PolyOne announces further realignment of North American assets acquired from Spartech

MOSCOW (MRC) -- PolyOne Corporation, a premier provider of specialized polymer materials, services and solutions, has announced additional realignment actions to better serve customers and to increase utilization of its manufacturing assets in North America, according to the company's press release.

These actions will include aligning assets that were acquired as part of the 2013 acquisition of Spartech with PolyOne's Performance Products and Solutions (PP&S) segment. These assets are primarily located in Ramos, Mexico and will now operate within Producer Services, a business unit of PP&S, which has headquarters in Seabrook, Texas.

"Our multinational customers are increasingly concentrating production in North America and often choose Mexico as a strategic location," said Robert M. Patterson, executive vice president and chief operating officer, PolyOne Corporation. "Under the leadership of our Producer Services team located in Texas, we look forward to expanding our capabilities in Mexico with improved customer service, quality and delivery."

"After nine months, we remain extremely pleased with the Spartech acquisition," said Stephen D. Newlin, chairman, president and chief executive officer, PolyOne Corporation. "We continue to see upside opportunities to expand our portfolio of offerings and better serve our customers, and we remain committed to delivering USD0.50 of EPS accretion from the deal in 2015."

In connection with these changes, a separate facility located in Lockport, New York will also operate as part of producer services, and an administrative office in Washington, Pennsylvania will close as this work is transitioned to Seabrook, Texas. Further, the company has realigned certain resources associated with Spartech's legacy Color and Specialty Compounds segment, based on how these resources will now report within PolyOne's businesses.

As MRC wrote previously, in June 2013, PolyOne completed the previously-announced sale of its vinyl dispersion, blending and suspension resin assets to Mexichem for USD250 million in cash. The sale of PolyOne's last remaining resin production assets marks an important milestone in the company's ongoing specialty transformation that began in 2006, according to top officials.

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.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Pertamina is in plans to take an aromatics plant off-stream for maintenance turnaround, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Indonesia informed that the plant is planned to be taken off-stream in September 2014. It is likely to remain off-stream for around one month.

The plant has a paraxylene capacity of 270,000 mt/year and benzene capacity of 110,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed before, Thailand’s PTT Global Chemical (PTTGC) intends to sign a joint-venture agreement with Indonesian state-owned energy company Pertamina to set up a petrochemical complex with an investment of around USd4-5 billion (Bt127 billion to Bt158 billion. Both companies will have a 50:50 stake in this downstream-to-upstream project. They will also sign a deal to market products from the project jointly.

Earlier last year, Pertamina signed an agreement to purchase petrochemical products from PTT Global Chemical. The agreement serves as a pre-marketing strategy for Pertamina and PTT’s joint Indonesian petrochemical business. Under the agreement, PTT will deliver at least 5,000 tonnes of polyethylene and polypropylene products each month to Pertamina for sale in Indonesia.

Pertamina is an Indonesian state-owned oil and natural gas corporation based in Jakarta. It was created in August 1968 by the merger of Pertamin (established 1961) and Permina (established 1957). Pertamina is the world's largest producer and exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical Company (Petro Rabigh) has exported its first shipment of petrochemical products from King Abdullah Port, located in King Abdullah Economic City in Rabigh, reported Plastemart.

The shipment represents the first export operation of the port, as per Saudi Gazette. The cargo, which consists of 54 containers of polymer material, was shipped on board a carrier heading to Singapore.

President and Chief Executive Officer of Petro Rabigh Engineer Abdullah bin Saleh Al-Suwailem said: "The importance of this shipment lies in the fact that it is the first shipment exported by Petro Rabigh through King Abdullah Port, and it represents support of the port and the commercial traffic in the area. It is also a significant step forward in the export operations of Petro Rabigh products due the proximity of the port to the headquarters of the company's operations, which contributes to the reduction of logistics costs for freight, accessing global markets faster, and relieving traffic and congestion at Jeddah Islamic Port."

