Barlo to buy ICI's extruded acrylic sheet business

July 22, 1999 - ICI is moving closer to the disposal of its acrylics business. It has agreed to sell its extruded sheet business to Barlo Plastics, and is in dicussion with several potential buyers for the rest of the business, with an agreement expected before the end of the year.
     The sale to Barlo Plastics is of ICI Acrylics GmbH at Nischwitz in Germany, which has an eight years old plant producing extruded sheet. ICI retains its cast sheet business at Darwin, and continuous cast sheet at Memphis in the USA. ICI also retains its Perspex trademark and will continue to sell Perspex XT sheet, although this will now be made by Barlo.
     Last year the Nischwitz plant produced 8,500 tonnes of extruded acrylic sheet. In the year to March 1999 Barlo produced around 13,000 tonnes. Completion of this takeover is dependent on the approval of the EU and German competition authorities.
     ICI Acrylics is already the principal supplier of methyl methacrylate to Barlo, and this deal brings 'improvements to the terms and conditions of supply'. Barlo converts the MMA to acrylic beads and pellets at its Mainz plant for both its own use, and for sale to BASF. Addition of the Nischwitz consumption is expected to mean that Barlo can no longer supply BASF, and it is expected that ICI Acrylics will take over this arrangement using technology licensed from Barlo.
     Should ICI find a purchaser for the whole acrylics business, the agreements with Barlo will be transferred to the new owner.
     Barlo is paying a maximum of 11 million Euro for the Nischwitz business, with the final amount depending on actual net asset worth and intercompany indebtedness to other ICI companies. Share capital will be purchased in cash, and the debts paid over two years from June 2000.
     The business showed a pre-tax loss of 1·9 Euro last year, but its trading included some activities which are being discontinued and also charges to ICI group companies which will not continue under Barlo ownership. The company expects to show a profit for the six months to June 30, 1999.

EVC to reopen Italian plant

July 20, 1999 - The VCM and PVC plant run by EVC at Porto Marghera, Italy, which was shut down in June for safety reasons, is to be reopened this week.
     The plant was shut down by order of the Italian Minister of the Environment after a VCM discharge. The order was actually withdrawn by the local administrative council, but EVC shut the plant anyway in order to co-operate with the local authority on an action plan to prevent further accidents.

MD for Rotalac

July 17, 1999 - Rotalac Plastics has appointed Michael Hawkins as managing director. He has 12 years experience in automotive tier 1 engineering and manufacturing.

New agency for Czech slitter/rewinders

July 17, 1999 - Slitter/rewinders from Soma of the Czech Republic are now available in the UK and Ireland from Eurograv. Soma has been building slitting and rewinding machines for more than 30 years, and has machines for paper, aluminium and laminating as well as plastics film. More than 70 per cent of its production is exported.

TPU as alternative to PVC for medical devices?

July 16, 1999 - Concerns over the leaching out in use of plasticisers in soft PVC items used in children's toys and medical devices have been picked up as a promotional aid by a US manufacturer of thermoplastic polyurethane film. Stevens Urethane from Holyoke in Massachusetts has focussed on IV bags and tubing and says that while there is no consensus about the safety or risks associated with IV bags made from PVC, the medical industry is beginning to seek other options. One such option is to switch to TPU, which contains no plasticisers, phthalates or adipates.
     It is not so much the effects on the body of the additives which may leach out of PVC that Stevens sees as a problem, but that if they leach out, they do not remain to do their job. 'Plasticisers such as used in PVC can migrate, causing brittleness, inhibiting performance and raising the potential for contamination problems', says the company.
     TPU is more expensive than PVC, and is currently used for 'can't fail' applications such as pressure infuser bags, anti-shock trousers and a heart cooling device used during open heart surgery. 'While only a small number of IV bags are currently made from TPU, it may well be that these emerging health concerns will prompt the medical industry to explore this option more thoroughly', says Stevens.

