The wave of alliances in polyolefins is washing over from Europe to Latin America. PCD Polymere GmbH (HQ: St Peter-Str. 25, A-4201 Linz) has agreed to cooperate with Brazil's OPP Petroquimica SA of Sao Paulo, part of the Odebrecht group. PCD will supply customers in Latin America with "Daplen" PP produced by OPP locally. In exchange, PCD will make available OPP's "Polyvance" PP in Europe. The Linz-based group has capacity to produce 410,000 t/y of PP in Austria and Germany, along with 445,000 t/y of PE. By the year 2000, PP output is set to rise to 550,000 t/y, PE to 500,000 t/y.

OPP is Latin America's largest plastics manufacturer, with annual capacity for 480,000 t/y of PP, 470,000 t/y of PE and 460,000 t/y of PVC. It has compounding capacities for more than 55,000 t/y. In December 1997 the company started up a new 160,000 t/y PP plant. It has a 260,000 t/y PE plant under construction at Rio Grande do Sul. Construction is set to begin this year on a 250,000 t/y PP unit at Sao Paulo, while a 50,000 t/y facility for MVC/PVC is set to go onstream at Algoas this spring.

According to PCD's parent company ÖMV AG (Vienna), the Brazilian cooperation will have no influence on the ongoing talks between PCD and Borealis A/S (HQ: DK-2800 Lyngby). See Plasteurope.com No. 03, 1998.