South Africa's marketer of petroleum products, Engen Petroleum (Cape Town; www.engen.co.za), has announced it has entered the plastics industry with a new business within its chemicals and special products portfolio. According to its chemicals and special products business manager, Colleen Jacobs, "Launching the polymer business forms part of Engen's growth strategy. Polymers make up by far the biggest portion of the local chemicals market." While operating in the background for three years, the polymer team who is led by Isaac Solomon David has reported a steady increase in volume throughput from 2010 to 2011.

Commodity polymers are a specific focus area which is set to include PVC, HDPE, LDPE and LLDPE. The major thrust came from polymers which are manufactured by Engen's parent company Petronas Chemicals Group (Kuala Lumpur / Malaysia; www.petronas.com). Other speciality polymers are also supplied to Engen by ExxonMobil Chemical (Baytown, Texas / USA; www.exxonmobilchemical.com).

David says that the strategy is to diversify their product range by partnerships with different petrochemical companies while making use of Engen's extensive distribution infrastructure.