A. Schulman announces regular cash dividend

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Board of Directors of A. Schulman, Inc., a leading international supplier of high-performance plastic compounds and resins, has declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of USD0.20 per common share, as per the company's press release.

The company's quarterly cash dividend will be payable May 1, 2014, to shareholders of record on April 18, 2014.

As MRC informed previously, in October 2013, the Board of Directors of A. Schulman, Inc., declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of USD0.20 per common share, payable November 4, 2013. This represented a 2.6% increase over the prior quarter's dividend payout. Then, the dividend on an annualized basis stood at USD0.80 per share and represented a yield of approximately 3%.

As reported earlier, in September 2013, A. Schulman, Inc. purchased the Perrite Group, a thermoplastics manufacturing business with operations in Malaysia, the United Kingdom and France, for approximately USD52 million. The acquisition is expected to increase revenues in A. Schulman's Asia Pacific (APAC) segment by 35% and will double the size of the company's existing Engineered Plastics business in the region.

A. Schulman, Inc. is a leading international supplier of high-performance plastic compounds and resins headquartered in Akron, Ohio. The company's customers span a wide range of markets such as packaging, mobility, building & construction, electronics & electrical, agriculture, personal care & hygiene, sports, leisure & home, custom services and others. The company employs approximately 3,300 people and has 34 manufacturing facilities globally. A. Schulman reported net sales of USD2.1 billion for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2013.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- PKN Orlen, a Polish oil and gas company, has shut a phenol/acetone plant for maintenance turnaround, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Poland informed that the plant was shut on April 4, 2014. It is planned to be restarted on April 26, 2014.

Located in Plock, Poland, the plant has a production capacity of 50,000 mt/year.

As MRC reported earlier, in mid-June 2013 PKN Orlen offered for sale a second PLN 200m tranche of its bonds and expects the proceeds from the entire bond issue programme to reach approximately PLN 1bn. This move was done in response to the enormous interest in PKN Orlen bonds on the part of investors, who subscribed to the entire PLN 200m of the first series of bonds in just two days.

Polski Koncern Naftowy ORLEN S.A. (PKN Orlen) is a Polish oil and gas coSolvents plant shut bympany. It has a lot of petrol stations in Poland, Germany, Czech Republic, Lithuania and Slovakia. It is the biggest company in Poland and one of the biggest oil and gas companies in Europe. Polish group PKN Orlen PKNA is a majority owner - 63% of czech polyolefins manufacturer Unipetrol.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Specialty chemical maker A. Schulman Inc raised its full-year profit outlook, topping the average analyst expectation, citing strengthening demand in Europe and relatively stable raw material prices, said Reuters.

The company, which also reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Monday, raised its 2014 adjusted profit to USD2.23-USD2.28 per share from USD2.13-USD2.18.

Analysts on average were expecting USD2.16 per share, according to Thomson Reuters.

Net sales in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region rose 12% in the second quarter ended Feb.28, helped by demand from automotive, electronics & electrical markets.

Total revenue increased 13% to USD588.5 million.

Net income attributable to A. Schulman fell to USD6.8 million, or 23 cents per share, from USD11.8 million, or 40 cents per share, a year earlier.

Adjusted profit from continuing operations was 39 cents per share, higher than analysts' average estimate of 33 cents per share.

As MRC wrote before, A. Schulman, Inc. announced that it has purchased the Perrite Group, a thermoplastics manufacturing business with operations in Malaysia, the United Kingdom and France, for approximately USD52 million.

A. Schulman, Inc. is a leading international supplier of high-performance plastic compounds and resins headquartered in Akron, Ohio. The company's customers span a wide range of markets such as packaging, mobility, building & construction, electronics & electrical, agriculture, personal care & hygiene, sports, leisure & home, custom services and others. The company employs approximately 3,300 people and has 34 manufacturing facilities globally.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Specialty chemicals company Lanxess has successfully concluded the pilot phase for a highly efficient production process for butyl rubber, reported the company on its site.

