This page is an archive of news and news background stories. Stories are placed here when they expire from the news pages and are filed in date order, most recent on the top. Go to the most recent or browse through the headline links.
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Another SM/PO joint venture for BASF and Shell December 18, 1998
BASF and Shell Chemicals are planning a 50/50 joint venture to make styrene monomer and propylene oxide in Singapore. Shell is already involved in a similar operation on the same site - at Seraya - with Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation. BASF and Shell are also building a similar plant at Moerdijk in the Netherlands, due on stream next year.
The new Singapore plant would have a capacity of 250,000 tonnes of PO and 550,000 tonnes of SM, and would come on stream at the end of 2001.
APME to research best practice in plastics recycling December 18, 1998
The Association of Plastics Manufacturers in Europe is commissioning a study into plastics recycling to identify the main factors assisting and hindering recycling schemes, with the aim of producing best practice recommendations to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of future schemes. The research will be conducted by the TNO Institute in the Netherlands.
Factors considered will include the size and purity of the waste stream, the ease of participation in the collection scheme, the use of financial stimuli to encourage active source separation, the quality of sorting, separation and cleaning processes, and end-market demand.
Publication is expected next Spring.
BASF quits GMT December 18, 1998
BASF and its subsidiary Elastogran are selling their Elastopreg glass mat thermoplastic sheeting business to Symalit of Switzerland because it is not one of BASF's core businesses. The Lotte site near Osnabrueck in Germany has a capacity of more than 10,000 tonnes, and 1998 sales will total more than DM 70 million. The 60 people employed at Lotte will continue to be employed by Symalit.
Netstal stops competing with its CD customers December 18, 1998
Netstal is making a strategic withdrawal from the downstream compact disc market to avoid conflict with its customers. It has sold First Light Technology, its US-based manufacturer of downstream equipment, to STEAG Hama Tech of Germany, which is already in this business. Netstal's injection moulding machines are used by a number of line manufacturers, and Netstal has judged it 'expedient' to withdraw from manufacture 'to be able to approach the international circle of customers neutrally'.
Boom in PET bottles but reclamation is not so rosy December 18, 1998
Annual worldwide growth of 8 - 10 per cent in the PET bottle market is forecast by a new report from PET Packaging, Resin & Recycling.
Taking PET bottles in the wider context of glass and aluminium cans, the company says brewers and soft drinks manufacturers are using different packaging to segment the drinks market. Glass is used for premium beer packaging despite its 30 per cent cost premium over cans as it returns a higher margin than the canned bulk supermarket sales. In the US and Japan, soft drinks producers are packaging chilled convenience sales of soft drinks in small PET bottles at a high margin, while packaging bulk supermarket sales in can multi-packs at a discount.
Aluminium can sales are expected to grow 1 - 2 per cent a year in the USA and Europe, but remain flat in Japan, where the recent introduction of the small PET bottle has hit sales.
Rationalisation among packaging materials manufacturers is expected due to overcapacity in PET, aluminium can stock and beverage tinplate of 15 - 30 per cent. Beverage Packaging Materials 1998: Opportunities in a Competitive Market costs £9,000 and The Beverage Container Cost Models and accompanying report costs £6,000.
PCI has also published the third edition of its Supply Demand Report on PET Recycling in the Americas which concludes:
Bottle collection volumes are likely to rise by 3,000 tonnes by 2003 from the 1998 total of 430,000 tonnes.
Bottle reclamation is being undertaken by around 40 specialist processors, half of them in the USA, of which many are integrated into fibre production which accounts for 60 per cent of current demand.
'Bottle to bottle' applications for reclaimed PET are not likely to become significant in the short term because established processes are not competitive and there is no regulatory incentive to use RPET.
Severe price competition in virgin material markets will limit the demand for RPET in the short to medium term in all markets and exporter countries such as Canada and Mexico may face problems in disposing of collected bottles, however the market will improve later in the forecast period as virgin raw material and end user markets themselves improve.
SABIC sets its sights on global PET supply December 18, 1998
SABIC is planning to become a global supplier of PET with an investment in additional purified terephthalic acid capacity at its Yanbu, Saudi Arabia, complex. It is considering increasing polyester capacity by 250,000 tonnes a year by 2001/2002, much of which would be used for PET, although there would be an expansion in polyester fibres and filaments to serve the growing textile and carpet industries in Saudi Arabia, the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere.
Growth forecast in plastics compounds December 18, 1998
Thermoplastic elastomers will form the majority of plastics compounds sold in Europe in 2005, according to a new report from Frost & Sullivan. At present PVC compounds lead the market, but these will give way to thermoplastic elastomers as TPEs make more inroads into thermoset rubber applications.
