Songwon opens a new headquarter in India

(plastemart) -- Songwon has established Songwon International India Pvt. Ltd., located in Mumbai as the headquarter for Songwon activities in India and South East Asia.

Dieter Morath, Executive Vice-President EMEA of Songwon International AG, said: "The establishment of Songwon International India Pvt. Ltd. is a new milestone in our strategy to develop local presence in high growth regions. Demand for our products is growing rapidly and the region is fast becoming a very important market for us. We have chosen India because it is one of the key driving forces of global economic development and in particular we expect a continuous growth in the plastic related industries. India offers the perfect combination of a growing local and regional demand with an abundance of skilled and educated human resources."

MRC

Dow sales Styron Division to Bain Capital Partners

(Dow) -- The Dow Chemical Company and Bain Capital Partners, a leading global private equity firm, announced jointly that they have closed the sale of Dow's Styron Division to an affiliate of Bain Capital. Dow has elected to retain a 7.5 percent equity position in Styron, which is now a privately held, global materials company. Also included in the transaction are several long-term supply, service and purchase agreements between Dow and Styron that will generate substantial additional value for both companies.

MRC MRC Reference

Share in the Russian market, 2008:

polyethylene - 2.5% (including LLDPE - 33.1%);

polypropylene - 0.8% (including PP-impact - 1.1%);

polystyrene - 2.6%.

Annual sales growth in Russia, recent 5 years:

polyethylene - 55%;

polypropylene - 28%;

polystyrene - 2%.

Imports by processing technologies:

pipe extrusion;

film extrusion;

sheet extrusion;

foaming.

Lanxess believes the crisis is over

(prw) -- The head of Lanxess' technical rubber products business unit, Dr Guenther Weymans, believes that the crisis in the rubber industry is over "provided the economic climate continues to remain stable".

Weymans, speaking at a press conference prior to the K2010 event, said: "We are currently seeing clear signs of recovery." He added that demand for butyl rubber form the Asia-Pacific region has grown faster than the rest of the world and now represents 50% of Lanxess' butyl sales, compared with 35% in 2006. "The Chinese market for nitrile rubber is showing double-digit growth - faster than anywhere else," he explained.

Weymans confirmed Lanxess' joint venture with TSRC in Nantong, China, saying the project is still awaiting approvals from the Chinese anti-trust authorities. Assuming permission is granted, the ┬36m project will begin producing up to 30kt of nitrile rubber per year from the first half of 2012.

MRC

Tatarstan and LUKOIL ink cooperation agreement

(LUKOIL) - In Saint-Petersburg in terms of International economical forum LUKOIL President Vagit Alekperov and President of The Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnik have signed the Agreement about Cooperation between the Company and Republic Government.



According to the agreement, sides are going to cooperate in geologic research of entrails, mining and processing of hydrocarbon materials, development of oil products supply system, production and social infrastructure.

The agreement, in particular, provides for the supplies of oil products by LUKOIL facilities into wholesale and retail markets of Tatarstan, construction of a new and reconstruction of existing petrol stations.



MRC

Investments into polymers processing in January - May 2010 increase 5% only

MOSCOW (MRC) -- By results of January - May this year investments into equipment for polymers processing formed $128,3 mln., which is only 5% more than figures in similar period last year - according to MRC analysts.

Low investment activity of the domestic converters is possibly caused by their wait-and-see position. So, most of the domestic processors decided to invest into production at the expense of modernization of already installed equipment.

I-Plast (heavy polymer package moulding), Narodny Plastik (profiles), LG Rus (electronics), Veka Rus (profiles), Alphatechform (PET-preforms), Slotex (decorative laminates) etc. are among leaders in investments into new equipment in 2010.

Domestic converters keep up preferring Krauss Maffei equipment ($8,3 mln., investments growth lamost 3 times compared to January - May 2009), Engel ($4,9 mln., +63%), Husky ($3,6 mln., +14%).

MRC

For more detailed information about investments into polymers processing please refer to MRC Annual reports.