OREANDA-NEWS. April 23, 2012. 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.