Indorama boosts presence with Italy PET acquisition - source

01 April 2010 16:24  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--Indorama’s recent acquisition of Equipolymers’ purified terephthalic acid (PTA) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) production facilities at Ottana, Italy, has put it on the path to becoming a worldwide leader in PET resins, a source with the Thailand-based chemical producer said on Thursday.

The Indorama source said that the location of the facilities would benefit Indorama’s strategy to improve the group’s representation in Europe, as the group now had involvement in southern Europe as well as at three complementary facilities in northern Europe.

Equipolymer's PET and PTA assets at Ottana, in Sardinia, were bought last week by a joint venture between Indorama and Ottana Energia.

Indorama planned to make unit costs attractive in order to encourage customers to promote PET as the packaging of choice, the source said.

The facilities have a capacity of 160,000 tonnes/year of PET and 190,000 tonnes/year of PTA, according to the ICIS plants and projects database.

Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed; however, the transaction was expected to close on 1 June.

Equipolymers, a 50-50 joint venture between Dow Chemical and the Petrochemical Industries Co (PIC) of Kuwait, said the Ottana site, which currently has about 120 employees, would be sold to help preserve its future viability and continued operation, while enabling the group’s production facilities at Schkopau, Germany, to focus on R&D and new technologies.

In December 2007, Indorama completed the acquisition of US chemical producer Eastman's PET manufacturing facility at Workington, UK, and its PET and PTA manufacturing facilities at Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

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

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