The European plastics compounding market was valued at $4·81 billion this year, and according to Frost & Sullivan should reach $6·80 billion by 2005. As well as general growth in the use of plastics, growth in compounds is also being fuelled by the replacement of engineering materials by cheaper reinforced plastics.
Germany is the largest consumer of plastics compounds, taking some 28 per cent of the European market this year, with Italy and France following. Growth in the automotive sector is set likely to increase Germany's share of consumption, while Italy's share is likely to fall because of the gloomy predictions for the footwear industry.
The report, The European Market for Plastic Compounding, costs $3,950.
Cookson cuts Cookson to avoid Cookson confusion December 18, 1998
Extrusion tooling specialist Cookson Extrusion Technologies has changed its name to avoid confusion with Cookson Group plc. It is now known as Creative Extrusion Tooling.
Sepro in expansive mood December 15, 1998
Robot manufacturer Sepro is expanding production with a new 12,000 m² factory due on stream by next June. The target is to build 2,000 robots a year by 2000.
This year the company installed robots on 1,400 injection machines, 20 per cent more than last year. It claims 85 per cent of its home French market, 30 per cent of the European market and 15 per cent of the North American market. Sales have increased this year in South America as European companies such as Peguform, Allibert, Valeo, Böllhoff, MGI and Simoldes have opened plants there.
IK orders more Pressflow robots December 15, 1998
IK Precision of Telford is to install six Pressflow Pacer 2000 robots on its injection moulding machines. The company, which is a worldwide supplier to Panasonic, has 27 moulding machines, of which 17 will have robots - 16 of them from Pressflow.
Bayer inflates blowing agent production December 15, 1998
Bayer plans to increase production of chemical blowing agents at its Leverkusen, Germany site by 20 per cent next year. Production has already expanded 30 per cent since 1997 and is schedule to reach double the 1997 figure by 2002.
DSM sells NBR to Zeon December 15, 1998
DSM's American rubber business DSM Copolymers is selling the rights to its Nysyn and Nysynblak nitrile products to Zeon Chemicals, the US subsidiary of Nippon Zeon. DSM Copolymers has capacity for 15,000 tonnes of NBR at its Baton Rouge multi-purpose plant, which also has capacity for 160,000 tonnes of SBR. It will continue to make NBR, but this will be sold exclusively to Zeon, which will have worldwide sales rights.
ICI amalgamates speciality chemicals December 15, 1998
ICI has restructured its speciality chemicals business with the emphasis on who it sells to rather than what it sells. The existing businesses had some elements of overlap in products with alternative chemistries. Amalgamating them gives customers the options from a single source.
Five businesses have been incorporated into the new Uniquema. They are ICI Synthetic Lubricants, ICI Surfactants, Mona (a recent acquisition), Solaveil (formerly part of Tioxide) and Unichema. The product range is broad, from engineering lubricants to agrochemicals, personal care products to tobacco applications.
In the polymer field the company supplies raw materials for coating resins, adhesives, engineering plastics, fibres and foams, including those for polycondensates such as polyamides, polyesters, epoxies, polyurethanes and alkyds. It also supplies additives for use with polyolefins, including anti-blocking, slip, antistatic, antifogging and wetting agents, and polymerisation aids for styrene butadiene rubber and latex.
Bigger site for Labotek December 10, 1998
Labotek (UK), the British arm of the Danish materials handling equipment company, is moving to bigger premises in Kettering. The address from January 4 will be:
Unit 2250 Parkway
Kettering Venture Park
Kettering
Northamptonshire
NN15 6XR
Telephone: 01536 524400
Fax: 01536 524499
Production monitoring takeover December 10, 1998
US production monitoring specialist Mattec has taken over one of its competitors, EPOS, and will absorb it into its own operation. One effect will be increased compatibility between systems, as initially Mattec will take over sales of the Windows NT-based EPM system from EPOS, but will also modify it to become compatible with its Unix-based ProHelp Millennium system. Both systems operate with machine-mounted data loggers feeding the central monitoring and analysis software.
Axxicon buying French mould maker December 10, 1998
Dutch mould maker Axxicon is expanding its smart card business by buying Seropa of France, one of the country's top five custom mould makers and a leading player in the smart card mould and systems business.
The takeover will be paid for in cash and Axxicon shares.
