A little over a year after first commencing construction, Sibur (Moscow / Russia; www.sibur.com) subsidiary Polief (Blagoveschensk / Russia; www.polief.ru) has completed its PET capacity expansion. The RUB 1.9 bn (about EUR 38m) project saw the company raise output from 140,000 t/y to 210,000 t/y. The upgrade was achieved by means of modernisation of its existing lines and the construction of a new one, Sibur said.

Polief, which is majority owned by Sibur, with the Bashkortostan government in control of 17.5%, will use the output to process PET itself, with additional volumes set to go to the Russian market to replace imports. With regard to the latter, Sibur said that Russian PET consumption reached 580,000 t/y in 2013. The country’s domestic capacities, however, are only able to provide 405,000 t/y. “The expansion of Polief’s production capacity will reduce reliance on imported PET,” the petrochemical group said.

Aside from Polief, Sibur subsidiary Sibur PETF also operates a 70,000 t/y PET plant in Tver, Plasteurope.com’s Polyglobe capacity database (www.polyglobe.net) shows.