New site agreement for BASF Ludwigshafen site

(BASF) -- BASF SE management and employee representatives signed a new site agreement for the company's Ludwigshafen site. The agreement, titled ⌠Safeguarding the future through flexibility and operational partnership, applies to the approximately 33,000 BASF SE employees at the site for the period from the beginning of 2011 to end of 2015. It replaces the site agreement from end of 2004 which expires at the end of this year.


A no-redundancy pledge is a key element of the agreement. Another is the company's promise to spend ┬9 to 10 billion on measures to safeguard the site's future through to the end of 2015. Approximately two-thirds of the amount will be used on investment, modernization and maintenance to keep the Ludwigshafen site performing at its best in terms of technology and organization and thus strengthening core operations.


The investment thus remains at the high level of the past years. Research and development expenditure will also be at the level of previous years and will account for more than one-third of the total amount. Ludwigshafen will remain the central platform for global research and development at BASF.


MRC


PET prices hikes on the way warns Pafa

(PRW) -- Pafa, the UK trade association for packaging films, has warned of further raw material increases in the PET market. The association says that strong Asian demand for polyester is starting to add further inflationary pressure to prices in Europe.


Pafa CEO Barry Turner said that the effect of market recovery, as global demand has picked up around the world during the last 12 months, continues to create sharp upward price pressures as suppliers juggle demand and supply for all raw materials.


⌠There is a shortage of PET feedstock in the market for all applications. This has been influenced in part by strong demand for polyester for textiles and clothing, resulting from a shortage of cotton due to the failure of crops in Asia.


Pafa revealed that prices for PTA (the principal PET feedstock) recently moved up 26% in one week alone in Asia. ⌠It is difficult to see the situation easing in the short term, continued Turner.


MRC


A unique column lift has been carried out in Tobolsk-Polymer site

(Sibur) -- A column for the separation of propane-propylene fraction with a height of 96 meters and weight of 1095 tons was installed in Tobolsk-Polymer site.


"The column is the heart of the propane dehydrogenation plant," said Dmitry Fomin, the director of capital construction at Tobolsk-Polymer.


According to Alfredo Errico, the engineer from the contractor Tecnimont (Italy), assembling the almost 100-meter column was a unique operation. The installation of the column lasted 6 hours. Despite the weather, the operation went ahead without problems.


Sibur project "Tobolsk-Polymer" - a planned complex for polypropylene production with a capacity of 500 thousand tons per year. Completion of the construction of the propylene installation is scheduled for the second half of 2012.


The project will significantly increase processing of associated gas, which will have a positive impact on the ecological situation in the region. Furthermore, according to various estimates, up to one million tons of polypropylene - the plastic with the third highest consumption in the world after polyethylene and PVC - is imported into Russia in the form of finished products. The new production will meet the continually increasing demand for polypropylene and for the finished products manufactured from it.


MRC


Petronas Chemicals share price surges on Malaysia debut

(ICIS)--Petronas Chemicals Group (PCG) shares debuted strongly on the Malaysian stock exchange on Friday, with price jumping by as much as 10% from its initial public offering (IPO) price, underscoring the strong appetite for Asian big-capital stocks.


PCG's $4.1bn (┬3.1bn) IPO was the biggest to come out of Malaysia and out of southeast Asia to date, beating the $3.3bn offering of telecommunications firm Maxis, according to media reports.


PCG set its IPO price to institutional investors, which took up 88% of its IPO of 2.48bn shares, at M$5.20/share, while retail offerings of 293m shares were priced at a 3% discount to the set price.


The trading debutante comprises the 22 petrochemical-related businesses of state oil and gas firm Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas).


Its operations cover olefins, polymers, fertilizers, methanol and other basic chemical and derivative products. Based on volumes, the company is the biggest producer of methanol and ethylene glycols in southeast Asia, according to its website.


The company's IPO proceeds would be used for future expansion, which would include greenfield ammonia and urea projects off east Malaysia.


MRC


LLDPE market keeps on growing

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Over the ten months the volume of consumed linear polyethylene in Russia moved at more than 135 KT which has already exceeded the volume of consumption over all 2009, MRC analysts say.


Despite own PE production capacities, the Russian market 70% still depends on the shipment from external suppliers. The main reason is limited grade assortment from the Russian producers.


The main mover of growing demand for linear polyethylene are stretch film producers, in particular, cast film. Market leaders firmly maintain their positions: Regent-stretch, Lava, Nova roll and Ecotek. Nevertheless, over last two years in Russia a few more cast stretch film productions were launched.


Among them we should mention industrial park Kamskie Polyani, whose production facilities allow to produce up to 15 KT p.a. of reinforced stretch film.


MRC