Russia's SIBUR acquires 60% stake in idle BOPP film plant from Kazakhstan's KMG
ASTANA. April 14 (Interfax) - Kazakhstan's national oil and gas company KazMunayGas (KMG) has sold a 60% stake in dormant Polymer Production LLP to Russian petrochemical holding SIBUR.
"The sale of a 60% stake to SIBUR was driven by two key considerations. SIBUR serves as KMG's partner in the KPI polypropylene production project (the primary raw material supplier for Polymer Production), and possesses extensive expertise in manufacturing various comparable BOPP film grades," KMG said.
The partnership will fast-track the plant's operational restart through substantial investment, it said.
"The plant's restart is scheduled for Q3-Q4 2025. Current personnel are undergoing skills development through customized training at SIBUR's production sites," KMG said.
KMG acquired 100% of Polymer Production in December 2023. At the time of purchase, the BOPP film plant, which has a 10,000-tonne annual capacity, was idle with all technological lines preserved. "Staff were placed on forced downtime with partial salary compensation. The company's losses amounted to 5.8 billion tenge. Since the acquisition, KMG began production recovery efforts while maintaining social obligations to employees," it said.
BOPP film production falls outside of KMG's core business, as the product serves primarily as a packaging material for the food industry, it said.
"Therefore, we decided to engage an appropriate partner for high-quality plant rehabilitation. This will enable production launch, create permanent jobs for Kazakh citizens, establish uninterrupted domestic production compliant with international standards, diversify the product line-up, and promote value-added exports to foreign markets," it said.
KazMunayGas is Kazakhstan's national hydrocarbon exploration, production, processing, and transportation operator, which represents state interests in oil and gas sector.
BOPP (biaxially-oriented polypropylene) film is a premium packaging material widely used for food products, consumer goods labeling, and industrial tapes.
The official exchange rate on April 14 is 514.94 tenge/$1.
