Jindal Poly Films aquires ExxonMobil Chemical BOPP global film business

(Indian Commodity) -- On October 26, 2012, Jindal Poly Films inked an agreement with ExxonMobil Chemical (ExxonMobil) to purchase ExxonMobil's BOPP Global Film business. To come in force, the transaction needs to be approved by regulatory authorities.

The agreement covers five BOPP production locations in the US and Europe. The manufacturing sites are in Georgia and Oklahoma in the US and in Italy respectively, the Netherlands, and Belgium in Europe. The transaction also includes a technology centre and sales office in Rochester, New York, and an office in Luxembourg.

Exxon Mobil Corporation is an American multinational oil and gas corporation. Itl is the world's largest company by revenue and one of the largest publicly traded companies by market capitalization in the world. The corporation is one of the largest producers of olefins, such as ethylene and propylene, and polyolefins, including polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP). These products are the basic building blocks used to make many everyday products including packaging film, automotive parts, and polyester fiber.

Jindal Poly Films is a part of Rs 3,000 crore B C Jindal Group, a 50 year old industrial group offering a wide range of products. The company is the largest manufacturer of BOPET and BOPP films in India. It produces BOPET film, BOPP film, metalized BOPET film and BOPP film, coated BOPET and BOPP films, polyester chips (for captive consumption in the BOPET film).
MRC

(bloomberg) -- Eastman Chemical Co., the biggest U.S. producer of chemicals from coal, rose the most in more than three years after surpassing analysts’ third-quarter profit estimates and lifting its 2012 forecast.

Eastman Chemical rose 12 % to USD60.19 at the close in New York, the biggest gain since April 24, 2009.
Excluding restructuring costs and expenses related to the July acquisition of Solutia Inc., profit from continuing operations rose to USD1.57 a share from USD1.26 a year earlier, Kingsport, Tennessee-based Eastman said yesterday in a statement.

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jim Rogers increased sales by 25 % in the quarter to USD2.26 billion with the addition of Solutia and 3 % higher sales volumes. Earnings benefited from lower raw-material costs, helping offset lower prices, said Edlain Rodriguez, a New York-based analyst at Lazard Capital Markets.

Full-year earnings will be USD5.30 to USD5.40 a share, compared with a prior forecast of USD5.30, Eastman said. Maintenance at an ethylene plant in Longview, Texas, will reduce fourth-quarter earnings by about 10 cents a share.

Profit in 2013 will be at least USD6 a share, and a more specific forecast will be discussed at a Nov. 5 investor event, Rogers said.

As MRC wrote, in early October Eastman Chemical Company announced the addition of new PET polymer Aspir to its portfolio of resins.

MRC

(packagingnews) -- Berlin Packaging, a supplier of plastic, glass, and metal containers and closures, has announced that it has acquired United States Container Corporation (USCC) – a distributor of industrial and rigid packaging.

With the transaction, Berlin Packaging increases its US footprint with an expanded presence in California and Arizona markets, which will provide customers with more resources, as they look to leverage its packaging, inventory-management solutions, and value-added services, said the company.

The acquisition, fourth by the company in three years, will provide it with over 90 sales and warehouse locations across North America, more than 120 packaging consultants and sales managers.

With annual revenues touching USD800m, expanded Berlin Packaging teams in the Los Angeles, San Francisco and Phoenix areas will be able to provide more sales and customer service personnel to assist in package selection, sourcing and support.

Other benefits of the acquisitions include addition of four new warehouses, a better industrial packaging portfolio, easy online access to stock packaging via Sunburst Bottle and revenue growth and streamlined processes for suppliers.

USCC, founded in 1956, is a distributor of industrial containers in the western states, and it serves a range of markets, including food, beverage, pharmaceutical, agricultural, paint and coating, chemicals, and personal care.
MRC

(bbc) -- China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) Asia's largest refiner, has posted a decline in profits, as demand for petrochemicals suffered in China's slowing economy.

The company saw its net profits drop 9.4% to 18.3bn yuan (USD2.92bn; GBR1.82bn) in the three months to 30 September from 20.2bn yuan a year earlier.

The higher cost of crude oil also hurt Sinopec's refining margins. China's economic growth has slowed for seven straight quarters.

Analysts said Sinopec's petrochemical business swung to a loss in the July to September period. In its earnings report to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Sinopec said output of ethylene, used to make plastic, decreased 4.5% to 7.02 million tonnes in the first nine months of the year.

Synthetic resin production also fell 1.1% to 9.96 million tonnes. That has offset the benefit to the refiners from the recent rises in gasoline and diesel prices. China's government tightly controls the cost of fuel to keep inflation in check.

China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group) is a super-large petroleum and petrochemical enterprise group established in July 1998 on the basis of the former China Petrochemical Corporation. Sinopec Group's key business activities include the exploration and production of oil and natural gas, petrochemicals and other chemical products, oil refining.
MRC

(online.wsj) -- China's Zhenhai district government said Sunday it had halted construction of a paraxylene plant in Ningbo planned by China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., or Sinopec, amid growing environmental concerns.

The government said that it would conduct additional research on the project. The PX plant with a capacity 1.6 million mt/year was scheduled to come on stream in 2014.

Ningbo officials said late Sunday that plans to expand a refining and petrochemicals facility run by a unit of state-controlled oil-and-natural gas giant China Petrochemical Corp., known as Sinopec Group, would be suspended pending further review. In addition, the government said it would scrap a portion of the facility designed to produce the industrial chemical paraxylene, which local residents feared could be damaging to their health and the environment.

Sinopec didn't respond to a request for comment. The facility is already one of the country's largest, with a capacity of about 23 million tons of crude per year. An earlier Sinopec news release said the company would invest 55.9 billion yuan (USD8.9 billion) in the plant's expansion.

Chinese and foreign companies have worked in recent years to ramp up production of petrochemicals, needed to produce everything from plastics and cleaning solvents and textiles. However, growing concern over potential health risks associated with these projects, as well as their proximity to population centers, threatens to further slow expansion efforts.
MRC