Price increases on Arkema's organic peroxides and plastics additives range

(Arkema) -- Arkema announces price increases on its Thermolite Thermal Stabilizers, its Clearstrength MBS Impact Modifiers, its Durastrength Acrylic Impact Modifiers and its Plastistrength Processing Aids sold in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), and on all ranges of organic peroxides used in all polymer initiators, crosslinking and thermoset markets. Those price increases are required to offset the recent substantial price increase in major raw materials.

Effective April 1st 2011 or as contract terms allow, EMEA prices will be increased by 250 ┬/t forThermolite and Clearstrength, and by 150 ┬/t for Plastistrength and Durastrength.

On organic peroxides they range from 5% to 8% depending on specific products. Pricing validity of following Luperox grades will be confirmed on quaterly basis to follow the volatility of some raw materials.

MRC

(LANXESS) - Lanxess is expanding its global production network for high-tech plastics. The specialty chemical company broke ground on a new compounding facility in the United States. Additionally, Lanxesss and U.S. chemical company DuPont will double the capacity of their joint compounding facility in Hamm-Uentrop, Germany.

The new production facility in Gastonia, North Carolina, will have an initial capacity of 20.000 metric tons per year. It will be the first compounding facility for the Lanxess high-tech plastics Durethan and Pocan in the United States. Basic polymers, such as polyamide and polybutylene terephthalate, are mixed and refined with additives in the compounding facility to produce Durethan and Pocan as per customer needs.

Lanxess and U.S. chemical company DuPont plan to double the capacity of their joint compounding facility for polybutylene terephthalate (PBT). The partner companies will invest an extra Euro 10 million in the facility in Hamm-Uentrop, Germany. The expansion is expected to create nine new jobs in addition to the 70 positions already in existence. Production is scheduled to begin in 2012. The plant is one of the largest of its kind in the world and was opened in 2004.

MRC

(ICIS) -- ExxonMobil started on Wednesday a planned maintenance at its integrated manufacturing site in Singapore, the petrochemical giant said in a statement. It said "several operating units" would be off line for about nine weeks, without identifying the plants that would be affected.

ExxonMobil's Singapore integrated manufacturing site consists of the Singapore Refinery and the Singapore Chemical Plant (SCP).

The refinery has a pipestill capacity of 605,000 bbl/day and manufactures a wide range of fuels, lubricant basestocks and specialty products that caters to the Singapore and Asia-Pacific markets, it said.

MRC

(ICIS) -- Polypropylene (PP) buyers in Europe are under very strong pressure to pay higher prices as a series of record high price increases shows no signs of abating, market sources said on Monday.

Homopolymer net injection prices have approached ┬1.400/tonne ($1.944/tonne) FD (free delivered) NWE (northwest Europe) and sometimes traded above this level, as producers sought to cover the ┬80/tonne increase in the propylene monomer contract for March, which settled at ┬1.185/tonne FD NWE.

As recently as November 2010, PP levels were at ┬1.150/tonne FD NWE.

March pricing discussions were said to be tough, and so far there is no sign of any flexibility from European PP producers to their converters.

MRC

(BASF) -- With immediate effect, or as existing contracts permit, BASF SE will increase its European selling prices for the following products: 1.4 Butanediol (BDO) +200 EUR/mt,
Tetrahydrofuran (THF) +250 EUR/mt, Polytetramethylene ether glycol (PolyTHF) +300 EUR/mt, N-Methyl-2-Pyrrolidone (NMP) +200 EUR/mt, N-Ethylpyrrolidone (NEP) +200 EUR/mt, Gamma Butyrolactone (GBL) +200 EUR/mt

The price adjustment ensures that BASF can continue to offer quality products and services to its customers. BDO and its derevatives are used for producing engineering plastics, polyurethanes, solvents and elastic spandex fibers.

MRC