M&G INTRODUCES NEW PET GRADE FOR CSD PACKAGING IN THE USA

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M&G INTRODUCES NEW PET GRADE FOR CSD PACKAGING IN THE USA
12 July 2002 - M&G Group

M&G Polymers USA LLC – a wholly owned subsidiary of M&G Group operating in the USA – announces the official commercial launch of a new PET resin, CLEARTUF® MAX, for use in CSD packaging applications in the USA.

CLEARTUF® MAX represents a new generation of environmentally friendly resins being developed by M&G’s research and development teams. CLEARTUF® MAX is a faster re-heat resin designed to benefit customers by either reduced energy consumption for a given throughput or reduced bottle blowing time thus gaining an increase in output. The new grade will be produced at M&G’s manufacturing plant in Point Pleasant, West Virginia which is now also benefiting from a large new SSP unit.

Delane Richardson, Director of R&D in the Americas, says, 'CLEARTUF® MAX is one of the first resins to be developed entirely under the M&G banner. We made modifications to both the stabilizer and one of the catalysts in our ongoing commitment to improve resin performance and reduce environmental impact. These are core elements of the Group’s R&D strategy and reflect the long term commitment of M&G to the PET industry.'

Fred Fournier, Director of Sales and Marketing, believes this is 'a great step forward for M&G customers now that leading brand owners have given their approvals for its use. This is the grade we expect to start with as our new investment at Altamira comes on stream in less nine months from now, so our customers in Mexico will then also be able to benefit from this new technology.'

Western Container Corporation (Midland, TX), a large U.S.A Coca-Cola PET bottle cooperative, states, 'We have been in full scale production of CSD bottles based upon M&G's new CLEARTUF® MAX since early May of this year at our new plant in Tolleson, AZ, which produces and supplies PET preforms to our blow molding operations at this site, plus our two bottle blow molding sites in California. Our initial impression on CLEARTUF® MAX is that we are very pleased with the improvement in ease of processing in bottle blow molding. This resin is the best we have ever tested in providing resistance to Environmental Stress Crack (ESC) induced bottle failures. M&G seems to be dedicated to ongoing development of new and improved polyester resins based upon our and other customers' expressed needs. This is one of several new resin projects which we are currently working on with M&G.'

http://www.mgpolymers.com

About: M&G Group
M&G is a family owned chemical engineering company headquartered in Tortona, Italy. It develops innovative and cost effective PET resins for container packaging and is presently the world’s second largest producer of PET for packaging applications with production capacity of 1.3 million tonnes per annum. Group sales proceeds in 2003 were $1.6 billion of which around 80% were derived from operations involving PET.

M&G Group is divided into three business units, PET Polymer, PET Packaging and Acetates. In Europe, M&G has capacity to produce around 2.5 billion preforms per annum at two locations in Italy. It operates the largest SSP unit in North America and has the current world’s largest PET production unit (1200t/d) at its Altamira facility in Mexico. The Group has manufacturing assets in Brazil, Italy, Mexico and USA. The Group supports three R&D Facilities; Italy, USA and Brazil.

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