M&G - a company belonging to the Gruppo Mossi & Ghisolfi

2008/7/17 M&G

M&G Announces 200 kMT Capacity Expansion in Brazil

The M&G Group today announced that it has started an investment to expand the capacity of its single reactor Brazilian PET plant to 650 kt/year from its current 450 kt/year rate.
The expansion investment is expected to require 12-15 months before it comes on stream; necessary equipment parts orders have already been placed.
With the expansion, M&G Brazil PET plant, located in Ipojuca in the State of Pernambuco, will remain by far the largest single reactor PET plant in the world.
M&G Brazil plant is also the most innovative in the industry, as it employs M&G’s unique and proprietary technologies such as FlexPETz(TM) - designed to achieve large scale, economically viable barrier-enhanced PET production - and EasyUpTM -M&G’s innovative viscosity upgrading process which substantially reduces the costs, while retaining the flexibility benefits of the SSP manufacturing step.
Marco Ghisolfi, CEO of M&G’s Polymers Business Unit said, “I am very happy to be able to re-confirm M&G Group’s commitment to Brazil and to the PET industry”. He added “Even if growing significantly, we estimate that Brazil’s PET market will only reach 650 kt/year in 2012 or 2013. However, we have decided to anticipate our plant capacity expansion to ensure that we continue to provide stability, support and technological leadership for the growth plans of the many M&G customers who have entered into medium term contract commitments with us in Brazil.

Notes for editors:
Additional relevant information relating to the M&G Group:
・ M&G is a family owned chemical company headquartered in Tortona, Italy. It develops innovative and cost effective PET resins for container packaging and is presently the world’s first largest producer of PET for packaging applications with production capacity of 1.65 million tonnes per annum. Group sales proceeds in 2007 were $2.8 billions of which around 90% came from sales of PET resin.
・ The Group has manufacturing assets in Brazil, Italy, Mexico, and the USA. The Group supports R&D Facilities in Italy and in the USA.

M&G Group is divided into 2 business units, PET Polymer and Acetates. The Group has manufacturing assets in Brazil, Italy, Mexico and USA and supports three R&D facilities in Rivalta , Italy, in Sharon Center OH, USA and in Poços de Caldas, Brazil.

M&G is presently the world’s largest producer of PET for packaging applications. M&G resins are used in the production of disposable and returnable rigid packaging for soft drinks, mineral water, beer, juice, tea, jelly, sauce, cooking oil, cosmetics, fertilizer and disinfectant, among countless other applications. We operate on a vertical system, producing PTA (polyester basic raw material), high standard resins for PET packaging and polyester fibers for the textile industry.

Polyester fiber
The Polyester fiber is the most versatile of the textile fibers. It can be used in blends with cotton, viscose, linen, silk, etc, producing beautiful articles, comfortable and resistant. Polyester fibers have applications in fabrics, pillow filling, cushions, bed spreads, toys and cushioned furniture, in carpets and in non-fabrics.

Acetati Spa, a company of the M&G Group, is one of the leading producers of cellulose acetate flakes in Europe. This product has a wide range of applications, which include tows for cigarette filters, textile fibers, photographic film, hand tools, spectacle frames and film for LCD polarizing boards.

Acetati Spa is the only producer of acetate flakes in the world fully devoted to the market , i.e. all the flake production is sold to third customers, with no captive use

M&G Group is active mainly in niche markets of the plastic segment. It’s flexible production capabilities consent products to be tailored to meet specific customer requests.

Chemtex is a global engineering, procurement and construction company that specializes in delivering technology oriented projects for the polymers, fibers, energy, biofuels, and environmental industries.

M&G Group is presently the world's largest producer of PET and a technological leader in the polyester market.

M&G is a family-owned company headquartered in Tortona, Italy, founded in 1953 by Vittorio Ghisolfi. It originally manufactured packaging for detergents and toiletries, mainly from HDPE and PVC.

In 1983 the Group entered a new phase of expansion and embarked on establishing chemical manufacturing operations. Through the integration of the new capabilities in specialty resin manufacture and the traditional competences in engineering and bottle design, the Group was able to provide customers with tailored solutions to meet ever increasing demands on the packaging of beverages and foodstuffs. This period included joint ventures first with Shell in the manufacture of PET resin (SIPET) and then with Pepsi-Cola (ItalPET).

