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As the takeover of Basell progresses it has emerged that The Chatterjee Group is no longer involved, and that Basell is being bought by Access Industries alone.
Both companies are American-based investment groups and were linked as a consortium throughout the Basell takeover saga. Access Industries is owned by Russian-born oil billionaire Leonard Blavatnik and has worldwide interests in oil, aluminium, and coal. Chatterjee, which also has substantial interests in India, has a controlling interest in India's Haldia Petrochemicals, and has been negotiating to buy out the Bengal government's stake in the company. Haldia's portfolio includes capacity for 260,000 tonnes of LLDPE and HDPE made under a Basell Spherilene Gas Phase licence and 300,000 tonnes of polypropylene made under a Basell Spheripol II licence. An involvement - directly as was at one time speculated - or through the Chatterjee link would give it access to Basell's polyolefins markets and its technology.
But plans for the new financial structure for Basell refer to a Luxembourg based acquisition vehicle Nell Acquisition Sarl (Nell was originally the code name for the Basell sale project) which is a 100 per cent owned affiliate company of Access Industries. A spokesman for Access confirmed that The Chatterjee Group is no longer involved in the acquisition and said that 'Access Industries will be the sole new shareholder of Basell. Neither The Chatterjee Group nor Haldia Petrochemicals are currently participating in the transaction'.
The Access spokesman was unable to comment on behalf of Chatterjee, and no statement was available from The Chatterjee Group. Reports in the Indian financial press over the past few weeks suggested that the Haldia Group's financial backers were less than enthusiastic about the prospects of a payback from Basell.
Nell anticipates closing the transaction to acquire Basell toward the end of July and is anticipating borrowing 80 per cent of the Eur 4·4 billion being paid for the company. Basell has confirmed unaudited Q1 2005 pre-tax (EBITDA) profits of around Eur 230 million and 12 months EBITDA earnings until the end of March of some Eur 690 million.
Ahead of the takeover Basell has also been tidying up its operations, pulling out of a joint venture in Brazil and turning off more lower efficiency PE capacity.
The Brazilian deal sees Basell selling its 50 per cent stake in the Polybrasil Resinas polypropylene business to its partner Suzano Petroquimica. As part of the agreement Basell gets full ownership of the Polybrasil 25,000 tonnes PP compounding business whose products are sold mainly to the automotive industry.
Polibrasil operates PP plants with a total capacity of 625,000 tonnes at three sites in Brazil.
Basell said its decision to sell its stake in Polybrasil is part of a continuing review of its assets. Its decision to turn off 100,000 tonnes of HDPE in Germany supports another continuing policy, that of manufacturing at world-scale plants with integrated or low cost feedstock. Basell is to mothball a line at Wesseling in Germany as an extension of the planned 300,000 tonnes of capacity reduction announced towards the end of last year.
This will complete the company's restructuring of its HDPE production, with a focus on its new 320,000 tonnes Hostalen Advanced Cascade Process plant at Wesserling and a similar plant being built at Basell Orlen Polyolefins in Poland for start up in the fourth quarter this year.
The 120,000 tonnes HDPE lines at Frankfurt and Münchmünster are being turned over to the production of specialty grades.
Scottish bag tax proposal is echoed around the world June 27, 2005
The plan to impose a tax on plastic carrier bags proposed a year ago by Scottish MP Mike Pringle could be debated by the Parliament in the Autumn, and if it is passed, the legislation could be in force as early as 2007.
The Bill proposes placing a 10 p charge on all plastic carrier bags given out in Scotland and follows similar legislation in the Republic of Ireland and other countries.
The objectives of the bill are to protect the environment by reducing the number of bags and by investing the money raised in environmental improvements; to encourage reuse of finite resources and help local councils meet their waste plan targets; and to raise awareness of environmental issues such as recycling and litter.
The Carrier Bag Consortium, set up by bag producers in 2002 following the introduction of the Irish tax, rebutted the proposal on the grounds that it would bring no environmental gain, but would risk job losses and business closures. Retailers expressed concern that it would put Scottish retailers at a disadvantage compared with those in England, where there are no plans to introduce such a levy.
