Eastman Chemical (Europe: NL-3013 Rotterdam; www.eastman.com) has officially abandoned plans announced last February to split into two stock-market listed companies for speciality chemicals and plastics. In November, the US group said it was postponing the move due to the uncertain business outlook (see Plasteurope.com 25, 2001). According to CEO J. Brian Ferguson, the split into two independent divisons, Eastman for chemicals and Voridian ( www.voridian.com) for plastics, at the beginning of this year will allow the group to focus on being a low-cost producer of market-leading products in the Voridian division, while Eastman concentrates on developing new products and services.

The new Voridian division encompasses PET polymers and polyethylene products, along with manmade fibres. Sales of polymers in 2001 were almost flat at USD 1.61 bn (USD 1.64 bn), while operating profit excluding one-off effects slid back 43% to USD 56m, due especially to lower PS prices. Including one-off effects, the company suffered an operating loss of USD 201m after posting a profit of USD 99m in 2000. Among other moves, Eastman cut production and closed plants as well as postponing new capital investment. Ferguson said he expects no improvement in the market situation during the first half of 2002.