Protest strike in France: threat of higher oil prices looms in Europe

(Plastemart) -- About 500,000 people are on strike across France to protest draft legislation in parliament. This strike is in addition to the ongoing strike by oil refinery workers opposed to the pension reforms that is contributing to fuel shortages across the country.

11 refineries in France have halted operations or reduced output, fuel is out of supply in thousands of gasoline stations in France because strikers are blocking deliveries, and gas prices have propelled because of panic buying.

These strikes are having repercussions beyond France's borders. Analysts say that if the strikes continue, fuel shortage might push prices up across Europe in the coming months.

MRC

(Plastics News) -- Fox Petroleum Inc. has announced that its Canadian operating subsidiary, Resource Polymers Inc., has finalized its PET recycling plant and that it has began processing PET along with polystyrene.

Created to produce recycled PET flake and recycled polystyrene flake from post-consumer PET bottles and agricultural scrap, Resource will bring the first phase of its Hamilton facility to full capacity in the first quarter of 2010.

By the end of the first phase of the project, the operation will have the capability to recycle up to 30 million pounds of PET bottles.

The primary users of these recycled flake materials will include carpet, fiber and agricultural manufactures and additionally the recycled resins.

MRC

(Plastics News) -- Packaging film producer Flexpol SP z.o.o. is planning an investment of nearly 13 million euros to manufacture novel biaxially oriented polyethylene film products.

Flexpol, a producer of biaxially oriented polypropylene films based in Plock, is also undertaking a major modernization and expansion of its plant in Plock. The scheme to introduce the BOPE manufacture is expected to create at least 30 new jobs and is scheduled to be launched late next year.

Both Flexpol projects involve the introduction of new technology which has been utilized in Poland for less than a year. This means the company will qualify for additional funding from the EU on top of financial incentive assistance in the Polish special economic zone.

Flexpol is a part of Supravis Group, a leading manufacturer of plastics packaging materials in Central and Eastern European markets. It has achieved an annual profit of 60 million euros and has other separate subsidiaries in Hungary and Slovakia.

MRC

(Plastemart) -- South Korea's Honam Petrochemical Corp is studying plans to build a 450,000 tpa ethylene plant in Indonesia in 2010, at an estimated cost of US$500 mln.

Honam is expected to visit Indonesia to conduct due diligence studies later this month. The country's only producer of ethylene is PT Chandra Asri, with an annual production capacity of 600,000 tons.

Honam Petrochemical Corporation is a manufacturer of petrochemical products such as synthetic resins, synthetic industrial materials including ethylene glycol and ethylene oxide for making polyester, automobile antifreeze solutions, methyl metha acrylate, benzene, propylene and ethylene in South Korea.

MRC

(ICIS) -- The French government ordered police to clear blockades at fuel depots across the country on Wednesday, as nationwide strike action over pension reforms continued to disrupt fuel supplies.

The government was forced to tap reserves after petrol pumps began to dry up across the country as workers at all 13 of France's oil refineries entered a seventh day of national strikes.

The industrial action, along with an unrelated strike at Marseille's Fos-Lavera oil port, has caused massive supply disruptions and panic-buying at petrol stations across France.

France's refineries have been worst hit, with all having been forced to either operate at minimum levels or shut production altogether.

ExxonMobil has been forced to begin the shutdown process at its merged refinery at Port Jerome-Gravenchon.

LyondellBasell's refinery at Berre L'Etang, INEOS's Lavera plant and Petroplus's refineries at Petit Couronne and Reichstett in France and Cressier in Switzerland were also forced to begin production shutdowns last week due to crude supply issues and strike actions.

MRC