MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chinese-owned chemical company BorsodChem is planning to establish a new hydrochloric acid condensation plant in Kazincbarcika, via an EUR84 mln investment, supported with a EUR3.2 mln Hungarian government grant, CEO Chien-sheng Ding and state secretary for foreign affairs and foreign trade Peter Szijjarto announced in Budapest, as per Bbi.
BorsodChem is owned by the Chinese Wanhua group. The investment is expected to create at least 70 jobs, bringing the number of BorsodChem employees over 2,500.
As MRC wrote before, last year the BorsodChem chief executive said the Hungarian firm is no longer seeking a buyer for its loss making PVC production business. In early 2009, BorsodChem put the PVC operation up for sale but did not attract a buyer. Now, Wanhua has taken measures to improve the division’s prospects including re negotiating its long term ethylene supply contract with the Hungarian chemical company TVK. The BorsodChem CEO said though that the overall market situation was still negative in terms of profitability, something being felt not only by the firm but by all its competitors. Wanhua had a longer term commitment to the business and there are cost benefits from being in PVC for its Hungarian offshoot.
Wanhua Industrial Group acquired BorsodChem in February 2011 by exercising a call option on shares held by funds of UK-based private equity group Permira and Austrian private equity investor Vienna Capital Partners (VCP), making Wanhua the third largest isocyanates producer in the world.
MRC