* Brazil’s Braskem would supply butadiene to planned plant
* France’s Michelin would provide licence and know-how
* Plan conditional upon Braskem securing oil supplies
* Deals void if condition not met by June 2015
WARSAW, March 31 (Reuters) – Polish chemicals maker Synthos is planning a synthetic rubber plant in Brazil, based on Michelin technology, that would use raw materials supplied by Brazil’s top petrochemical company Braskem, Synthos said.
Synthos also said in statements published on Monday it had signed a conditional 15-year deal with Braskem worth around 4.5 billion zlotys ($1.49 billion) for the supply of butadiene to the planned plant.
Synthos said it also signed a conditional 20-year deal with French tyre maker Michelin, under which Michelin would grant a licence for the production of synthetic rubber and transfer the related know-how to Synthos.
“The purchase of Michelin’s licence and know-how will lead to an increase in the group’s (Synthos) capacity in terms of butadiene-based synthetic rubbers to about 80,000 tonnes per year,” Synthos said, adding the plant was planned for 2017.
The Polish company also said it had signed conditional multi-year deals for the delivery of synthetic rubber to Michelin and Italy’s Pirelli Tyre worth 1.15 billion zlotys and 1.55 billion zlotys, respectively.
All the deals are conditional on Braskem securing long-term contracts for the supply ofcrude oil to its plants. Synthos said this had so far not been fulfilled and all the deals would become void if this condition was not met by June 30, next year.
The Polish company added it would have the right to unilaterally reject the deal with Braskem if the above-mentioned condition was not met by June 30, 2014.
($1 = 3.0214 Polish Zlotys) (Reporting by Marcin Goettig, editing by David Evans)
Reuters
