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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BPF answers back to 'unbalanced' reporting on plastics waste March 30, 2008
A British Plastics Federation section in a supplement on "Innovation in Plastics" will be published in TheTimes newspaper on Tuesday, countering the "lack of balance" with which BPF director general Peter Davis described reports from the BBC this past week.
The BBC reports focused on the environmental damage caused by waste plastics products polluting the oceans, and particularly their effect on wildlife. In a BPF statement Mr Davis said the coverage lacked balance because "used plastics are not the only materials to be washed or dumped into the oceans. Because of their light weight, a major benefit in use, they float and are more visible." A further criticism of plastics - that as they fragment they attract toxins which are then ingested by wildlife and pass into the food chain - was also condemned as unbalanced by Mr Davis "as no reference was made to all the other articles in the sea which could potentially attract toxins."
The blame, he said, "lies with behavioural problems in society not with a material which is providing so many tactical solutions to issues raised by climate change" and the BPF condemned the poor waste management practices, including illegal dumping from ships, which have led to the presence of used plastics products in the oceans.
Just how plastics are providing solutions to climate change issues will be highlighted in the supplement in The Times. It will cite how, without plastics, the weight of packaging would increase by 400 per cent, energy usage would double and waste would rise by 150 per cent; how plastics components in cars save 750 litres of fuel over a 90,000 mile lifespan; how a new A380 aircraft with 20 per cent of its bodyweight made from carbon fibre reinforced plastics burns 21 per cent less fuel per passenger than earlier versions; how plastics pipe systems are replacing London's Victorian cast-iron water supply system and saving over 100 million litres of water a day; and how the recycling of PVC-U windows is increasing rapidly with the UK now recycling more PVC-U window profile than other European countries.
DuPont to 'vigorously defend' Invista health and safety claims March 28, 2008
DuPont has replied to the announcement by Invista yesterday that is to sue over health and safety issues at its former DuPont textiles and fibres plants. DuPont describes Invista's allegations as "grossly exaggerated" and says it "intends to vigorously defend" itself.
A statement from DuPont says: "Invista's allegations are based purely on a contract dispute - plain and simple. Not a single person was injured or placed at unreasonable risk in connection with any of Invista's indemnification claims. Instead, four years after subsidiaries of Koch Industries acquired the facilities at issue from DuPont, Invista's current allegations appear to be opportunistic efforts, including funding for Invista's production capacity expansions and other earmarked capital improvement projects."
It adds that during its ownership of the plants in dispute "DuPont invested tens of millions of dollars on environmental projects, upgrades and retrofits, and on hundreds of health and safety upgrade and improvement projects."
New PP plant planned for Russia March 28, 2008
A 200,000 tonnes polypropylene plant is to be built by Sibur at its Tomskneftekhim company at Tomsk in the Russian Federation. It will use Ineos Innovene technology to produce a full range of homopolymer, random and impact copolymers and is expected to begin production in 2012.
Sibur previously licensed a 500,000 tonnes plant based on Innovene PP technology at its complex in Tobolsk, Tyumen Region, Russian Federation.
Invista sues DuPont over safety and environmental failings March 27, 2008
Invista, the American fibres and nylons group formed out of DuPont's textiles and fibres businesses and bought by Koch Industries in 2004, is now suing DuPont over safety and environmental practices at some of the plants. It has filed a lawsuit in the New York federal court seeking compensatory damages in excess of $800 million, plus punitive damages. It is also seeking a court order requiring DuPont to fulfill its contractual obligations arising from safety and environmental non-compliance.
The company is accusing DuPont of failing to comply with environmental and health and safety laws and regulations, meet permit obligations, and take other actions to protect its employees, the community and the environment prior to selling the plants.
Invista says that less than a month after taking ownership of the former DuPont facilities, it discovered "significant environmental non-compliance" at the plants. "We promptly reported the non-compliance to regulators, discontinued unsafe practices, and took non-compliant equipment out of service."
The company says it has spent approximately $140 million to uncover, report, and correct DuPont's safety and environmental violations. And it expects to have to spend $300 - $450 million installing pollution control systems at the former DuPont facilities in the United States. This will also increase future annual operating costs, and those increased costs are included in its claim. Former DuPont plants outside the USA also require additional capital expenditure to correct non-compliance.
Invista's suit for punitive damages alleges that DuPont knew of several of the more dangerous safety and environmental violations, knew those violations placed its employees and the public at risk, took no action to rectify them, and failed to disclose them to Invista.
APET sheet to be extruded direct from polymerisation March 26, 2008
The Omani company Octal, which last year announced its intention to dominate the APET sheet market with a 300,000 tonnes production unit, intends to do what other sheet producers cannot do. It plans to go directly from polymerisation to extrusion, cutting out the energy-intensive drying and melting steps in conventional sheet extrusion using bought-in granulate.
