We may be a little late publishing our roundup of the month just been, but maybe the delay (thanks to the festivities surrounding the New Year and not a relaxing of our attitude to bringing you the latest plastics industry news) will enhance your experience of being reminded of the biggest stories to hit our website in December?
Let's cast our minds back to the momentous COP21 climate change summit in Paris, the massive Dow and DuPont merger and - of course - Sipchem's inching into the European plastics market from Saudi Arabia.

Copyright Maximum (via Facebook)
Francois Hollande
French President Francois Hollande checks out Maximum and A. Schulman's work at the COP21 exhibition.
COP21: A. Schulman design partnership transforms waste into high design
At the COP21 exhibition in Paris, leading supplier of high-performance plastic compounds, powders, composites and resins A. Schulman collaborated with Parisian design company Maximum, who are giving a new life to Schulman's quality control and purge waste as colourful unique stools. Exhibiting under the slogan 'Nothing Goes Wasted', Maximum and A. Schulman's waste-free designs drew a crowd, even grabbing the attentions of President François Hollande.
Sidel celebrates 35 years of PET solutions
Sidel has been producing commercial PET bottling solutions for 35 years and the company is not going to stop innovating any time soon. To meet growing and fast-changing consumer demands of the market, Sidel has been driving industry innovations through its extensive PET packaging and engineering expertise, supporting the growth in the use of PET as it continues to be recognised as the optimal solution for liquid packaging.

Sidel carousel
Dow and DuPont to merge
Dow and DuPont have announced they will merge, forming a powerful chemicals company on the world stage with the intention to spin into three independent agriculture, material science and specialty products businesses. The deal - which has been described in an official release as "highly synergistic" is anticipated to result in run-rate cost synergies of some $3 billion, which are anticipated to create around $300 billion in market value.

Via Medical Plastics News
DuPont/Dow
Sipchem and RESINEX reach agreement on marketing PBT in Europe
Saudi Arabian company Sipchem and the European plastics and rubber distributor RESINEX have reached a distribution agreement on the joint launch and marketing of Sipchem neat PBT resin in Europe.

Imports and Exports
Distribution and supply chains across Europe and the globe.
PolyOne spearheads automotive innovation at Škoda Museum
PolyOne has highlighted its advanced polymer solutions for car-making at its Automotive Innovation Forum at the Škoda Museum in Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic. Held on November 25th 2015, more than 40 customers from the region's automotive industry joined experts from PolyOne to discuss how advanced polymer solutions could help them reach their goals for lightweighting, improving aesthetics and comfort, and managing car electrification.

PolyOne
Arne Leetz, head of body-in-white and trim at Škoda.