Mitsubishi Polyester initiated another major capital upgrade in South Carolina

(Plastemart) -- Officials at Mitsubishi Polyester Film, Inc. have initiated another major capital upgrade at its location in Greer, South Carolina. The USD 20 mln project will increase capacity as well as provide enhanced capability to produce innovative new products.

⌠The projects at the Greer facility will be completed in late 2012, said Dennis Trice, President and CEO at Mitsubishi Polyester Film, Inc. This project comes on top of the multi-million dollar project announced in 2010 to roll out the Reprocess Sustainable Liner Program; the industry's first closed loop recycling process for silicone coated polyester liners. Mitsubishi has already invested over USD 200 million at its Greer facility over the past 10 years. These new projects continue to reinforce our dedication to the industry.

Mitsubishi Polyester Film, Inc. is an American affiliate of Mitsubishi Plastics, Inc. and offers a wide array of polyester films for existing markets such as industrial labels and liners, flexible packaging, and also for many of today's new emerging markets in energy and electronics. Mitsubishi Plastics, Inc. has additional polyester film assets in Germany, Japan and Indonesia as well as a new plant under construction in China.

MRC

(Plastemart) -- Moldtek Packaging Ltd., leading Indian rigid plastic packaging company, has finalized expansion plans, at an investment outlay of Rs 40 crore (approx USD 9 mln). The plans include two new manufacturing facilities in India by 2012: one in Pune with an initial capacity of 3,000 tpa to be expanded to 4,000 tpa. The second facility is planned in North India with a capacity to produce 2,000 tpa. To finance these projects, the company has no plans to go in for fresh borrowings.


MRC

(MRC) -- In Russia production of polypropylene (PP) decreased by 10% to 52.6 KT in August from the previous month. The total volume of PP production over the eight months made 452 KT, according to MRC ScanPlast.

Scheduled maintenance stops of Tomskneftechem and Ufaorgsyntez capacities, as well as Stavrolen's unscheduled stop in August resulted in decreased PP total output in Russia. On the whole, over the eight months, the total PP production in Russia increased by 10% year on year.

Production growth this year to a large extent has resulted from reduction of maintenance period. Neftekhimia (Kapotnya) and Ufaorgsyntez limited maintenance duration on several days.

Along with the production growth Russian producers expand the range of PP grades. Tomskneftechem (Sibur) is a leader in this field. Over eight months the company released more than 20 new grades of polymer. Tomskneftechem aims to expand its PP range to 69 grades. In August Ufaorgsyntez released a new grade- PP 01370 with high melt flow index. In the current year there were also some changes in the types of PP production. Oversupplies of PP-homo in the Russian market, in particular, raffia, made some Russian producers increase propylene copolymer output. On the back of it propylene copolymer output grew by 38% year on year. The largest increase showed block propylene copolymers production.

Taking into account 2011 data, nearly 20% growth of PP production is expected. Commissioning of new facilities will also contribute to this. In Q4 a new PP production unit is launching in Poliom (Omsk) with 180 KT capacities. The new production is expected to work at full capacity by mid-2012. It is planned to organize several plants nearby to manufacture packaging, utensils, building materials. About 40% of Omsk production PP is going to be exported.

mrcplast.com

(Trend) -- The "Gazprom neft" and the National Iranian Oil Company will consider the participation of other companies in a project to develop the Azar oil field in Iran within a month, INTERFAX reported referring to the Russian Energy Ministry. The Ministry's report followed the talks between Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko and Iranian Oil Minister Rustam Kazemi.

Russia and the Islamic Republic will determine the prospects of the Azar field development within a month, Shmatko said earlier at a press-conference in Iran.

Iran claimed in late August that the "Gazprom neft" delayed the implementation of the project and therefore the Russian company might lose the right to develop the field.

MRC

(SABIC) -- Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) entered into an agreement to purchase an equity stake in INPRO, a joint venture dedicated to collaborative innovation in automotive production. SABIC will join Daimler, Siemens, ThyssenKrupp and Volkswagen as equity owners in the group. The Federal State of Berlin has also held shares in INPRO since its founding in 1983.

SABIC comes to the JV with 45 years' experience as a leading industry pioneer in automotive engineering plastics material technologies and application development, primarily through the dedicated automotive division of its Innovative Plastics strategic business unit, and will fully participate in INPRO's joint innovation projects. Joining the INPRO JV reflects SABIC's decades-long record of proactive engagement with the industry to advance lightweight material innovation across the world and to help OEM customers solve some of their most critical challenges.

INPRO develops innovative technologies for lightweight manufacturing and zero-defect production of automobiles. The group's R&D focus includes the development of new production technologies for future electric and hybrid vehicles. With the realization of new innovative computer-based software tools, INPRO aims to shorten time-to-market and enhance the overall energy efficiency of automotive production.

MRC