS compared to the same period last year. Supply volumes of the material made 80,318 tonnes.

The structure of import supplies remains the same. About half of all the imported material is shipped from China, which makes 37,801 tonnes of the material. Since the beginning of the year, supplies from China have increased by 25% year-on-year.

The bulk of shipments accounts for Loyal material, the share of which makes 38% of the total import volumes and amounts to 30,529 tonnes. 16% of imports account for BASF’s EPS, which makes 13,029 thousand tonnes.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - South Korea's petrochemical and electrical engineering company, LG Chem, plans to strengthen its position in the Russian market, considering the possibility of joint investments along with Russian partners into various Russian companies, according to Neft Rossii with reference to the Commerce and Industry (CCI) of Russia.

Thus, during a working meeting of Vice-President and Chairman of LG Chem's Board of directors, Peter Ban-Suk Kim, and Vice-President of the Russian Chamber of Commerce, Georgii Petrov, the parties summed up the results of the company's activity in the Russian market, discussed plans for joint cooperation in the automotive industry, and the possibility of joint production and investment into Russian automobile, petrochemical and electrical enterprises. Production of batteries for various applications is one of the promising areas of cooperation, according to both parties. Republic of Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Samara and Nizhny Novgorod region were named as promising areas for investment.

We remind that last year, LG Chem announced its plans to invest USD4 billion to build a petrochemical complex in the Republic of Kazakhstan, as MRC reported previously. It was planned that LG Chem's joint venture with the state-owned Kazakhstan Petrochemical Industries (KPI) would build a plant for the production of ethylene and polyethylene (PE), with an annual capacity of 840,000 tonnes and 800,000 tonnes, respectively, and will start commercial production at its facilities in 2016.
MRC