MOSCOW (MRC) -- Lactips (Saint-Jean-Bonnefonds, France), pioneering producer of soluble bioplastic with zero environmental trace, has raised EUR13 million (USD14.3 million) in new capital, said Chemweek.
The round was led by Bpifrance’s SPI fund, managed on behalf of the French government as part of the Investments for the Future Program, and Diamond Edge Ventures, the innovation investment arm of Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corp. The new infusion of capital will enable Lactips to ramp up its product development and industrial facilities.
Lactips says it now has the financial resources needed to drive the development of its innovative biosourced, biodegradable and water-soluble solution based on milk protein, providing an alternative for numerous industrial plastics. Lactips will accelerate the industrialization of its plastic pellets and films to offer a wider selection of fully biodegradable and recyclable biosourced packaging. The company will press ahead with its packaging products, to respond to the challenges of micro-plastics ending up in the oceans. In addition, Lactips will be looking to supply certain packaging markets in the food and construction sectors as well as single-use packaging.
“This EUR13 million fundraising is structural and strategic at the same time, thanks to these two new shareholders…Since our company’s inception, we have successfully demonstrated that our innovative material can cover a wide range of applications,” says Marie-Helene Gramatikoff, CEO and co-founder of Lactips. The funds will enable the company to rapidly transition to production phase, while continuing to develop the “planet’s greenest plastic,” she says.
As MRC informed earlier, Mitsubishi Chemical has undertaken a planned shutdown at its naphtha cracker in Japan. The company commenced turnaround at the cracker on May 9, 2020. The cracker is likely to remain under maintenance till end-June, 2020. Located at Kashima, Japan, the cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 540,000 mt/year and a propylene capacity of 270,000 mt/year.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 557,060 tonnes in the first three month of 2020, up by 7% year on year. High density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments rose because of the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. Demand for LDPE subsided. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market was 267,630 tonnes in January-March 2020, down 20% year on year. Homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers accounted for the main decrease in imports.
Mitsubishi Chemical with headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, is a diversified chemical company involved in petrochemicals, polymers, agrochemicals, speciality chemicals and pharmaceuticals. The company's main focus is on three business pillars: petrochemicals, performance and functional products, and health care.
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