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China`s Yisheng seeks approval for third PTA plant in Ningbo [ 02 Jul, 2009]
China's Zhejiang Yisheng Petrochemical has submitted applications to the state authorities for the construction of its third purified terephthalic acid plant, three people familiar with the matter said Wednesday.
The plant will have a capacity of 1.8 million mt/year plant and will be located at the same site as Yisheng's existing PTA plant in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, which has a capacity of 1.3 million mt/year.
The company runs a second PTA plant with a capacity of 1.5 million mt/year in Dalian, Liaoning province under the affiliate Yisheng Dahua Petrochemical. The plant was started up earlier this year in February.
The new plant is scheduled for completion in the second half of 2011, and will use Hitachi technology, like the Dalian plant. Yisheng's existing Ningbo plant uses a process by INVISTA.
Yingsheng PC was jointly invested by Zhejiang Hengyi Group and Zhejiang Rongsheng Group at 50-50, both of which reach many industries beyond textile.
Source: CCF Group
Spain - La Seda de Barcelona reveals increased losses [ 16 Jun, 2009]
Leading European PET producer La Seda de Barcelona has twice revised upwards the level of its financial loss for 2008 to a figure of €368m.
On 5 June, the Spanish PET group announced it was upping the figure for its annual loss, hours after trading in its shares was suspended. Initially, in March, La Seda stated it lost €188m last year. Then later, it raised that figure to €215m.
Earlier on Friday 5 June, La Seda admitted that four of its directors, representing shareholders with 19% of the company's share capital, had refused to approve the group's unaudited 2008 accounts, according to the Reuters news agency.
Meanwhile, Spanish press reports indicated that production and jobs could be threatened at La Seda plants in Spain as a result of restructuring measures the group plans to initiate. Up to 380 workers at its PET resin plant in El Prat de Llobregat and at the raw material chemicals unit in Tarragona may be affected, management has told trade union officials, according to the reports.
Production at the main El Prat plant in Barcelona has been halted for almost a month with workers there limited to cleaning and maintenance work for lack of working capital, according to business daily El Economista.
Early last week, La Seda issued a statement revealing that its chairman Rafael Español had resigned from the board.
The indebted Barcelona group is said to be in discussions with its creditors on the repayment of a €600m syndicated loan after it failed to meet certain financial criteria. In addition, La Seda is negotiating debt repayment deadlines with its suppliers, said Reuters.
In recent years, La Seda has grown rapidly in its quest to become a world-scale PET player. The group has grown fat acquiring competitors and in the process has also built up considerable debt. In 2007 it bought Amcor's European PET packaging operations, having earlier acquired Eastman Chemical’s PET plant in San Roque, Spain and other PET capacity in Turkey.
La Seda is also investing heavily through its PET subsidiary Artenius in a project to build a 700,000 tpa PET raw material purified terephthalic acid (PTA) in Sines, Portugal. The facility is scheduled for launch by March 2010.
Source: prw.com
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