Amy Hebert joins Celanese as Vice President Europe Region

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Celanese Corporation, a global technology and specialty materials company, has announced the appointment of Amy Hebert as vice president, Europe region, reported the company on its site.

Hebert joins Celanese from Albemarle Corporation where she most recently led the catalyst business as vice president, with overall responsibilities including creating and executing long-term business development strategies and managing the group's financial performance.

"Amy's leadership skills and industry knowledge will be an asset to our long-term success in Europe, which accounts for almost 40% of our global sales," said Mark Rohr, chairman and chief executive officer, Celanese Corporation. "In her new role in Europe, Hebert will be accountable for profitably growing Celanese's businesses in the region, optimizing manufacturing and maintaining cost competitiveness."

As MRC wrote previously, Celanese Corporation has recently announced that due to market conditions, including the global supply unavailability of vinyl acetate monomer, it will increase the price of Ateva EVA by USD0.06/pound, effective April 1, 2014, or as contracts allow, reported the company on its site.

Celanese Corporation is a global technology leader in the production of differentiated chemistry solutions and specialty materials used in most major industries and consumer applications. Based in Dallas, Texas, Celanese employs approximately 7,400 employees worldwide and had 2013 net sales of USD6.5 billion.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Celanese Corporation, a global technology and specialty materials company, has announced that due to market conditions, including the global supply unavailability of vinyl acetate monomer, it will increase the price of Ateva EVA by USD0.06/pound, effective April 1, 2014, or as contracts allow, reported the company on its site.

The above price increase is in addition to the price increase previously announced on January 9, 2014, of USD0.04/pound effective February 1, 2014, or as contracts allow.

As MRC informed earlier, Celanese Corporation also expanded its price increase to include all grades of Ateva EVA and low density polyethylene (LDPE).

Celanese Corporation is a global technology leader in the production of differentiated chemistry solutions and specialty materials used in most major industries and consumer applications. Based in Dallas, Texas, Celanese employs approximately 7,400 employees worldwide and had 2013 net sales of USD6.5 billion.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The European Union has drawn up a list of between 120 and 130 Russians who could be hit with travel bans and asset freezes under potential sanctions over Moscow’s actions in the Ukraine crisis, reported Upstreamonline.

Germany’s Bild newspaper said that Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller and Rosneft president Igor Sechin were on the list along with several of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s cabinet ministers, security officials and Kremlin aides.

Described by Reuters as a five-page list drawn up by EU officials with experience in Russia, the draft list is to be dicussed and whittled down ahead of a foreign ministers' meeting on Monday.

A spokesman for Sechin said: "I hope that this all ends up being empty rhetoric. It's silly, petty and obvious sabotage of themselves. I think it will primarily affect Rosneft's business partners in the West in an extraordinary way."

Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the Bild report. A Gazprom spokesman declined to comment.

The EU agreed this week on a framework for sanctions to punish Russia for its seizure of Ukraine's Crimea region, but has yet to finalise a list of targets who will be barred from visiting Europe and have assets frozen.

European foreign ministers are expected to impose the sanctions and sign off on the target list on Monday, the day after a referendum in Ukraine's Crimea region on joining Russia. Washington also has similar sanctions and has yet to publish its target list.

One EU official who has a copy of the list told the news wire it contained the names of generals and other people from the top echelons of Russia's military and political establishment.

EU member states are discussing whether to start by sanctioning as many people as possible from the list in a preventative way, or else take a more cautious approach and add names from the list to the sanctions in several steps.

As MRC wrote before, Russia's intervention in Ukraine signals trouble for OAO Rosneft's bid to buy Morgan Stanley's oil-trading unit, according to people involved in the deal and others familiar with the U.S. government's approval process.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Wacker Polymers, a division of Wacker Chemie AG, has announced an increase in its prices for VINNAPAS vinyl acetate-ethylene (EVA) and VINNOL ethylene-vinyl chloride-based (EVCL) copolymer dispersions in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), as per the company's statement.

Effective April 1, 2014, Wacker will implement a price increase of up to EUR70 per ton, or as customer contracts allow. This measure has been necessitated by the continued increase in raw-material cost.

The price adjustment enables Wacker Polymers to continue providing customers a wide-range of innovative quality products and comprehensive technical, sales and customer support services.

As MRC informed previously, Wacker Polymers already raised its prices for dispersions in EMEA, as well as in Asia, effective March 1, 2014. Thus, prices for VINNAPAS EVA and VINNOL EVCL copolymer dispersions in EMEA increased by up to EUR30/tonne, or as customer contracts allow. In Asia, prices for VINNAPAS EVA copolymer dispersions rose by up to 5% per kilogram, or as allowed by individual contract terms. This measure was also necessitated by the continued increase in raw-material cost.

Dispersions of the VINNAPAS and VINNOL brand are applied in a broad variety of industries, ranging from adhesives, construction, nonwovens, paints and coatings to paper, carpet and textiles.

Wacker Polymers is a leading producer of state-of-the-art binders and polymeric additives based on polyvinyl acetate and vinyl acetate copolymers. These take the form of dispersible polymer powders, dispersions, solid resins, and solutions. They are used in construction chemicals, paints, surface coatings, adhesives and nonwovens, and in fiber composites and polymeric materials based on renewable resources. Wacker Polymers has production sites in Germany, China, South Korea and the USA, as well as a global sales network and technology centers in all major regions.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russia's intervention in Ukraine signals trouble for OAO Rosneft's bid to buy Morgan Stanley's oil-trading unit, according to people involved in the deal and others familiar with the U.S. government's approval process, said The Wall Street Journal.

The proposed acquisition by Russia's biggest oil producer, which is state-controlled, needs U.S. government approval by the Committee on Foreign Investment. CFIUS, a secretive government body, weighs national security risks and can sink deals.

Rosneft is paying several hundred million dollars for the business, the person familiar with the deal said, adding the companies are still months from seeking official U.S. government approval.

A Rosneft spokesman said the companies "are working together according to an agreed schedule." Morgan Stanley said it wasn't deterred. "We intend to submit the transaction for all necessary regulatory approvals, and are targeting a close in the second half of 2014," a Morgan Stanley spokeswoman said.

The U.S. already has severed trade talks with Russia and threatened sanctions and other responses to Moscow's military intervention in Crimea. Rosneft is controlled by the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the deal is liable to face opposition from within the U.S. Congress.

With the full takeover of what was formerly a joint venture with the U.K.'s BP PLC, Rosneft is the undisputed leader of the Russian oil industry, which is about the size of Saudi Arabia's. The Russian government owns a majority of Rosneft's shares and exerts significant control, with private investors holding minority stakes traded on stock exchanges. Exxon Mobil Corp. has a major Arctic joint venture with Rosneft, and BP is a big shareholder, complicating the international politics.

Rosneft and Morgan Stanley have been aligned on flashpoint deals before. In 2006, Rosneft won approval to go public on Moscow and London stock exchanges, despite criticism in the West that it had unfairly acquired the oil assets of Yukos. Rosneft has said it never violated Russian or British law. Morgan Stanley was in the group that coordinated the initial public offering, which raised USD10.4 billion.
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