In the past seven years, Lanxess worked on a fundamentally new technology for a more sustainable production. An important step in this process was the testing of the new technology in two pilot plants at its production site in Zwijndrecht/Belgium since spring 2012. The production process of butyl rubber is highly complex and requires process steps at very low temperatures and significant usage of steam. The new process technology is significantly more energy and cost efficient.

Lanxess now intends to mothball the pilot plants after successful development of the new production process. A labor consultation process was started locally to align potential impacts on staff with unions and employees.

Butyl rubbers are used in tire inner liners - the innermost, air- and humidity-impermeable layer of a tubeless tire. They keep tire pressure constant over a long period, thus making vehicles safer and ensuring they consume less fuel and therefore produce fewer emissions. Special applications include protective clothing and medical devices. The use of butyl in chewing gum production represents one particularly interesting niche market.

Besides its Zwijndrecht plant Lanxess operates butyl production facilities in Sarnia/Canada and Singapore.

As MRC wrote previously, last July, Lanxess celebrated the opening of its first production facility in Russia. In the new plant at the Lipetsk site, Lanxess subsidiary Rhein Chemie manufactures polymer-bound rubber additives for the markets in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), primarily for the automotive and tire industries. A production facility for the bladders used in tire production is to be added in 2016. The overall investment volume in euros amounts to a seven-digit figure.

The Butyl Rubber business unit is part of Lanxess’ Performance Polymers segment, which recorded sales of EUR4.49 billion in fiscal 2013.

Lanxess is a leading specialty chemicals company with sales of EUR 8.3 billion in 2013 and roughly 17,300 employees in 31 countries. The company is currently represented at 52 production sites worldwide. The core business of Lanxess is the development, manufacturing and marketing of plastics, rubber, intermediates and specialty chemicals.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- KraussMaffei Berstorff has recently developed a highly cost-effective production process for multilayer PVC floor coverings, also referred to as Luxury Vinyl Tiles (LVT)? said the producer in its press-release.

In contrast to conventional multistage processes using calenders or belt presses, compounding and tile production are performed in a single cycle with the material being heated up only once. Offering a range of convincing benefits, LVT floor coverings are an attractive alternative to laminate flooring, which is why they are in high demand worldwide.

LVT flooring is composed of a highly filled core layer - usually provided with an integrated glass mat – plus decorative film and a wear protection layer. While the glass mat gives strength and dimensional stability, the core layer provides flatness of the floor covering and impact sound insulation. For this purpose, the PVC sheet material is filled up to 60 to 70% with mineral additives to obtain thick sheeting of high density and weight. The decorative film is laminated to the thick sheeting to produce the desired design and the product is rounded off by wear protection layers of different thickness depending on the future application.

Similar to roofing sheets, the three-layer floor covering core is produced on two twin-screw extruders and two smoothing calenders. The first extruder - used for plasticizing and homogenizing a PVC compound - is equipped with a side feeder to incorporate a high mineral filler share and additional additives. The material leaving the extruder is applied to the glass mat on the first downstream smoothing calender.

The composite obtained is then guided through the second smoothing calender to apply the PVC compound - previously processed on the second extruder - to the other side of the glass mat. This method offers the decisive benefit that processing, compounding and tile production are carried out in-line, which is of fundamental importance for heat-sensitive PVC in particular. Downstream from the second smoothing calender, the three-layer core material is provided with the decorative film and the wear protection layer. The five-layer composite then passes through an embossing station as well as a temperature control section to ensure dimensional stability before being cut to size.

We remind that KraussMaffei Berstorff (Munich, Germany) presented its innovative concept for producing weatherproof sheets based on renewable raw materials to a 60 customers during a live demonstration in Munich on March 12, 2014.

As MRC wrote earlier, two leading pipe manufacturers from Russia have recently chosen KraussMaffei Berstorff as a systems supplier for premium-quality technology and invested in PO pipe extrusion systems.

The KraussMaffei Group is a global leader in the plastics and rubber processing industries. The company covers all areas of injection molding machinery, extrusion technology and reaction process machinery, which gives it a unique selling point in the industry.

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