As well as the obvious economic benefit, Octal says there will be quality advantages from its one-step DTS process, which will use SML extrusion equipment. Removing the re-melting step takes out a possible source of degradation, and also removes any risk of contamination, particularly from moisture. It also adds traceability, in that the sheet lines will be related directly to the source of the polymer.
With less polymer degradation Octal expects to improve gloss, clarity and stiffness levels. The uniformity that is anticipated for the sheet has enabled SML to design a winder with "virtually unnoticeable weave and nearly perfect formation". The benefit to Octal's thermoforming customers will be a reduction in side trim, saving process scrap.
Octal started operations with a 30,000 tonnes traditional extrusion plant in December 2006, enabling it to enter the European and North American markets.
Thermoformers in the United Kingdom, Europe, North America, India and China are now using Octal sheet. A large US bakery that has backward-integrated into thermoforming its own trays has selected Octal as its sole supplier for the sheet's visual appeal and processing reliability.
Linear polyethylene is fully bio-sourced March 24, 2008
Another form of fully bio-sourced polyethylene has been developed by Braskem in Brazil. Last year Braskem revealed a high density polyethylene made entirely from sugar-cane-derived ethanol. Now it has produced what it says is "the first linear polyethylene from 100 per cent renewable raw materials". The new linear PE has been developed using a second monomer based on biobutene with the sugar cane-derived ethylene.
The linear polyethylene has been certified by Beta Analytic, attesting that it is made from 100 per cent renewable raw material, and a patent has been filed by Braskem.
The main market for this linear polyethylene is is in food packaging film. Laboratory scale quantities are to be tested by selected customers of Braskem.
PolyOne strengthens speciality materials March 21, 2008
Following the acquisition of specialist TPE compounder GLS Corporation PolyOne has created a Specialty Engineered Materials business which also includes its North American Engineered Materials operation.
The company says that this reflects a strategic shift towards specialisation. Specialty Engineered Materials becomes PolyOne's fifth reporting segment. The others are the Vinyl Business, International Color and Engineered Materials, PolyOne Distribution, and Resin and Intermediates. Other non-segmentalised businesses are North American Color and Additives, Producer Services, and Specialty Inks and Polymer Systems.
Macfarlane in discussions to sell plastics business March 19, 2008
The Glasgow-based packaging distributor Macfarlane Group is in discussions to sell its Plastics Division at Wicklow in Ireland which makes injection moulded packaging and dispensing components, particularly lids and scoops for the baby food market. The decision to dispose of the business was taken in April last year. Now, in the company's latest report, it says that "The board has approved discussions with a number of parties who have expressed interest in acquiring this business and therefore the results of the business have been treated as discontinued in the income statement."
The division's sales rose 13 per cent last year over 2006 but the costs of energy, raw materials and labour "were not easily transferred to selling prices resulting in a weak gross margin performance". Macfarlane says that overall the result for 2007 was disappointing but that "the business continues to be highly cash generative."
Macfarlane Plastics lists 28 injection machines from 40 to 500 tonnes and it has in-house clean room/white room labelling, printing and welding. The company employs 70 people.
Abu Dhabi invests in plastics and aims to attract European processors March 19, 2008
A "chemicals industrial city" which will be "the largest and most integrated of its kind in the world" when its first phase opens in 2013 is to be built in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. The $multi-billion project comprises a world-scale naphtha cracker with downstream propylene and ethylene derivatives plants and xylene, benzene, cumene, phenol and derivatives units.
It is to be built by The International Petroleum Investment Company of Abu Dhabi and Borealis - which is part owned by IPIC - along with Abu Dhabi Investment Council.
The output from the complex will in part further develop the downstream industries in the country. The Abu Dhabi government is setting up the Abu Dhabi Polymers Park on a 4·1 km² site with the aim of attracting plastics conversion companies across industry - and not just from indigenous growth. It is liaising with EuPC, the trade association for plastics converters in Europe, to hold workshops in Brussells today and on April 22 to promote investment in the park. Incentives include developed infrastructure and competitive costs for labour, utilities and raw material, no tax on company and private income, and competitive land lease rates. Land for the first developments is available now. Figures from the Gulf Organization for Industrial Consulting show that in Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) states - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates - there were 1,223 plastics factories in 2007, compared with 326 in 1990. The workforce was 79,000 in 2007 (17,500 in 1990) and the investment value was $5 billion in 2007 ($932 million in 1990). Utilisation of production capacity grew from 68 per cent in 1990 to around 90 per cent in 2006, with processing capacity rising from less than half a million tonnes to more than 2·3 million tonnes in the same period.
Lenticular sheet company rebrands March 19, 2008
Ireland-based LPC-Europe (The Lenticular Plastic Company of Europe) has changed its name to DPLenticular. The company is the European distributor of Lenstar lenticular sheet produced by Pacur Lenticular in the USA.
