Battenfeld appoints new managing directors

January 30, 2000 - Battenfeld has two new top men at its injection moulding machinery plants. New managing director at Meinerzhagen, Germany, is Dr-Ing Dipl-Kfm Fritz Dorner who moves up from technical works manager. At Kottingbrunn in Austria Reinhard Gruber becomes managing director from technical managing director.

Degussa buys Thai silica plants

January 30, 2000 - Degussa-Hüls is buying silica plants with a capacity of 12,000 tonnes in Thailand and plans immediate expansion. The takeover of plants operated by Oriental Silica is by a new company, United Silica (Siam), set up by Degussa-Hüls and owned 30 per cent by Oriental Silica.
     One of the main markets for precipitated silicas and silicates is tyres. Degussa-Hüls says it is the only company marketing the three key ingredients of 'green' (low rolling resistance) tyres - silicas, silanes and carbon blacks - worldwide, making it the top international supplier of fillers for the rubber industry. It is the global market leader in silicas (five plants), and silanes (five plants) and second largest in carbon black (14 plants).
     Recently the company bought expanded carbon black capacity in Poland.

DSM gets Sarlink into Japan

January 30, 2000 - DSM Thermoplastic Elastomers has filled in its global marketing of Sarlink thermoplastic vulcanisate to the automotive industry through an agreement with Toyobo of Japan. Toyobo is adding Sarlink (based on EPDM and polypropylene) to its existing range of TPEs based on polyurethane and polyester to broaden its offering to the Japanese automotive industry, while the deal gives DSM Japanese penetration alongside its North and South American and European operations.

BASF/Shell polyolefins board

January 30, 2000 - The supervisory board for the new Shell and BASF polyolefins joint venture has been named as: Fran Keeth (executive vice president of finance and business for Shell Chemicals), Jeroen van der Veer (group managing director of Royal Dutch/Shell Group), Max Dietrich Kley (deputy chairman of the BASF board) and Juergen Hambrecht and John Feldmann (members of the BASF board). Chairman of the new venture will be Evert Henkes (chief executive of Shell Chemicals) and president designate Dr Volker Trautz (member of the BASF executive board). Head office of the new venture will be in the Netherlands.

Widest yet Battenfeld CPP line goes to China

January 30, 2000 - The widest three-layer cast polypropylene line yet delivered by Battenfeld Gloucester has been installed at the Nanjing Zhongda Film Group in China. The line, to make 4·3 m wide copolymer or homopolymer film, adds to Nanjing Zhongda's BOPP capacity and takes it into the fast growing Asian market for CPP. It has been installed in a new, purpose-built factory with room for an additional line.
     Product from the line will be primarily food packaging films in 20 to 120 micron gauges. Layer distributions will be between 15/70/15 and 20/60/20, and the maximum rated speed is 300 m/min. Actual speed is likely to be around 220 m/min depending on the film, with output between 1,012 and 1,136 kg/hr.

Laminated mould tools save time and money

January 30, 2000 - A quicker and cheaper way of making mould tools has been developed by Warwick University after a three year project with Kepston of Aldridge in the West Midlands. The process involves laser cutting sections from steel sheet 1 to 3 mm thick, and brazing them together in a hydrogen atmosphere furnace.
     The project was initiated by the aerospace industry, and is reckoned not only to be cheaper and faster than conventional single piece milling processes, but also to offer potential for more flexible placement of cooling channels, to reduce production times.

PP compounding at 40 tonnes/hour

January 30 - The biggest twin screw compounder yet built by Krupp Werner & Pfleiderer for polypropylene production has been delivered to Borealis for use on its Borstar line in Austria.
     The machine has 380 mm screws and can process 40 tonnes an hour across a range of polypropylene types which are difficult to compound. Installed motor power is 10 MW with two motors driving the twin screws at variable speed through a planetary gearbox. Melt is conveyed to the underwater pelletiser by a gear pump, through an automatic screen changer.

DSM buys out Chinese compounds plant

January 30, 2000 - DSM Engineering Plastics has become sole owner of a compounding plant in China. It has bought the Jiangsu Jiangyin Mould Plastic Group Co near Shanghai which has a 15,000 tonnes capacity for compounds based on PA, PET, PBT and PP among others, mainly used in the automotive and electrical/electronics markets.

