LG Chem Posts Record Quarterly Sales

(Korea Times) -- LG Chem, Korea's top chemical firm by sales, said Tuesday it has clinched record quarterly sales during the first three months of this year mainly helped by an increased share of the global market for information technology products.

A market turnaround in the petrochemical sector has also lifted the demand for products in China, contributing to a strengthened cash balance sheet. Inspired by the strong results, LG Chem shares rose 2.08% to end at 245,000 won on the nation's main bourse, according to data from the Korea Exchange (KRX).

In a regulatory filing to the KRX, LG Chem said its first quarter net profit surged by 73% to 517.7 billion won year-on-year, while the quarterly operating profit also jumped 34.6% to 652.4 billion won during the same period.Sales reached a record 4.42 trillion won, an increase of 32% from a year ago, the company said.

MRC

(prw) -- Ashland Performance Materials has agreed with Boytek Resins of Istanbul, Turkey, to enter into a manufacturing and two-way distribution relationship. Boytek currently serves as a distributor for Ashland's high-performance Derakane epoxy vinyl ester resins in Turkey.

Under the proposed agreement, Boytek will produce Ashland's Aropol unsaturated polyester resins at its manufacturing facility in Cerkezkoy Tekirdag, Turkey. Boytek will also add Ashland's Maxguard gelcoats, Aropol pultrusion resins and Hetronfire retardant resins to its distribution portfolio in Turkey.

In return Ashland will offer Boytek resins in addition to its own extensive resin and gelcoat product portfolio to customers throughout Europe, with specific focus on Central Eastern Europe.

MRC

(plastemart) -- Taiwan's state-run CPC Corp plans to relocate equipment of its oil refinery and third naphtha cracker in Kaohsiung, Taiwan to set up a large-scale petrochemical complex in Indonesia. This step will better utilize the two plants' equipment after their expected closure, preventing them from being scrapped. Due to good maintenance, the equipment of Kaohsiung refinery and the naphtha cracker has at least another 10-20 years of life. The decision to shift the naphtha cracker will save the company 30-40% costs as construction costs of a new plant with similar capacity. In a move that will ensure a channel for output from the new complex, the state refiner also plans to mobilize mid-stream and downstream factories to make associated investments.
The projected capacities at the complex include 100,000-200,000 bpd of oil, 730,000 tpa of ethylene along with derivatives PE (polyethylene), SM (styrene monomer) and ACN (acrylonitrile). This will be the firm`s largest-ever overseas investment plan. With this, CPC targets to tap the fast expanding ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), and face competition from its major domestic rival Formosa Plastics Group (FPG), as it gears up to set up a petrochemical complex in Vietnam.
If the project proceeds without a hitch, the company plans to start dismantling and exporting the equipment of the third naphtha cracking plant after its decommissioning in 2012, before doing the same for Kaohsiung refinery.

MRC

(Dow) -- Dow Europe GmbH is announcing a price increase for polyethylene (PE) resins across the European, Middle Eastern, African and Indian regions.

Effective May 1, 2010, or as contract terms allow, Dow Europe GmbH will increase prices for all grades of its low-density polyethylene (LDPE) resins by 70 Euros per metric ton. The prices for all linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) resins will be increased by 50 Euros per metric ton.

MRCMRC Reference

Share in the Russian market, 2008:

polyethylene - 2.5% (including LLDPE - 33.1%);

polypropylene - 0.8% (including PP-impact - 1.1%);

polystyrene - 2.6%.

Annual sales growth in Russia, recent 5 years:

polyethylene - 55%;

polypropylene - 28%;

polystyrene - 2%.

Imports by processing technologies:

pipe extrusion;

film extrusion;

sheet extrusion;

foaming.

(NKNH.ru) -- Results of Nizhnekamskneftekhim's operations in 2009 were discussed at the Annual Meeting of Shareholders held on April 15, 2010. The meeting was attended by President of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov.

The report on the results of financial and economic activities in 2009 was presented by Vladimir Busygin, General Director of Nizhnekamskneftekhim. The previous year turned out to be the period of getting over the consequences of the world economic crisis. Thanks to the anti-recession measures taken at the Company the revival and recovery became quite evident in the second quarter of 2009, the pre-depression level of output was reached in the third and fourth quarters. The commercial production output exceeded the sum of 57 billion rubles in the reported year, and the Company fulfilled its obligations as to product shipments to its partners. Sales proceeds moved at 60.3 billion rubles, while exports amounted to 31 billion rubles. Company's capitalization increased 2.4 times and moved at 23.3 billion rubles.

Polyethylene production was put into operation in February 2009, at capacity of 230,000 kta, which brought overall plastics output to 600,000 tons a year. That was a significant event because commissioning of that plant meant successful completion of the program of transition from production of monomers to polymers. Production of plastics and new rubber grades promotes development of private business at Nizhnekamsk industrial area. Presently, the most demonstrative example is the establishment of the Industrial Park in Kamskiye Polyany on the basis of Public Private Partnership, under the auspices of Nizhnekamskneftekhim.

MRCMRC Reference

Share in Russian market in 2008:

polypropylene - 25% (including

PP-block - 34.7%,

PP-random - 22.1%);

polystyrene - 34.5%.

Leader in polymer processing technologies:

sheet extrusion;

film extrusion;

threads/fibers;

moulding.