Medical plastics to reach 3 million tonnes by 2000

July 16, 1999 - Annual growth of 3 per cent is predicted by Borealis for polypropylene and high density polyethylene in medical devices, with a 2 per cent growth for low density polyethylene. The company says that worldwide consumption of plastics for medical devices will reach 3 million tonnes by 2000, with polyolefins making up 40 per cent and PVC 29 per cent.
     It sees PP growing 3 per cent annually to 480,000 tonnes for products such as syringes and laboratory disposables, and HDPE also growing 3 per cent to 420,000 tonnes for syringe plungers, blow moulded bottles and other medical devices. LDPE usage will grow more slowly at around 2 per cent annually to 250,000 tonnes for products such as infusion solution bottles and ampoules and flexible packaging.
     To exploit this demand the company has developed specific PP, LD and HDPE grades. Homo PP HD800P and HD810P are for applications requiring gamma ray sterilisation such as blood/urine tubes, catheter connections and screw caps, and enclosures. Other grades have been produced meeting European and American test requirements. Some injection moulding grades are lubricated for applications requiring low surface friction, such as two-part syringes.
     Three LDPE blow moulding grades have been produced to conform to the European Pharmacopoeia 3rd edition (1997) Monograph 3.14 requirements and have been tested according to USP and DMF at the FDA. HDPE grades have also been developed to give good stiffness and low permeability for products such as containers for pharmaceuticals and medicines and cold storage of medical specimens.

Plan for massive US butadiene joint venture

July 15, 1999 - Shell Chemical, BASF and Fina are discussing a joint venture in the USA to build the world's largest butadiene extraction plant. It would have a capacity of 410,000 tonnes and would be sited next to the Fina refinery and olefins steam cracker complex which is being built in Port Arthur, Texas, by BASF and Fina. The majority of the feedstock would come from the BASF/Fina cracker, due to start up in early 2001, with other feedstock from the Shell olefins complex in Deer Park, Texas.
     Most of the butadiene would be used in the East Texas area of Beaumont, Port Arthur and Orange, which is a centre of growth in the US for butadiene demand, and there are plans to develop a butadiene distribution system in the area.
     Start up is envisaged for 2002, and an agreement to go ahead is targeted for early 2000. The joint venture would be owned 60 per cent by Shell, 24 per cent by BASF and 16 per cent by Fina and the extraction facility would be operated by BASF.

No-taint EVA for mineral water caps

July 14, 1999 - An EVA formulated to prevent taint in contact with mineral water has been introduced to European closure manufacturers by DuPont. Elvax 9860 contains proprietary additives in a 'new and secret formula' to prevent potential taste components from the closure entering the mineral water.
     The new material is already in use by Crown Cork & Seal company Crown Obrist of Switzerland for its PolyQuick mineral water seals.

US purchase reversed market-hit sales for E & E

July 14, 1999 - The purchase by Ellis & Everard last year of Performance Polymers in the USA jacked the group up to become the fourth largest chemical and polymer distributor in the world. Turnover for the year to the end of April 1999 was £784·3 million compared with £732·0 million in 1998. This included a £70 million increase in North American turnover, while the European trading difficulties which characterised last year pushed turnover down £17·7 million. Operating profit increased from £35·3 million to £35·8 million, but this was trimmed to £35·6 million by a profit from the sale of the group's minority interest in Novaria which netted £1·5 million, and exceptional restructuring costs of £1·7 million.
     Chairman Jonathan Taylor is to retire next January and will be succeeded by Keith Hopkins, currently a non-executive director of Ellis & Everard and chairman of Croda International.

Production size plant for three-layer film trials

July 14, 1999 - A production size three-layer film line is being installed by Battenfeld Gloucester at its Droitwich plant for customer development. It is housed in a self-contained facility to ensure confidentiality, and can produce layflat film up to 1,830 mm wide.
     The line has three extruders - 60 mm grooved feed, 90 mm smooth bore and 60 mm smooth bore - with variable lead barrier screws, all fed by a four-component gravimetric blending system. The die is a 355 mm Optiflow LP with a Digisonic microprocessor-based internal bubble cooling system with ultrasonic sensors for layflat width control. Film gauge is controlled by the Auto Profile Control system in the Polycool 900 dual flow air ring, which directs warmed air on to parts of the bubble to maintain gauge.
     The bubble goes through an Air Bearing stabilising cage and Air Bearing collapsing frames to reduce drag on the film surface, avoiding scratches and coping with sticky films. A Traversanip oscillating haul off gives continuous 720 degree oscillation for gauge band randomisation and the film is wound on a Model 1008 dual turret centre winder with AC flux vector drives which can produce rolls up to 800 mm. The line runs under Extrol microprocessor control.