AAC buys expansion in retail

January 30, 2000 - AAC Plastics of Aldridge, West Midlands, which has plants for injection moulding, thermoforming and fabrication, has bought bar accessories supplier Beaumont Industries of Flitwick in Bedfordshire. Beaumont, which had a turnover of £4 million in the last financial year, expands AAC's existing retail interest.
     Along with the acquisition, AAC has created the position of finance director, appointing Andrew Litchfield who was finance manager.

Now Borealis does a deal with Huntsman

January 30, 2000 - Following its ethylene copolymer joint venture with DuPont Borealis has announced a co-operation agreement with Huntsman. The two companies are to work together in the fields of automotive and electrical applications with joint marketing, product development, supply and distribution. There will also be an exchange of know-how and technology.
     The agreement gives both parties improved access to global customers operating outside their primary territories.

World scale biopolymer plant to be in operation next year

January 24, 2000 - Cargill Dow Polymers will start producing plastics from maize and other bio-sources in a 140,000 tonnes plant at the end of next year. The equal parents of the company, Cargill Incorporated and The Dow Chemical Company, have agreed funding of more than $300 million to get the plant off the ground. Construction has started, and the company says it has future plans for a European plant.
     Cargill Dow has proprietary NatureWorks technology which creates a polylactide polymer (PLA) from natural plant sugars. While the current source is maize, the company is working on extensions to the technology which will allow the use of other crops, enabling the process to use local resources worldwide. PLA is said to have potential for:
• Packaging and film/sheet products, for which it offers high clarity, stiffness, twist retention, barrier properties and sealability - and is naturally compostable. The combination of properties also differs from existing thermoplastics, such as the combination of flavour and aroma barriers with low temperature heat sealing. PLA is also a polar material, simplifying printing and metallising.
• Fibres and non-wovens, with good hand, touch and drape properties, wrinkle resistance, moisture management, comfort and resilience.
• Paper and board coating.
• Further potential is seen in injection and blow moulded products, and foam
     The new plant is to be built in Nebraska, giving it ready access to America's grain supplies.
     Currently Cargill Dow has a capacity for more than 4,000 tonnes of PLA for market development and plans to double that capacity during this year.
     A number of companies are backing Cargill Dow by developing their own potential applications in PLA. Fiber Innovations Technology, Parkdale and Unifi are already making fibres, and in packaging Autobar Group, BIMO Italia, Cascades, Constantia, Tetrapak and Trespaphan have all announced their intention to develop products made from PLA.

Degussa expanding rubber blacks with Polish buy

January 24, 2000 - Degussa-Hüls is to buy a Polish carbon black plant to meet what it sees as growing demand from the Polish tyre industry. It is to buy the rubber carbon black plant and attached power station at the Jaslo oil refinery in south east Poland from Nafta Polska and Rafineria Jaslo for DM 13·5 million. The plant will be run by its newly founded wholly owned Polish subsidiary Carbon Black Polska.
     Degussa-Hüls expects increased demand for carbon black in Poland and its neighbouring markets from the international car and tyre plants which have been founded there, with new plants under construction and existing plants being expanded.

Management buy out at Colloids

January 21, 2000 - Masterbatch producer Colloids has been bought from Princedale Group by a syndicate of the company's management and Kafrit International of Belgium. The split is 50:50 between the four directors - John Dilley, Jim Ashelby, Roger Storey and Bob Thomas - and Kafrit.
     With the buy out comes confirmation that Colloids is to give up making commodity black and white masterbatches with which it has long been associated to concentrate on higher value technical and speciality masterbatches. The Widnes plant will be closed, and administration and manufacturing will be transferred to the Astmoor site in Runcorn, where extra space has been acquired.
     Kafrit International is a company formed jointly by Kafrit of Israel and Ravago of Luxembourg. Kafrit makes compounds and masterbatches, and Ravago has interests in compounding, recycling and distribution of polymers - and owns Yardley Plastics and Resin Express.