Uniroyal increases Korean stake December 10, 1998
Uniroyal Chemical has bought out its joint venture partner in the Unikor rubber chemicals business in South Korea. It has taken over the 50 per cent of shares owned by Dongbu Fine Chemicals Co, and has also acquired land in the transaction.
New chairman for DSM December 10, 1998
DSM chairman Simon de Bree retires on July 1 next year and will be succeeded by Peter Elverding, who has been a member of the managing board since 1995. At the same time Jan Dopper will join the board. He is currently director of planning & development at DSM Resins.
EVC increases S-PVC price December 4, 1998
The price of S-PVC pipe grade from EVC International goes up to a minimum of DM 1·10/kg on January 1.
CDT adds blue to its LEP pallette December 4, 1998
Another step towards a full colour polymer display screen has been taken by Cambridge Display Technology with the achievement of a blue light-emitting polymer.
CDT is working to produce computer displays, televisions and other digital displays built from films of polymers which emit coloured light when electrically stimulated. It has demonstrated displays using red and green, and the addition of blue - more difficult to achieve due to the extreme complexity of the chemical process needed because of the position of blue at the far end of the visible spectrum - has enabled the company to produce a pure white single pixel display, which needs a careful balance of red, blue and green polymer components.
PEN for baby food jars December 4, 1998
Shell Chemicals' HiPERTUF 90000 PEN has been used by Aoki Technical Laboratory to develop a PEN jar said to be capable of achieving the long shelf life required for low acid baby foods such as meat or vegetables. In tests at the Guelph Food Technology Centre in Canada the jar withstood pasteurisation conditions of 116 degC for 63 minutes. When compared with baby food stored in a glass container, the food stored in the PEN container showed no significant difference in taste for up to one year and four months.
Using polyester instead of glass brings benefits of reduced weight for more efficient storage and distribution; shatter resistance, reducing waste through breakage; and elimination of possible glass contamination during filling.
CNC router investment by GenCel December 2, 1998
The GenCel group has invested £120,000 at its GenCel Cyroma factory in Banbury with the purchase of a second Maka CNC router for trimming vacuum formings. The twin table machine augments another Maka five-axis machine which has been in production at the site since 1994.
FM in smart card venture December 2, 1998
Ferromatik Milacron has joined with smart card manufacturer Wilden Engineering to offer complete systems for smart card production. Systems comprise a Ferromatik Milacron injection moulding machine - either a hydraulic K110 or an electric Elektra 100S - with a Wilden four-cavity mould, magazine unit and punching device, and a Remak removal robot. Wilden tools use a patented hydraulically-activated core for forming the chip cavity.
X-Rite moves December 2, 1998
Colour control company X-Rite has moved to new, bigger, premises at Poynton in Cheshire. The address is:
The Acumen Centre,
First Avenue,
Poynton,
Cheshire
SK12 1FJ
Telephone: 01625 871100
Fax: 01625 871444
BASF invests in Korean polyols December 2, 1998
BASF is buying a Korean polyols producer. It is to acquire the 12,000 tonnes polyether polyols business of Dongsung Chemical Co, and plans to use the output in its own systems business in Asia. The production site also has vacant land which can be used for expanding BASF's existing neighbouring facilities.
Top changes at Barlo December 2, 1998
Barlo Plastics, formed earlier this year by the merger of sheet producers IRG (Belgium), Resart (Germany) and Critesa (Spain), has made top management changes in the UK.
Bob Jackson, managing director of Stanley Smith, becomes managing director of Barlo Plastics while remaining MD of Stanley Smith, taking control of the sheet plastics business in the UK and Ireland.
Bob Caddick, formerly UK managing director of IRG, takes over product development throughout Europe of Barlo's Vectan PETG sheet.
Dearer silicas December 2, 1998
The price of Degussa's precipitated silicas, silicates and matting agents goes up between 3 and 8 per cent on January 1.
RTP exonerated in long fibre patent action December 2, 1998
A judge in the USA has found in favour of RTP Company in its defence of a patent action by LNP Engineering Plastics and Kawasaki Chemical Holding Co. LNP and Kawasaki were claiming infringement of patents in the field of long fibre reinforced thermoplastics. The judge, in Delaware federal district court, also held the three LNP/Kawasaki to be invalid.
Elf Atochem expands acrylic additives December 2, 1998
Elf Atochem is to build an acrylic impact modifiers and processing aids plant at Vlissingen in Holland, with a scheduled start-up of end-1999. The site already produces Metablen impact modifier, a joint venture between Elf Atochem and Mitsubishi Rayon, primarily for the packaging market. Output from the new plant will be aimed primarily at window frame profiles and engineering materials. The new facility will increase the capacity of the Vlissingen acrylic additives plant to 30,000 tonnes.
