Eastman exited PET business

(Plastics Today) -- DAK Americas LLC (Charlotte, NC) is expecting to close on its acquisition of Eastman Chemical Co.'s (Kingsport, TN) polyethylene terephthalate (PET) business by the end of this month, after completing the antitrust waiting period. DAK's purchase of Eastman's integrated PET and terephthalic acid (PTA) business, which was announced last October, includes three production facilities in Columbia, SC, covering two PET resin units and one PTA unit.

The transaction also includes intellectual property around Eastman's IntegRex PET and PTA technologies. The combined annual capacity of the PET production units is 675,000 tons, while the PTA unit's annual production capacity is 600,000 tons.

MRC

(Plastics Today) -- United Arab Emirates-based Union Pipes Industry (Abu Dhabi) has purchased equipment from Bauku (Wiehl, Germany) for the manufacture of 3m-diameter polypropylene spiral wound pipes for the Ruwais Refinery Expansion-2 Project of the Abu Dhabi Oil Refining Company (Takreer). The pipes are to be installed for sea water intake and outfall application at Ruwais.

This will be the first pipeline of its kind to be produced in the region. It will utilize high-stiffness PP High Modulus (HM) pipe grades such as BorECOBA212E from Borouge (Singapore), which are now produced locally at the company's new Ruwais PP production asset.

MRC

(ICIS) -- Perstorp has restarted its toluene di-isocyanate (TDI) and chlor-alkali units at Pont-de-Claix, France, and is running them at full rates, but the declarations of force majeure for both products remain in place, a company source said on Tuesday.

The source stressed that the facility's stocks remained low, particularly for chlor-alkali products (liquid chlorine, salt and caustic soda). The company would not lift the declarations of force majeure until inventories are back to normal, the source added.

According to Perstorp, the site's nameplate chlorine capacity is 170,000 tonnes/year and the TDI capacity is 126,000 tonnes/year.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Total volume of import supplies of PE to the Russian market in 2010 grew more than by 35% and exceeded the level of 450 KT, according to MRC analysts. This is a record index over the 20 years. In pre-crisis 2008 total volume of import supplies of PE made about 390 KT.

As expected the main gain in imports volumes was marked by HDPE and LDPE - by 47% and 20% respectively. The launch of new PE productions over last two years in Nizhnekamsk and Salavat with total capacity of 350 Kt didn't let cover growing demand of the Russian market.

MRC

(Plastemart) -- With effect from July 1, 2011, Bulgaria's environment ministry proposes to introduce a planned tax on plastic bags. The move is aimed at limiting the use of polyethylene bags in the country. Tax will be increased gradually each year, with the price of one bag to be raised to 55 stotinki in 2014 from the current 15 stotinki.

According to local businesses, however, the proposed term is too short for manufacturers and retailers to adjust their operations. Retailers will most likely cease the use of plastic bags by July and add the tax to the price of their products, which would be passed on to end users.

MRC