Le Seda sale to Selenis gets final agreement

МOSCOW (MRC) -- Portugal’s Selenis has finalised the purchase of Artenius Italia, the last remaining PET production company of La Seda de Barcelona (LSB), said EuropeanPlasticsnews.

The PET subsidiary of the Imatosgil Investimentos group of Portuguese entrepreneur Matos Gil, once a major shareholder of La Seda, paid EUR1m for the assets. According to La Seda, Selenis will employ 30 staff at the Italian PET production facility and assume redundancy costs for another 75 workers.

News of the Selenis interest was first revealed back in May when it was reported to be one of two bidders for the Artenius business. The other would-be buyer for the 200,000 tpa PET business in San Giorgio di Nogaro was Ottana Polymers, a Sardinia-based partnership between Indorama Ventures and Italian businessman Paolo Clivati.

Selenis, which has other plants in Portugal and Montreal, Canada, bought the Artenius Italia assets through a subsidiary, Control PET, SGPS, SA. after winning a competitive bankruptcy sale overseen by an Italian court, confirmed the LSB insolvency administrator Jose Vicente Estrada Esteban. Proceeds of the sale previously destined to help pay off LSB liabilities, will not now contribute much to reducing the debt, according to the administrator.

Meanwhile, Spanish media reports suggest the block sale of another LSB subsidiary, the APPE packaging division is on the verge of being sold.

Elsewhere, investors in other LSB assets are reported to be planning to sink EUR10m in two Spanish plants, the Artenius Espana PET plant at El Prat de Llobregat near Barcelona and Tarragona-based feedstock chemicals unit Industrias Quimicas Asociadas (IQA).

The two operations were acquired recently by subsidiaries of the Cristian Lay group of Badajoz, Spain for more than EUR15m. The group has spent the past three months trying to cut the operating costs by renegotiating contracts with former LSB suppliers, according to national media reports.

Seda de Barcelona (LSB) is an industrial plastic packaging group operating internationally through its 14 facilities across Europe, Turkey and North Africa. It is the only European producer capable of supplying PET containers in a fully integrated way from raw material feedstock, conversion technology and design, injection and blow moulding up to the delivered finished product, by means of guaranteeing the quality of all its production processes.The PET and recycling division of LSB has four production plants in Spain, Italy, Greece and Turkey, and two recycling sites in Spain and Italy.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Speciality chemicals producer Clariant (Muttenz / Switzerland) has reported operating profit (EBITDA) of CHF 214m (EUR 176m) in the second quarter of 2014, up from CHF 211m in Q2 2013, as per the companie's report.

However, in local currencies, EBITDA increased by 9% year-on-year in the quarter. Operating margin in the period rose to 14% from 13.7% in the second quarter of 2013, thanks to higher gross margin and reduced selling, general and administrative costs, which more than compensated for a 1.5% point negative impact from exchange rate developments, the company said.

Sales in the quarter were CHF 1.53 bn, compared to CHF 1.54 bn in Q2 2013, but grew by 6% year-on-year in local currencies. Unfavourable development of the US dollar and Japanese yen, and emerging market currencies including the Brazilian real and Indian rupee, translated into the 1% reduction in sales in Swiss francs.

In the second quarter of 2014, EBITDA margin before exceptional items in the plastics and coatings business area of 14.0% was lower than the second quarter of 2013, as higher volumes could not compensate for unfavourable currency developments. Sales in the business increased 6% in local currencies and were flat in Swiss francs compared to Q2 2013.

All three businesses in the plastics and coatings area – pigments, masterbatches, and additives – contributed to growth, the company said. Pigments achieved strong sales gains in local currencies in most regions, with particularly strong demand in Asia/Pacific, Latin America, and North America. Masterbatches experienced good sales growth in local currencies, thanks to strong demand in emerging markets, while sales in mature markets decreased. Additives achieved strong sales growth in flame retardants and polymer additives, while waxes grew moderately, Clariant said, with growth in local currencies highest in North America and Europe.