Rhodia/Lyondell to sell isocyanates to Perstorp March 19, 2008
Negotiations have started for Rhodia and Lyondell Chimie TDI to sell their isocyanates businesses to the Perstorp Group. Rhodia makes aliphatic isocyanates (HDI, IPDI and derivatives), producing a range of intermediates for industrial paints and coatings; and Lyondell makes aromatic isocyanates (TDI) and intermediates for polyurethane foams, with the business operated under contract by Rhodia. There are two production sites, at Pont-de-Claix (France) and in Freeport (USA) employing around 680 people.
The next stage in Chinese expansion for BASF March 19, 2008
Details of the planned expansion of the BASF and China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) joint venture BASF-YPC chemical site in Nanjing, China, have been submitted to the Chinese government.
The expansion will take the capacity of the steam cracker from 600,000 to around 750,000 tonnes of ethylene per year. Among the other details of the plan are: development of the C4 value chain including butadiene and isobutene, and 2-propylheptanol for a new-generation plasticiser; extension of acrylics products with superabsorbent polymers for hygiene and industrial applications; and expansion of the existing oxo-alcohol and propionic acid plants.
The cracker expansion is scheduled for 2009/2010 and other new activities are expected to come on stream in stages starting this year.
Dow focuses on polyurethanes at Terneuzen March 19, 2008
Ethylene glycol production at Dow Chemical's Terneuzen plant in the Netherlands is to be phased out by the end of this year as the company switches its resources to ethylene oxide production to support an expansion of polyurethanes production. Next year Dow will implement an efficiency improvement project that will enable a 22 per cent increase in purified ethylene oxide production capacity and significantly reduce emissions at the plant.
Rhodia chief executive becomes chairman as well March 19, 2008
Chairman of the board of Rhodia, Yves-René Nanot, has retired. The company has now combined the roles of chairman and chief executive, with Jean-Pierre Clamadieu in the chair. He has been chief executive of the Rhodia Group since October 2003.
New head of KM reaction machinery March 19, 2008
The new general manager at KraussMaffei's Reaction Process Machinery division will be Frank Peters, who suceeds Walter Tesche on his retirement on April 1. Mr Peters is head of RPM activities at the Munich plant.
Top changes at Clariant March 19, 2008
Three new directors are being proposed to Clariant's board when chairman Roland Lösser, vice-chairman Tony Reis, and board member Kajo Neukirchen do not stand for re-election at the annual general meeting in April.
The new chairman will be Jürg Witmer, who has been on the Clariant board for a year and is also chairman of Givaudan. Rudolf Wehrli, will become vice-chairman. New board members will be Dominik Koechlin, who was a member of the executive board of Swisscom, Hariolf Kottman currently on the management board of SGL Carbon, and Carlo Soave, currently chief executive of the Albis Group, based in Italy.
Trelleborg buying US printing blanket company March 19, 2008
Swedish engineering rubber products group Trelleborg is buying an American producer of offset printing blankets. It is paying just over £45 million for the MacDermid Offset Printing Blankets division of MacDermid Inc. Trelleborg Engineered Systems already has a substantial position in printing blankets - polymer-coated composite fabrics made in several layers. The company has its head office in Denver, Colorado, and production units in the USA and France, as well as a global sales organization.
Wittmann buys Battenfeld March 14, 2008
Battenfeld has been bought by Wittmann. The Austrian injection moulding machine manufacturer, which went bankrupt at the beginning of the year, is being taken over by the Vienna-based ancillaries and automation specialist on March 31.
The sale includes the Kottingbrunn manufacturing site and ownership of the worldwide sales subsidiaries. The deal also involves the former owner of Battenfeld, private equity company Adcuram, which has sold the service and spares business to Wittmann. This had been separated from the machine manufacturing operation and had been earmarked for investment and growth.
A statement from Battenfeld today says the deal creates the first company in the world able to offer a fully-integrated product range for injection moulding.
Battenfeld's managing director Georg Tinschert remains in place and the two companies will operate independently. Battenfeld remains at Kottingbrunn in Austria with the same workforce it had at the turn of the year, less a few employees who decided to leave during the unsettled period.
Wavin to retrench in Ireland March 14, 2008
Pipe maker Wavin is reducing the size of its operation in Ireland. The company says this is a direct result of the decline in the Irish construction market. Wavin intends to cut around 50 of its 198 jobs as it downsizes its production facility at Balbriggan and consolidates its distribution operation. The changes should all happen in the third quarter of this year.
PET wine bottles compare unfavourably against glass March 14, 2008
A comparison between glass and PET wine bottles by WRAP, the government-funded Waste & Resources Action Programme, has concluded that while PET wine bottles have a lower carbon footprint than conventional glass wine bottles, there is little to recommend them over lightweight glass bottles.
