LyondellBasell (LYB, Houston, Texas; www.lyondellbasell.com) said it has widened its collaboration with MSI Technology (Arlington Heights, Illinois; www.msitechnology.com) to include the marketing of its polybutene-1 (PB-1) resin for consumer packaging applications throughout North America. Financial details of the expanded deal were not disclosed.

The two companies already cooperate on sales of LYB’s Plexar product line. The range encompasses tie-layers of a variety of chemically modified plastics used to bond unlike materials, primarily in packaging and industrial applications. 

The expansion of the relationship, the Dutch-headquartered, Texas-managed player said, reflects the strategic fit of its product line with the markets its US partner currently supplies. MSI Technology, it added, will use its own technical sales approach combined with its current speciality product portfolio to enhance its offering for plastic packaging producers.  

LyondellBasell’s PB-1 resins are commonly used in consumer packaging applications for easy-open packaging and film modification for seal initiation temperature. According to the company, they can be used with different processing techniques, such as extrusion, extrusion blow moulding, as well as injection moulding, and are available as homo- and random copolymers.