To be competitive Russian producers need to have oil and gas prices at Asian level

(MRC) -- Russia's joining into the World Trade Organization (WTO) will bring almost all industries to new competitive level. This was stated by Sergey Arbuzov, General director of Europlastic at his speech at the Polymers Summit - 2011, which was held by MRC with ICIS support.

According Arbuzov, there will be great changes as for producers of plastics as well as for converters of polymers. In particular, Russia's joining to the WTO and the subsequent cancellation (decrease) of import duties will open borders to foreign products, either in a form of feedstock, or in a form of finished products.

With the opening of the borders, all market participants will face tough competition from foreign producers in pricing, product quality, cost of polymers production and products made from them. If the cost of production depends upon the major sources of feedstock of natural monopolies, then the competition in polymer processing depends on existing technologies and "know-how."


According to Sergey Arbuzov, to become competitive in price, producers will have to get the prices of oil, gas, electricity and transport at the Asian level, as well as get rid of marginal assets. As per CEO of Europlastic, it refers only to those producers who work with cutting-edge technologies, others will have to work with the subsidized feedstock.

Europlastic works with two operators, who provide warehousing services for the storage of up to 12 thousand tonnes of polymers, as well as with 5 companies, providing freight forwarding services. Company's monthly volume of purchases and sales of polymers makes on average 18-20 thousand tonnes amounting to rouble (Rb)1.3 billion monthly, including VAT 18%.

The main polymers supplied by Europlastic are polystyrene, polypropylene, polyethylene, PVC.

MRC

(MRC) -- MRC announced the launch of a new program, which can automatically generate reports, news and short messages concerning the market of polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, PVC and PET. The new program will allow to increase the information contents of analytical reports, as well as create new reports, which format will be determined by the users themselves.


Sergey Yaremenko, MRC director, said: "At the present we make 1,100 market reports each year. The total annual volume of analytics makes approximately 50 thousand pages. Of course, a team of 20 people can not physically process such volume of data. So over the five years, our company has been using a system of automatic generation of tables part of the reports. And now our program is able to write text analytics in Russian and English. In fact, the prototype of the future artificial intelligence systems was created .

The volume of our analytical messages to the market will grow by ten times. In particular, we will offer short messages (posts), which will be formed on the basis of an event, e.g. a new supplier appears in the Russian market of polyethylene or the share of a market's leading player declines significantly. In future, analytical reports may be formed by the customers in their own terminals. Our clients will be able to adjust their personal analytics. And managers will have a chance to work with its own Price and Annual Reports, ScanPlast or DataScope."

MRC makes a research of polymers market in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. In partnership with ICIS, the world leading analytical company in the chemical market, MRC prepares weekly price analytics for the market of polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, PVC and PET in the Russian language. The both companies work together under the brand of ICIS-MRC.

mrclast.com

(Plasteurope) -- Visteon (Van Buren Township, Michigan/USA) signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Huayu Automotive Systems (HASCO), the automotive components group of Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC), its joint venture partner in Yanfeng Visteon Automotive Trim Systems (YVF).

The Memorandum allows the tier-1 US automotive supplier to sell the majority of its global interiors business to YVF.

Definitive agreements for the proposed sale are expected to be signed in early 2012.

The transaction, when completed, will result in a leading global interiors company within YVF, with an estimated annual revenue of around USD 4 bn. The combined venture will serve more than 30 customers from over 60 facilities in 16 countries.

MRC

(PlastEurope) -- France's Proplast Packaging Group (Flines-lez-Raches) has acquired Dutch packaging manufacturer Wiezoplast (Oss), significantly expandings its business in The Netherlands.
As a result of the transaction, Proplast will raise its annual revenues from EUR70m to EUR82m, Marketing & Development manager Jean-Luc Kropfinger told Plasteurope.com.

Injection moulder Wiezoplast mainly produces plastic bowls for the food industry as well as furniture components. Proplast subsidiary Nutripack also specialises in plastic food bowls, most of them made of PP. Nutripack operates plants in northern France and Spain and also has sales offices in Germany, The Netherlands, Italy and the UK.

MRC

(KraussMaffei Group) -- The KraussMaffei Group has decided to expand its production plants in Martin (Slovakia) and in Haiyan (China). At both locations, the production capacities are to be doubled and the performance spectrum extended. For both sites, the start of production is planned for the beginning of 2013.

The KraussMaffei Group is growing. In order to strengthen our activities in core markets and in emerging markets, we have decided to expand our production plants in Martin (Slovakia) and Haiyan (China)", explains Dr. Dietmar Straub, CEO of KraussMaffei AG. In Haiyan (China), the previous production area of 12,000 m2 will be increased to around 22,000 m2. In addition to the expansion of existing production capacities for machines and plants for Reaction and Extrusion Technology, Netstal and KraussMaffei injection molding machines for PET applications and KraussMaffei injection molding machines of the MX series will also be produced here.

In the production plant in Martin (Slovakia), which was put into operation only in autumn 2010, robots and KraussMaffei injection molding machines of the EX series as well as machines and plants for reaction and trimming technology will in future be produced on a production surface area of around 13,000 m2 (today: 6,600 m2).

At present, KraussMaffei injection molding machines of the AX series, as well as switch cabinets and molds, are manufactured at this location.

MRC