Accella agrees to purchase spray polyurethane foam business from Covestro

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Accella Polyurethane Systems LLC, a portfolio company of Arsenal Capital Partners, has reached a deal with Covestro LLC to acquire certain assets of the target’s spray polyurethane foam (SPF) business, said the producer on its site.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The deal for portions of the Covestro business includes both commercial and production operations based in Spring, Texas. The facility serves North America as a producer SPF, often used as insulation and roofing material for the construction industry. The divesture of the SPF business will allow the Covestro to focus on its core assets such as polymers and high-performance plastics, according to Covestro president Jerry MacCleary.

Accella is also a manufacturer of custom polyurethane systems, spray foams, tire fillings, and rubber technology. The buyer’s polyurethane business is focused on foams, binders, coatings, adhesives, sealants and elastomers. Accella, headquartered in Maryland Heights, Missouri, operates from eight facilities across the U.S., in addition to one facility in Europe and China. The buyer distributes its products under the brands: Dash Multi-Corp, MarChem, Arnco, Pathway Polymers, Ultimate Systems, RB Rubber, IPS Polymer Systems, Zeus, Premium Spray Products, Coating & Foam Solutions, Burtin Polymer Labs and Quadrant Spray Foam. The deal for Covestro is expected close in the second quarter of 2017.

Headquartered in New York City, Arsenal is a lower middle market private equity firm focused on industrial and healthcare companies with up to USD250 million in enterprise value. The firm recently closed its fourth private equity fund, called Arsenal Capital Fund IV LP, with $1.3 billion in capital commitments. Since Arsenal formed Polymer Solutions Group through the acquisition of Peach State Labs Inc. in 2015, the PE firms has backed several add-on deals that include: Alkon Solutions Ltd, a maker of liquid coatings and powder for the rubber industry; Flow Polymers LLC, a manufacturer of plastic and rubber additives; and Sasco Chemical Group, a producer of anti-tack agents for the rubber industry.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- TPI Polene is likely to taken an ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA)/low density polyethylene (LDPE) swing plant off-stream, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Thailand informed that the company has planned to shut the plant in March 2017 and is expected to remain under maintenance for around 30 days. The exact date of the shutdown could not be ascertained.

Located in Map Ta Phut, Rayong province in Thailand, the plant has a production capacity of 150,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote before, in June 2015, TPI Polene shut down its EVA/LDPE plant in Thailand for a turnaround.

TPI Polene Public Company Limited is Thailand's third largest cement manufacturer. It also manufactures petrochemicals, including low density polyethylene and ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA).
MRC

In January, 4,760 tonnes of Crimean Titan's TiO2 were sold for export or over than by 2 times more than in the same period last year.

The imports structure looked as follows.

1,440 tonnes of Chemours' material, accounting for 47% of the total imports, 330 tonnes of Kronos and Sachtleben's TiO2 (per each), 260 tonnes of Huntsman's material and 160 tonnes of Cristal's TiO2 were imported.

TiO2 imports for paints and coatings production were 2,690 tonnes or 85% of the total shipments, whereas TiO2 imports for PVC production totalled 220 tonnes or 7%.

TiO2 imports into the Russian market decreased in 2016 by 33% year on year, totalling 43,400 tonnes.

MRC

According to the Statistics Committee of Belarus, some local converters increased their purchasing of PVC in December, despite seasonal factors. Thus, shipments of resin from Russia increased, some companies were actively building up additional inventories, anticipating higher PVC prices in January. Therefore, imports of resin rose to 2,400 tonnes from 1,600 tonnes in November.

Overall demand for PVC from local converters subsided to 24,800 tonnes in January-December 2016, compared to 25,700 tonnes a year earlier. Lower export sales of finished products, particularly, of the profile-moulded products, remained the main reason for such a major fall in processing volumes.

Russian producers were the key suppliers of resin to Belarus. They accounted for about 62% of the local market over the stated period. Producers from Germany with the share of about 24% were the second largest suppliers.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - Imports of suspension polyvinyl chloride (SPVC) into Ukraine increased by 65% in January 2017, compared to the same period in 2016 and reached about 6,700 tonnes, according to MRC DataScope.

Last month's SPVC imports into Ukraine despite the low season and long New Year holidays have increased to 6,700 tonnes against 4,100 tonnes a year earlier and 10,100 tonnes in December 2016. Several local producers of window profiles have actively built up additional stocks of the raw material since December last year on the back of low prices. Last year's overall SPVC imports grew to 110,600 tonnes from 82,300 tonnes in 2015.

Structure of PVC imports into Ukraine over the reported period was as follows.

Last month's imports of US PVC amounted to about 1,300 tonnes against 2,100 tonnes in January 2016 and 3,200 tonnes in December 2016.
Imports of US resin totalled 57,700 tonnes in 2016.

January imports of European PVC into the country were 4,000 tonnes, compared with 1,600 tonnes in January 2016, and 4,000 tonnes in December 2016. Total imports of European PVC into Ukraine were about 41,900 tonnes in 2016.

Ukrainian companies have increased purchases of Russian PVC since the end of September, with January imports of Russian PVC were 1,500 tonnes against 340 tonnes in January 2016 and 2,800 tonnes in December 2016. Imports of Russian PVC in 2016 totalled about 10,200 tonnes.


MRC