The Hungarian chemical company, Tiszai Vegyi Kombinat Rt. (TVK, H-3581 Tiszaurvaros), which is quoted on the Budapest stock exchange, has signed a contract for a new BOPP film production line. The new plant will have a capacity of 15,000 t/y and is being supplied by Brückner Maschinenbau GmbH (D-83309 Siegsdorf). The film width will be 6.6m. Three and five-layer films are to be produced with a thickness of 10-50 µ. The investment costs for this new production line are put at HUF 5.5bn (approx. USD 117m). Work will start on the project in the fourth quarter of 1998 and is scheduled to be completed midway through 1999. Development work on the project and the sale of products is to be conducted in a strategic alliance with Mobil Plastics Europe (1b, rue Thomas Edison, L-1445 Luxembourg). TVK is expecting the project to produce a HUF 100bn increase in sales over the course of ten years.

The TVK company, which is also a key producer of PE and PP, has been producing BOPP films on a Japanese production line since 1982. In 1997, the company produced 7,300 t, with 55% of this being exported. The strategic aim that TVK has set itself is the "dynamic development of plastics processing". This has also included the acquisition, last October, of a majority holding in the Rumanian plastics processors, Plastico SA, for approx. USD 1m. TVK sees good prospects for itself on the growing Rumanian market with this acquisition and is intending to make Plastico into Rumania's leading plastics processor.

In the first half of 1997, TVK reported unconsolidated net sales of HUF 40.7bn. Sales of plastics products increased by 23% to HUF 3.5bn, with exports accounting for HUF 1.3bn.

READER SERVICE: Provisional annual report from TVK (English): PIE-No. 42051 – Set of brochures (English): "Biafol" (BOPP films): PIE-No. 42052 – "Flexofol" (air-bubble film): PIE-No. 42053.