The Nemuno Banga group (LT-08124 Vilnius; www.nbgroup.lt), backed by Austria´s Petrochemical Holding GmbH (A-1010 Vienna; www.petrochemical.at), plans to invest the equivalent of EUR 87m at its new polyester production site in the Lithuanian port town of Klaipeda. German engineering contractor Zimmer (D-60388 Frankfurt; www.zimmer-ag.de) has received contracts to build two identical continuous polyester plants for production of PET chips with a capacity of 154,000 t/y each. The first plant will go on stream in the first half of 2005, and the second is due to be in operation by the second half. A letter of intent has been signed for a third facility.

Nemuno Banga, which thus far has specialised in production of PET packaging, intends to cover the entire supply chain in future, from polymer to the finished packaging. The Lithuanian group had sales equivalent to EUR 96m in 2003, and an increase to EUR 130m is planned for the current year. According to general manager Arvydas Juozeliunas, Nemuno Banga will then have a 3% share of the European PET market. The two new projects will give Petrochemical total production capacity for around 310,000 t/y of bottle-grade PET.