As MRC informed previously, Petro Rabigh had signed an agreement with Tasnee and Saudi Advanced Industries (SAIC) for the supply of propylene oxide to the joint venture for the production of polyether polyol. The plant is located in Rabiga, in the west of Saudi Arabia on the Red Sea. The production launch was scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2013.

PetroRabigh, a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Japan's Sumitomo Chemical, has an annual output capacity of 18 million tonnes of refined products and 2.4 million tonnes of petrochemicals. Saudi Aramco and Japan's Sumitomo Chemical each hold a 37.5% stake in Petro Rabigh, with the remaining 25% owned by the public.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Hanwha Chemical, one of the largest business conglomerate in South Korea, is in plans to shut its oxo-alcohols plant for maintenance turnaround, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in South Korea informed that the plant is planned to be shut on February 18, 2014. It is likely to remain off-stream for around one month.

Located at Yeosu, South Korea, the plant has a 2-ethyl hexanol(2-EH) capacity of 100,000 mt/year and normal butyl alcohol (NBVA) capacity of 10,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote previously, Sipchem Chemicals Company (SCC), an affiliate of Saudi's Sipchem, signed on July 22, 2013 an incorporation agreement with Hanwha Chemicals Corporation to form a new company, under name of "Saudi Specialty Products Company" for establishing conversion projects in Saudi Arabia. The Joint Venture between SCC and Hanwha comprised of two manufacturing facilities; the first one located at Hail will produce 4,000 MTPA of EVA films whereas the second one located at Riyadh will manufacture plastic moulds up to 1000 tons. It is noteworthy that Sipchem Chemicals Company owns 75% of new company capital while Korean Hanwha owns 25%.

Hanwha Group is one of the largest business conglomerate in South Korea. Founded in 1952 as Korea Explosives Inc., the group has grown into a large multi-profile business conglomerate, with diversified holdings stretching from explosives, their original business, to retail to financial services.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Argentina's stock regulator has rejected as inadequate an offer from Brazil's Braskem, Latin America's largest petrochemical company, to buy the roughly 30% of the shares of plastic maker Solvay Indupa that are publicly traded, as per Reuters.

Solvay Indupa is the Argentine-Brazilian unit of Belgium's Solvay, which owns 70.59% of the company. Solvay Indupa operates two industrial sites, one in Bahia Blanca, Argentina, and the other in Santo Andre, in Brazil's Sao Paulo state, that produce PVC plastic and caustic soda. The deal would represent Braskem's first move into production in Argentina.

In a contract signed last month, Braskem would buy the stake held by Solvay and buy the remainder of Solvay Indupa on the Buenos Aires stock exchange.

"The offer presented by Braskem of USD1.35 per share is in line neither with the book value of the company, which as of Sept. 30 was USD2.81, nor with average valuations during the fourth quarter of USD3.92," Argentina's CNV market regulator said in a statement.

The publicly traded shares of Solvay Indupa include a 16.7% stake held by Argentina's state pension fund, Anses.

As MRC informed previously, in February 2013, Solvay announced plans to divest its assets in the Argentine petrochemical producer Indupa, as part of a major restructuring and portfolio optimisation at Solvay. The company owns a 69.9% interest in Indupa, while the rest is traded on the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange.

Indupa, with a manufacturing capacity of more than 500,000 tpa of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), runs facilities at Santo Andre, Brazil, and Bahia Blanca, Argentina.

Solvay, with a market share 27%, is the second largest PVC manufacturer in Europe, after Kerling with 29% of the market.

Braskem is a Brazilian petrochemical company headquartered in Sao Paulo. The company is the largest petrochemical company in Latin America and one of the largest in the world. Braskem controls the three largest petrochemical complexes in Brazil, located in the cities of Camacari (Bahia), Maua (Sao Paulo) and Triunfo (Rio Grande do Sul). Besides these three petrochemical complexes, Braskem also controls a complex in Duque de Caxias (Rio de Janeiro).
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