In a study combining research by Artenius PET Packaging (formerly Amcor PET Packaging) and Best Foot Forward WRAP compares typical bottles used in Britain to bottle Australian wine. The conventional glass bottle weighs 496 g and contains 81 per cent recycled glass and there are two other glass bottles weighing 365 g and containing 81 and 92 per cent glass. These were compared with a PET bottle weighing 54 g with no recycled content.
While the least CO2 was attributed to road transport of the PET bottle, the energy consumed in the manufacture of the PET and the bottle is higher than for the lightweight glass bottle with 81 per cent recyclate, and the overall carbon content difference between the two is marginal. Raising the recyclate content in the lightweight glass bottle gives it a clear advantage in CO2 terms over PET.
The study also looks at PET bottles with recycled content, for which the CO2 level reduces as recycling energy replaces that of extraction, transport and synthesis from oil, but at 50 per cent recycled content the PET bottle still represents more carbon emissions than the high-recyclate lightweight glass bottle, and only a 100 per cent recycled PET bottle is shown to be more energy efficient.
Erkes to leave Demag in Sumitomo reshuffle March 13, 2008
Ten days after its takeover by Sumitomo Heavy Industries Demag Plastics Machinery is losing its chief executive and two senior board members. Dr Klaus Erkes, who was responsible for restructuring the company following its split from the remainder of the Mannesmann Plastics Machinery Group a year ago, will leave on March 15. Also going are the MPM representatives on the board, Henning Scheele and Peter Sassenfeld.
Henceforth Demag will be managed by Dr Tetsuya Okamura of Sumitomo who will "advance the integration of both companies", and finance director Uwe Rohfleisch. The MPM representatives on the board will be replaced by Tsuneo Nagano and Thomas Müller, both from Sumitomo.
Bottle and cap moulder starts investment programme March 13, 2008
South Wales bottle and closure manufacturer Gwalia Packaging is to invest more than £1·5 million at its Pontypridd site. Gwalia - the poetic Welsh name for Wales - was formed last summer by the combination of bottle blower Riverside Plastics and closure moulder Dragon Plastics when Dragon bought Riverside out of administration.
As well as development and expansion of the manufacturing area the project will include the purchase of automation equipment, large capacity tooling and other facilities.
Gwalia says it is "the only UK independent packaging manufacturer that is able to offer turnkey solutions of both closure and bottle."
High temperature co-polyester output to be increased March 13, 2008
More production capacity is to be installed for Eastman's high temperature co-polyester Tritan, which was introduced towards the end of last year. Tritan combines the typical clarity and chemical resistance properties of polyesters with temperature resistance competitive with polycarbonate.
Eastman says growth in the global polyester market is 6 - 8 per cent and expects this to continue. The expansion project, due to be completed by late 2009, includes both the construction of new manufacturing facilities and conversion of some existing operations.
Ineos to buy BASF's Seal Sands site March 13, 2008
Ineos is reinforcing its upstream position for the ABS business it is buying from Lanxess by buying BASF's Seal Sands site on Teesside, which has 230,000 tonnes of acrylonitrile capacity. Seal Sands also produces the nylon feedstocks hexamethylenediamine (HMD) and its precursor adiponitrile (ADN) which are not included in the transaction. Ineos, through its Nitriles division which is buying the plant, will operate the HMD plant for BASF. It will also run the ADN plant until it is shut down next year.
Budget pledge on action against plastic bags March 12, 2008
Chancellor Alistair Darling has confirmed in his Budget speech today that the Government would take action next year to curb the use of plastic carrier bags, but only if retailers failed to do it themselves.
He told MPs: "Given the damage that single-use carrier bags inflict on the environment, we want to be able to take action. We will introduce legislation to impose a charge on them if we have not seen sufficient progress on a voluntary basis.
"Legislation would come into force in 2009 and based on other countries' experience, it could lead to a 90 per cent reduction, with around 12 billion fewer plastic bags in circulation."
He added: "The money raised should go to environmental charities."
On its web site the Daily Mail, which has been campaigning to ban plastic bags, is referring to the decision as "a victory".
The British Plastics Federation condemned what it described as "the budget's discriminatory proposal for a charge on plastic bags". It accused the Chancellor of ignoring his own government's Courtauld Agreement with major food retailers to reduce carrier bag use by 25 per cent which has been working well since the use of thin carrier bags reduced by almost 8 per cent last year.
Director General of the BPF Peter Davis said: "In his budget statement the Chancellor has also chosen to ignore the fact that, by his own government's figures, between 70 and 80 per cent of plastic carrier bags are re-used. Even Hillary Benn, the DEFRA Minister, admits that the carbon impact of plastic carrier bags is minimal."