Thompson Plastics buys Plastech

January 19, 2000 - T & D Plastech's £4·5 million turnover rotational moulding business based at Bridgend in Wales, part of T & D Industries which went into administration last October, has been bought by Thompson Plastics (Hull). It is being renamed ARM Plastics (Advanced Rotational Moulded Plastics) and becomes Thompson's ARM Plastics Division.
     Both thermoformer Thompson and ARM operate in the agricultural, off road and specialist vehicle markets. The addition of ARM follows Thompson's purchase last year of Borderfoam, and gives the group thermoforming, rotational moulding and PU moulding capabilities.
     ARM will continue at its present location under its existing management.
     Thompson is coming to the end of a £2·2 million investment programme which has brought a new 5,000 sq m manufacturing unit and additional thermoforming and CNC machines.

Elf Atochem UK on the move

January 19, 2000 - Elf Atochem is moving its UK headquarters from Thatcham in Berkshire to a more central position. The head office functions are moving to the company's Stalybridge, Cheshire, site while the commercial divisions are moving in with its Altumax subsidiary in Solihull, West Midlands. The move will be progressive between the spring and summer.

Vita buys French textile group

January 19, 2000 - British Vita's Libeltex subsidiary in Belgium has bought the French Texidel Group. Texidel has two manufacturing sites for the production of needled non-wovens for automotive and technical industrial applications, and non-wovens based on Mali technology for automotive, bedding and medical applications.
     The price paid was £5·3 million. Turnover of Texidel in 1999 was £6·2 million and pre-tax profit £0·6 million.

More ethylene from Elenac

January 19, 2000 - Elenac is supporting its new gase phase fluidised bed unit for HDPE production at Wesseling in Germany with a new ethylene production facility. Five new furnaces will replace 16 smaller furnaces dating back to the 'seventies in a DM 220 million investment, which will see ethylene production increase to 738,000 tonnes/year. The fluidised bed unit is scheduled for mid-year start up, and will cost around DM 200 million.
     As well as increasing capacity, this investment is planned to reduce costs of ethylene and propylene production.

Plascoat expands in the Netherlands

January 19, 2000 - Plascoat Systems is adding new capacity at its Zuidland, Netherlands plant for the manufacture of powder coatings to act as a service centre for continental Europe. The company has closed its Stokesley, Cleveland, factory, but maintains a grinding facility at Padiham in Lancashire. Plascoat's Farnham, Surrey, headquarters is to focus on production of Performance Polymer Alloy and Talisman polyolefin materials.

Solvay/Plastic Omnium fuel system joint venture

January 14, 2000 - Solvay and Plastic Omnium are to pool their resources in automotive fuel systems. They plan to set up a 50:50 joint venture by June this year which will have sales of Euro 800 million and employ 3,000 people in 30 plants in 15 countries.
     Solvay already has a joint venture with Plastic Omnium in Brazil.

DuPont and Borealis to form joint venture

January 12, 2000 - DuPont and Borealis are to join forces in the manufacture of high pressure ethylene copolymers. The two companies are planning a joint venture at Zwijndrecht in Belgium which will involve DuPont buying 50 per cent of the existing Borealis facility there. DuPont also plans to buy Borealis' Borflex ethylene acrylate copolymer business and technology - leaving Borealis with technology rights for its wire and cable business.
     Borealis is also retaining the compounding lines at Zwijndricht used for its wire and cable business, although these will be operated by the new joint venture. The manufacturing facilities at the site will be modified to suit DuPont's speciality ethylene copolymers.
     The deal gives DuPont European manufacturing capacity for its ethylene copolymers, and Borealis a fast track to expansion of its Borflex business. DuPont's ethylene copolymer materials include Keldax filled ethylene copolymers, Elvax ethylene vinyl acetate, Vamac ethylene acrylic elastomer, Surlyn ionomer - based on ethylene methacrylic acid - and Tefzel ethylene tetrafluoroethylene copolymer.
     Assuming EC approval, the joint venture is expected to start in the third quarter of this year.

