Amcor bid for Constar unsuccessful

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Amcor Ltd. has been unsuccessful in its bid to buy the North American assets of Constar International Holdings LLC, said Plasticsnews.

In a Feb. 6 auction, Amcor was outbid by another company. An Amcor spokesman told Plastics News he will not name the company, but said its name will be "on the wire" within 24 to 48 hours. He would not say how much the winning company paid, but said "at the end of the day the nature of an auction is that the winning bid doesn't have to be much more than the losing one.

"At a certain price it no longer fits the criteria. Amcor has a well-defined returns focus for investments and will remain disciplined in its approach to acquisitions," he said. "Constar went into bankruptcy and part of the process was for liquidators to establish the best possible price."

Amcor announced on Dec. 20 it had entered into an asset purchase agreement with Constar, under which Constar had agreed to sell substantially all its U.S. business to Amcor.

Constar said the transaction with Amcor was subject to higher and better offers and approval of the Bankruptcy Court, as well as other customary closing conditions.

Constar had planned to sell most of its assets in two separate auctions, one for its U.S. assets and another for assets or stock of affiliates in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

Amcor and Trevose, Pa.-based Constar had originally announced the deal back on Dec. 19. Constar had filed for protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Amcor was the stalking horse bidder, and the purchase was being supervised by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. As MRC wrote before, Amcor acquired Uniglobe Packaging Ltd. last year and before that Alcan Packaging — which included operations in India — in 2009. Amcor has plants in Daman, Chaken and Haridwar, India. Amcor Limited is an Australian-based multinational packaging company. It operates manufacturing plants in 42 countries. It is the world's largest manufacturer of plastic bottles.

Constar was a pioneer in the PET bottle business, and a few decades ago Constar and Amcor's U.S. predecessor — Johnson Controls Inc. — were the top two blow molders in North America, according to Plastics News' rankings.
Now, however, Amcor is still the No. 1 plastic bottle supplier, with North American sales of USD2.65 billion. According to Amcor, Constar's U.S. business now has six plants and annualized sales of about USD190 million.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- European producers have announced that they maintained January polypropylene (PP) prices for February shipments to the CIS countries amid stable propylene prices and tight supply of PP, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

February contract propylene prices in Europe were agreed at the January's level. As a consequence, European producers said they intend to maintain January PP prices for February deliveries to the CIS markets on the back of stable prices of the main feedstock - propylene and tight supply.

Deals for European homopolymers of propylene (homopolymer PP) were negotiated this week in the range of EUR1,180-1,240/tonne FCA. Offer prices of block copolymers of propylene (PP-impact) started from EUR1,240/tonne FCA. Some market participants said export quotas of many European producers were limited because of the reduced production.

As reported earlier, January propylene prices in Europe grew by EUR20/tonne. However, despite this, European producers managed to raise PP prices by EUR30/tonne from December.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Evonik Industries AG successfully began operation of its new production facility for ROHACELL structural foam at the Darmstadt site in late 2013, following an investment of approximately six million Euros, according to the company's press release.

The new facility will increase the polymerization capacity at the site by 50%. Due to the extensive automation of polymerization, the cycle times have dropped by almost half.

"The facility enables us to account for the increasing demand and growth strategy for ROHACELL," says Dr. Andreas Hoff, Head of Performance Foams and responsible for the ROHACELL Business Segment. At the same time, the polymerization process was automated with modern robot technology in many areas. This led to shorter cycle times and therefore, significantly increased capacity.

ROHACELL is a structural foam based on polymethacrylimide, which is used in fiber-reinforced composite parts for lightweight applications. The most important market segments are aerospace and lifestyle, as well as automotive engineering and wind energy.

As MRC reported earlier, in late December 2013, Evonik Industries and LanzaTech signed a three year research cooperation agreement which will see Evonik combining its existing biotechnology platforms with LanzaTech’s synthetic biology and gas fermentation expertise for the development of a route to bio-processed precursors for specialty plastics from waste derived synthesis gas.

Evonik, the creative industrial group from Germany, is one of the world leaders in specialty chemicals. Its activities focus on the key megatrends health, nutrition, resource efficiency and globalization. Evonik benefits specifically from its innovative prowess and integrated technology platforms. Evonik is active in over 100 countries around the world. In fiscal 2012, the company generated sales of around EUR13.6 billion and an operating profit (adjusted EBITDA) of about EUR2.6 billion.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Equipolymers is in plans to shut a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) line owing to technical issues, reported Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Germany informed that the plant is likely to be shut in mid-February 2014. It is planned to remain off-stream for around 10 days.

Located in Schkopau, Germany, the line has a production capacity of 175,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote previously, a Turkish petrochemicals group, Polisan Holding restarted the former PET polymer plant of Spanish group La Seda de Barcelona in Volos, Greece, in late December 2013.

The 80,000 tpa Artenius Hellas facility, which was mothballed by the insolvent Barcelona-based group last year, was bought in September by Polisan of Ankara for EUR8.6 mln. The Greek plant, which employed almost 100, has been renamed Polisan Hellas.
MRC