SABIC premiers in Russia at Interplastica 2008

For the first time, the SABIC family of plastics businesses, including SABIC Innovative Plastics and SABIC Europe, will be showcasing its diverse plastics portfolios for key Russian industries at Interplastica 2008, at stand A22/28, Hall 8.3. SABIC's presence at the event underscores the importance of the Russian market to its expanding global business strategy. Major Russian markets into which SABIC materials are sold include automotive, building and construction, electrical and lighting, pipe and infrastructure, SABIC offers Russian customers a strong local team, local supply of materials, and the extensive resources of its Global Application Technology (GApT) centers to support in-country application development. "Russia is a top priority for SABIC Innovative Plastics' global expansion plans. We believe we have exciting solutions for this major emerging market, particularly in the automotive sector," said Juri Bercovitz, area sales manager for Russia, CIS and Baltic States, SABIC Innovative Plastics. "We continue to invest in dedicated local resources to assist Russian customers to effectively compete in the global environment with design, application development and processing optimization using our comprehensive portfolio of innovative materials." "SABIC has a long-term growth strategy for Central and Eastern Europe, where growth in polyolefins in the coming years is predicted to be more than 15%. Our presence at Interplastica 2008 will allow us to position SABIC more strongly in the local market and build more direct relationships with customers in the region," explained Hubert Guth, Director Sales Offices SABIC Europe. In 2007, SABIC Innovative Plastics launched its new Russian Automotive division as part of a global network dedicated to accelerating market and application development activities for the rapidly expanding automotive industry in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). "We want to be a strong player in this segment, " says Nico Egelman, SABIC Innovative Plastics Commercial Director Automotive Central & Eastern Europe, " reports predict that Russia will become the #1 automotive market in Europe by 2011, and according to Global Insights World Car Industry Forecast Report from March 2007, Russia is now the sixth-largest market in Europe - behind Western Europe's big five economies - with sales up 27% in 2006 to 2.07 million units. This is an exciting time for us and our customers."