Honam Petrochemical looking to PET

(Korea JoongAng Daily) -- Honam Petrochemical, an affiliate of the Lotte Group, decided on Nov.19 to set foot in the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film business as a part of its expansion strategy in the performance material business.

Honam said it will build a production facility within KP Chemical's site in Ulsan, which will be able to annually produce of 20,000 tons by 2012 and 40,000 tons by 2014.

Because Honam is the leading polyethylene producer in the Asian region and is ranked second in Asia for ethylene and polypropylene productions, its entry into the PET film industry will be a positive entry for its future task of becoming a ⌠total solution provider, but not so easy considering other competitors making a name in the market.

MRC

(ICIS) -- Bayer plans to reduce its workforce by 2,000 by 2012 as part of an ┬800m/year ($1.1bn/year) cost-cutting programme, the chief executive of the German pharmaceuticals and specialty chemicals producer said on Thursday.

The programme aims to shift the company's focus toward researching, developing and marketing new products in its pharmaceuticals and pesticides businesses, as well as expanding activities in emerging markets, Bayer said.

Bayer said about 4,500 positions - including 1,700 in Germany - would be cut, while 2,500 new jobs would be added, mostly in emerging markets. The company did not specify from which units that jobs would be cut.

The ┬800m/year in savings would be realised beginning in 2013.

MRC

(Bloomberg) -- The average operating rate of U.S. chlorine and caustic soda makers, which include Dow Chemical Co., dropped to 80 percent in October, a trade group said.

The industry's average operating rate for plants that make the chemicals known as chlor-alkali fell from 91 percent in September, The Chlorine Institute, based in Arlington, Virginia, said today in an e-mail. Plants on average ran at 79 percent of capacity in October 2009.

Chlorine is used to make vinyl products such as siding and PVC pipe. Caustic soda, produced in tandem with chlorine, is used to make pulp, paper and soap.

MRC

(Plastics Today) -- Unilever, one of the world's largest brand owners of FMCGs, plans to reduce its product packaging weight by a third in the next 10 years and do away with PVC as much as possible by 2012. Bioplastics are of interest but not yet truly viable nor particularly sustainable, it says.

Unilever currently uses around 2 million tons of packaging a year, it says. The Sustainable Living Plan is multi-faceted with separate goals for reducing water use, increasing its use of renewable resources, and also goals for reduced use of packaging and increased recycling of the packaging it does use.

The new plan is said to be part of a strategy to "decouple future growth from environmental impact." Its goals including cutting the environmental footprint of its products in half and sourcing 100% of its agricultural raw materials sustainably.

MRC

(Plastemart) -- Middle East petrochemical producers are not a real threat to Indian companies and they will still be able to compete, as per head of marketing at India's ONGC Petro additions Limited, in Platts. The next two years are expected to be tough for Indian producers.

The impact of cheap ethane gas used as feedstock by the Middle Eastern producers as compared to mainly naphtha-based steam crackers in Asia is expected to lessen over the next two years. He pointed out that while cheap ethane feedstock was the main driver for Middle East capacity in the past, there have been no new ethane allocations for new petrochemical projects in Saudi Arabia, for instance, since 2006.

Ethane in the Middle East is now being diverted more to power generation and water desalination plants, and new petrochemical projects are now based on mixed feeds - ethane and LPG, signaling a shift. In addition, several petrochemical projects in the Middle East had been delayed or were operating at lower rates due to non-availability of ethane feedstock or technical issues. The Middle East's ethane-based capacity will be only 16% of global ethylene capacity. So prices will still be determined by high consumption regions like China, Europe and Southeast Asia.

MRC