As MRC wrote before, CB&I and Clariant announced that their new Ziegler-Natta (ZN) polypropylene catalyst plant in Louisville, Kentucky, is on schedule to begin production in 2015. The plant is part of a long-term strategic partnership between Clariant’s catalysts business and CB&I’s Lummus Novolen Technology business. Based at Clariant’s largest US production hub, the new facility will combine innovative catalysts jointly developed by both companies with high-capacity output.

Clariant AG is a Swiss chemical company and a world leader in the production of specialty chemicals for the textile, printing, mining and metallurgical industries. It is engaged in processing crude oil products in pigments, plastics and paints.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Gazprom neftekhim Salavat resumed production of low density polyethylene (LDPE) after a scheduled 30-day turnaround, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

Gazprom neftekhim Salavat resumed its LDPE production after a scheduled outage for maintenance on 1 August 2014. The shutdown took place on 1 July and lasted about one month. The plant's annual LDPE production capacity is 45,000 tonnes.

At the same time, the Bashkir plant's high density polyethylene (HDPE) production is still idle. The shutdown of the plant's HDPE production for a turnaround took place on 15 July and is scheduled for 30 days. The plant's annual HDPE production capacity is 120,000 tonnes.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Styron (Hong Kong) Limited, an affiliate of Styron, the global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex and rubber, and its affiliate companies in Asia Pacific have announced price increases for all polystyrene (PS) grades, reported the company on its site.

Effective immediately, or as existing contract terms allow, the prices for the products listed below will increase as follows:

- STYRON general purpose polystyrene grades (GPPS) - by USD30/tonne;
- STYRON and STYRON A-TECH high-impact polystyrene grades (HIPS) - by USD30/tonne.

"The price increase responds to the rising costs associated with the manufacturing of polystyrene grades in Asia Pacific," said Samer Al Jabi, Global Product Manager for Polystyrene.

As MRC wrote before, in July, Styron (Hong Kong) Limited and its affiliate companies in Asia Pacific increased prices for all polystyrene (PS) grades, as follows:

- STYRON general purpose polystyrene grades (GPPS) - by USD20tonne;
- STYRON and STYRON A-TECH high-impact polystyrene grades (HIPS) - by USD20/tonne.

Styron is a leading global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex and rubber, dedicated to collaborating with customers to deliver innovative and sustainable solutions. Styron's technology is used by customers in industries such as home appliances, automotive, building & construction, carpet, consumer electronics, consumer goods, electrical & lighting, medical, packaging, paper & paperboard, rubber goods and tires. Styron had approximately USD5.3 billion in revenue in 2013, with 19 manufacturing sites around the world.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ineos Compounds and Doeflex Compounding have received the green light for the merger of their polyvinyl chloride (PVC) compounding businesses from the European Commission, reported Ineos on its site.

The combined business, once completed, will create a leading PVC compound manufacturer, with a turnover in excess of EUR200m and production sites in the UK, Sweden and Switzerland.

The deal was first announced in May 2014 and represents a "strategic opportunity" and likely to support the growth of both companies, they said.

The combined business will be run by an integrated management team from both parties and will be known as Ineos Compounds.

The companies will, however, continue to run their businesses separately until the completion of the merger, which is expected to take place on 1 September 2014.

As MRC informed previuosly, in May 2014, Ineos Group Holdings Ltd. and Solvay SA (SOLB), Europe’s two biggest makers of polyvinyl chloride, won European Union approval for a 4.3 billion-euro (USD6 billion) joint venture of their PVC units after agreeing to sell plants. Ineos and Solvay won’t close their deal until they have a binding agreement with a purchaser approved by EU regulators.

The venture, announced last year, would allow the companies to cut costs in areas from transport to marketing and raise profitability amid a European industry suffering from inflated raw material and energy costs. The PVC market is facing overcapacity and weak demand in Europe, prompting companies in the labor-intensive industry to explore deals. Solvay has said it plans to exit the PVC venture at a later stage.

Ineos Group Limited is a privately owned multinational chemicals company consisting of 15 standalone business units, headquartered in Rolle, Switzerland and with its registered office in Lyndhurst, United Kingdom. It is the fourth largest chemicals company in the world measured by revenues (after BASF, Dow Chemical and LyondellBasell) and the largest privately owned company in the United Kingdom.
MRC