Germany's Bayer swings to EUR397mln net profit

(bayer) -- The Bayer Group had a very successful year in 2011 both strategically and operationally, posting record levels of sales and EBIT.

"We achieved the Group targets that we raised after the first quarter," said Bayer CEO Dr. Marijn Dekkers at the Financial News Conference in Leverkusen on Tuesday. The company also made good progress toward further innovation and expanding its activities in emerging markets. For 2012 Dekkers predicted a slight improvement in underlying earnings despite an economic situation marked by uncertainty.

Sales of the Bayer Group rose by 4.1 percent in 2011, to EUR 36,528 million (2010: EUR 35,088 million). Adjusted for currency and portfolio effects (Fx & portfolio adj.), sales were up by 5.5 percent. "Thus we exceeded the record set in 2010," Dekkers said. Sales in the emerging markets rose by 9.0 percent on a currency-adjusted (Fx adj.) basis, contributing disproportionately to the expansion in business. The operating result (EBIT) advanced by a substantial 52.0 percent to EUR 4,149 million (2010: EUR 2,730 million).

MRC

EU to review PET anti-dumping duties against several Asian countries

(plastemart) -- The European Commission plans to review continuation of anti-dumping duties for polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resin coming to the European Union from India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan and Thailand, according to the Official Journal of the European Union.

Anti-dumping measures on PET resin coming from India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Taiwan have been in place since November 27, 2000, with an expiry review announced in 2005 and a continuation of the anti-dumping dumping published on Febuary 27, 2007 for a five year period. European buyers of PET resin could possibly benefit with a wider choice of imports if the anti-dumping duties do expire.

The anti-dumping measures currently in force for these were scheduled to expire on Tuesday, February 28, five years after the definitive measures came in to force in 2007. On November 25, 2011, the PET committee of Plastics Europe requested an expiry review.


"The applicant has provided evidence that should the measures be allowed to lapse, the current import level of the product under review is likely to increase due to the existence of unused capacity in the countries concerned," the EC wrote.

Current anti-dumping rates vary from country to country and are different for specific producers. For example, in India, anti-dumping rates to bring PET resin into the European Union are from Eur87.50-200.90/mt, while in Malaysia, the anti-dumping rates range from Eur36-160.10/mt.


MRC

Europe's leading masterbatch producers grew slowly

(plastemart) -- Since a previous edition of "Corporate performance and ownership among masterbatch producers - A review of Europe's 50 largest players", the industry has been through a dramatic period of upheaval caused by the global financial crisis of 2008 compounded by underlying slower growth for masterbatch because of the increasing maturity of the business.

This increasing maturity is evidenced by the limited number of changes to the names of the companies. However, this belies the significant amount of turmoil in the market and major changes in the status of many of the companies listed, with some players cutting back activity and closing plants while others have sought wider or new markets to sustain or grow the size of their business.

The difficult economic environment has also been characterised by variable financial performances in the industry with weaker players seeing margins eroded and their survival threatened, while others have used the opportunity of smaller order size and just in time delivery to improve margins and profitability.

It is also clear that the downturn in Europe of 2008 and 2009 resulted in many companies refocusing on core skills and cutting back peripheral activities. In black masterbatch, for example Cabot significantly altered its involvement in Europe closing a number of plants while building up capacity in other regions of the world. Subsequently an opportunity has emerged for the independent sector which has seen some producers achieve significant growth, even through the recession.

The main winners from this development have been Hubron and Polyplast Muller. Given the challenging economic forecasts for the euro zone it is likely that this changing and refocusing of effort will continue for a number of suppliers into the medium term future. However, new investments are also continuing, especially from the more focussed and well positioned suppliers within Europe and especially in Eastern Europe. For the first time AMI has included the Russian and Ukrainian plants of the leading producers in its analysis. Leading players operating in Russia include Clariant, Plastika Kritis (Global Colors) and Gabriel Chemie while in the Ukraine Tosaf is the manufacturer.



MRC

New Indian butyl rubber production could overcome the country's import dependency

(process-worldwide) -- Indian oil and Russian technology could become the recipe for India's independence from foreign rubber imports: Sibur and Reliance Industries, two rising players in the global oil and petrochemical business, now join forces to build the world's fourth biggest butyl rubber production at Jamnagar, India.


Mumbai/India - India's largest private refiner Reliance Industries teams up with Russia's number one petrochemical company Sibur for a common produce butyl rubber project. Both companies agreed to form a the joint venture company Reliance Sibur Elastomers Private to produce 100,000 tons of butyl rubber per year in Jamnagar, India. This project marks the first butyl rubber production in the country and could well become the world's fourth biggest producers of the polymer when running at full capacity.

MRC

Univar establishes operations in Romania

(univar) -- Univar Inc., a leading global chemical distributor, announced today that its legal entity in Romania is fully operational. The business trades under the name Univar South-East Europe Srl. from its newly opened office in Bucharest.

Univar has been expanding its strategic network throughout Central and Eastern Europe in recent years. Romania has experienced good GDP growth, driven by both a rise in consumer spending and industrial production over the last decade with forecasts to achieve 4 percent GDP growth in 2012 . This creates a promising opportunity for Univar to engage its global network with local expertise, especially in the coatings market where only 65 percent of the customers are served by local producers.

"Romania is a country with enormous growth opportunities for our business. Industry and agriculture contribute nearly half the country's GDP, which plays very well into Univar's portfolio," explains Balazs Kiss, Univar's Country Manager - Romania, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. "Also, the domestic chemicals market is currently quite fragmented, so customers will benefit from Univar's presence, can trust in our global supply reliability, and depend on our market insight so that they have the benefit of a global network with local level expertise."

MRC