SABIC announced 9.8% net profit decrease in Q4 2011

(chemmonitor) -- Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) announced results for the 4th quarter 2011 and fiscal year 2011. The net income in Q4 2011 amounted to Saudi Riyals (SAR) 5.24 billion. It is 9.8% lower in comparison to the same period last year. Moreover, this figure is much lower SAR 7.4 billion expected by analysts.

Sales increased, but the lower prices for most of company's products led to the net profit decrease. The gross profit in Q4 2011 reached SAR 13.38 billion, a 3% year on year increase.

Saudi Basic Industries Corporation is the world's biggest petrochemical company by market value and one of the world's leading manufacturers of chemicals, performance chemicals, fertilizers, plastics and metals.

Its product portfolio includes ethylene, propylene, butadiene, MTBE, styrene monomer, benzene, paraxylene, caustic soda, acetone, phenol, methanol, etc. The company has operations in more than 25 countries and over 33,000 employees worldwide.

SABIC is traded on the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) under the ticker symbol 2010.

MRC

(polyestertime) -- Soft drink manufacturers are on track to reach zero waste to landfill by 2015 - however, maintaining product quality remains a key challenge.

This was the conclusion of a recent report recent report from the British Soft Drinks Association (BSDA) that reviewed the sector's sustainability progress - the Soft Drinks Industry Sustainability Strategy, launched in 2008.

The report builds on tough ambitions for waste reduction, as well as those included within phase 2 of WRAP's Courtauld Commitment.

Setting out packaging waste reductions already achieved by the sector, the study outlines how drinks manufacturers can further reduce the impact of their packaging and work towards waste prevention.

Brands like Coca-Cola and Pepsico tend to go for a "blended PET and degradable solution" while also investing in plant-derived plastics and selling it as an alternative to oil as it has no degradability issues.


Last year Coca-Cola launched a plant bottle for its 500ml products. Featuring 25% recycled content, it includes up to 22.5% of PET derived from renewable plant sources rather than hydrocarbons from petrochemical sources - saving more than 60,000 barrels of oil each year.

MRC

(braskem) --Braskem Americas reported emissions resulting from a boiler failure at its polypropylene (PP) plant in LaPorte, Texas, according to a government filing available on Monday.

A temporary boiler that was replacing the plant's C boiler during maintenance failed, causing a loss of steam to the B flare, the company said in a filing with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).


The loss of steam resulted in the flare smoking intermittently for about an hour, the filing states. All emissions were either recovered or sent to a flare for destruction, according to the filing.

It was not clear whether the unit had been restarted, or whether there was any lost production at the plant. A company spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Braskem Americas operates a 390,000 tonne/year PP plant at the facility.

MRC

(vestolit) -- The German company Vestolit announced increases in its Europe PVC prices of EUR90/tonne for paste applications and EUR100/tonne for thermoplastic applications effective from 1 February, a company source said on Monday.

The increasing trend for the procurement of raw materials to manufacture PVC products could not be compensated adequately in the past few months and now leads to a price adjustment for paste and thermoplastic products, said company in the press-release.

MRC

(polyestertime) -- China lost the most share of US year-to-date dollar textile imports as of November, off .45 percentage points compared to a year ago, according to data released by The Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA).

Mexico and Canada were next, each down .1 percentage points. India and Vietnam have gained the biggest shares so far this year, at .7 and .4 percentage points, respectively.

Vietnam has also enjoyed the biggest increase in textile square meter equivalent unit volume to the U.S. so far this year.

MRC