Borealis AG
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| Company type | Public Limited |
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| Industry | Petrochemicals |
| Founded | 1994 |
| Headquarters | Vienna, Austria |
Key people | Mark Garrett, CEO; Mark Tonkens, CFO[1] |
| Products | polyolefins, hydrocarbons, base chemicals, fertilizers |
| Revenue | 7.7 billion € (2015)[2] |
Number of employees | 6,500 approx. (2015)[2] |
| Website | www.borealisgroup.com |
Borealis AG is Europe's second and world`s eighth largest producer of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) and is headquartered in Vienna, Austria.
Overview
Borealis AG is an international company in producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) products for the infrastructure, automotive and packaging market sectors. Its plastics are converted by customers into products such as food packaging, medical devices, diapers, energy and communication cables, water and sanitation distribution pipes and automotive parts.
With EUR 988 million net profit in 2015 and 6,500 employees, Borealis is headquartered in Vienna and operates primarily in Europe, with manufacturing operations in Belgium, Central Europe (Austria and Germany), Finland and Sweden. It also operates compounding units in Brazil, Italy and the USA, two "innovation centres", European Innovation Headquarters as well as customer service centres in several countries.
The company is co-owned between the International Petroleum Investment Company of Abu Dhabi (64%) and OMV Aktiengesellschaft (36%).[3]
Though Borealis’ core products are polyolefins, the collective name for PE and PP, it also produces hydrocarbons, namely ethylene, propylene and phenol. With the acquisition of Agrolinz Melamine International (AMI), the company is expanding its product portfolio to include melamine and fertilizer.
In 2015 Borealis filed a total of 96 new patent priority applications, which is more than any other Austrian company.[4]
History
Borealis was founded in 1994 by the merging of Neste and Statoil. In 1998 the petro chemistry sector of OMV was included; OMV and IPIC took over the 50% business share of Neste. In 2005 Statoil gave up its share of Borealis and one year later, in June 2006, the headquarters was relocated from Copenhagen to Vienna. The International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) of Abu Dhabi owns 64% of the company, with the remaining 36% owned by OMV, an integrated, international oil and gas company.
From its beginning, Borealis has been committed to Responsible Care, the chemical industry’s global voluntary initiative for continuous improvement in health, safety and environmental performance.[5]
Products
Polyolefins
Automotive
Borealis supplies polyolefin plastic materials for engineering applications in the automotive industry. Plastic materials replace conventional materials such as metal, rubber and engineering polymers. In automotive vehicles, Borealis’ polyolefin plastic materials are used in a wide range of exterior, interior, and under-the-bonnet applications, including bumpers, body panels, trims, dashboards, door claddings, climate control and cooling systems, air intake manifolds and battery cases.
Consumer Products
Borealis polyolefins are used to make applications possible in flexible packaging (including blown film, heat seal and extrusion coating); rigid packaging (caps and closures, bottles, thin wall packaging, thermoforming), non-woven and technical fibres, and appliances.
Energy
The company provides extra-high, high and medium voltage cable applications as well as semi-conductive products that are used for energy transmission and distribution, data and communication cables, and for building and automotive wires and cables.
Pipes & Fittings
Borealis offers pipe solutions used in water and gas supply, waste water and sewage disposal, in-house plumbing and heating, and the oil and gas industry, including multi-layer coating solutions for onshore and offshore oil and gas pipelines.
New Business Development
The company develops innovative products and solutions in the areas of healthcare, plastomers and foamable materials.
Base chemicals
Hydrocarbons & Energy
Borealis sources basic feedstock such as naphtha, butane, propane and ethane from the international oil and gas markets and converts these into ethylene, propylene and cracker co-products through its hydrocarbon units.
Melamine
Agrolinz Melamine International (AMI) was consolidated into Borealis in 2007 and renamed Borealis Agrolinz Melamine GmbH. Agrolinz provides melamine (used to treat flooring and furniture for resistance to wear and tear) and fertilizer. Borealis produces melamine at its plants in Linz, Austria, and in Piesteritz, Germany. Gained through conversion from urea, melamine is an essential material for the global production of synthetic resins.
Fertilizers
Borealis supplies over five million tonnes of fertilizers and technical nitrogen products each year via its Borealis L.A.T distribution network. Borealis L.A.T has 60 warehouses in Europe and an inventory capacity of over 700 kilotonnes. Its distribution network stretches from its headquarters in Linz along the Rhine and Danube, all the way from the Atlantic to the Black Sea. There are subsidiaries all across Europe: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia and Bulgaria. In Germany, Italy and France, dedicated L.A.T sales representatives work on site for customers.
Borealis operates fertilizer production plants in Austria, France, the Netherlands and Belgium. In France, Borealis is the largest producer of nitrogen fertilizers with three production facilities in Grand-Quevilly, Grandpuits and Ottmarsheim, as well as a storage site at La Rochelle. Borealis sites are located at the heart of important grain-producing regions.
In 2013, Borealis acquired a majority interest in Rosier SA, a mineral fertilizer producer with plants in Belgium and the Netherlands. At present, Borealis has a 77.4% holding in Rosier. With the recently announced world-scale ammonia project in the United States, Borealis continues its ambitious growth strategy in the fertilizer business. [6]
Borstar proprietary technology
The company uses Borstar PE and PP technology to design molecular structured materials[clarification needed].
Joint ventures
Borouge
Borouge is Borealis’ joint venture with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC). Its facility is in Ruwais, Abu Dhabi (UAE) and consists of 3 facilities:
Borouge 1 was founded in 2001 and has an ethane-based cracker for production of 600.000 tonnes ethylene per year and two PE lines with a combined capacity of 580.000 tonnes/year and utilises Borealis' Borstar PE technology.
Borouge 2 was a major expansion project complete in 2010 which tripled the annual capacity of polyolefin capacity in Ruwais to 2 million tonnes/year.
The Borouge 3 plant expansion will make Borouge the world’s largest integrated polyolefins complex. Once fully ramped up in 2016, the additional 2.5 million tonnes of polyolefins capacity will yield a total Borouge capacity of 4.5 million tonnes, and a combined Borealis and Borouge capacity of 8 million tonnes.[7]
Borealis Brasil
Borealis Brasil S.A. is a joint-venture between Borealis (80%) and the Brazilian Braskem(20%). Located in Itatiba and Triunfo in Brasil and formed in 1999. It serves the automotive industry in South-America.[3]
External links
Resources
- ^ Borealis website: management team, visited 28 February 2015
- ^ a b c Borealis website: Annual Report 2015, visited 4 March 2016
- ^ a b Borealis website Owners and Structure, visited: 28 February 2015
- ^ APA OTS [1], visited: 31 March 2016
- ^ "How Borealis Monitor Environmental Performance". www.emisoft.com. Emisoft. Retrieved 30 October 2016.
- ^ Borealis website: Fertilizers, visited 11 March 2016
- ^ Company press release [2], visited 31 March 2016