Sipchem to issue US$400 mln bond

(Plastemart) -- Saudi International Petrochemical Co (Sipchem) plans a US$400 mln bond to raise a minimum of 1.5 billion riyals by the first quarter of 2011 to finance expansion. The issuance is expected by the first quarter of next year. Sipchem has mandated one local and one international bank as financial advisers, declining to give more details before it gets approval from the Capital Market Authority (CMA). Sipchem is planning to spend 400 million riyals to build the first ethyl acetate plant in the region.

MRC

(Plastics News) -- Dynasol SA has formed a 50-50 joint venture with Shanxi Northern Xingan Chemical Industry (Xingan) to build a plant making synthetic rubber -- in the form of styrenic block copolymers -- at a plant in China's Liaoning province.

The plant will have annual capacity for about 220 million pounds of synthetic rubber, officials with both companies said in a Dec. 14 news release. Material made at the plant will be based on styrene and butadiene and will be used in the automotive market, as well as in cables, adhesives, medical care and asphalt modification, officials said.

Madrid-based Dynasol -- a joint venture between Repsol and the Kuo Group -- already operates SBC plants in Spain and Mexico. The new capacity will boost Dynasol's global total by 50 percent.

MRC

(ICIS) -- US chemical company Celanese plans to enter China's fuel ethanol market to capitalise on the country's goals in renewable fuels consumption, chief financial officer Steven Sterin said on Wednesday.

Celanese announced in November its plans to build one or two coal-based ethanol plants in China - each with capacity of 400,000 short tons/year. Each plant's capacity could be expanded to 1m tons/year at a fraction of the original capital investment, said Sterin in an interview with ICIS.

The cost to build a 400,000 ton/year plant was expected to be around $300m (┬225m), he added.

Once approved, the Chinese plants - whose locations were still to be decided - would take 30 months to build and would initially serve the domestic industrial ethanol market, which was growing 8-10%/year, as estimated by Celanese.

Current chemical applications demand for ethanol in China - for products including solvents, inks, lacquers, paints and coatings - was estimated at 3m tons/year, according to the company.

MRC

(Plastics News) -- Executives of many compounding extruder makers report a broad pickup in U.S. machinery sales ≈ to customers making filled materials, engineering resins, color masterbatch and biomaterials. One big reason: a rebounding automotive sector, which ripples through the entire plastics supply chain. Now auto sales are growing again, after the miserable 2009 ≈ when U.S. sales sank to around 10 million and General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC plunged into government-funded bankruptcy.

Sales for this year are expected to grow to 11.5 million, about 15 percent. And estimates call for 2011 sales between 12 million and 13 million cars and trucks. Now automotive suppliers are feeling healthy and ready to upgrade their compounding lines, according to several machinery executives.

KraussMaffei Corp. President Paul Caprio said the Florence, Ky.-based company has seen a ⌠tremendous increase in quotes and orders for Berstorff compounding machines.

Century Extrusion President Bob Urtel also saw extruder sales pick up in the middle of the year. Urtel said business is well-rounded at the company in Traverse City, Mich., including recycled plastics, masterbatch and general compounding.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- In November Ukrainian companies increased HDPE supplies to the domestic market. Supplies of film HDPE grew twice as much that allowed to phase out deficit, according to MRC analysts.

In September while expecting restart of HDPE production at Karpatneftekhim (Lukoil Group) and output of cheaper domestic film polyethylene, Ukrainian companies considerably reduced material purchases in Europe and Russia. By October capacities in Kalush had reached full loading but polyethylene supplies to the domestic market occurred only mid-November.

In September-October film HDPE supplies to the Ukrainian market grew to the level of 3.8 - 4 KT, as a result there was insignificant deficit in the market. In November Ukrainian companies widened the geography of PE purchases and increased total imports to 6 KT. Also the first PE from Kalush appeared.

In December many European producers considerably limited their export quotas for film PE. Deficit in the market of film HDPE in Russia also affected export prices and quotas this month for the Ukrainian market. And the euro's decline against the dollar made the Russian material more expensive compared to the European one. Still there are problems with Kalush supplies to the domestic market.

Nevertheless the Ukrainian market of film HDPE doesn't demonstrate serious problems. Seasonal reduction of demand balanced the market. The growth of export prices for European HDPE by EUR 20-30/mt levelled euro rate. The prices for European film polyethylene remained without considerable changes compared to November and they are within the range of 14.400 - 14.800 UAH./t, including VAT, FCA.

MRC