Egypt celebrated its first anniversary of the Revolution on January 25th, as per ChemOrbis. Prior to that date players had been nervous about potential problems arising from the celebrations and polymer demand was affected while players waited and watched. Last week passed relatively peacefully, bringing a sigh of relief to nervous market watchers and relieving some of the pressure on the demand side

The global demand for thermoplastics is expected to grow by around 100,000 tons by 2015, driven by the developing economies. Polyethylene comprises 35% of this market and polypropylene is 24%, according to leading market consultant Noru Tsalic of Applied Market Information (AMI). This is an annual increase of 5.6%.

Penford Corporation, a company with significant business and expertise in specialty starches and sustainable bio-products and Novomer Inc., a new materials company pioneering a family of high-performance plastics and polymers using renewable feedstocks such as carbon dioxide, announce that they have entered into a Joint Development Agreement that will leverage the two companiesÂ’ core technologies and expertise. he new alliance was created to accelerate the development and commercialization of innovative Starch-Polypropylene Carbonate polymer composites

The increasing importance of plastics in the area of agriculture and horticulture has been highlighted in a new in-depth report on the Agricultural films market in Europe by Applied Market Information Ltd. (AMI

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a loan and political risk guarantee totaling up to $400 million to help build the largest-ever petrochemical plant in Uzbekistan. The Surgil Natural Gas Chemicals Project will produce gas for commercial use and for conversion into chemical intermediates used in the plastics and textiles industries. The developer and operator, Uz-Kor Gas Chemical LLC, is a joint venture company owned by state-controlled oil and gas company National Holding Company Uzbekneftegaz, and a consortium of Republic of Korea companies, comprising Korea Stock Exchange-listed Honam Petrochemical Corporation, Korea Gas Corporation, and STX Energy, a unit of STX Corp

Petrochemical infrastructure development is driven by growth in newly industrialised nations turning to the production of polymer products, and those which have a high demand for fertilisers and fuel additives, as per a report by Visiongain. The applications of petrochemical products are endless, and a number of companies are investing vast sums on developing new and innovative petrochemical end products from rubber used in automotive tyres to everyday plastics. Visiongain calculates that global capital expenditure in the petrochemical infrastructure market will be US$64.1 billion in 2012.

Materials company Novomer Inc. has inked a joint development agreement on polymer composites with Penford Corp.

SABICÂ’s Innovative Plastics business today announced that its manufacturing facilities in Campinas, Brazil and Tortuguitas, Argentina, are now certified to produce U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-compliant and biocompatible resins for the fast-growing South American healthcare market to help slash lead times, reduce inventory costs and increase flexibility in material purchasing

PittsburghÂ’s own Renewable Manufacturing Gateway (RMG) has signed a Letter of Engagement (LOE) with Aither Chemicals LLC (Aither). RMG and Aither have agreed to collaborate to finance and build a large chemical plant using AitherÂ’s ethane catalytic cracker technology. With an investment of US$750 mln over the next five years, the project is expected to create over 2000 construction jobs, 200 permanent direct production jobs, and many thousand indirect jobs in the Tri-State Region (Western Pennsylvania, Eastern Ohio, and Northern West Virginia)

Under the patronage of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, and in the presence of China Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) and the China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) signed a Protocol of Cooperation in Riyadh to explore new business opportunities and confirm their commitment to the principles reached in earlier agreements, including one on polycarbonate collaboration which has been approved by ChinaÂ’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). The Protocol sets the foundation for a joint investment from both SABIC and Sinopec to build the new polycarbonate production complex with an annual capacity of 260 kilo metric tons.