He added: "What about paper bags? Paper bags have a much bigger
environmental footprint with heavy use of energy and water in their production. You see more fast food paper bags littering London's streets than you do plastic. What about biodegradable plastic bags, we need some clarification on this." The Daily Telegraph was quick to seek industry opinion and on its web site quotes a "bag supplier to one of the UK's biggest retailers" saying that a mandatory tax on bags would reduce his company's turnover by "50 - 60 per cent, maybe more".
The Retail Consortium, under a headline "green smokescreen hides tax grab" says on its web site: "It's outrageous to suggest carrier bags are a major cause of climate change. There are many more significant contributors.
"Retailers have already committed to reduce the environmental impact of plastic bags by a quarter by the end of this year. Huge progress has been made without any need for legislation.
"Customers took a billion fewer bags in the last 12 months and retailers are over half way to achieving the target on cutting the use of new plastic. This shows bans or taxes are not the only way.
"By setting a date for legislation the Government appears to have jumped to a verdict already, abandoning their agreement. Retailers take their environmental responsibilities very seriously, but want policies that are based on clear evidence, rather than knee-jerk reactions to highly emotive campaigns."
TPE production at Oldbury will be part of strengthened Teknor Apex business in Europe March 10, 2008
A restructure is underway of the Teknor Apex business in Europe, with a major focus on Britain. The US-based engineering plastics compounder and TPE formulator has set up Teknor Apex Europe as a holding company for its custom compounding units in Europe and formed the first of these units, Teknor Apex UK, to serve customers in all countries of the region.
Teknor Apex bought Chem Polymer, itself a reincarnation of BIP Engineering Plastics, in 2005. The new Teknor Apex UK is based at the former BIP/Chem Polymer plant at Oldbury, where the company is to install a new compounding line to make small lot quantities of TPEs over the next couple of months. The company has also started to build a network of agents which will ultimately cover all of Europe. The IMCD Group in Rotterdam represents engineering thermoplastics throughout Europe, with the exception of Scandinavia where the Finnish firm Aspokem has acquired a long-time distributor for Chem Polymer and will now also represent Teknor Apex ETPs in the Baltic countries.
Further expansion in production capacity is planned - although not necessarily in Britain - and Teknor Apex will "quite probably" buy some companies.
The Chem Polymer name is to be phased out, but the established brand names of Chemlon and Beetle will be retained.
A third major product area for Teknor Apex is in vinyl compounds. This business has been largely focused on the USA with growth through the addition of manufacturing capacity in Singapore and China and European sales representation by IMCD. Teknor Apex UK will be selling PVC and the company says it is likely to concentrate on medical devices and wire and cable applications. Teknor Apex has thousands of wire and cable grades which are now available in RoHS-compliant versions, and says it will focus on helping customers comply with the new Construction Product Derivative (CPD) standards expected to be adopted by EU countries in the next few years.
Euro pushes up DuPont prices in Britain March 10, 2008
The steady rise in the value of the Euro against Pound Sterling has triggered another UK-specific price increase. DuPont Engineering Polymers is increasing prices for all its materials by 5 per cent on April 1 to customers currently invoiced in Sterling.
Ineos Nova increased prices for the same reason towards the end of last year but for some inexplicable reason applied the increase in Euro.
Cope Allman buys Jaycare March 10, 2008
Pharmaceutical/medical packaging specialist Jaycare, which went into administration in January, has been bought by competitor Cope Allman. Cope Allman expects to continue production in Newcastle in parallel with its own Portsmouth operation, but expects rationalisation to lead to some job losses. Both companies use injection and blow moulding.
Charlesworth expands with Prime buy March 10, 2008
Injection moulder LGG Charlesworth of Malvern in Worcestershire has bought its third company in three years. It has taken over trade moulder Prime Plastics Moulding of Reading whose owner, Peter Roberts, is retiring. Charlesworth says PPM is similar to itself in terms of technology, volume and materials.
In 2005 Charlesworth bought Talisman Plastics which specialised in security seals, and added Semiplas UK in 2007 to form Talisman Security Products, taking over the sales and marketing of the security products moulded by Semiplas in Turkey.
LGG Charlesworth was set up more than 80 years ago and so reckons to be one of the oldest injection moulders in the world.
Chinese biopolymer investment by DSM March 10, 2008
Following its recent links with companies in France and the USA to pursue biological sources for polymers and other materials, DSM has tied up with a Chinese company. Its DSM Venturing arm has taken a stake in a $20 million financing round for Tianjin Green Bio-Science Co, and in parallel with the venture investment, DSM and TGBS intend to work together to create new business in bio-based performance materials.
The finance is being raised to build China's largest manufacturing plant for polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) in the Tianjin Economic Development Area. PHA has potential in a broad range of applications from automotive to biomedical and electronics, in multiple forms including fibres, films and foams.
