Mold-Masters acquisition is wrapped up

MOSCOW (MRC) --US injection moulding machine manufacturer Milacron (Cincinnati, Ohio) has completed its acquisition of Mold-Masters (Georgetown, Ontario / Canada) for previous coverage, said Plasteurope.

The USD 950m deal creates a new mega plastics processing solutions provider comprised of five businesses: Milacron Plastics Machinery (injection, extrusion and blow moulding), Mold-Masters (hot runners), DME Company (mold technologies), Aftermarket (parts and service) as well as Cimcool Fluid Technology (metalworking fluids and services). Milacron said each of the businesses would continue to focus on its area of specialty, while simultaneously leveraging the synergies among them.

The combined group will be headed by Milacron CEO Tom Goeke, while the leadership of the individual Milacron businesses, including Mold-Masters, will remain the same.

As MRC wrote earlier, in Russia and CIS countries, Mold-Masters' interests are represented by Portmold company.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Arkema announces that it has acquired a majority stake in AEC Polymers, a French manufacturer of structural adhesives, said company in its press-release.

AEC Polymers recently developed a range of methacrylate glues based on an Arkema technology, which boast unrivalled mechanical properties. AEC Polymers will join the Group's new products and new technologies incubator.

Structural adhesives are increasingly used in industry to assemble composite materials, plastics, glass and metals. In the example of metals, the properties obtained are equivalent or superior to welding.

Growth in the structural adhesives market is driven by the quest for lighter materials used in transport (automotive, aerospace, shipbuilding, etc.), the increasing role of plastics in electronics and household electricals (miniaturization), and the development of wind power and alternative energies.

This acquisition illustrates Arkema's strategy to expand in high added value specialty chemicals, in particular composite materials and advanced materials. The performances of AEC Polymers' SAF range, combining mechanical strength, extreme elongation, lighter assembly capability, and resistance to chemical and weathering attacks aptly illustrate this commitment.

Christian Collette. Vice President Research at Arkema explains: "The technology of AEC Polymers uses mostly products manufactured by Arkema such as block copolymers, organic peroxides, acrylic and methacrylic monomers. Together we will grow our customers' performance in the assembly of advanced materials, and make Arkema an essential player in this sector".

As MRC wrote earlier, Arkema, a France-based chemical manufacturer, has selected SpecialChem's Commercial Acceleration Solutions to support the global growth of its water-based fluoropolymer Kynar Aquatec latex in the exterior building and construction markets.


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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Petroleo Brasileiro SA, the state- run oil company, is boosting money-losing gasoline imports at its fastest pace ever, holding down prices for alternative fuels and hindering investments in ethanol, said Bloomberg.

Petrobras, as the oil producer is known, will import as much as 25.5 billion liters (6.74 billion gallons) by 2020, or about half of the nation’s gasoline, estimates Adriano Pires, head of the Brazilian Center for Infrastructure. That’s an almost sevenfold rise from the 3.68 billion liters, or 12%, the company imported last year, when its refining unit lost USD17.5 billion buying the fuel and reselling it below cost.

President Dilma Rousseff’s policy to fight inflation by capping gasoline costs at the pump is also limiting prices for sugar-based ethanol, discouraging millers from investing in new output and exacerbating the problem. Investments in new ethanol production fell to USD256 million last year from a peak of USD6.4 billion in 2008, according to data compiled by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

"The ethanol sector is paralyzed, and the car fleet is expanding every year," Jose Roberto Della Coletta, director of Della Coletta Bioenergia SA, which owns a sugar and ethanol mill in Sao Paulo state, said in a telephone interview. "Mills will provide what fuel they can, but the rest will have to come from gasoline that will need to be imported."

Petrobras has slumped 7.8 % in the past year, compared with an 8.8 % decline for the benchmark Bovespa index, amid delays in developing some of Brazil’s largest-ever oil discoveries. The stock trades at 7.2 times its estimated 2013 earnings, making it the eighth cheapest among the Americas’ 250 biggest oil and gas producers.

Brazil is the second-biggest ethanol producer after the U.S. and the largest sugar maker. In Brazil, ethanol is made from sugar cane.

As MRC wrote earlier, Petrobras plans to launch the first of its new refineries in November 2014, the company said on Wednesday. The second line will be put in operation in May 2015. The refinery will add 230,000 bpd of processing capacity. Currently, Petrobras processes about 2 million bpd at 12 refineries.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Royal Dutch Shell PLC has announced it plans to sell its only oil refinery in Australia, as the local industry struggles to compete with low-cost operators in Asia, reported The Wall Street Journal.

The number of refineries in Australia has dwindled in recent years as vast new processing facilities have sprung up in India, Singapore and elsewhere in the region.

The Anglo-Dutch oil company said Thursday it may convert its refinery in Geelong, producing up to 120,000 barrels of crude oil a day, to a fuel import terminal if it can't find a buyer. The plant, near the country's second-most populous city, Melbourne, currently supplies about half of Victoria state's fuel.

Shell has hired Bank of America Merrill Lynch to assist with the sale process, which it expects to complete by the end of next year.

Last year, the company converted a refinery in the commercial capital, Sydney, to an import terminal. Caltex Australia Ltd., half-owned by Chevron Corp., plans to make a similar conversion to its Sydney refinery next year.

Among the handful of remaining refineries in Australia, Caltex has another plant in Brisbane, BP PLC owns refineries in Perth and Brisbane, and ExxonMobil Corp has a refinery in Melbourne.

We remind that, as MRC informed previously, in November, 2012, Shell announced that it wouldl upgrade its petrochemical plant in Singapore to meet rising demand for ethylene in Asia. The upgrade will increase the plant's capacity to produce olefins and aromatics industrial chemicals used to make plastic, paint and other products by more than 20%.

Royal Dutch Shell plc is an Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the biggest company in the world in terms of revenue and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors". Shell is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading.
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