LyondellBasell declared third quarter dividend

(PRNewswire) -- LyondellBasell today announced that its Management Board has declared a dividend of USD 0.20 per share payable on Sept. 7, 2011 to shareholders of record on Aug. 17, 2011. The dividend is double the amount of the company's initial dividend paid in May 2011. The company's Supervisory Board authorized the Management Board to declare a dividend on Aug. 3.

LyondellBasell is one of the world's largest plastics, chemical and refining companies. The company manufactures products at 58 sites in 18 countries. LyondellBasell products and technologies are used to make items that improve the quality of life for people around the world including packaging, electronics, automotive parts, home furnishings, construction materials and biofuels.

MRC

(MRC) -- This summer season didn't satisfy expectations of the Russian producers of PET. Over the first half year of 2011 domestic producers of PET failed to suspend imports expansion which grew to 54 KT compared to the same period last year, as per MRC Annual report.

In this season Russian converters tend to cheaper Asian products. Over first two quarters of the year, PET imports exceeded the figures of last two years and made 196 KT.

An important factor affecting granulates sales is the absence of expected growth in the sectors of final consumption of PET. Beer market in Russia keeps on stagnating for the third year. At the end of 2010, beer consumption in Russia fell by 6%. Since the beginning of 2011 the same dynamics continued.

According to Rosstat, over the second quarter of the year beer production decreased nearly by 4% compared to the same period last year and made about 300 mln dal. The major beer producers are forced to increase their presence in such developing sectors of consumption as kvas, mixes, etc.

Beer market is one of the main segments of bottle Pet consumption. Nearly half of beer produced in Russia is PET packed. In 2010 a share of beer producers in the structure of final consumption of granulates made 30%.

According to MRC data, last year capacity of PET market made about 580 KT. MRC analysts forecast considerable growth of imports as well as domestic production (+220 KT capacities in Kaliningrad).

A more detailed analysis on PET market as well as short- and long-term forecasts of its development is available in MRC Annual report PET in Russia 2011.

MRC

(Arabian Oil and Gas) -- Saudi Kayan has signed USD 130 million contract with China's Sinopec to build a natural alcohol plant in Saudi Arabia, Kayan said in a statement. ⌠The production capacity of the plant will be 50 KTa of natural alcohol (detergents) and is expected to start during the second half of 2013, said Mutlaq al-Morished, chairman of the board, EVP finance of SABIC.

⌠The signed contract included the detailed engineering work, procurement, construction and commissioning, said al-Morished. ⌠It is a lump sum turnkey contract, he added.

The plant will be located at al-Jubail Industrial City, on the eastern coast of the Kingdom. ⌠The plant will meet part of SABIC's commitment to diversify into oleochemicals using renewable feedstocks and increase its performance chemicals portfolio, Kayan said in the statement.

MRC

(Arabian Oil and Gas) -- Evonik Industries and Tasnee's subsidiary Saudi Acrylic Acid Company (SAAC) have established a joint venture called Saudi Acrylic Polymers Company (SAPCo) for the production of superabsorbents.

The production facility has a production is capacity of 80 KTa scheduled to begin production in late 2013. ⌠The total investment will be USD 373.3m (SAR1.4bn), Tasnee said in a statement.

The SAPCo superabsorbent production is part of a new acrylic acid and derivative complex on the Tasnee premises of the Al Jubail chemical park in Saudi Arabia and will benefit from the subsidised propylene price from the adjacent cracking facility operated jointly by Tasnee, Sahara, and Lyondell Basell.

The joint venture will be equipped with state-of-the-art Evonik superabsorbent technology and will benefit from the advantageous local source materials supply. The acrylic acid for the production of superabsorbents will come from an adjoining SAMCO facility.

MRC

(Nanowerk) -- IMRE has developed a new polymer that not only produces a high charge mobility of 0.2 cm2/V.s, which is the same value achieved by commercially available semiconducting materials but also has a high solar power conversion efficiency of 6.3%. This makes IMRE's polymer one of the few that has both these properties. In addition to this, polymers of the same class as IMRE's, which are those that use thiophene and benzothiadiazole as the building blocks, could only achieve 2.2% power conversion.

The polymer can also be easily applied in roll-to-roll printing techniques which is similar to how newspapers are currently printed making it possible to manufacture large area-scale printed electronics and organic solar cells quickly and cheaply.

With IMRE's polymer, manufacturers could save cost using just a single bulk resource for making both printed electronics and organic solar cells. The material could also possibly be used in designing new devices where both power harnessing and electronics are needed in a single component. An example of this would be chemical sensors based on organic thin-film transistors and powered by organic solar cells.

The IMRE team is developing other organic materials-based polymers that can be scaled up to production and integrated easily into organic electronics. These materials can be used to make energy harvesting and low-power consumption devices like low-cost organic solar cells, new flexible display

MRC