The Ineos Group (Lyndhurst / UK; www.ineos.com) held back with fiing an insolvency petition for its non-consolidated affiliate Ineos Vinyls Italia on 11 February 2009 pending the outcome of a fresh round of talks initiated by Italy’s minister for economic development, Claudio Scajola – see Plasteurope.com of 12.02.2009. Following discussions on 10 February, Scajola convened a second roundtable for 12 February in a continuing effort to rescue the planned takeover of Ineos’ VCM and PVC plants at Porto Marghera by Safi, the investment vehicle of Italian businessman Fiorenzo Sartor. Meanwhile, Ineos is holdiing the insolvency option open if the taks are unsuccessful.

At the meeting attended by regional and national officials, representatives of the chemical industry and Italian energy giant Eni, Scajola said that despite the “difficult” circumstances he was “confident” of finding a solution that would assure the future of one of Italy’s key industries. The unions fear that the highly interconnected Italian petrochemicals infrastructure could collapse if the Ineos plants are closed. However, Eni said a shutdown of PVC production would not threaten polyolefins output of subsidiary Polimeri Europa in northern Italy.

Scajola said the major production facilities at Porto Marhgera, near Venice, and Porto Torres in Sardinia were being brought back on stream starting in late January, following an extended Christmas holiday break – see Plasteurope.com of 01.12.2008 and 19.12.2008.