In the latest move to expand its specialties business, PolyOne (Cleveland, Ohio / USA; www.polyone.com) announced that it has entered into an agreement with Saudi Arabia’s E.A. Juffali & Brothers (Jeddah; www.eajb.com) to establish a 51:49 joint venture for the production of specialty colour concentrates.

The two companies expect the initial investment to be about USD 14m, with construction scheduled to take between nine and 12 months. The Jeddah-based jv is expected to begin operations in late 2012. Although both companies did not mention output capacities, they did say the jv would have the potential to expand into other product lines in the future.

Commenting on the deal, PolyOne CEO Stephen Newlin said that Juffali would bring the local expertise and regional experience, while PolyOne would provide the formulating technology and material science.

At the beginning of October 2011, the Cleveland-based group had reached an agreement to acquire US-based liquid colourant, additive and fluoropolymer producer ColorMatrix (Berea, Ohio / USA; www.colormatrix.com) – see Plasteurope.com of 06.10.2011.