Alpha-Tech joins Rotalac

July 14, 1999 - The BI Group has incorporated its Alpha-Tech Mouldings subsidiary into Rotalac Plastics, and moved production, development and customer services to Rotalac's Altrincham site. Alpha-Tech is now trading as a division of Rotalac.
     Rotalac is a contract injection moulding and extrusion company. Alpha-Tech makes video cassette and CD cases. The company will be launching a DVD case later this year which incorporates a patented release system designed not to warp or deform the disc. It has also started an in-mould labelling service for video cassette and CD cases, enabling full colour graphics to be moulded on to the outside of the cases instead of inserting a printed paper label.

Anti-oxidant price increase

July 14, 1999 - Great Lakes Chemical (Europe) is increasing the price of its Anox PP18 anti-oxidant by 8 per cent on August 1. The prices of other anti-oxidants are under review. Anox PP18 is a sterically hindered phenolic anti-oxidant.

Don & Low to be sold to Greek company

July 14, 1999 - Montell is to sell its Scottish polypropylene textiles subsidiary to a Greek industrial company. It has signed an agreement to sell 80 per cent of Don & Low of Forfar to Thrace Plastics, initially retaining 20 per cent.
     Don & Low has expanded in recent years from being a supplier of woven carpet backing into woven and non-woven polypropylene fabrics - last year it made more than 215 million sq m of woven and more than 6,500 tonnes of non-woven fabrics, which were sold in 45 countries.
     Thrace Plastics is a producer of polypropylene fibres and woven textiles for packaging, geo-textiles and industrial uses, and also makes injection moulded packaging.

New owners for Eclipse Colours

July 14, 1999 - Eclipse Colours of Bradford has been bought by a buy-in team of Jim Ruddy and his son James. Jim Ruddy was until recently executive chairman and before that managing director of Bradford-based dyers and finishers William Denby & Sons. The buy-in opportunity came on the decision to retire by the founders of Eclipse, John and Christine Carbert.

Thompson Plastics expands manufacturing

July 14, 1999 - Thermoformer Thompson Plastics Group of Hull has started work on an additional 5,000 sq m factory at a cost of £1 million, as part of its current £3 million three-year investment programme. The expansion will give more production capacity for the company's touring caravan, holiday home and vehicle industry divisions and brings the group's total manufacturing space up to 25,500 sq m at Hull, Manchester, and at Borderfoam in Ludlow which Thompson bought late last year.
     The Borderfoam takeover brought into the group facilities for PU foam moulding and SRIM, which Thompson intends to ally with its thermoforming processes for vehicle components. Borderfoam already serves the automotive sector, with products such as gear knobs, arm rests, head restraints and steering wheels, and is also active in office furniture.

Radici buys German compounder

July 14, 1999 - The Radici Group in Italy, which compounds engineering polymers, mainly nylons, has bought Rauscher of Germany, which has a 10,000 tonnes plant in Lunenburg.
     The takeover follows the opening of a plant in South Carolina, USA and the acquisition of Petronyl in Brazil, and brings Radici's capacity up to 50,000 tonnes at five plants (two in Italy and one each in the USA, Brazil and Germany) with annual sales of 100 million Euro in engineering polymer compounds.

Ampacet plans South American takeover

July 14, 1999 - US masterbatch producer Ampacet Coporation is to buy an Argentinian colour concentrates and compounds company. Ampacet de Argentina is planning to buy Garovaglio & Zorraquin's Repexim subsidiary, including its manufacturing plant in Buenos Aires.

