NOVA Chemicals’ growth strategy includes initiatives that go beyond the sale of polymers. We are producing new industrial applications and consumer products that are made possible through our plastics, market expertise, and technologies. This approach not only helps to grow markets for our resins, but also positions us to create and capture more of the value associated with unique applications.

For example, the waste industry is responding enthusiastically to a new, all-polyethylene commercial waste container that offers a superior alternative to heavy, noisy and rusty steel dumpsters. This new dumpster is made exclusively with NOVA Chemicals’ SURPASS polyethylene resins, which provide industry-leading strength and processability that enable plastic to replace steel in this demanding application. Developed in cooperation with Nuwave Container, these durable containers are reaching markets quickly through NOVA Chemicals’ Rotational Molding Network. Created to drive growth in the rotomolding industry, the Network is expanding markets for existing applications – and creating new applications that displace products currently made from materials such as metal or wood.

In the building and construction industry, NOVA Chemicals is delivering innovative, new products by exploiting the significant and relatively untapped advantages of EPS. In 2006, NOVA Chemicals partnered with a leader in the building and construction industry, Dietrich Metal Framing, LLC, to develop building products that combine the strength of steel with the energy-efficient, insulating qualities of EPS. The two companies formed a joint venture, Accelerated Building Technologies, LLC, which introduced a proprietary, composite wall panel in January 2007. In Mexico, NOVA Chemicals’ joint venture with Grupo IDESA, called NOVIDESA, successfully entered the rapidly growing Mexican building and construction marketplace with advanced building materials: fabricated panels and insulating concrete forms (ICFs).

Our proprietary IMx™ technology for beverage cups and containers also reached consumers in 2006. NOVA Chemicals entered into licensing agreements for this technology – which produces premium cups with outstanding graphics and hot and cold insulation – in Malaysia and in Eastern and Western Europe. We also closed our first North American commercial sales of beverage cups made with IMx technology.