Borouge services Chinese growth with expanded office in Puxi, Shanghai

Borouge, the leading provider of innovative plastics solutions in the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Africa, today announced that it moves its Shanghai office to Plaza 66 Tower 2 at Nanjing Xi Lu, located in the heart of Puxi, Shanghai, with effect from June 18 2007.

This will support the company's fast growing business in the booming Chinese market, to which Borouge has been focusing on supplying value added products to the infrastructure, automotive and advanced packaging industries. Borouge – through its parent company, Borealis – has a long and fruitful history in China, with its first footprint established in Hong Kong in the early 1980s. It has since expanded its operations to three cities – Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Borouge is set to triple its existing production capacity of polymers made using Borstar® technology to two million tonnes per annum by 2010 with additional capacity coming online from Borouge 2, Borouge's multi-billion dollar expansion project at its production site in Ruwais, in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.

The new Borouge office will be eight times the size of Borouge's previous Shanghai premises – and will provide enough office space to meet Borouge's staff growth requirement . Borouge opened its first Shanghai office in June 1996.

Harald Hammer, Chief Executive Officer of the Borouge marketing company commented: "China is extremely important for Borouge with local demand for polyethylene (PE) expected to grow 5.9% and polypropylene (PP) at 7.7% per annum over the next five years. As we enter the most aggressive growth phase in our history with two million tonnes through Borouge 2 coming online in 2010, it is imperative that we put in place the infrastructure to grow our business in what is becoming one of the most exciting markets in the world. This move will also enable us to further strengthen our operations in China and improve service levels to our customers."

The expansion of the company's Shanghai operations follows closely on other new offices in the region. Borouge moved its global marketing headquarters to larger premises in Singapore in April 2007, and opened full sales and services offices in Melbourne, Australia and Auckland, New Zealand in December 2006.

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