PETpla.net Insider 04 / 2011

NEWS 8 PET planet insider Vol. 12 No. 04/11 www.petpla.net Indorama Ventures approves plans to expand capacity in Europe Indorama Ventures board on April 5,2011 has approved a brownfield expansion of PET polymers production in Europe with a capacity increase of 220,000t/a. This expansion, completion expected in 2013, will increase the total capacity of IVL in Europe to 1,300,000t/a of PET Polymers with five locations strategically placed to serve all countries in the EU competitively. In addition, IVL has 2 PTA plants in Europe, located at Rotterdam, Netherlands and Ottana, Italy. The company had earlier announced on February 7,2011 that it was entering into a binding agreement to acquire Trevira GmbH, the Polyester company in Ger- many. The decision to grow was motivated by the supply/ demand dynamics within the EU and the need for com- petitive assets to better serve customers. Indorama has been in the forefront of investing in state of the art production across the world. The last time a new plant was built in the EU was also by Indorama, back in 2006 in Lithuania. IVL also identified the benefits of a “brown- field” expansion at this time as being more cost effective solution than developing a “new greenfield” site. www.indoramapolymers.com Happy anniversary for Buhler Buhler Technology Group has reported a rise in orders, increased sales and growth in profits for 2010, its 150 th anniversary. Order levels exceeded CHF 2 billion for the first time in its history; at CHF 2160 million, they were 21% higher than the previous year. Strongest growth, at 48%, was achieved by Advanced Materials division, followed by Food Processing (+27%) and Grain Processing (+15%). The company said that the performance of the Food Processing division was affected by the delayed market recovery. The highest rises in orders were received from emerging markets in Asia (+39%), North and South America (+19%), and the Middle East (+96%), while turnover in the mature markets of Europe contracted. Sales grew by 11% (13% currency-adjusted) to CHF 1907 million. The Customer Service business (services, spare parts, expendable materials) has seen its share of total Group sales rise steadily over the past years. Structural costs increased at a lower-than-proportional rate rela- tive to sales. It invested over CHF 80 million in research and development in 2010. The development of new mid- market customer segments contributed substantially, and discussion about safe and healthy foods also stimulated demand for its technologies. Order backlog of CHF 1238 million at the end of 2010 was almost 30% above the level of 2009. Turnover is expected to continue to rise in the current fiscal year. www.buhlergroup.com DXb\ k_\ dfjk GXeX`k\ s ;i\Xdjk`d\%Zfd Xe[ cf^`e efn Pfl ZXe efn jlYjZi`Y\ kf [`^`kXc \[`k`fej f] Xcc =ff[9\m dX^Xq`e\j Yp Zi\Xk`e^ Xe XZZflek fe =ff[9\m%Zfd 8 [`^`kXc \[`k`fe jlYjZi`gk`fe ^`m\j pfl `dd\[`Xk\ XZZ\jj kf Xe XiZ_`m\ ]ifd Alcp )''0 kf k_\ cXk\jk `jjl\ Xe[ pfl cc i\Z\`m\ Xe \dX`c Xc\ik n_\e pfli e\ok `jjl\ `j XmX`cXYc\% @k j hl`Zb kf jlYjZi`Y\# \Xjp kf dXeX^\ Xe[ k_\ Y\jk gXik `j k_Xk [`^`kXc \[`k`fej Xi\ aljk +0 g\i p\Xi f] =ff[9\m %Zfd Fli [`^`kXc \[`k`fej Xi\ \e_XeZ\[ n`k_ ^i\Xk m`[\fj# Xl[`f ]`c\j Xe[ lj\]lc c`ebj