Permira to withdraw from BorsodChem in two years' time

March 16 (plasteurope) -- Hungarian chemicals company BorsodChem could well be Chinese-owned in two years' time. After months of wrangling, current majority shareholders - private equity investor Permira and Vienna Capital Partners - have decided to give minority shareholder Yantai Wanhua Polyurethane an option to acquire all shares currently held by Permira and VCP.

In exchange Wanhua will extend an immediate loan of EUR 30m, followed by an additional EUR 110m within a few weeks. The companies have not provided any further financial details of the deal.

MRCMRC Reference

BorsodChem. The share in the Russian market in 2008:
PVC - 2.5%;
PVC-S - 2.6%.

Annual growth of sales in Russia over the 5 years:
PVC - 201%.

Supply by processing technologies:
profile extrusion;
compounding.

March 15 (StarAfrica) -- Nigeria's main armed group MEND threatened on Monday to attack oil firms such as French group Total in renewed violence in the country's restive oil-rich Niger Delta region.

"In the coming days, we will carry out a number of attacks against installations and oil companies across the Niger Delta and will spread out to companies such as Total which have been spared in the past," the group said in an email to AFP.

The Movement for Emancipation of the Niger Delta called off a three-month unilateral truce in January, angered with the Nigerian government for lack of progress in the implementation of a post-amnesty programme for former fighters in the region.

Last June, the government offered an amnesty to rebels who laid down their guns after a three-year campaign of violence against the country's multi-billion-dollar oil industry.

The campaign, which involved repeated attacks on oil installations and the kidnap of foreign oil workers, slashed Nigeria's daily oil output.

From a peak of 2.6 million barrels in 2006, production fell to as low as one million barrels per day. Since the recent amnesty programme came into effect, production has risen to two million barrels.

Total, one of Nigeria's main oil players, has been spared attacks on its operations by militants in the region.

Last month, Total announced plans to invest seven billion dollars (5.16 billion euros) in the country's oil and gas exploration and production over the next four to five years.

Two of the projects have already been announced -- the development of the Usan deep water offshore field, which will go into production in 2012, and the exploration of oil block OML 58 in the Niger Delta.

Two more areas are being studied, a company spokesman said.

MRC

March 15 (prw) -- Russian oil and chemicals group JSC Alco-Naphtha is constructing what will be Russia's biggest PET polymer production plant to date in the western city of Kaliningrad.

Work began early this year on the 240,000 tpa PET facility, the fourth plant so far to be established for the resin in Russia. When complete, it will be twice the size of the existing second ranked unit at Blagoveschensk operated by the Russian company Polief.

Around 40% of the new plant's PET output is destined for Russian domestic use, while the rest is due to be exported.

Technology and the automated equipment to produce PET granules at the Kaliningrad facility are being supplied by German company Uhde Inventa-Fischer of Berlin.

Apart from the Polief plant, Russia has two other PET production units: the 52,500 tpa Sibur-PETF operation in Tver and another one in the Moscow region. Polief has plans to expand its PET capacity up to 620,000 tpa and the raw material PTA to 600,000 tpa by 2012.

Domestic production still lags behind Russia's growing PET market which continues to be supplied from China and South Korea where prices undercut those of Europe.

MRC

March 15 (plasteurope) -- The reorganisation plan for LyondellBasell approved by New York court on 11 March sets the stage for the group to exit US Chapter 11 on 30 April 2010. The reorganised olefins and polyolefins giant to be shaped in a planned USD 2.8 bn rights issue will be majority owned (51.6%) by private equity group Apollo. Former owner Len Blavatnik will hold 32.24% of shares, Apollo's private equity partner Ares 16.2%. All claims of the rights issue sponsors will be met.

LyondellBasell's management rejected the takeover bid by India's Reliance as too low.

MRC MRC Reference

LyondellBasell. The share in the Russian market in 2008:
PE - 1.4% (including HDPE - 2.5%, LDPE - 0.3%);
PP - 4.1% (including block-copolymers - 9.5%).

Annual sales growth in Russia, during the recent 5 years:
PE - 27%;
PP - 88%.

The leader in the following polymers processing technologies:

pipe extrusion;

film extrusion;

injection molding.

March 15 (plasticsnews) -- A Taiwanese firm has developed its own version of micromolding injection machines and hopes to position them as a lower-cost alternative to German and Japanese machines that dominate that higher-end market.

Edex Technology Co. Ltd., which unveiled the machines at the recent Taipei Plas show, claims they are the first micromolding machines made outside Germany and Japan. The Taiwanese company thinks it can gain market share by selling them for 30 percent less than established competitors.

⌠We have the technology and the skill to develop this machine, but at a lower price, said Wu Mei, manager of administration for the Taipei, Taiwan-based company. ⌠We have overcome many of the cost problems with the machine.

The machines use a plunger injection system, with Japanese servo motors and German gear pumps, she said, speaking in a March 9 interview at the company's booth at Taipei Plas.

It's a potentially bold step for Edex, a small firm that until last year designed and made standard injection presses for other companies.

But Wu said the firm sees chances to make inroads with its machine in Taiwan's strong electronics components molding industry, and expand from there in electronics and medical applications, among others.

She said the company, for example, received a lot of interest from Japanese firms at the Taiplas show, held March 5-9 in Taipei.

The company unveiled a lineup of five machines in its ⌠Atom brand, ranging from five tons to 60 tons.

While the machine is new commercially, the company picked up the top prize for plastic machinery this year at awards given by Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry, presented at the trade fair.

MRC