BPF report predicts improvements in bulk polymer market

July 14, 1999 - The UK's capacity to produce commodity plastics increased last year by nearly 5 per cent to 2,013,000 tonnes but increases in actual production lagged behind at 2·4 per cent (1,823,000 tonnes) and consumption grew only 0·88 per cent to 3,190,000 tonnes, reducing imports by just over 1 per cent to 1,367,000 tonnes.
     This is the tip of a market report iceberg produced by the British Plastics Federation which analyses in detail the UK and Western European markets for bulk polymers - PVC, PP, PS, EPS, HDPE and L/LLDPE. The BPF concludes that growth in the bulk polymers sector fell significantly short of early year estimates, but that this is not so disheartening when taken in the context of the strong performance throughout the '90s. 1999 is expected to bring further consolidation, and over the next year the UK's economic development is expected to improve and medium to long term growth is tipped at 3 per cent.
     Prices have been forced down by pressure from non-Western European imports, but the report describes the effect of these imports as 'minimal' and says that low prices are unlikely to be sustainable in certain markets, with price rises already beginning to show.
     The 130 page report goes into considerable detail on the background, trends and issues surrounding each material. It costs £350 (£75 for BPF members and £75 per material analysis to non-members).

Focus on plastics pays off for Milacron

July 13, 1999 - Milacron's decision last year to pull out of machine tools and invest in its plastics machinery and high speed cutting business paid dividends with an increase in both turnover and profit. The plastics technologies group - which was boosted by the acquisition of Uniloy blow moulding machines - saw sales rise 8 per cent to $796 million (60 per cent of the increase being attributed to Uniloy) with profits up 35 per cent to $80 million.
     Sales of all-electric injection moulding machines increased 50 per cent to more than 400 units.
     The group invested $30 million on capital equipment - 10 per cent more than in 1997 - and this year plans to increase that to $34 million, with most of the additional investment going into Uniloy.

PVC makers meet emission targets

July 13, 1999 - Europe's PVC manufacturers have moved a long way to cleaning up their environmental emissions. A charter drawn up in 1995 by the European Council of Vinyl Manufacturers committed its 11 member companies to 12 standards limiting emissions to air and discharges to water during the manufacture of vinyl chloride monomer, ethylene dichloride and suspension PVC. An independent audit of companies' performance against these standards last year showed that 88 per cent of the 279 checks across 40 sites were compliant. Nine per cent were not compliant and a further three per cent could not be verified.
     The ECVM says that this level of compliance with environmental targets was four years ahead of equivalent standards that have been adopted by countries that have signed up to the corresponding OSPARCOM convention, and adds that it was achieved at the cost of investment by member companies of around 233 million Euro.
     The ECVM's members produce around 90 per cent of the total Western European capacity of S-PVC, EDC and VCM. A checklist of sites audited provides a useful guide to European production:


Company	Site	Products
Belgium
BASF	Antwerp	EDC, VCM, S-PVC
LVM	Tessenderlo	EDC, VCM
Solvay	Antwerp	EDC
Solvic/Solvay	Jemeppe	EDC, VCM, S-PVC
Finland
Rovin (Neste)	Porvoo	S-PVC
France
Elf Atochem	Balan	S-PVC
Elf Atochem	Brignou (to be decommissioned in 2000)	S-PVC
Elf Atochem	Jarrie	EDC
Elf Atochem	Lavera	EDC, VCM
Elf Atochem	St Auban	S-PVC
Elf Atochem/Vinyl Fos	Fos/mer	EDC, VCM
LVM	Mazingarbe	S-PVC
Rovin (Shell)	Berre	S-PVC
Solvic/Solvay	Tavaux	EDC, VCM, S-PVC
Germany
BASF	Ludwigshafen	EDC, VCM, S-PVC
EVC	Wilhelmshaven	EDC, VCM, S-PVC
EVC	Schkopau	S-PVC
Solvay	Rheinberg	EDC, VCM, S-PVC
Vestolit	Marl	EDC, VCM, S-PVC
Vinnolit	Burghausen	S-PVC
Vinnolit	Gendorf	EDC, VCM, S-PVC
Vinnolit	Hurth	S-PVC
Vinnolit	Koln	S-PVC
Italy
EVC	Porto Marghere	EDC, VCM, S-PVC
EVC	Porto Torres	EDC, VCM
EVC	Ravenna	EDC, VCM, S-PVC
EVC	Brindisi	EDC, VCM, S-PVC
Solvay	Ferrara (decommissioned December 1998)	S-PVC
Netherlands
LVM	Beek	S-PVC
Rovin (Akzo Nobel)	Botlek	EDC, VCM
Rovin (Shell)	Pernis	S-PVC
Norway
Hydro Polymers	Porsgrunn	S-PVC
Hydro Polymers	Rafnes	EDC, VCM
Portugal
Cires	Estarreja	S-PVC
Spain
Elf Atochem	Hernani	S-PVC
Solvay/Hispavic	Martorell	S-PVC
Solvay/Viniclor	Martorell	EDC, VCM
Aiscondel	Tarragona (not audited)	EDC, VCM, S-PVC
Aiscondel	Monzon (not audited)	S-PVC
Sweden
Hydro Polymers	Stenungsund	EDC, VCM, S-PVC
UK
EVC	Barry	S-PVC
EVC	Runcorn (not audited)	EDC, VCM, S-PVC
EVC	Hillhouse (decommissioned early 1999)	EDC, VCM
Hydro Polymers	Aycliffe	S-PVC

