(prw) -- LyondellBasell believes it is in a good position following its emergence from Chapter 11 in April to benefit from growth in demand for polypropylene and polyethylene.
Anton de Vries, senior vice president of olefins and polyolefins, said at a pre-K2010 press briefing in Dusseldorf that there had been ⌠a lot of stress during Chapter 11 as the company shut plants and reduced headcount to its current level of 14,500. Groups fixed costs have been slashed by $1bn to $3.6bn now.
Now the company can look to the future, he said. It expects an additional 30 million tonnes of polyolefins demand worldwide by 2014. Asia-Pacific will account for most of that increase, especially China and the Indian sub-continent.
In its restructuring, LyondellBasell has closed four plants in North America and three in Europe, with another in Terni, Italy set for closure this year. But it has also brought on new capacity at three plants in the Middle East and is expanding its plant in Thailand.
Key to LyondellBasell's confidence is the low cost of its joint venture plants in the Gulf, which benefit from low feedstock costs. De Vries claimed supply from Middle Eastern plants to any part of the world can beat the price of polyolefins produced locally.
MRC
MRC Reference
LyondellBasell. The share in the Russian market in 2008:
PE - 1.4% (including HDPE - 2.5%, LDPE - 0.3%);
PP - 4.1% (including block-copolymers - 9.5%).
Annual sales growth in Russia, during the recent 5 years:
PE - 27%;
PP - 88%.
The leader in the following polymers processing technologies:
pipe extrusion;
film extrusion;
injection molding.