Ube, MRC & JSR sign shareholders agreement for integration of ABS resin business

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Ube Industries, Mitsubishi Rayon Co. (MRC) and JSR Corp., following approval from their respective board of directors, have signed a shareholders agreement to integrate their acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) resin subsidiaries, as pre Ube's press release.

The combination involves UMG ABS, a 50-50 joint venture of Ube and MRC, and JSR's Techno Polymer Co. subsidiary. Completion of the merger is expected on 1 Oct. 2017; however, the date is subject to change.

"The business conditions surrounding the ABS resin business are becoming increasingly challenging both in and outside of Japan," the companies noted. "The purpose of the integration is to optimize operations, enhance manufacturing efficiencies, and secure cost competitiveness for the ABS resin business, in order to secure the stable supply of products in Japan and expand sales in global markets," they explained.

The integration will take the form of an absorption-type split with UMG ABS as the absorbed company and Techno Polymer as the successor company. After the split, Techno Polymer will remain a subsidiary of JSR, and UMG ABS will be equally owned by Ube and MRC as before.

Techno Polymer will then allocate common shares to UMG ABS so that, on the day that the absorption-type split takes effect, JSR will own 51% and UMG ABS will own 49% of the issued shares in the new company.

The absorption-type split is subject to completion of procedures stipulated in Japan's Act on Prohibition of Private Monopolization and Maintenance of Fair Trade, competition laws of other relevant countries, and other relevant laws and regulations.

As MRC reported earlier, in 2015, Ube Industries announced that it would ramp up production of a chemical used in synthetic leather and other applications in response to demand from China and Southeast Asia, starting up a new plant this month in Thailand. The Japanese chemical company plans to boost its production capacity for polycarbonate diol, for which it controls some 60% of the global market, to 16,000 tons a year in fiscal 2018. When used in car seats, synthetic leather made with polycarbonate diol is scratch-resistant and retains gloss well, according to the company.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Arlanxeo, Lanxess and Saudi Aramco's joint venture, has raised its prices for Therban products globally, as per the company's press release.

In Europe, Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Asia the price increase per metric ton for Therban is EUR600, respectively USD650 and was effective as of April 1, 2017.

In North America Arlanxeo USA LLC is going to increase prices from May 1, 2017 by USD650 per metric ton for HNBR products.

The adjustment is necessary to secure a stable and reliable supply of our HNBR products.

ARLANXEO distributes HNBR (Hydrogenated Nitrile Butadiene Rubber) under the brand name Therban. Therban products are used in applications like belts, hoses, seals, as well as pump stators.

As MRC informed before, Arlanxeo raised its prices for ethylene propylene diene rubber grades (EPDM) In Europe, Middle East and Africa, effective as of March 16th, 2017. The price adjustment was up to EUR150 per metric ton; in Latin America effective as of April 1st, 2017 - up to USD150 per metric ton; in NAFTA effective as of April 1st, 2017 - up to USD150 per metric ton. The measure is the result of the overall market and cost developments of the past months.

Arlanxeo distributes EPDM under the brand name Keltan. EPDM products are used in applications like automotive, building & construction, plastics modification, consumer goods, cable & wire, and tubes.

Arlanxeo was established in April 2016 as a joint venture of Lanxess - a world-leading specialty chemicals company based in Cologne, Germany - and Saudi Aramco - a major global energy and chemicals enterprise headquartered in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. The two partners each hold a 50-percent interest in the joint venture. The business operations of ARLANXEO are assigned to the High Performance Elastomers and Tire & Specialty Rubbers business units.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- International Process Plants (IPP) and ChemChina's Bluestar (Beijing) Chemical Machinery Company, Ltd. (BCMC) announce a partnership for IPP to provide new chlorine alkali plants designed and built by BCMC to industries around the world, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

"Our partnership with BCMC as a turn-key new technology provider allows us to work with our customers in the chlor-alkali industry to increase their cost competitiveness, as well as to decrease their new capacity expansion project's cost and lead time," said IPP's President Ronald Gale.

