Bayer boosted its liquidity buffer to cover the impact of the euro zone debt crisis

(Reuters) - German drugs and plastics maker Bayer has boosted its liquidity buffer to cover the impact of the euro zone debt crisis, which has left it with a significant amount of unpaid bills from clients in Italy, Spain and Portugal, its finance director was quoted as saying on Saturday. "At the moment our liquidity position is 3.8 billion euros ($5,2 billion)," Bayer's Chief Financial Officer Werner Baumann was quoted as saying by German newspaper Boersen-Zeitung.

He said that normally the company holds about 700 million euros in liquidity. Baumann expects to keep the buffer until April when the company will redeem a 2 billion euro bond.

Baumann said the company had a significant amount of unpaid bills from clients in Italy, Spain and Portugal as a result of the debt crisis in the euro zone.

Last month Bayer confirmed it expected its 2011 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) before special items would exceed 7.5 billion euros. However, it lowered its full-year outlook for its engineering plastics and foam chemicals division.

Perspectives of development of polymer markets, pricing issues and other important aspects will be discussed at The Polymers Summit-2011, which will be held in Moscow on November 30, 2011 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel. The Summit will be organized by MRC with the support of ICIS. The main idea of the Summit is to find a "the golden mean" between producers and converters. When producers receive exactly such margin of production, which helps them to invest in production expansion in order to substitute polymers imports, and the converters receive such price of feedstock that helps them to compete imported finished products. The Summit site gives an access to the live video of the Summit, speakers" presentations, as well as opportunities to ask questions or make appointments to any Summit partcipant.

MRC

(ICIS) -- Jacobs has been awarded an engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) contract package by Sadara Chemical for work on a world-scale project at Jubail Industrial City in Saudi Arabia , it said on Tuesday. Officials at the US-based petrochemicals engineering company did not disclose the financial terms of the agreement.

Under the terms of the contact, Jacobs will provide front-end engineering design (FEED) and detailed engineering services, in addition to procurement, inspection and delivery of equipment and bulk materials, as well as the overall construction management, "for the Chemicals 1 Envelope of Sadara Chemical," it said.


Saudi Aramco and Dow had announced their respective board authorisations to form Sadara on 25 July, following a project feasibility study and front-end engineering and design (FEED) effort, which began in 2007. The complex is expected to produce polyurethanes (isocyanates, polyether polyols), propylene oxide (PO), propylene glycol (PG), elastomers, linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE), low density polyethylene (LDPE), glycol ethers and amines.

Perspectives of development of polymer markets, pricing issues and other important aspects will be discussed at The Polymers Summit-2011, which will be held in Moscow on November 30, 2011 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel. The Summit will be organized by MRC with the support of ICIS. The main idea of the Summit is to find a "the golden mean" between producers and converters. When producers receive exactly such margin of production, which helps them to invest in production expansion in order to substitute polymers imports, and the converters receive such price of feedstock that helps them to compete imported finished products. The Summit site gives an access to the live video of the Summit, speakers" presentations, as well as opportunities to ask questions or make appointments to any Summit partcipant.

MRC

(Umeco) -- In its first acquisition since divesting its Supply Chain activity to focus on its higher growth advanced composites business, Umeco plc (Umeco') announces today that its German subsidiary Umeco Composites GmbH has purchased certain of the assets of Fenotec Ges.i.L (Fenotec') from the administrator for the cash sum of ┬2.2 million.

The assets purchased, which are located in Beelitz near Berlin, comprise freehold buildings and high quality production equipment which will be used to manufacture Umeco's range of prepreg advanced composite materials. Umeco will employ eleven of the former employees of Fenotec.

Fenotec was placed into administration in December 2010 shortly after investing ┬5 million in new buildings and machinery in a failed attempt to enter the prepreg market. Its failure was caused by a shortfall in sales revenues due to the lack of an industry recognised range of products. Umeco expects to quickly add much needed additional volume by manufacturing in Beelitz its own established range of prepreg materials. It will also distribute from this facility its wide range of structural and process materials for the advanced composites industry.

Umeco's existing European prepreg facilities are in the UK and this acquisition provides both additional prepreg manufacturing capacity, and a distribution base in Continental Europe that will significantly reduce lead times to its customers in Germany and Southern and Eastern Europe.
Umeco also announces today that it has been awarded ┬1.2 million of new business by a customer in Germany. This contract, which is for prepreg materials used in the manufacture of advanced composites components, is expected to be fulfilled over the next 12 months.

Perspectives of development of polymer markets, pricing issues and other important aspects will be discussed at The Polymers Summit-2011, which will be held in Moscow on November 30, 2011 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel. The Summit will be organized by MRC with the support of ICIS. The main idea of the Summit is to find a "the golden mean" between producers and converters. When producers receive exactly such margin of production, which helps them to invest in production expansion in order to substitute polymers imports, and the converters receive such price of feedstock that helps them to compete imported finished products. The Summit site gives an access to the live video of the Summit, speakers" presentations, as well as opportunities to ask questions or make appointments to any Summit partcipant.

MRC

(Physorg) -- Currently, most solar cells are based on silicon which for the most part, necessitates a rigid structure. This isn't always ideal as some applications would benefit by material that is more bendable. Also, because of the way silicon solar based cells are made, they tend to cost more than a lot of people are willing to pay. If a way could be found to mass produce solar cells very cheaply, its likely solar cells would be installed in far more places and costs for energy would go down.

One way to do this, researchers believe, is to create a polymer based material that could be used instead of silicon. Such material would cost less to produce and have sufficient bendiness that it could be printed onto bendable surfaces in much the same way newspapers are mass printed, i.e. via giant rollers. Up

Now a team working out of USC, headed by Alan Heeger, who along with Guillermo Bazan won the Nobel Prize in Physics back in 2000 for groundbreaking work they did on polymer cells, believe they have made another breakthrough. In their paper, published in Nature Materials, they say they've figured out a way to use an organic material with a low molecular weight (small molecule) to produce a solar cell that is every bit as efficient as current silicon technology.

The small molecule technology came about as the result of work done by Bazan, who used theory and lots of trial and error to produce just the right material; one that could, unlike many others that had been tried, be formed into a layer that could be applied to other materials. Heeger then took the lead in applying the new material in a solar cell. The end result the team says, is a solar cell capable of matching the 6.7% energy efficiency of silicon cells. And not only that, they believe with some tweaking, they can get it to 9%.

MRC

(BASF) -- BASF gave a progress report on its integrated farmer-focused approach to agricultural sustainability, first announced in September 2009. Milestones included the assurance of a new method for the comparative assessment of sustainability in agriculture, the creation of a new business pillar charged with developing solutions for resource and stress management and the introduction of integrated solutions to growers' needs. The company also gave an update on the rapid advancement of its plant biotechnology trait pipeline.


The company also announced a sales target of ┬6 billion by 2020 for its Crop Protection business. One important pillar of the division's business will remain mature markets in Europe, North America and Japan. But the company expects even stronger growth from emerging markets. Latin America plays a major role in this growth strategy. Other emerging markets, particularly in Asia, are expected to see significant momentum.

MRC