Following the transfer of European production sites from DSM Petrochemicals (NL-6130 AA Sittard; www.dsm.com) to Sabic (Riyadh; www.sabic.com) – see Plasteurope.com 15, 2002 – the Saudi Arabian petrochemical group has founded a new subsidiary, Sabic EuroPetrochemicals. As the name suggests, the company will have responsibility for all of Sabic´s petrochemical activities in Europe. Chairman and CEO is Frans Noteboom. Other managing board members are Boy Litjens and Jan Hessel Kruit. All are former DSM managers.

As one of its first activities, Sabic EuroPetrochemical lifted DSM´s declaration of force majeure on LLDPE and PP from the plant at Gelsenkirchen, Germany. In mid May, the Dutch group declared force majeure for LLDPE due to technical problems in production. Problems with energy supplies forced the declaration to be extended to PP in June. Due to low inventories, Sabic´s European LLDPE customers were likely be on allocation throughout July.