SIBUR targets new packaging applications with polypropylene incorporating Millad^® NX™ 8000 ground-breaking clarifier from Milliken

Ghent, Belgium – 31 March 2011 – Leading Russian petrochemical company SIBUR will use Milliken’s pioneering clarifying agent Millad® NX™ 8000 for new grades of highly transparent polypropylene that it is launching to enter the local market for transparent packaging materials.

SIBUR says the Russian market for plastics products is currently one of the most dynamic in the country, and the demand for attractive and cost-effective packaging for food, household chemicals and cosmetics is constantly growing. The company is the largest polypropylene producer in Russia and the first in the country to offer high-quality clarified homopolymer PP.

Analysts at SIBUR believe clarified PP will find a ready market in such segments as food storage, home storage, appliances, baby bottles, water bottles, cosmetic bottles and jars, media packaging, office supplies and blister packaging.

The company has already produced pilot quantities of the first grade of clarified PP, a homopolymer, and will begin full-scale production before the end of June. Initial output will be up to 500 tonnes per month. As it develops the market, SIBUR plans to expand its range of PP products by adding several homopolymers and one clarified random copolymer grade.

Commenting on the cooperation with Milliken, Andrey Frolov, Sales Manager of the Plastics and Organic Synthesis Directorate at SIBUR, said: “We are entering an interesting and rapidly developing market. Currently, it depends largely on imported grades, but we are confident that this situation will change in the very near future. We are happy to cooperate with a partner like Milliken, since this will enable us to strengthen our position in the polypropylene market”.

Milliken’s Millad® NX™ 8000 clarifier provides unparalleled improvements in clarity and gloss in polypropylene products. It provides an improvement of at least 50% in clarity of PP over the previous benchmark grade, taking it to a level very close to that of more expensive solutions using other polymers. It is enabling a growing number of processors to take advantage of the polymer’s performance and cost advantages. Haze values are around half of those obtainable with the previous top-performing PP clarifier.

Dariusz Lukaszewski, Technical Account Manager – Eastern Europe at Milliken, says there are many converters in Russia now producing high quality packaging, and the new SIBUR material should find a ready market. “This is a very important development, for SIBUR and for its customers,” he says. “There is a strong imbalance between supply and demand for high quality PP grades in the country, and this will help improve the situation. Converters will have more flexibility in their sourcing and will be able to simplify their logistics. It is not so easy to import material into the country, so they prefer to buy Russian material when they can. The new SIBUR clarified PP will meet an important need.”

Lukaszewski adds: “SIBUR is an excellent company to work with, their people are very enthusiastic about bringing something new to the market. And their enthusiasm is paying off, there are already several Russian processors gearing up to do trials with the new grade.”

Millad® NX™ 8000 has quickly grown to become the established leader in the PP clarifying agent market. It is the ideal match for the latest grades of polypropylene with improved flow characteristics that enable processors to reduce cycle times and/or processing temperatures. “It continues to open doors for new applications and provides important improvements in quality and process economics in existing ones,” says Lukaszewski.

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