While local focus is on taxing bags in Scotland, on the other side of the world plastic bags are being banned. South Australia's State Government is to introduce legislation to ban single-use bags from January 1, 2008. Around 500 million thin single-use bags are used by retailers every year in South Australia, and 'vast numbers end up as rubbish, clogging waterways and blighting the landscape'. Environment Minister John Hill is urging federal and state environment ministers to support a national ban, and is threatening to introduce a statewide ban anyway if a national ban is not supported.
There is already a voluntary agreement among state environment ministers to phase out these bags by the end of 2008, and retailers are working towards a voluntary code. The Australian Retailers Association's voluntary code led major supermarkets to reduce the use of bags by 26 per cent last year and a target for a 50 per cent drop has been set for the end of this year. But the government doesn't expect a voluntary code to achieve any more than that.
Up to 6·9 billion plastic bags were used in Australia last year, of which about 6·01 billion were single-use.
And in Japan the Environment Ministry is working on a plan to bring in charges for plastic bags to reduce consumption. There is a particular aim here. The country that hosted the Kyoto conference with its controversial agreement to cut greenhouse gases is struggling to meet its own commitments, and reducing the level of plastic bags in household waste could contribute to its goal.
Debate over degradables June 27, 2005
Degradable polyethylene bags are not all they're cracked up to be, according to the International Biodegradable Polymers Association (IBAW). And the attack on biodegradables from the very organisation one would expct to be promoting their merits has brought angry response from companies involved in their manufacture.
The IBAW has published a position paper in which it attacks biodegradables on two fronts - they don't do what they say they do, and they contain poisonous additives. Both claims have been sturdily refuted.
According to the IBAW, none of the products introduced since the early 1980s as oxo-degradable, biodegradable, or compostable have yet met the requirements of the European Standard EN 13432, which determines whether a plastic packaging material is biodegradable and compostable. IBAW says that after an initial decomposition period - the product breaks down into small pieces - the degradation of the remaining PE is very slow, much too slow to meet the criteria of the standard. The resulting PE dust could then accumulate in nature, where it might be ingested by animals and plants.
Not relevant, according to Professor Gerald Scott of Aston University, who says that EN 13432 was designed for hydro-degradable bioplastics and not for degradable polyolefins which break down in contact with oxygen.
The mechanism whereby oxo-degradable polyolefins break down is the second prong of the IBAW attack which is also strongly refuted. According to the IBAW the additives required for oxo-degradation contain metals, specifically cobalt, which can damage workers' health during manufacture and can be liberated to persist in the soil.
Professor Scott and others say that if cobalt is present as an additive the extreme long term effect on the soil is very small, but additives manufacturer A Schulman has taken this further - not only would there be only a very small residual effect of cobalt being used, but because of public opinion about cobalt the company doesn't use it at all.
Boy opens new British showroom... June 27, 2005
Boy has now left the former Spaceminster building in Milton Keynes and opened up its own showroom at Unit 2 Harrison Close, Knowlhill, Milton Keynes, MK5 8PA. The telephone number is 01908 306600 (fax 01908 306601). The company is also selling BM Biraghi moulding machines which have their own telephone contact - 01908 306610 - and fax 01909 306611.
...and Atlas gets more space June 27, 2005
Atlas Material Testing Technology also has a new home. It has moved from Kings Meadow, Oxford, to a new 5,000 ft² facility at 9 Granville Way, Bicester, OX26 4JT (telephone 01869 365440, fax 01869 354765). The increased space will enable the company to gain ISO 17025 accreditation in addition to its BS EN ISO 9001:2000 accreditation.
Lanxess to cut jobs and restructure styrenics June 27, 2005
Losses in Lanxess' styrenics business are to be curtailed with a major restructure and substantial job losses. The styrenics business is focused on two sites, Dormagen in Germany and Tarragona in Spain. Lanxess plans to concentrate its speciality grades at Tarragona, reducing capacity at Dormagen which will make high quality products for use in Bayer Material Science's Bayblend PC/ABS. Around 300 jobs will be lost at Dormagen.
Alongside the styrenics restructure Lanxess is also making economies in its fine chemicals business at the two sites, with a view to making it an independent business. Some 500 jobs will be lost in Germany, and a further 160 jobs are likely to be lost across the two businesses bringing total German job cuts to 960 by the end of 2007 with annual savings of Eur 100 m.