Common ground with DSM's existing bio-material developments is fermentation, which is the production method for PHA, and a process technology in which DSM has a particular interest, not least through the co-operation with Roquette which it announced in January.
The TGBS plant is expected to start production in early 2009 with a capacity of 10,000 tonnes of PHA.
Equipment suppliers realign British representation March 9, 2008
Italian dryers and materials handling equipment manufacturer Moretto has set up a subsidiary in Britain in association with Hi-Class Machinery which is based alongside Boy in Milton Keynes. Moretto equipment is also sold by Summit Systems. The company also has a subsidiary in Dublin, Ireland.
Also with new sales representation is Formosa Automation Systems Inc (FASI) which has appointed Premier Moulding Machinery. FASI equipment has been sold by FASI UK which operated from Bedford, and UK sales have since then been handled by Irish agent ADM Supplies of Dublin, in association with Invotec Solutions.
Invotec itself has taken on a new agency, for Groche Technik of Germany. Groche makes screws, barrels, screw tips and other related plasticising equipment. The company holds stocks of parts for German and Fanuc injection moulding machines, and has its own designs for increased melt throughput and packaging applications.
The next easyFairs Plastics Innovations exhibition will be held at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry on May 20 and 21, 2009. It will be the third of these "level playing field" exhibitions based on an inclusive 12 m² stand package: the first was at the Ricoh Arena last year and the second was last month in Dublin.
Azelis doubles turnover with Whyte Polymers takeover March 9, 2008
The Azelis Group has taken over Whyte Polymers, and integrated it into Azelis Plastics UK. Whyte Group, which is a chemicals distributor and pharmaceuticals manufacturer, said that Whyte Polymers "no longer fits with our strategic ambitions".
Whyte Polymers' staff are moving to Azelis' offices at Thatcham in Berkshire. Its warehousing facilities at Doncaster and Felixstowe will continue to be used.
The deal doubles Azelis UK's turnover to nearly £20 million.
Now HSBC is backing Britton March 9, 2008
Packaging film manufacturer Britton Group has gone through a £77 million buy-out, the third in 10 years. In 1998 it was bought from brief ownership by ACX Technologies of the USA, which bought the company in the previous year to acquire its American carton interests. In 2004 chief executive Mike Clark, who had been with the company for about six months, led the management team in a buy-out backed by Lloyds TSB Development Capital. Now LDC has sold its interest to HSBC Private Equity which has retained the existing management team under Mike Clark, and added to it with John Durston and Allen Mawby, former deputy chief executive and chief financial officer of Amcor Flexibles, who have become chairman and non-executive director. Mahmoud Atalla of HSBC also joins the board.
Britton has film plants in Winsford, Louth and Hartlepool producing more than 90,000 tonnes of plain and converted polyethylene film annually.
New plant in Britain for Trelleborg March 9, 2008
Against its recent trend of closing its facilities in Britain Trelleborg has opened a new plant for its Sealing Solutions division in Tewkesbury. The 5,000 m² factory makes the company's Isolast perfluoroelastomer and Resifluor fluoroelastomer, and has facilities to fabricate large scale O-Rings and seals by the FlexiMold process. It also operates rubber-to-metal technologies and custom moulding, and houses a newly equipped materials test laboratory and the UK research and development centre. There is also a Class 100 clean room.
New technology for 'self-healing' rubbers and easy-flow plastics March 9, 2008
Arkema "is poised" for commercial development of materials based on supramolecular chemistry, which reverses the aim of conventional polymer chemistry - that of producing materials with large molecular chains. Supramolecular chemistry builds assemblies of molecules joined by non-permanent bonds.
Among the potential products envisaged for this chemistry are rubbers that, if broken or cracked, can repair themselves by re-contacting, and the modification of existing plastics to improve their fluidity at low processing temperatures.
Lanxess to increase butyl rubber capacity by a third March 9, 2008
A butyl rubber plant to be built in Singapore will be the largest investment project yet from Lanxess, at Eur 400 million. The plant will have a capacity of 100,000 tonnes and is due to be commissioned in 2011.
It will be built in the Tembusu Cluster of Jurong Island, a man-made island of around 3,000 hectares to the southwest of Singapore and supplied with Raffinate 1 - essentially isobutylene, the residue of removing butadiene from a C4 stream - by pipeline from Shell Eastern Petroleum's butadiene extraction unit on neighbouring Bukom Island. Lanxess will polymerise the isobutylene for butyl rubber and sell on the residual Raffinate 2. It aims to establish long-term supply agreements with Asian producers for isoprene, the second raw material for butyl rubber production, of which much lower volumes are needed.
