Coca-Cola entered into partnerships with leading biotechnology companies Virent

(PlastEurope) -- To fulfil its goal of replacing its entire virgin PET supply with its proprietary PlantBottle packaging by 2020, beverage giant Coca-Cola Company (Atlanta/USA) has entered into three multi-million dollar partnerships with leading biotechnology companies Virent (Madison, Wisconsin/USA), Gevo (Englewood, Colorado/USA) and Avantium (Amsterdam/The Netherlands). The agreements were signed after the global drinks producer completed an in-depth two year study of the different technologies available to produce renewable PET.

⌠While the technology to make bio-based materials in a lab has been available for years, we believe Virent, Gevo and Avantium are companies that possess technologies that have high potential for creating them on a global commercial scale within the next few years, said Coca-Cola's vice president Commercial Product Supply Rick Frazier. Under the terms of the agreements, each company is to further develop its own route to bio-based materials in line with Coca-Cola's standards and recycling requirements.

Specifically, Virent will work on its trademark BioForm PX plant-based paraxylene, which will be used by Coca-Cola to make 100% bio-based PTA, which in turn will be mixed with bio-based MEG to produce PlantBottle PET. Welcoming the agreement, Virent CEO Lee Edwards said both companies would progress development and engineering together. Virent plans to launch commercial-scale production of BioForm PX in early 2015. Once its plant is up and running, most of the PX produced there will be allocated to Coca-Cola.

MRC

(ICIS) -- Ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) prices in Asia fell to a 16-month low because of weak demand, which is expected to continue through January as trades typically slow down towards the Lunar New Year festivities, industry sources said on Tuesday.

China, which is a major EVA importer, will be on a week-long holiday from 22-28 January.
In the week ended 13 December, spot prices for EVA with 18% vinyl acerate (VA)-content were assessed at USD1,750-1,900/tonne (EUR1,348-1,463/tonne) CFR (cost and freight) CMP (China Main Port) - levels last seen in mid-August 2010, according to ICIS. EVA values have shed nearly 30% from early October, the data showed.

Some producers have been shifting to producing more low density polyethylene (LDPE) at their EVA/LDPE swing plants because of poor EVA margins and soft demand, industry sources said.

Demand from the footwear/sandals sector - the main downstream of EVA - is weak as most buyers buy cargoes just to cover their minimum requirement and are not building inventory this year, traders said.

Some buyers in the solar panel industry have already stopped procurement for EVA with 30% VA content because of poor demand that is not expected to recover until the second half of 2012, market sources said.

⌠As the year's end is approaching, no one wants to build inventory, a northeast Asia trader said.
⌠Buyers in China don't buy cargoes at large quantities given the volatile market. In January, I think the demand will be worse as China will celebrate its important one-week holiday and most of downstream small factories will shut down earlier, even in early January, an EVA producer said.

MRC

(RIA Novosti) -- Tatneft, one of Russia's top ten crude oil producers, and the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) plan to sign a USD700 million contract on Sunday on the extraction of heavy oil at the Zagheh oilfield in south Iran, the Iranian Press TV channel reported.
Under the contract, the Zagheh oilfield in the Bushehr province will produce 7,000 barrels per day of heavy crude in the first phase of its development. The output will be increased to 55,000 bpd in the second phase, Press TV said.

Iran is the second largest oil exporter among the OPEC countries and holds the fourth place in the world by oil output. Oil exports account for about 80 percent of Iran's revenues.

MRC

(ICIS) -- Prices should remain relatively high for US ethane and titanium dioxide (TiO2) in 2012, an analyst said on Monday. A majority of US crackers use ethane as a feedstock to produce ethylene, which is one of the reasons why supplies are tight, according to a research note by David Begleiter, an analyst for Deutsche Bank. He estimates that more than 80% of North American ethylene production relied on natural gas liquids as a feedstock in 2011.

In addition to demand, constrained pipelines are also keeping ethane prices high, Begleiter said. New pipeline and fractionation capacity will not be in place until late 2012 or early 2013.

As such, Begleiter expects ethane supplies to be balanced to tight when compared with demand. Ethane supplies could loosen somewhat in the second quarter, when about 11% of North American ethylene capacity will be off line, Begleiter said. Regardless of the expected tightness, ethane crackers should maintain their advantage against naphtha crackers, he said.

Titanium ore is a feedstock for the pigment titanium dioxide (TiO2), and high ore prices helped support higher prices for the pigment.

TiO2 producers should be able to pass through the cost hikes because supply for the pigment remains tight.

MRC

(ICIS) -- New registrations for commercial vehicles in the EU totalled 171,670 units in November, up by 8.4% from the same month last year, an industry body said on Tuesday. According to data from the European Automobiles Manufacturers' Association (ACEA), the figures showed an improvement in all vehicle categories during November except for the buses and coaches segment, which fell 11.4% year on year to 2,627 units.
Within the other EU vehicle-registration segments for November, vans grew 8.5% year on year to 141,800 units; new heavy truck registrations increased 14.5% year on year to 20,673 units; and new commercial vehicles over 3.5 tonnes increased by 10.2% to 27,243 units.

A wide variety of chemicals markets depend on demand from the automotive industry, which has suffered badly from the effects of the global economic crisis.

MRC