BCMC is the only company in China to design and manufacture ion-exchange membrane electrolyzers, and provide a full set of ion membrane caustic soda devices and electrolysis related technology and services. In addition to the electrolysis section, BCMC provides downstream solutions including but not limited to Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH), Potassium Hydroxide (KOH), Chlorine liquefaction, Calcium Hypochlorite (Ca(ClO)2 , bleaching powder), Poly-Aluminum Chloride (PAC), and Sodium Hypochlorite (NaClO).

As MRC informed earlier, in late June 2016, Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin and China National Chemical Corporation Chairman Ren Jianxin signed Heads of Agreement for cooperation in respect of Far Eastern Petrochemical Company (FEPCO) project.

ChemChina produces special chemical materials, basic chemicals, oil refining, agricultural chemistry, rubber products, and chemical equipment.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Pretium Packaging has acquired Patrick Products, a supplier of packaging and container for the janitorial, automotive, and household chemical market sectors, said Packaging-business.

US-based Patrick is engaged in the manufacturing of rigid blow-molded plastic containers for its customers. Patrick Products chairman and CEO Bob Patrick said: "When we founded Patrick Products in 1999 our goal was to build a state-of-the-art facility coupled with an outstanding employee team to service our customers. We reached that goal."

Upon completion of the deal, Pretium will retain the Patrick brand and will join Patrick’s existing Pretium and CBM divisional brands. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed. Patrick Products president Roger Selhorst said: "Patrick Products now has the ability to offer our customers a combined footprint across North America.

"Pretium completed its due diligence quickly and really took the time to understand our business, our people and our future growth plans."

Patrick said that the deal allows it to leverage Pretium's extensive PET capabilities. Pretium president and CEO Paul Kayser said that the firm partnered with financial sponsor, Genstar Capital, and plans to make more acquisitions in the future.

Recently, Pretium Packaging announced its plan to close its factory in Seymour, Indiana, US which would affect 55 employees.

The company was reported by Plastics News as saying in a statement: "After an intense yearlong analysis, in order to improve our effectiveness for our customers and ensure we remain cost-competitive, we felt it necessary to consolidate our business across the many other Pretium sites."

Pretium is engaged in manufacturing short-to-medium run PET and HDPE rigid plastic blow-molded containers and closures for its customers in the food and specialty beverage, household and industrial, health and beauty, and sports nutrition and dietary supplements markets.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Malaysia-based Lotte Titan, subsidiary of Lotte Chemical, resumed operations at its naphtha cracker at the end of March, following a scheduled maintenance that started around Feb. 5, according to traders in Reuters.

The unit, which has a capacity of 430,000 tpa of ethylene.

The restart of the cracker comes at a time when demand for naphtha feedstock has been persistently strong in the last few weeks from makers of ethylene.

Titan operates another cracker which produces 290,000 tpy of ethylene. The smaller unit will undergo maintenance in the third quarter.

As MRC reported earlier, in April 2016, Lotte Chemical Corp. finalized the takeover of Samsung Group’s chemical units.The company said that it paid for money to acquire Samsung SDI Chemical on Apr. 29 and completed the acquisition of Samsung Group’s chemical businesses in about six months after the announcement of "Big Deal" in October 2015. Samsung Fine Chemicals, which was completely taken over by Lotte in Feb., changed its name to Lotte Fine Chemical, while SDI Chemical, which completed the acquisition process on the 29th, changed its name to Lotte Advanced Materials through the general meeting of stockholders.

Established in 1976, Lotte Chemical has been solidifyng its position by localizing cutting-edge petrochemical technologies. Among the high-quality products produced by Lotte Chemical through its efficient processes are ethylene, HDPE, LDPE, LLDPE, PP, functional resin, EG, SM, PIA, PET, etc. Lotte Chemical’s products are being distributed to 152 countries around the world. With the acquisition of Pakistan’s PTA in 2009, Artenius in the UK in 2010 and Titan Chemical Corp., Lotte Chemical is now able to efficiently supply excellent products to an increasing number of countries. The company is further accelerating its efforts to strengthen its global competitiveness by establishing overseas branches in Hong Kong, Russia, and USA, along with the sales corporation in China for active sales activities both in domestic and abroad.
MRC