Lanxess says its sales of butyl rubber in Asia have risen 45 per cent since 2004 and it expects annual market growth of around 3 per cent in the next 15 years, with 6 per cent growth in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong and more than 8 per cent in India. The Singapore plant will boost Lanxess's worldwide capacity by around a third: it has expanded its two existing production sites in Zwijndrecht, Belgium and Sarnia, Canada in the last two years and when the latest expansion phase in Sarnia is completed, Lanxess will have a capacity of 280,000 tonnes from 2009.
Dow to close French Co-PBR plant March 9, 2008
The Dow Europe Co-PBR (cobalt butadiene rubber) plant at Berre L'Etang in France is to close following a review by Dow of its synthetic rubber business. The company has decided "to re-direct our technical resources and investments to businesses where Dow can achieve an advantaged cost position and increase our share of differentiated products."
Co-PBR is used in tyre tread and sidewall compounds, conveyor belts, footwear, golf balls, a
variety of mechanical goods, and for impact modification of polystyrene. Dow Europe also makes lithium polybutadiene rubber (Li PBR), which is used predominantly to manufacture high-impact polystyrene and mass-polymerised ABS, and nickel polybutadiene rubber (Ni PBR), which is used in the manufacture of tyres and footwear.
DSM to extend medical materials into TPE March 9, 2008
DSM is to add another material series to the Dyneema fibre and developmental UHMWPE products it makes for medical products with the development of medical - predominantly orthopaedic - grades of Arnitel polyester TPE. The work will be handled by DSM Biomedical which, as well as directing DSM's own materials into the medical devices market, has stakes in other medical material specialists. These include Oxford Performance Materials which produces implantable grades of polyether ketone ketone (PEKK) and Xylos Corporation working on the production of biomaterials for the treatment, repair and replacement of human tissue.
More Chinese antioxidants from Albemarle March 9, 2008
Albemarle Corporation plans to more than double antioxidant capacity at Shanghai Jinhai Albemarle Fine Chemicals Co in China, part of the Jinhai Albemarle joint venture in which it gained a majority stake last year. As well as the plant in Shanghai, Jinhai Albemarle has production in Ningbo.
Demag name to live on under Sumitomo ownership March 3, 2008
The takeover of Demag Plastics Group by Sumitomo Heavy Industries was completed today with plans for both companies to offer a range of electric, hydraulic and hybrid injection moulding machines on a common platform. And after the merger "the established Demag brand will live on".
Sumitomo has paid Eur 77,558,000 for Demag/Van Dorn, which has annual sales in excess of Eur 250 million. Sumitomo, which across the industries in which it operates has sales of Eur 3·6 billion, has a turnover in injection moulding machinery of Eur 350 million. The two companies claim a worldwide market share of 12 per cent between them.
Former Demag stablemate at Mannesmann, KraussMaffei, has also begun a Japanese connection - although at greater distance. It has started collaboration with Toshiba Machine Co to "develop innovative machinery meeting the requirements of customers in the 21st century" with the first fruits expected this year. Details of the field of co-operation have not been given. Besides injection moulding machines, both companies are active in extrusion, while K-M has a major interest in reaction processing which it has paired with injection moulding in systems such as its Skinform process, for which a Korean automotive components manufacturer has recently become the first customer.
More PP and PE grades to come from Ineos at Grangemouth March 3, 2008
A wider range of polypropylene and polyethylene grades is to be produced at Grangemouth by Ineos Polyolefins. The company plans to invest in random co-polymer technology on its liquid pool PP plant by linking to ethylene supply from its crackers to make random co-polymer grades with a wide range of melt flow rates. Production will start in the autumn of this year and follows a 50,000 tonnes streamlining of the plant which has lifted its capacity to 285,000 tonnes.
Ineos also plans to introduce swing capability on its 310,000 tonnes LLDPE plant to produce HDPE grades. The company has recently developed rotomoulding grades at Grangemouth and appointed ICO Polymers to distribute its range of hexene co-monomer rotomoulding materials. New HDPE injection moulding grades will be produced in addition to the existing LLDPE/MDPE grades.
Huntsman and Dow mull isocyanate expansion March 3, 2008
Expansion in isocyanate production is being planned by Huntsman and Dow Chemical.
Huntsman has begun design and feasibility studies for a new MDI plant at its site in Rozenburg in the Netherlands. A final investment decision is expected this year, with the 400,000 tonnes unit coming on-stream by mid-2011. The company may also close older, less efficient capacity in Europe.
Huntsman intends to expand its MDI and downstream asset capacity in all three major regions through the use of new technologies in aniline, methylene dianiline and MDI production, which will both increase raw material yields and improve energy efficiency by up to 40 per cent compared with previous generation technology.
The new plant in China which was mooted early in 2006 is still under evaluation and several locations are being considered. Huntsman says that during the next decade the global MDI market will continue to grow well ahead of global GDP, at around 7 - 8 per cent per year, and in Asia well above 10 per cent.