1992/11/16

Sipet starts PET production

SIPET SPA, a manufacturing joint venture between Shell Italia (85%) and Mossi & Ghisolfi (15%) - a private Italian company - has started production at its 60 000 tonne/year PET plant in Patrica, Italy.

The Lira100bn ($73m) resin polycondensation unit adds to the 30 000 tonne/year Shell Chemicals UK subsidiary Crystal Polymers' solid stating polymerisation plant, started in July.

2000

The acquisition of Shell's PET business moves the M&G Group into a third phase of expansion and sees it become a major participant in resin manufacturing with assets in Italy, UK, USA and Mexico.

2000/2

Shell to Sell Its PET Biz to Italy's M&G.(polyethylene terephthalate; Mossi & Ghisolfi)(Brief Article)

SHELL CHEMICALS has agreed to sell its polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resins business to Mossi & Ghisolfi (M&G) Group, an Italian PET converter. The purchase will triple M&G's annual sales to around $800 million. Shell's PET business comprises four plants that have a total capacity of 610,000 metric tons per year.

They include a 190,000-ton unit at Patrica, Italy; 30,000 tons at Glandford, England; 285,000 tons at Apple Grove, W.Va.; and 105,000 tons at Altamira, Mexico. M&G has been one of Shell's major customers.

1998/7

Shell has increased its global PET capacity by 17%, and strengthened its geographical spread, with the start-up of a 100 000 tonnes/year plant in Mexico. The group's total PET resin capacity is now about 600 000 tonnes/year, in the USA, Europe (Italy and the UK) and Mexico.

2002

The Group purchased the totality of the shares that Rhodia owned in its Brazilian controlled Rhodia-ster. Consequently it extended its presence to Brazil and South America, where it was already positioned as a regional leader.

2003

With the inauguration of the new plant in Mexico, the group became the world’s second largest producer of PET resin.

2004

The group purchased Chemtex International Inc. from Mitsubishi Corporation, acquiring all its engineering, project implementation and business assets. As a result M&G Group joined in the business of engineering, procurement and construction management in the fields of polyester (fibers and polymers), refining, petrochemicals and specialty chemicals, extending it’s presence to China and India.

Chemtex was established in 1958 from the former Rayon Consultant.
Chemtex is a global engineering, procurement and construction company that specializes in delivering technology oriented projects for the petrochmeical, polymers, fibers, energy, biofuels, and environmental industries.

Dec 15, 2004

M&G Announces Acquisition of Chemtex International

The Mossi and Ghisolfi Group ("M&G") announced that it has purchased, for an undisclosed amount, Chemtex International Inc. ("Chemtex") from Mitsubishi Corporation, acquiring all its engineering, project implementation and business assets.
M&G is a family owned chemical company headquartered in Tortona, Italy. It develops innovative and cost effective PET resins for container packaging and is presently the world's second largest producer of PET for packaging applications, with production capacity of 1.3 million tonnes per annum. Group sales in 2003 were $1.6 billion, of which approximately 80% were derived from operations involving PET resin.

Chemtex International Inc. is a company involved in engineering, procurement and construction management in the fields of polyester (fibres and polymers), refining, petrochemicals and specialty chemicals.

Chemtex, headquartered in Wilmington, North Carolina, has operations in the USA, India and China. In 2003, Chemtex had revenues of approximately $160 million and employed 750 people. Chemtex's share of polyester plant construction is estimated to be around 30% globally and around 60% in China for plants utilizing imported technology.

M&G and Chemtex have a long history of cooperation both as client and supplier and as merchant engineering sellers. Chemtex was the primary engineering contractor for M&G's ItalPET (Italy, 1997) and Altamira (Mexico, 2003) plants and will also construct M&G's recently announced jumbo-line in South America. In the past, when M&G owned and operated a leading polyester solid state engineering company (Sinco; now owned by UOP), M&G and Chemtex as also cooperated as merchant engineering sellers.

Guido Ghisolfi , Vice President of Corporate Operations and Development at M&G, said, "I am very pleased with this acquisition, which has the potential to create great value and synergies for M&G Polymers Business Unit and Chemtex merchant engineering activity".

