Borealis celebrates 10 years of innovative solutions in CIS

Borealis is celebrating 10 years serving its polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) customers in Russia and the other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Over the past decade, the use of polyolefins in the CIS has grown rapidly and Borealis has developed its business to become the leading provider of innovative, value creating plastics solutions in the region. Sales have quadrupled in the last four years.

“Borealis’ success is a result of its focus on value creation through innovation”, David Rolph, Borealis Executive Vice President Polyolefins, comments. “State-of-the-art Borstar™ technology allows the molecular structure of polyolefins to be tailored to meet customers’ demands and our polyolefin solutions serve a wide range of applications. In addition, Borealis’ production units are well located to serve the market. For example our site in Finland is only 340 km from St. Petersburg. Customers can be served directly by rail or road.”

Applications taking advantage of the unique performance offered by Borealis’ materials include high quality flexible packaging based on Borstar-enhanced linear low density PE, metallocene based Borecene™ and Borseal™ PP for BOPP film. Borealis grades are excellent for caps, closures and thin walled packaging and pipe solutions for hot and cold water based on PP random copolymers. In the region Borealis is the leading supplier for steel pipe coatings and wire and cable insulation and jacketing including fibre optics.

According to David Rolph: “The future looks bright with Russia and the CIS countries investing further in infrastructure involving innovative plastics solutions and showing a clear need for plastics in packaging. Per capita plastic consumption is rising fast from a low base and there is definite opportunity for growth in the coming years and continued success for Borealis to deliver value creation through innovation.”

The specific market, geographical and climatic conditions found in Russia and CIS countries has led Borealis to develop unique solutions that fit the particular needs of this vast and varied region. Examples include:

• Steel pipe coating: Coating materials capable of providing high-performance under extreme conditions are essential for coping with Russia’s vast differences in terrain and climate. Borealis’s Borcoat™HE3450 HDPE top coat and Borcoat ME0420 grafted PE adhesive, is providing an efficient solution for the long-term protection of steel pipes against corrosion. Borealis has supplied the Russian and Ukrainian market with Borcoat products since 2001 and coming right up-to-date, the first pipes with external protective coating based on Borcoat products, for the strategically important East Siberia - Pacific Ocean oil pipeline system were delivered to the Irkutsk region in January 2006. Over the coming years, 4200 km of 1067 mm pipeline shall connect East Siberian oilfields with the Pacific Coast to supply the Asia-Pacific region.

• Packaging: With a continuous increase in demand for polyolefins in Russia’s home market for packaging applications over recent years, main international food companies are placing their own production facilities in the region. As a result, the polymer film and moulding market is showing stable growth due to the expansion in applications. In 2004, Borealis began development of a PP block copolymer for caps for carbonated soft drinks with its customers Europlast Russia and Atem Ukraine to alleviate the stress whitening problem shown by competitive products. In 2005, the new grade BD950MO was developed and introduced successfully to the market, making Borealis the leading player in PP caps for carbonated soft drinks in Russia and the CIS countries.

• Wire and cable: Russia has been investing heavily in its telecommunication network to cover all the densely populated parts of the Russian territory and to link the east and west of the country, rapidly advancing its communication technology. Borealis participated in the Transtelecom project to install 45,000 km of fibre optic cable line, running alongside all mainline railways, for far-distant connection telecommunication. Borstar HE 6062, a high density bimodal PE produced in Porvoo, Finland, made up approximately 80 per cent of the fibre optic cable jacketing. Borealis supplied more than 4,000 tonnes of the polymer for the project in 1999-2001.

For further information please contact:

Liesbeth Denys
Trade Media Relations Manager, Borealis
+32 15 47 90 24
lypresbo@borealisgroup.com

Roman Romanov
Sales Manager, Business Unit Pipe, Borealis
+7 916 681 63 72
roman.romanov@borealisgroup.com

For very high resolution pictures please contact:

Paulien Boumans
+31 164 317 015
pboumans@emg.nl