Dow's plans are for an expansion of its TDI capacity at Camaçari in Brazil. It has started a feasibility study for a plant using a new process technology and expects to make a decision by the fourth quarter of this year. If approved the plant would come on line in 2011.
Dow is the largest TDI producer in Latin America with capacity of 60,000 tonnes per annum. It says demand for TDI in Latin America is expected to grow by approximately 1 to 2 per cent above gross domestic product until 2015.
Plastics and rubber businesses under the microscope at Dow March 3, 2008
Some of Dow Chemical's polymer businesses are being put under scrutiny to assess their long term position in the company. Dow has set up a Portfolio Optimization business group into which it is transferring a number of businesses, each "earmarked for strategic evaluation, with the goal of defining how best to maximize its long-term value to the company - whether that be through realignment to other Dow businesses, joint ventures or divestitures."
Under this new microscope will go Dow's Saran PVDC polymers and films, polycarbonate, compounds and blends, synthetic rubber and speciality copolymers businesses.
Dow has already made one diversion for the future of its polycarbonate business, including it in the package of plastics it is putting into its joint venture with Petrochemical Industries Company of Kuwait.
Promens expands Slovakian automotive moulding March 3, 2008
A plastics moulding plant to service Eastern European car manufacturers is to be built in Slovakia by Promens. It will be sited in the town of Nitra in the western part of the country and will replace an existing facility, set up in 1999. Promens has an option to expand the plant from its original 5,400 m² to 10,100 m².
Within 130 km of Nitra, says Promens, are factories run by Audi, Hyundai, Kia, Opel, Skoda, Suzuki, Toyota and VW as well as large tier 1 suppliers such as Valeo, FaurEcia and Lear and a number of large tier 2 suppliers.
Construction of the new plant has begun and operation is expected to start in August.
PS bottle cuts costs compared with PET March 3, 2008
A 25 per cent saving in material cost for milk and yoghourt beverage bottles is claimed by BASF by making them in polystyrene instead of PET. The development, in association with bottle producer Alpla, enables a specially optimised impact-resistant polystyrene - BASF's BX 3580 - to be injection blown and injection stretch blown on PET equipment. In addition to the material cost saving, BASF says there are further savings from not needing to pre-dry the material, and from lower compressed air consumption than extrusion blow moulding. BASF has applied for a patent on the process.
Radici invests in plastics and fibres in Brazil March 3, 2008
Italian nylon and polyester producer Radici is planning to invest around Eur 7·5 million at its two subsidiaries in Brazil which make engineering plastics and fibres. An additional extrusion line is soon to be installed at Radici Plastics to increase annual polyamide production by 3,300 tonnes and over the next three years the company will invest around Eur 1·2 million there. A Eur 6·3 million investment plan at RadiciFibras over the next two years will aim to improve yarn quality, optimise manufacturing costs, increase the group's range of products and introduce new products for the civil construction industry. Radici also aims to set up a joint venture with local companies to make high-tech products.
Two fibre development projects underway in Brazil are a product to replace asbestos and the manufacture of carbon fibres, both of which have generated interest from the Brazilian government. The carbon fibre project is targeted at an initial production of 280 tonnes per year to meet Brazilian demand, rising to 1,000 tonnes in a second stage and then to 5,000 tonnes.
Colours to Colombia March 3, 2008
Colour Tone Masterbatch has started exporting colour masterbatch to South America. The company has colour matched rigid and flexible PVC for Innovarum Colombia in Bogota, Colombia. The two grey Vynacol masterbatches will be used by Innovarum's customer Interperfiles for the production of profiles such as for window frames, office panels, furniture, advertising and display products.
The masterbatches were developed specifically to suit extrusion plant in Colombia whose processing characteristics "are quite different from the equipment used in Europe" according to Innovarum. Special attention was given to the melt rheology to enable them to "wet out" quickly to optimise the development of consistent colours with minimal compounding on line.
New heavyweights on Huhtamäki board March 3, 2008
Outgoing chairman of Rexam, Rolf Börjesson, who retires on May 1, is to join Huhtamäki as a non-executive director at the end of March. Also new to the Huhtamäki board later in the year will be Jukka Moisio, who becomes chief executive replacing Heikki Takanen, who resigned suddenly last November. Mr Moisio joins from Ahlstrom where he has been chief executive since 2004.
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Figures from the Gulf Organization for Industrial Consulting show that in Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) states - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates - there were 1,223 plastics factories in 2007, compared with 326 in 1990. The workforce was 79,000 in 2007 (17,500 in 1990) and the investment value was $5 billion in 2007 ($932 million in 1990). Utilisation of production capacity grew from 68 per cent in 1990 to around 90 per cent in 2006, with processing capacity rising from less than half a million tonnes to more than 2·3 million tonnes in the same period.