2007

In February 2007 the Group has inaugurated the world’s largest PET plant near the town of Ipojuca which is in the State of Pernambuco, North Eastern Brazil. The new plant has a capacity of 450kt/year (approximately 990 million lbs/year).

The M&G Group today announces the official opening of the world’s largest PET plant near Ipojuca, Pernambuco (Suape Port), North Eastern Brazil. The new plant has an operational capacity of 450kt/year (approximately 990 million lbs/year) and employs M&G’s new proprietary Solid Stating (SSP) technology, EasyUP.
Marco Ghisolfi, CEO of M&G’s Polymers Business Unit, comments, “This is an exciting time for M&G and we are delighted that once again the largest PET plant in the world carries the M&G logo. After revolutionizing the scale of PET making in 2003, bringing on stream in Altamira (Mexico) the largest PET line in North America, M&G is proud to extend its scale leadership to South America. With Suape and Altamira M&G concentrates in only two PET lines a North and South American capacity of almost 900 kt/year - a production capability that on average the industry achieves in the two regions with the combined capacities of 10 PET lines.”

In March 2008 the group has sold its PET pre-forms business to Plastipak Packaging inc.

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2007/7/25 M&G

M&G to Launch a 1 Million Metric Tonnes PET Investment in North America

M&G Finanziaria announces today that the M&G Group will build a new generation technology PET plant in the United States.
The new single line plant will have a capacity of 800 kt/year (or approximately 1.8 billion lbs/year), of which 650 kt/year is scheduled to come on-stream in the first half of 2009 and the balance as required by the market.
The new plant will employ, on a larger scale, the same technology (including M&G’s revolutionary EasyUpTM SSP technology) as its 450 kt/year Suape (Brazil) PET plant which came on-stream in Q1 2007 and has been successfully running at full nominal capacity.
The US location of the new plant will be announced as soon as the last site agreements and details are finalized, which is expected to require a few additional weeks.
In addition, M&G announces that it is debottlenecking its PET capacity in both its Apple Grove (W. Virginia) and Altamira (Mexico) plants and that it is expecting to increase cumulative capacity of the two sites by an additional 200 kt/year (approximately 440 million lbs/year) in the period 2007-08.
The PTA feed stock supplies necessary to support M&G’s North American investment program have already been secured.
Marco Ghisolfi, CEO of M&G’s Polymers Business Unit, said, “These new investments confirm M&G as the world’s largest PET producer and demonstrate its commitment to the North American PET market. The investments also confirm M&G’s PET technology capabilities to consistently support plant sizes twice as large as those available from the latest generation off-the-shelf technology and four times as big as the average installed base plant size”. He added: “In the last years M&G has consistently implemented a technology-driven cost leadership strategy based on single line large and efficient plants. After our investments in the world’s largest single line plants in Mexico in 2003 and Brazil in 2007 we now see a clear opportunity to also implement our strategy in the US. We expect that continued strong PET demand growth, partial execution and delays in our competitors’previously announced investment programs, and increasingly constrained and costly imports, will contribute to a significant PET capacity shortage in the U.S. by the year 2009. Although we believe that PET industry margins are still depressed when compared to other industries providing similar value to their customers, as industry leaders, we feel it is our responsibility to bridge the expected capacity gap to support our contract customers and the sustainability of the North American PET industry’s growth”.

Notes for editors:
Additional relevant information:
・ M&G Group is a family owned chemical engineering and manufacturing group headquartered in Tortona, Italy.
・ M&G Group operates in the PET resin industry through its wholly-owned subsidiary Mossi & Ghisolfi International S.A. (M&G International)
・ M&G International is presently the world’s largest producer of PET resin for packaging applications with production capacity in 2007 of almost 1.6 million tonnes per annum (1.1 million tonnes in 2006 and 2005). After the newly announced North American investments are completed, M&G International will have a world PET capacity in excess of 2.5 million tonnes per annum.
・ In the two years prior to M&G’s Brazil PET plant in Suape coming on stream, M&G International posted EBITDA of $ 140 million (in 2006) and $ 200 million (in 2005) corresponding to an average EBITDA margin for the period of approximately 10%
・ In March 2007 M&G International issued EU 200 million unsecured, subordinated Securities in the European “Hybrid” financial market.