Borealis inaugurates €50m innovation headquarters in Austria

20 November 2009 11:55  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--Borealis has inaugurated its €50m ($74.6m) international innovation headquarters at Linz, Austria, after one-and-a-half years of construction, the chemical producer said on Friday.

The five-story building houses equipment for processing plastics in applications such as pipe, film and injection moulding, as well as relevant analysis and laboratory equipment.

Borealis said the headquarters would create 100 new jobs, bringing the total number of employees in the building who work in research and product development, as well as in marketing and sales, to about 350.

Borealis said approximately 1,100 employees currently work for the company in Linz.

“In Linz, we will now develop new plastic solutions for customers all over the world,” said Gerhard Roiss, deputy chairman of the executive board of OMV and chairman of the Borealis supervisory board.

Borealis is 64% owned by the International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC) of Abu Dhabi, with the remaining 36% held by Austrian energy group OMV.

Along with the investment in the innovation headquarters, Borealis and OMV have been supporting a plastics-engineering programme at Linz's Johannes Kepler University, it said.

“By establishing the new and already well-accepted plastics-engineering programme at Johannes Kepler University in Linz, we will be able to cover the growing demand for well-trained specialists and scientists also in the future.”

In addition to its Linz headquarters, Borealis said it operates innovation centres in Stenungsund, Sweden, and Porvoo, Finland.

A new innovation centre is currently being built in Abu Dhabi by Borealis’ joint venture Borouge, it said.

($1 = €0.67)

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By: Franco Capaldo
+44 (0)20 8652 3214

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