Rhodia and Sibur: several steps further in their strategic surfactants partnership in the CIS

Rhodia, member of the Solvay group, and SIBUR have taken significant further steps in their project to create a joint venture in specialty surfactants*. The aim of this strategic partnership is to create a surfactant specialty leader in the CIS market focused on the home & personal care and oil & gas markets, two sectors growing at more than 6% per year.

The two partners have completed studies to set up local production of surfactants in Russia at Dzerzhinsk, at SIBUR’s petrochemicals site (400km east of Moscow), expected to be operational in 2014.

In the home & personal care market, Rhodia and Sibur are working together with customers to build business opportunities to support their growth strategy in this region, where the consumer demand is growing rapidly (CAGR 8%) and moving towards more sophisticated products in categories such as shampoos, conditioners, shower gels, laundry and household detergents.

In the oil & gas market, a series of successful trials of Rhodia’s high performance solutions have been carried out with several companies to adapt formulations to the specific conditions required for the local market.

“We are pleased to see that with our partner Sibur, we have made a major step towards setting up this joint venture which will generate new value for our customers in the CIS region.” explained Christophe Clémente, Vice President in charge of this project for Rhodia Novecare. “This alliance will reinforce our leading position worldwide in specialty surfactants. Aligned with our growth strategy, it demonstrates our commitment to become the preferred partner of our customers as they expand in fast growing countries,” added Emmanuel Butstraen, President of Rhodia Novecare.

“SIBUR and Rhodia have strong complementary activities and expertise. The association with a worldwide leader in specialty surfactants will allow us to provide value added products to meet the fast growing demand for more sophisticated and complex solutions”, commented Sergey Merzlyakov, Member of the Management Board – Managing Director of SIBUR LLC. “Collaboration with Rhodia is in line with our strategy of expanding into carefully chosen specialty chemicals business segments to serve changing consumptions patterns and growing sophistication of Russian domestic consumer industries ”, concluded Dmitry Konov, CEO of SIBUR

Rhodia, as a worldwide leader in specialty surfactants, is providing the partnership with its expertise in surfactant technologies, its knowledge of formulations and market applications and its customer network, including global key accounts with a strong presence in this region.

SIBUR, the leading petrochemical company in Russia, is bringing its experience and knowledge of the CIS region to support the development of the surfactants business, and will also be contributing its raw materials, production and logistics capabilities. Solvay and Sibur already pursue joint industrial and commercial activities in Russia in the vinyls market with their joint venture RusVinyl, which is constructing the largest integrated PVC plant in Russia.

Solvay is also present in Russia, through its activities in Soligran and through Rhodia Acetow as well as via a number of industrial and research partnerships.