Evonik completes acquisition of hydrogen peroxide facility in Canada

(corporate.evonik) -- Essen, Germany-based Evonik Industries has closed the deal to take over the hydrogen peroxide business from Kemira Chemicals Canada Inc. effective to December 1, 2011. The transaction covers the Maitland (Ontario) production plant plus the seller's customer portfolio, with the Canadian employees also being transferred to Evonik.

⌠This transaction sees us taking another step in our global growth strategy for hydrogen peroxide, explained Jan Van den Bergh, Head of Advanced Intermediates, the business unit in charge of the hydrogen peroxide business at Evonik.

⌠Our growth strategy is based on new technologies, as is exemplified by our deal in Jilin, China, where we will be supplying H2O2 to a plant specializing in the chemical direct synthesis of propylene oxide, and by targeted acquisitions like this one in Canada,⌠ added Van den Bergh.
Production operations in Maitland will serve primarily to provide supplies of H2O2, an eco-friendly oxidation agent, to the North American cellulose and paper industry.

This new acquisition puts Evonik among the market leaders of hydrogen peroxide suppliers to the North American market (Canada and the U.S.). The takeover enables Evonik to increase its capacities for H2O2 production in North America by 44,000 metric tons to more than 200,000 metric tons per annum. The Group already runs local H2O2 production sites in Gibbons (Alberta, Canada) and Mobile (Alabama, U.S.A.).

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Wellman International is Europe's largest recycler of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles and also produces polyester stable fibre products and recycled PET (rPET), IVL said in a statement.
⌠The deal, which was first announced in September 2011, will assist IVL in pursuing its customers' sustainability needs and meet the demands of consumers for more recycling of post consumer products, IVL said.

Wellman International processes a total of 1.6bn used PET bottles each year.
⌠I see the possibility for Indorama Ventures to move towards being a zero waste' company with lower dependence on upstream carbon based feedstocks, said IVL CEO Aloke Lohia in the statement.

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SINGAPORE (ICIS) -- Russia's Rosneft is keeping the December-delivery Group I base oil prices from its Angarsk refinery to China largely unchanged from November, Chinese traders said on Thursday.
The refiner's December prices to China are at $950/tonne (┬703/tonne) for low-viscosity cargoes and $960-970/tonne for high-viscosity products, both on a DAF (delivered at frontier) basis to Erenhot, they said.

Market players were expecting a price reduction because of the prevailing weak demand.
However, Rosneft said stronger crude futures and its resultant higher production costs were its reasons for keeping its prices largely steady, according to the players.
In addition, the refiner plans to supply 8,000 tonnes of Group I base oils to China in December, a 16% drop from November, traders said.

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(plasteurope) -- The commerce ministry of India has agreed in principle to accept the packaging industry's proposals for enhancing the country's packaging standards. The 10 proposals by the India Institute of Packaging, Mumbai include establishment of a food packaging laboratory, a flexible intermediate bulk container testing laboratory at Chennai and an international packaging centre in Mumbai.

India's domestic packaging sector, which accounts for 10% of the global market, is expected to see growth rates of about 18% to reach a value of USD 40 bn by 2015. According to a recent report by PCI Films Consulting (Guilsborough, Northamptonshire UK), demand for flexible packaging in the country will be driven by economic growth, a rise in the production of processed foods and a rise in retailing operations. The country's packaging production runs mainly on imported machinery, with the USD 125m import total being supplied by Germany, Korea and China.

Speaking at Indiapack, J.K. Dadoo, joint secretary to the commerce ministry, said the anticipated rise in food consumption in the country, expected to touch USD 240 bn by 2013, will necessitate innovative packaging solutions, especially as regards ⌠heat and eat food products.

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(basf.com) -- BASF will build a new plant to produce Ultrason╝ polyethersulfone (PESU), one of BASF's high-performance thermoplastics, at the company's site in Yeosu, Korea. The annual capacity of the new plant is 6,000 metric tons. Construction of this specialty plastics plant will start in early 2012 and production is expected to begin by early 2014. About 50 new jobs will be created once the plant is operational.

"Overall in Asia Pacific, we are investing approximately ┬2.3 billion from 2011 to 2015 in order to achieve our goal to produce 70% of our sales in the region. By establishing local production of our high performance specialty plastics in Korea, we can support the growth of key local industries," said Dr. Albert Heuser, President, Market and Business Development, Asia Pacific, BASF.

Ultrason is sold to customers in the electronics industry, as well as the automotive and aerospace industries for the production of heat-resistant light weight components and to the water treatment industry for manufacturing of water treatment membranes.

At present this specialty plastic is only produced at BASF's Ludwigshafen site in Germany. ⌠BASF is committed to strengthening its market position in the engineering plastics business, said Dr. Wolfgang Hapke, President of BASF's Performance Polymers Division. ⌠This new plant will significantly enhance our engineering plastics position in the rapidly growing Asian market and reaffirm our dedication to being our customers' supplier of choice for high performance materials.
The Korean electronics industry is a major target market for Ultrason. The location also benefits from the proximity to other major markets such as China and Japan.

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