GAIN retracts Cinpres fraud allegation

July 13, 1999 - The long, bitter battle over gas injection patents between Cinpres of the UK and GAIN Technologies of the USA has taken another turn in Cinpres' favour after an apology by GAIN's lawyers for defamatory statements and inferences. Cinpres had started a London High Court action against GAIN, its principal Michael Ladney, and its licensing company Melea alleging that the three defendants had claimed that a Cinpres process had infringed Melea's gas injection moulding patents, and that Cinpres had acted fraudulently in obtaining its own patents.
     Last year GAIN and Melea were forced to concede that they could not sue Cinpres, its licensees or their customers for any allegation of infringement of the US 'Timely Gas' patent.
     Before the latest High Court action Ladney and his licensing company withdrew the fraud allegation and admitted that they were not aware of any infringement of any GAIN patents by the Cinpres process.
     Cinpres has now obtained a High Court order freezing GAIN and Melea's worldwide patent portfolio until Cinpres' costs - said to run to hundreds of thousands of pounds - have been paid.

New Meltflixer agent

July 13, 1999 - The takeover last year by Haake of SWO has now brought distributorship of SWO's Meltflixer MFR/MVR instrument to Haake's UK agent Carl Stuart.

DSM EPP sells another business

July 13, 1999 - DSM Engineering Plastic Products has continued its rationalisation with the emphasis on engineering plastic stock shapes by selling another business unit. It has sold its Nylaflow Europe thermoplastic pressure hose and tubing division to Parker Hannifin of the USA. Last year DSM sold its American Nylaflow business to Avon Rubber.
     The Nylaflow Europe business, based at Almelo in the Netherlands, will become part of Parker's Polyflex Division - Europe, within the Fluid Connectors group.
     Earlier this year DSM EPP sold its Polypenco stock shapes business in Germany.

Canadian mouldmaking takeover

July 13, 1999 - Canadian mould making group StackTeck Systems has expanded with the acquisition of another Canadian mould maker. StackTeck already owned Tradesco Mold of Toronto and American mould maker Fairway Molds of Los Angeles. Now it has bought Unique Mold Makers of Toronto.
     Unique specialises in high cavity single face and stack tooling for caps and closures, and fits well with Fairway's position in multi-cavity tooling for complex consumer products such as safety razors and medical components, and Tradesco's operations in high cavity hot runner tooling for thinwall disposables.

DuPont raises prices

July 3, 1999 - DuPont is increasing the prices of its Surlyn and Nucrel ethylene copolymer resins and Conpol additive resins on July 15. The increases will be 0·10 Euro/kg in Europe (7p/kg in the UK). Prices in the USA and Asia Pacific are also to be increased at the same time.

Davis-Standard buys KU-KA-MA

July 2, 1999 - Davis-Standard of the USA has bought another extrusion systems business, this time in Germany. The company has taken over Kunststoff und Kabelmaschinenbau (KU-KA-MA) of Haan, near Düsseldorf. The acquisition includes the business, but does not include the company's manufacturing facility. KU-KA-MA's production and personnel will be moved to the Davis-Standard plant in Erkrath (near Düsseldorf). Davis-Standard will continue to manufacture and supply the complete line of KU-KA-MA's extrusion products.
     In the last 12 months or so Davis-Standard has bought Bernex-Müller of Switzerland, Betol of the UK, and Film Master of the USA. Recently the company's parent, Crompton & Knowles, which also owns Uniroyal Chemicals, announced plans to merge with Witco Corporation.

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