Plastics News - Show Daily - October 24, 2022 - 27

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Plastics News, October 24, 2022 * 27
Braskem brings sustainable materials to K 2022
By Frank Esposito
Plastics News Staff
Unpredictability is
coming
off
predictable
in the polypropylene resin
market.
" We're
a
really
good run, but now we're looking
at a lot of volatility, " industry
veteran Mark Nikolich said at K
2022. Nikolich is CEO of Braskem
America, a Philadelphia-based
unit of materials giant Braskem
SA of Brazil.
" The market is seeing destocking
now, because people
had been buying [PP] in an
extremely tight market for all
materials and had built inventory, "
Nikolich said. " And big-box
stores have too much inventory
of consumer products. Now the
supply chain is going too far in
the other direction. "
Supplies of polymer-grade propylene
feedstock have gone from
short to long, he added. That
move, combined with new PP capacity
coming on, has led to lower
PP prices.
Project Delta, a new PP production
line that Braskem opened in
late 2020, " is running well, " Nikolich
said. " We're happy with Delta.
We invested at the right time
and hit the peak. "
With customers focused on
sustainability,
Braskem now
offers six PP grades and two
polyethylene grades with recycled
content. " There's really not
enough high-quality polypropylene
to recycle, " Nikolich said.
Braskem also is an investor in
Nexus Circular LLC, a chemical
recycling fi rm with a commercial
site in Atlanta. In July, Nexus announced
plans to build a second
site in the Chicago area.
Earlier this year, Braskem's
I'm Green-brand bio-based EVA
polymer was commercialized in
The Robbie, a line of kids' shoes
from Native Shoes of Vancouver,
British Columbia. The new shoes
use Sugarlite, a sugarcane-based
EVA-blend material, in the upper
and midsole materials. The
shoes also are fully recyclable
via the Native Shoes Remix
Project. Kids can mail their old
shoes back to Native Shoes for
free, where they'll be used for
playgrounds for local communities
in Vancouver.
Also in 2022, Braskem launched
two new circular PP grades
with recycled content based
on post-consumer waste. Both
grades have been approved for a
wide range of U.S. Food and Drug
Administration food-contact applications,
including consumer
packaging, caps and closures,
housewares and a range of thermoforming
applications.
Looking ahead, Nikolich said
that plastics processors might
rely more on local resin production
to meet their needs. He added
that they could carry more
resin inventory than they did beMark
Nikolich, CEO
of Braskem America,
a Philadelphia-based
unit of materials giant
Braskem SA, says there
is a lot of volatility in
polypropylene markets.
Plastics News photo by
Caroline Seidel
BRASKEM SA
Hall 5,
Booth D27
fore the COVID-19 pandemic.
Braskem ranks as Brazil's largest
petrochemicals fi rm and as
one of North America's largest
producers of PP resin. The fi rm
also is a major supplier of bioplastics.
Braskem employs 8,000
and posted sales of almost $20
billion in 2021.
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Plastics News - Show Daily - October 24, 2022

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