Danaflex (Kazan / Russia; www.danaflex.ru), a manufacturer of flexible packaging, has opened a plant in the Czech Republic. The company has invested around EUR 40m in the new site in Prostejov, with around 180 jobs expected to be created. The Czech plant is Danaflex's fourth production facility and its first outside of Russia.

The Russian minister of industry and trade, Denis Manturov, said at the opening ceremony on 5 March that polyethylene for packaging production is to be supplied by Russian producers from Tatarstan – this could be from Kazanorgsintez (Kazan; www.kazanorgsintez.ru). The Russian politician spoke of PE imports valued at USD 30-40m (EUR 27-36m). Based on Russian LDPE prices, this would be an annual consumption of around 30,000-35,000 t, possibly at a later expansion stage. In a previous announcement, Danaflex had quoted output at 15,000 t/y.