CTL Packaging to invest in locating its headquarters in North Carolina

(PlastEurope) -- CTL Packaging (North Carolina / USA), a subsidiary of Spain's flexible plastic and laminated tube manufacturer Tuboplast CTL (Vitoria-Gasteiz), is to invest USD 58.5m in locating its North American headquarters in Gastonia, Gaston County, North Carolina. The producer of packaging products for the cosmetic, personal care, food and pharmaceutical industries says the investment will create over 130 jobs.


Tuboplast CTL claims to be the third largest tube manufacturer in Europe, producing over 500m tubes annually and employing around 700 people worldwide. Its primary manufacturing operations are in Tuboplast Hispania in Vitoria-Gasteiz, in northern Spain, and CTL Packaging in Charmeil / France.


MRC

GAIL earmarked US$400 mln for its new Singapore trading office

(Plastemart) -- GAIL (India) has earmarked US$400 mln for its new Singapore trading office to secure LNG and petrochemical product cargoes for delivery to India in 2012. The Singapore office will begin trading next month on getting all formal approvals. 90% of the trade would be in LNG from the initial start-up. GAIL is also building shale gas expertise through participation in projects in the United States.


MRC

Plast Eurasia illustrates Turkey's ongoing plastics boom

(Plasteurope) -- The rise in both visitor and exhibitor numbers at this year's ⌠Plast Eurasia industry fair, held in Istanbul / Turkey, illustrates the country's ongoing plastics boom. The injection moulding sector, especially, is posting high growth rates, not least as a result of Turkey's budding automotive sector, which numerous international OEMs rely on. Even though Chinese plastics machinery still dominates in Turkey's plastics processing sector, there has been a marked increase in plastics machinery made in Europe as well, says Abdulkadir Topucar, CEO of Engel Enjeksiyon Makineleri, the Istanbul-based branch of Austrian injection moulding machinery maker Engel.


Even though Chinese machinery remains the cheaper option, Engel's experience in Turkey shows that many plastics processors also opt for the Austrian machinery because of its high integration and automation standards, its low energy consumption and its highly developed processing technology. All these factors increasingly play a role in automotive production, as weight prerequisites are increasingly lowered and composites used to replace heavier materials.


Topucar points out that Turkish processors are constantly feeling the pressure of prices, largely since the country does not produce sufficient feedstocks to meet domestic demand and therefore has to rely on imports. In addition, many companies continue to moonlight their activities, evading the tax authorities, which gives rise to an unfair competitive climate.


MRC

Chinese adipic acid prices shed 36% over the past two months

(ICIS) -- Adipic acid prices in China have shed 36% over the past two months because of weak demand that will likely to continue for the remainder of the year, market sources said on Monday.
Spot values declined by around yuan (CNY) 7,000/tonne ($1,104/tonne) from end-August to CNY12,200/tonne at the end of October, according to ICIS data.


Surplus adipic acid supply in the international markets found its way into China in the months of August and September, dampening domestic prices of the material given lacklustre demand, market sources said.


China imported a total of 9,664 tonnes of adipic acid in September, up 31% month on month and more than triple the volume recorded in August, data from China Customs showed. Domestic production was lower than usual since August but this failed to halt the slide in prices of adipic acid.
For the three months covering August-October, China's output of adipic acid totalled 168,100 tonnes, according to Chemease, an ICIS service in China.


MRC

Cnooc's deal to buy BP's $7.1 bln stake in Argentine crude producer Pan American Energy collapsed

(Bloomberg) -- Cnooc Ltd. (883)'s deal to buy BP Plc (BP/)'s $7.1 billion stake in Argentine crude producer Pan American Energy LLC collapsed, 10 days after Argentina's president ordered oil companies to repatriate export revenue. BP will repay a $3.5 billion deposit it had received for the sale by Nov. 14, the company said after Bridas Corp., equally owned by Cnooc and the billionaire Bulgheroni family, announced Nov. 5 that the deal was canceled for ⌠legal reasons. Bridas owns 40 percent in Pan American and the purchase of the remaining 60 percent was pending Argentine antitrust approval.


The failure of the deal to buy Argentina's biggest oil exporter means Cnooc, China's largest offshore energy explorer, may struggle to meet its production growth targets next year, according to Gordon Kwan, Mirae Asset Securities Ltd.'s head of regional energy research in Hong Kong.


⌠It's going to be very challenging for the company, Simon Powell, a CLSA Ltd. analyst, said by phone today from Hong Kong. ⌠Cnooc is going to have to try do more M&A deals globally to make up for it.


Cnooc dropped 2.2 percent to HK$14.92 in Hong Kong, taking its decline this year to 19 percent. BP fell as much as 2.2 percent in London trading.


The decision comes less than two weeks after Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, re-elected on Oct. 23, ordered energy and mining companies to repatriate future export revenue in a bid to slow accelerating capital flight from South America's second-biggest economy.


MRC