Bags made with Braskem renewable PE will hit stores by 2011

17 March 2010 18:48  [Source: ICIS news]

NEW YORK (ICIS news)--Brazilian chemical company Braskem expects to see its sugarcane-based polyethylene (PE) resins in commercial supermarket bags by early 2011, a company executive said on Wednesday.

By October, operations should start at Braskem’s 200,000 tonne/year renewable PE plant at Triunfo, Rio Grande do Sul state, said Braskem director of investor relations Luciana Ferreira. She was speaking at the Jefferies 9th Global Clean Technology Conference in New York City.

“We are confident that we will be able to supply green PE by the end of this year. Our target is to bring renewable raw materials to the chemical industry … in a cost-efficient way,” she added.

The bio-based resin will not compete with petroleum-derived PE, Ferreira said. Instead, Braskem will position its renewable PE as a specialty product that will compete against other biopolymers, carrying a price premium as a result.

“We are in a market to bring products to companies that have a very strong target to reduce their carbon emissions or companies that have strategies to bring renewably sourced products to their customers," Ferreira said.

"We do not aim to compete with fossil fuels. If we go for that, we will not be successful in this endeavour,” she added.

ICIS has launched weekly pricing reports in Africa for polyethylene and polypropylene. For more information contact Nadine Spoeri
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By: Doris de Guzman
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