Bemis acquires Shield Pack

(adsalecprj) -- Bemis Company, Inc, a Wisconsin, US headquartered supplier of flexible packaging and pressure sensitive materials used by food, consumer products, healthcare, and other companies, has acquired the common stock of Shield Pack, LLC of West Monroe, Louisiana, the US, a manufacturer of high barrier liners for bulk container packaging with about USD25 million annual net sales.

Details of the transaction were not disclosed.
"This acquisition expands our reach into new market applications for bulk liquids and other products that require barrier packaging," said Henry Theisen, President and CEO of Bemis. "Shield Pack's expertise in moisture and oxygen barrier technology complements our existing technological capabilities and our focus on high barrier packaging solutions."

Bemis Company is a major supplier of flexible packaging and pressure sensitive materials used by leading food, consumer products, healthcare, and other companies worldwide. Founded in 1858, the Company is included in the S&P 500 index of stocks and reported 2010 net sales of $4.8 billion. The Company's flexible packaging business has a strong technical base in polymer chemistry, film extrusion, coating and laminating, printing, and converting. Headquartered in Neenah, Wisconsin, Bemis employs over 20,000 individuals worldwide.

MRC

(ICIS) -- European polyvinyl chloride (PVC) producers have announced a rollover in contract prices for December in an effort to recover margins, market sources said on Monday. ⌠Margins at the end of the year are poorer than in December 2008, even after the small decrease [by EUR15/tonne] in December ethylene [contract prices], a producer said. "[PVC] prices have decreased steadily from July to December, whereas feedstock prices are much higher than three years ago, "the producer added.
Suppliers are also talking about potential increases in January, after reportedly seeing signs of a recovery in buying interest for January orders. ⌠I don't expect a sudden recovery in demand [in January] but inventory management has been very strict, a producer said. "Producers have kept inventory levels low and recent unplanned shutdowns have limited availability," it added.

The source said that there are more opportunities for exports: ⌠We are not at the same level as 2009, when consumption of feedstocks dropped drastically everywhere in the world." ⌠Today, the crisis is mainly European, not so much in other regions, the producer added.

Buyers on the other hand seem reluctant to accept a rollover for December and expect some decreases in line with depressed market conditions. They are also sceptical about the ability of the PVC market to absorb any price increases in January.


MRC

(bbc.co.uk) -- Improvements in the global economy and tensions in the Middle East have pushed up the price of oil. In mid-afternoon trading, Brent one-month futures were at $110.81 a barrel while US light crude traded at $102.02. Recent US employment data has been better than expected, suggesting increased demand from the world's largest consumer of oil.

And Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil producer, is under pressure from the West over its nuclear programme. Iran produced 4,245,000 barrels of oil a day in 2010, according to BP's statistical review of world energy. On Friday last week, diplomats working at the Iranian embassy in London were expelled. They were ordered to leave by UK Foreign Secretary William Hague after protesters stormed the British embassy in Tehran on Tuesday.

Also last week, the US Senate voted to penalise financial institutions doing business with Iran's central bank, because of worries over the country's nuclear programme. And on Sunday, Iran's official Irna news agency reported it had shot down an unmanned US drone aircraft. The European Union is reportedly considering a ban on Iranian oil exports which may interrupt oil supply to the region.

MRC

(ICIS) -- US polypropylene (PP) producer Braskem America is looking at various options now that the feedstock supply for its Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, plant has been jeopardised, the company said on Monday. A 1 December announcement by Sunoco that it will immediately shut down the main processing units at its Marcus Hook refinery, more than seven months ahead of schedule, has created a "significant challenge" for Braskem, according to PP market participants.


Sunoco, which sold the Marcus Hook PP plant to Braskem in April 2010, provided it with a significant percentage of the propylene it needs to make PP at the Marcus Hook facility, sources said.
A Braskem spokesman declined to respond to specific questions about the situation, but said the company "is going to pursue both short- and long-term options to continue to operate our Marcus Hook polypropylene plant, including the use of all legal actions and remedies available". Sunoco spokesman Joe McGinn declined to comment beyond saying that Sunoco is "working closely with Braskem on the situation".

Braskem, which in October completed the purchase of two PP plants in Texas at Freeport and Seadrift from US-based Dow Chemical, has a total US PP capacity of 1.4m tonnes/year, making it the nation's largest PP producer. The company said would use its "global asset base, including the assets recently acquired from Dow" to minimise the impact of Sunoco's actions on its customers.

In an August interview, Braskem America CEO Luiz de Mendonca said the company is seeking other sources of propylene in the US, adding that by becoming the largest user of merchant propylene in the US, the company will have a lot of leverage.

But in the short term, Robert Bauman, president of Polymer Consulting International, said there is not a lot of spare propylene to be found in that region of the US, adding that there are no pipelines that can easily transport the feedstock to the Braskem plant.


MRC

(ICIS) -- A stretch of the River Rhine was reopened on Monday after two bombs from the Second World War, found near the German city of Koblenz, were successfully defused on Sunday, river authority Wasser- und Schifffahrtsamt Bingen said.

The 1.8 tonne and 125kg bombs, which were discovered in a riverbed after water levels fell significantly because of dry weather, prompted the closure of a 60km (38 mile) stretch of the Rhine between Bingen and Koblenz, adding further to logistical problems.

The bomb disposal had triggered the evacuation of 45,000 from the city of Koblenz, almost half the city's population.
The low water levels on the Rhine are currently limiting transport and damaging demand in some European refined product barge markets, as well as driving up logistical costs for shippers of chemicals and other commodities.

However, the river's water level has recently risen slightly thanks to some rainfall over the weekend.
The Rhine is an important European shipping route for chemicals and other commodities, including minerals, coal and oil products.

MRC