OREANDA-NEWS. October 30, 2012.  Second phase of ALPHAPOR™ expandable polystyrene production line was officially launched at SIBUR’s production site in Perm. The design capacity of the new line is 50,000 tonnes of EPS per year, and with its launch the Company’s aggregate polystyrene design capacity in Perm has reached 100,000 tonnes per year. The ceremony was attended by senior public officials, including Dmitry Medvedev, Russian Prime Minister, Arkady Dvorkovich, Deputy Prime Minister, Alexander Novak, Minister of Energy, Igor Slyunyaev, Minister of Regional Development, Mikhail Babich, Presidential Envoy to the Volga Federal District, Victor Basargin, Governor of the Perm Territory, Leonid Mikhelson, Chairman of the Board of Directors of JSC SIBUR Holding, Alexander Dyukov, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of JSC SIBUR Holding, and Dmitry Konov, CEO of SIBUR.

The launch of the second phase of EPS production line completes SIBUR’s styrene production chain in Perm, which consists of ethylbenzene, styrene and EPS lines. At the first phase of the project, SIBUR launched production lines for styrene (135,000 tonnes per year) and ethylbenzene (220,000 tonnes per year), decommissioned the older production line, and constructed the first phase of Alphapor expandable polystyrene production line, with a design capacity of 50,000 tonnes per year.

SIBUR’s investment in the EPS production is over RUB 4.1bn, total investment in all the above projects is RUB 8.6 bn.

AlphaporTM EPS technology is licensed by Austro-Norwegian company Sunpor. The product can be used across a range of industries, including energy-efficient building insulation, permanent shuttering, and packaging for household appliances and food products. The AlphaporTM insulation, if used correctly, reduces energy consumption by up to 40%. All grades of AlphaporTM expandable polystyrene comply with strict European standards for fire safety, grain-size distribution, density and stress-strain properties.

Today, SIBUR is the largest producer of expandable polystyrene in the Russian market[i]. The main global markets for the product are the USA, France, Italy, Germany and Poland.

“SIBUR continues efforts aimed at full upgrade and capacity expansion across its production chain, from processing of associated petroleum gas to production of polymers. Experience of the Western Europe and the USA shows that expandable polystyrene has great potential in energy-efficient insulation in the housing and utilities industry, and we hope that this potential will be fully unlocked in Russia. We gratefully acknowledge the support this investment project received from the Governor of the region and the City Mayor. Implementation of this project has led to enormous improvement of our local production site, including its environmental and labour safety”, Dmitry Konov, CEO of SIBUR said.