Intertape Polymer to invest in new plant to expand capacity in water-activated tapes

МОSCOW (MRC) -- Intertape Polymer Group Inc. decided to invest in the construction of a greenfield manufacturing facility to increase the Company's manufacturing capacity of water-activated tapes, said Marketwired.

Over the past few years, water-activated tapes have represented an area of significant growth for the Company. The Company currently produces water-activated tape at a manufacturing facility in Menasha, Wisconsin and has decided that this new facility will be constructed in the Southeastern United States in order to optimize service levels to its customers and supply chain logistics at both plants. The exact location of the new plant will be determined upon receipt of final approval of state and local credits and incentives offered.

Capital expenditures for this new investment project are currently estimated to total approximately USD44 to USD49 million US dollars, and the project's after-tax internal rate of return is expected to exceed the Company's hurdle rate of 15%. Approximately USD31 to USD36 million of capital expenditures are expected to be incurred on this project in 2016. Approximately USD4 million of equipment purchased in 2015 is being applied to this project. At this time, the Company is planning for the new manufacturing facility to be operational by the end of 2017. Total capital expenditures for 2016 for the Company are now expected to be approximately USD55 to USD65 million.

As it was informed earlier, Intertape Polymer Group Inc. is acquiring RJM Manufacturing Inc., a maker of filament and pressure sensitive tapes, in an USD11 million deal.

Intertape, which has corporate offices in Montreal and Sarasota, Fla., previously acquired Better Packages Inc. of Ansonia, Conn., a maker of table-top water-activated tape and dispensers used for carton sealing.

Intertape makes film- and paper-based pressure sensitive and water-activated tapes, polyethylene and specialized polyolefin films, woven coated fabrics and packaging systems for industrial and retail use. The company has 16 sites, including 11 manufacturing locations in North America and one manufacturing site in Porto, Portugal.
MRC

Italys Maire Tecnimont to invest USD1.1bn in Iran projects

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Italy-based Maire Tecnimont, a leading engineering company, has signed an agreement worth EUR1 billion (USD1.11 billion) with the Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industries Co (PGPIC) to construct refineries and petrochemical plants in Iran, a report said, said Tradearabia.

The agreement includes providing finance, parts and equipment, as well as solutions to Iran's processing issues, added the report.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Maire Tecnimont’s CEO Pierroberto Folgiero said that Italy is seeking to open a new chapter in its cooperation with Iran, especially in the oil and petrochemical industries.

Maire Tecnimont will help Iran build an acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and rubber plant in the industrial city of Asaluyeh, said the report.

The ABS product has a variety of applications including in the automotive industry, it added.

As MRC informed earlier, Germany-based Linde, a leading industrial gases company, and Japan’s Mitsui Chemicals plan to invest USD4 billion into petrochemical projects in Iran. Linde is considering investment in several Iranian projects, including Damavand Petrochemicals, in cooperation with Japan’s Mitsui, Marzieh Shah-Daei projects director at the National Petrochemical Company (NPC).
MRC

Iran in talks with Air Liquide to build petrochemical plant

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Iran is in talks with France’s Air Liquide to develop a 0.5mt Propylene via Methanol (PVM) plant, said Iran-bn.

Esmaeil Qambari (pictured), managing director of the Petrochemical Research and Technology Company, told reporters on Monday that the company is in talks with companies from Germany, France, Norway and Japan to purchase petrochemical technologies from them.

"In the latest development, we have held talks with Air Liquide for scientific partnership for development of a 500,000-ton Propylene via Methanol (PVM) plant," he said.

Ghambari said his company has developed a new model for its cooperation with foreign firms, saying, "Purchasing foreign technologies will take place only [if] foreign technologies are transferred to and localized in Iran."

He said the new model will reduce sale of crude oil, generate jobs, link upstream sector to downstream and petrochemical sectors and generate valued added in the industry.

He further said the company launched the first PVM pilot plant in Mahshahr during the first half of the current year and has gained permission to build an industrial unit with the capacity of 120,000 tons in the region.

As MRC reported earlier, NPC plans to increase its investments in the country's petrochemical projects in order to accelerate their progress, wrote in October 2014 Fars News Agency, quoting NPC Deputy Head Mohammad Hassan Peyvandi. The company is legally permitted to have a 20% share in petrochemical investments, but this can increase to 49% in under developed regions.

NPC is prioritizing funding for projects that are at least 60% complete, he said. These include the Takht-Jamshid SBR & PBR unit, the second phases of the Kavian and Karoun petrochemical plants, the West Ethylene Pipeline and petrochemical projects in the provinces of Lorestan, Kurdistan, Illam, Mahabad and Hamedan.
MRC

LyondellBasell Board authorizes interim dividend

MOSCOW (MRC) -- LyondellBasell, one of the world’s largest plastics, chemical and refining companies, has announced that its Supervisory Board has authorized the company's Management Board to declare an interim dividend of USD0.78 per share, said the producer on its site.

The interim dividend will be paid March 14, 2016 to shareholders of record February 29, 2016 with an ex-dividend date of February 25, 2016.

We remind that, as MRC wrote before, in October 2015, LyondellBasell announced the acquisition of SJS Plastiblends Pvt. Ltd. (SJS), thereby advancing the company’s position in India’s expanding automotive market. In August, LyondellBasell announced a definitive agreement to acquire SJS, a polypropylene (PP) compounds manufacturer located in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India.

LyondellBasell is one of the world’s largest plastics, chemical and refining companies and a member of the S&P 500. LyondellBasell manufactures products at 56 sites in 19 countries. LyondellBasell products and technologies are used to make items that improve the quality of life for people around the world including packaging, electronics, automotive parts, home furnishings, construction materials and biofuels.
MRC

PP imports to Ukraine dropped by 15% in January 2016

MOSCOW (MRC) -- January 2016 overall imports of polypropylene (PP) to Ukraine decreased by 17% from December 2015, totalling 8,700 tonnes. Propylene block copolymer (PP-block) accounted for the greatest fall in demand, according to MRC DataScope report.


January PP imports into Ukraine decreased to 8,700 tonnes under the pressure of seasonal factors (the long New Year holidays, absence of demand for finished products in the key processing sectors) from 10,500 tonnes in December 2015. Demand subsided for all PP grades, with injection moulding PP-block accounting for the greatest decrease in demand.

The supply structure by PP grades looked the following way over the stated period.

Last month's imports of propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) into the Ukrainian market accounted for slightly over 7,000 tonnes, whereas this figure was 8,200 tonnes a month earlier. Homopolymer PP of raffia grade from Russia accounted for the main reduction in shipments.


January PP-block imports dropped to 800 tonnes from 1,200 tonnes a month earlier, Ukrainian companies reduced their purchasing of injection moulding PP-block.

Last month's imports of statistical propylene copolymer (PP-random) to Ukraine totalled 764 tonnes versus 755 tonnes a month earlier, most local converters maintained their December purchasing of PP-random.

Overall imports of other copolymers of propylene were less than 200 tonnes over the stated period.

MRC