Ingenia to open Mideast plant next year
                                           By Nina Ying Sun
                                           PLASTICS NEWS STAFF

Lefas

TORONTO (May 8, 3 p.m. EDT) -- Houston-based concentrates maker Ingenia Polymers Corp. plans to build a plant in the Middle East to meet local needs.

John Lefas, president and chief executive officer of Ingenia, said the plant in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, will begin operating in 18 months. The facility will make masterbatches, compounds and superblends.

Lefas did not disclose capacity, but said the facility will be similar in size to its plants in North America. The combined capacity of Ingenia's plants in Brantford, Ontario; Calgary, Alberta; and Houston totals 300 million pounds per year.

"We are following our customers to the region," he said in an interview May 2 at Plast-Ex in Toronto .

Some major materials producers have set up production facilities in the Middle East. Local governments have started advising plastic processors to increase local production to supply domestic market.

"Saudi Arabia has a very young population," he said. "They need jobs."

Ingenia is also looking to leverage the Dammam plant to enter fast-growing markets like Turkey and Egypt . India is hard to break into, Lefas said.

The company's Middle East output will not be shipped back to North America, where it already has sufficient capacity, with expansions on the way, he said.

Ingenia is investing about $8.5 million to add a 100 million-pound-per-year carbon black line in Houston . The new line will make high-end carbon black polyolefins for applications in pipe, wire and cable.

A smaller expansion also will take place in Brantford to add production flexibility, he said.