Alcan sells European bottle business June 27, 2005
Alcan has sold its Decoplast European blow moulded bottle business to IPH Group of France. The sale includes the two sites at La Roche sur Foron and Senlis in France. Decoplast recorded sales of Eur 26 million in 2004 and employs 312 people.
New US plant can make a million plastic fuel tanks a year June 27, 2005
TI Automotive has opened an automotive fuel tank plant in Georgia, USA, with initial orders to make nearly half a million blow moulded fuel tank systems a year for nearby plants run by BMW, DaimlerChrysler and Hyundai. Overall capacity is around a million tanks a year.
The new Hartwell plant uses a blow moulded filler-pipe process which TI says is a first for a North American automotive supplier. It is also the first TI Automotive facility to incorporate the assembly of fuel tank components, filler pipes and tanks under one roof.
The trend for plastics moulding to move to lower cost Asian economies has taken a slight turn in Germany where an Indian company is buying a German moulder. Motherson Sumi Systems of Delhi is buying tier 1 automotive supplier G+S Kunststofftechnik, located near Stuttgart, out of insolvency for Eur 2 million. G+S will become a subsidiary of Motherson's German subsidiary, MSSL.
Putting Performance into DuPont Dow June 27, 2005
DuPont Dow Elastomers will be renamed DuPont Performance Elastomers when it becomes wholly owned by DuPont on July 1. Its current president and CEO, Jack Lewis, will continue in that role.
Another takeover in phenolics June 27, 2005
Another major grouping is bidding to achieve more in thermosets. A couple of months ago Borden Chemical bought phenolic producer Bakelite from Rutgers as part of a plan to merge with Resolution Performance Products and Resolution Specialty Materials to form Hexion Specialty Chemicals which it said would be the world's largest producer of thermosets.
Now Sumitomo Bakelite - the world's largest producer of phenolic moulding compounds - has bought Vyncolit of Holland and Vyncolit North America. Vyncolit specialises in the development of high-tech applications based on engineering phenolics, with a special focus on automotive components. The two companies expect to achieve synergies which will extend the performance capabilities of engineering phenolics.
Arkema PVC workers say yes to job losses June 27, 2005
The trades unions representing workers in Arkema's Vinyl Products division have now accepted the voluntary early retirement agreement which had previously been rejected enabling the company to move forward with its consolidation plan.
Innovene in major Saudi petrochemicals venture June 27, 2005
Innovene, BP's petrochemicals and refining subsidiary, and Saudi-owned independent development company Delta International are planning a major investment in Saudi Arabia's petrochemical sector. They have signed a memorandum of understanding for the construction of a world-scale cracker and associated derivative capacity in the Kingdom, with sites being explored in Jubail. The project is expected to cost around $2 billion. Innovene and Delta will be equal partners and it is anticipated that an agreement will be signed before the end of the year, with commissioning of the first plants expected in late 2008.
Bayer finishes TDI consolidation June 27, 2005
Bayer MaterialScience has finished a three year consolidation programme for toluene diisocyanate (TDI) and its precursors with production now concentrated at three plants in Baytown in the USA and Brunsbüttel and Dormagen in Germany. Bayer is planning to open another world scale plant in Caojing, China in 2009.
Closure of the TDI facility in New Martinsville, USA, was the last step in the consolidation process. Over the last three years, production has also been discontinued at plants in Antwerp (Belgium), Coatzacoalcos (Mexico), Leverkusen (Germany) and Niihama (Japan).
Around the world on a wing and little ray of sunshine June 27, 2005
High performance polymers and composites will be put to the ultimate test when Solvay joins a project to fly an aeroplane around the world on solar power. Solvay has joined with Solar Impulse and the balloonist Bertrand Piccard in the project which aims to circumnavigate the globe in stages by 2010, in an aeroplane powered solely by solar energy, to the exclusion of any other source, and producing no environmentally harmful emissions.
As well as the structure of the aircraft, Solvay will develop materials for encapsulating and assembling photovoltaic cells and thermal insulation, and will contribute technical modelling and simulation and the mechanical evaluation and testing of materials in extreme conditions.
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