Italian chemical giant EniChem (I-20097 San Donato Milanese; www.enichem.it) announced the acquisition of 50% of Polimeri Europa ( www.polimerieuropa.it), its 50:50 PE jv with Union Carbide, for EUR 204m, following completion of UCC´s merger with former US rival Dow Chemical – See story in this issue. At the same time it sells its Polyurethane Division to Dow Chemical for EUR 400m. The agreements entail a EUR 196m balance payment from Dow to EniChem. UCC´s half of Polimeri´s year 2000 EBITDA is EUR 361m, Enichem PU business reported EBITDA of 258m.

EniChem´s PU business encompasses plants for polyols in Priolo, Italy, and Tertre, Belgium, along with a TDI unit at Porto Marghera and an MDI plant at Brindisi, both in Italy. Combining its polyols capacity with Dow´s creates capacity of 591,000 t/y, for a European market share of 37%. The combined MDI capacity totals 368,000 t/y, or 33% of the market. Dow has for the first time TDI capacity in Europe totalling 135,000 t/y, or 28% of the market. Cartel restrictions will likely force the US group to sell some MDI and possibly some polyols assets.

Polimeri has production sites in Italy, France and Germany with nameplate capacity for 200,000 t/y of HDPE, 775,000 t/y of LDPE and 500,000 t/y of LLDPE. In 1999, the Italian company, which employs 1,500, had sales of EUR 1.3 bn. Industry sources suggest that EniChem may look for an industrial/financial partner for its PE business, possibly in the Middle East. One of the names heard is Qatar General Petroleum Co. (QGPC). The two companies already share some interests in PU starting material TDI, which are included in the deal. On the other hand a QGPC subsidiary, in which EniChem owns 10%, also produces 400,000 t/y of LDPE.