'Lightest yet' PE foam December 2, 1998
Closed cell polyethylene foams said to be 30 per cent lighter than any other have been introduced by Zotefoams. They weigh in at 15 kg/m3 and are made from LDPE and metallocene catalysed PE using a nitrogen gassing process in which nitrogen is forced into the material under high pressure in an autoclave.
Applications are seen in thermal insulation, sports and leisure, packaging and buoyancy products. A flame retardant grade is under development.
Acquisition of the Hoechst Hostalen HDPE business by Elenac has been given clearance by the European Commission, and is expected to take place on December 31.
After the acquisition Elenac will have a capacity 1·9 million tonnes of polyethylene.
BASF beats environmental target December 2, 1998
BASF will cease using environmentally damaging blowing agents in the production of expanded polystyrene sheet on January 1. From that date all its Styrodur products will be blown with carbon dioxide.
The change comes a year earlier than the date by which BASF has guaranteed to the German Ministry of the the Environment, Nature Conservation and Reactor Safety that it would make the switch. Since May 1997 80 per cent of Styrodur output has been foamed with CO2. BASF has spent around DM 30 million on process modifications and research and development to achieve the conversion.
Expert system predicts fumes from rubber December 2, 1998
A software program capable of predicting the nature of fumes released during rubber processing and vulcanisation has been produced by Rapra Technology.
Fume 2 is an expert system using a chemical model of ingredient-emission relationships which provides a generic base for the prediction of volatile releases from rubber. The user lists the compound ingredients along with the basic process information - temperatures and whether or not vulcanisation has occurred - and the software gives a list of chemicals likely to be emitted. The user can then interrogate the list to establish the hazard of specific chemicals, how to check on their occurrence in the workplace, and how to control the pollution level. Fume 2 contains UK (COSHH) and overseas exposure limits.
The program costs £495.
DSM sets up Danish sales office December 2, 1998
DSM has bought out its Danish distributor Macrodan and set up its own sales office - DSM Scandinavia - in Birkerod. The office will handle sales of polyethylene, polypropylene, styrenics, engineering plastics and elastomers. DSM's sales in Denmark total nearly NLG 100 million.
Grabor takes over Audus Noble HDPE bottle business December 1, 1998
Audus Noble has sold its HDPE extrusion blow moulding business to Grabor Plastics, and is to concentrate on PVC and PET jars and injection moulding.
Many of the moulds will be transferred to existing machines at Grabor, and machines have been bought to carry the larger and more specialist moulds which expand Grabor's portfolio, such as for large containers with handles.
AlliedSignal invests in Korea December 1, 1998
AlliedSignal is buying out its partner in AlliedSignal Korea Ltd. Buying the 50 per cent owned by LG Chemical gives AlliedSignal a stronger position in Korea, and helps LG Chemical rationalise its business involvement.
Incoe to build Gas Injection equipment December 1, 1998
Gas Injection is making a push into the North American market by licensing hot runner specialist Incoe to build its equipment for gas assisted injection moulding. Incoe will also provide service and support in the USA, Mexico and Canada.
Gas Injection has also linked with an unidentified injection moulding machine manufacturer to build machines with gas assist facilites built-in. The machines have large platens relative to their lock, high shot volumes, gas control housed within the frame, and on-screen graphics for gas control. Because they are intended for gas assisted moulding, the machines do not have the refinements necessary for high pressure fast cycling operation, which compensates for adding the gas assist features.
The range runs from 20 to 600 tonnes, with the 600 tonne machine capable of moulding components which require a conventional 1,200 tonnes machine, and at the smaller end, making gas injection viable for small mouldings.
The Betts businesses of Akzo Nobel have been bought out by an eight-strong management team in a £103 million deal and retitled Betts UK.
The company is headquartered in Colchester, with a clean room factory in Wrexham and other plants in Florence, Italy; Kentucky, USA; Warsaw, Poland; Goa, India; Surabaya, Indonesia and Shanghai, China. It has an annual turnover of £100 million, and says it is the world's leading producer of asthma inhalers, the world's second largest manufacturer of toothpaste tubes, and a European leader in pharmaceutical tubes. Its customers include Unilever, Colgate Palmolive, Glaxo Wellcome, Boots and SmithKline Beecham.
New top man at Blowspeed December 1, 1998
The new chief executive of Thanet-based blow and injection moulder Blowspeed is Roger Dennett, who joins the company from BMI Electronics where he was chief executive and managing director.
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