OREANDA-NEWS. SIBUR, a Russian petrochemical company, Songwon International AG a European branch of Songwon Industrial Co. Ltd, South Korea, and UTS, a Swedish-Russian distribution company, signed a long-term cooperation agreement to supply additives used for polymer production and processing at SIBUR's production facilities.

The document was signed by Kirill Maximov, SIBUR's Director for Chemicals Procurement, Dieter Morath, Executive Vice President of Songwon International AG and Lars Hjorth, Managing Director of UTS Scandinavia AB.

Under the agreement Songwon in collaboration with its Distributor UTS will provide SIBUR with additives, used in polypropylene, polyethylene, -rubbers, thermoplastic rubbers and PVC. Adding stabilisers during production helps improve the quality of end products and protect polymers from temperature, mechanical stress, UV radiation and further exposures. Songwon will also provide technical support for the stabilisers in end-use applications.

As part of the agreement, the parties will also engage in developing and implementing joint projects aimed to improve polymer properties. Some of the projects will rely on the capabilities of Songwon's R&D Centre in South Korea.

The agreement will be effective until the end of 2015.

In 2014, SIBUR's NIOST opened Polyolefin Additives Certification Centre, with the opening ceremony attended by representatives of Songwon as additive producer.

The Centre's key objectives are to carry out laboratory tests and additives certification to determine product compliance or non-compliance with major manufacturing requirements. Samples will also be benchmarked against peer products available on the market. It will help the Polyolefin Additives Procurement Unit to get the best value for money in choosing additives and to find new partners for SIBUR among suppliers and manufacturers of additives.