MARKET NEWS

1.       Additional annualized capacity of 440,000 MTs now available in the European market. 

2.       Ouro Fina expands to include energy drinks.  It has invested $880 k to expand its portfolio.  New product is marketed under the name “Insane”.  It is currently available in Parana and Santa Catarina and is to be launched in Sao Paulo.  Maguary, a concentrated fruit juice producer in Brazil, has launched a 500 ml bottle. 

3.       The restoration of PTA production at BP & PK Orlen’s, has worked towards alleviating the supply of PTA in Europe.  However, the outage of Lotte Chemical’s has been a source of concern. 

4.       CQ PET (CEPSA), who has purchased Artenius San Roque PET plant, has restarted production on March 17^th, and it now understood to be running at nameplate annualized capacity of 165 ktpa. 

5.       Additional online capacity of San Roque and Alconaphtha, at Kaliningrade, will allow for an availability of 344,000 MT’s of PET resin in Europe.  It should be noted that 40% of Alconaptha’s capacity will be for local consumption. 

6.       Indorama has announced that it plans to build an additional 200ktpa PET plant in Europe at a brownfield location.  The expansion is scheduled to be completed in 2013 and would take its regional capacity of 1.3 million tons. 

7.       The purchase of PTA/PET business of Eastman chemicals at Columbia SC, by DAK, Americas was completed by end January.  The deal includes PET production capacity at 2 plants totaling 675 ktpa and PTA capacity of 570-600ktpa of Integrex technology developed by Eastman at Columbia, SC.  Eastman will retain PTA production of estimated 250ktpa at Kingsport TN.

8.       Far Eastern New Century (previously Far Eastern textile) will set up a 60:40 JV with Sinopec yizheng Chemical fiber for 100 ktpa PTA project. 

9.       A planned turnaround at Ineos Antwerp has kept Ineos out of the spot market all year so far. 

10.   Selenis is expected to begin production at its facility in Montreal before end of March with product to trade in Q2

11.   SK Eurochem has been acquired by Indorama.  

Pepsi ‘green’ bottle made of corn husks, pine bark

PepsiCo Inc has developed a bottle made from plant-based, renewable resources that is fully recyclable, and will start using it in a test program next year.

The company’s new “green” bottle is currently being made from materials such as switch grass, pine bark and corn husks. In the future, components for the bottle may include orange and potato peels, oat hulls and other byproducts left over from the company’s food business.

PepsiCo’s chief scientific officer told the Reuters Food and Agriculture Summit Monday that the company was working on ways to reuse such waste.

On Tuesday, PepsiCo announced that it has found ways to create a molecular structure identical to petroleum-based PET for a bottle that looks, feels and protects products just like existing PET containers.

The company said it would pilot production of the new bottle in 2012 and then move to full-scale commercialization if it was successful.

Rival Coca-Cola Co already produces a “plant bottle,” which is 30 percent made with sugar cane. It is expanding use of that packaging and efforts to convert the remaining 70 percent of its bottle to a plant-based material.