Cash-starved West Bengal plans to raise Rs 450 crore by offloading its 10% stake of 155 mln shares HPL

(Plastemart) -- Cash-starved West Bengal plans to raise approximately Rs 450 crore by offloading its balance 10% stake of 155 mln shares in Haldia Petrochemicals (HPL) back to the company, as per Financial Express. This will leave majority shareholder Purnendu Chatterjee-led TCG with two options of either significant cash outgo to buy the 10% stake or letting the stake be snapped up by competitors. The sale will also violate a Supreme Court order, which had asked the state government to retain its residual stake.

The developments come in the backdrop of Rs 1,000 crore accumulated losses at HPL, which has charted a turnaround road map for the next three years. The company wants the government to hold on to its stake a bit longer as it will earn far more, once it is out of the red. West Bengal is also expediting transfer of an earlier block of 520 million shares (at Rs 28.80 each) as per the orders of the Company Law Board in 2007. The transfer of shares is in installments with the entire transaction divided into four tranches.

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

(Plastemart) -- India's Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) has managed largely steady premiums for December lifting cargo, as per Reuters. MRPL sold a cargo of 35,000 tons for Dec. 28-30 loading from New Mangalore to Cargill at premiums of about US$14/ton to Middle East quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis. Two other cargoes for December loading have been sold to Vitol and Total at premiums of US$14/ton and US$14.15/ton respectively.However, these figures are weaker when compared to November premiums of US$18-23/ton as lack of petrochemical import demand from China has resulted in weaker naphtha sentiment.

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

(PlastEurope) -- The 50:50 biopolymers joint venture of Dow Chemical and Mitsui & Co, for which a memorandum of understanding was signed in July 2011, has taken all regulatory hurdles. The deal sees Mitsui taking a 50% interest in Dow's sugarcane-to-ethanol plant in Santa Vitoria, Minas Gerais / Brazil that will provide renewable feedstock for the plastics.

Dow said engineering work on the Brazilian facility, along with equipment manufacture, accelerated in the third quarter of 2011 and is ⌠proceeding according to schedule. Start-up is scheduled for the second quarter of 2013.

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) -- Brazil's Braskem swung to a third-quarter loss of reais (R) 1.05bn ($588m, ┬435m) because of currency fluctuations, the company said on Thursday. Braskem reported earnings of R532m ($298m, ┬221m) in the third quarter of 2010. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) dropped 9% to R940m from R1.04bn in the third quarter of 2010.
⌠The effect of the 19% devaluation of the real on Braskem's net dollar exposure had a negative impact of R1.6bn on the [third quarter] financial result, the company said. Meanwhile, net revenue increased to R8.7bn from R7.5bn, Braskem added. Financial losses amounted to R2.1bn, compared with a gain of R180m in the same period last year, the company added.

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) -- Spot butadiene rubber (BR) prices in Asia may continue to nosedive after shedding about $1,000/tonne (┬740/tonne) from early October, tracking the decline in values of natural rubber (NR) and feedstock butadiene (BD), industry sources said on Friday. BR prices fell below $3,000/tonne this week, and were assessed at $2,800-3,000/tonne CFR (cost and freight) northeast (NE) Asia on 10 November, according to ICIS data.

On Thursday, NR prices slumped by more than $600/tonne from the start of the month, falling below $3,200/tonne, according to the Malaysian Rubber Board. Asian prices of BD, the feedstock for BR production, meanwhile, plummeted by about $900/tonne from early October to around $1,550/tonne CFR NE Asia on 4 November, according to ICIS data.

In the domestic Chinese market, spot BR values fell by more than yuan (CNY) 9,000 over the past month to around CNY 22,000 this week, market sources said. Weak demand given worries over the ongoing eurozone debt crisis and the floodings in Thailand also contributes to the slumping BR prices, market sources said.

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