PET bottle reclamation grows, but Britain could do better

January 12, 2000 - Britain is lagging behind most of Europe in its reclamation of PET bottles, according to the latest survey from PCI - PET Packaging, Resin & Recycling - (+44(0)1332 295200). In its report Supply Demand Report on PET Recycling in Europe PCI says that while Sweden and Switzerland are recovering around 70 - 80 per cent of PET bottles, the figure is less than 5 per cent in Spain and the UK. This is against an overall plastics packaging recovery background where Germany is recovering more than 70 per cent of all plastics packaging, and the UK is recovering less than 10 per cent.
     Total European collection of PET bottle scrap is around 200,000 tonnes, representing a collection rate of 14 per cent. By 2004, predicts PCI, the total will reach more than 500,000 tonnes (24 per cent) and by 2008, almost 700,000 tonnes, a collection rate of 27 per cent.
     At present bottle reclamation is handled by 23 companies with a total capacity of 189,000 tonnes. Further investment will be required in 2001/2002, when capacity shortages will exist in Scandinavia, France, Italy and the UK. A further 175,000 tonnes of reclamation capacity, equivalent to 10 - 15 process lines, will be needed by 2004.
     The report concludes that market conditions over the next few years will be more favourable to the use of reclaimed PET than they have been for some time and that potential demand is well in excess of likely supply - although this relates essentially to clear material; there is less demand than availability for coloured RPET.

Labotek to supply materials handling for Moss plant refit

January 11, 2000 - Materials handling for the major re-equipment of the Moss Plastic Parts plant at Kidlington is to be handled by Labotek (UK), which is building special customised equipment to meet the requirements of Moss Plastics and the modified Boy injection moulding machines which form the substantial part of the investment.
     The installation will take place in three stages during this year, and will eventually service more than 220 machines which will each have a mini vacuum loader, mini hopper and masterbatch doser. Base materials will be conveyed from external silos, at a distance of more than 90 meters to the furthest machine.

NPM injection machines move to Hi-Class

January 11, 2000 - UK representation for NPM (at one time Nuova Plastic Metal) injection moulding machines from Italy has moved from Mercia Machinery Sales to Hi-Class Machinery, replacing the Mateu and Sole range previously sold by Hi-Class.
     To maintain brand identity NPM will be sold under the banner of NPM UK. Sales, service and spares operate from the Hi-Class headquarters in Wellingborough, and a showroom is currently being prepared to house two sizes of machine for material, mould and machine trials.
     The NPM range extends from 45 to 2,000 tonnes, and includes standard, two-shot, high speed packaging, twin platen and seven-point toggle variants. Hi-Class sees potential sales in the sub-100 tonne market, where it says few manufacturers offer toggle machines.

Further increase in GE material prices

January 10, 2000 - GE Plastics is planning a further increase in price for its engineering materials. Prices were last raised in October.
     From January 17 UK prices for Lexan polycarbonate increase £0·16/kg; Cycoloy PC/ABS by £0·13/kg; Cycolac ABS by £0·11/kg; Gelon PA by£0·16/kg and Remex Gelon by £0·32/kg.

Danisco saves Scottish packaging company

January 7, 2000 - Danisco Flexible, one of the top three suppliers of flexible packaging in Europe, is to buy an ailing Scottish packaging company. FlexCo Packaging of Livingston, a specialist in short run flexible packaging for the food and toiletry industries, was in receivership following losses caused by high set-up and process development costs.
     The purchase by Danisco saved 37 jobs just before Christmas.
     Danisco Flexible, which is a division of one of Denmark's major industrial groups, Danisco, bought the Sidlaw Group in April last year, and now has a turnover of £350 million from 24 sites across Europe, employing 3,000 people.

Court battle to come over aborted Battenfeld sale?

January 7, 2000 - Battenfeld's decision to pull the plug on the sale of its injection moulding machinery business came as a surprise to many people - not least, it seems, to Madison Capital Partners of the USA, which thought it was buying the business.
     Battenfeld - or rather its parent group SMS - said that the deal was off because Madison Capital Partners 'was not able to provide appropriate financing'. 'Categorically untrue' says Madison, describing SMS's action as 'inexplicable'. Madison is now threatening possible legal action, while SMS is offering no more than a 'no comment'.

Dow increasing polystyrene prices 25 per cent

January 7, 2000 - Dow Europe is jacking up the price of polystyrene by more than 25 per cent. The increase follows upward adjustments to prices in the fourth quarter of last year, but Dow says that feedstock prices are continuing to increase, supply remains tight despite increases in capacity - including new capacity from Dow - and the prices of alternative polymers are also rising.
     The new price increase is being staggered across three months. The first stage of DM 0·20/kg has already been implemented, and prices are to rise by a further DM 0·20/kg in February and in March.
     The increases apply to all grades of Dow's Styron.

Cairn continues EMAC/EBAC representation

January 3, 2000 - Following the purchase by Eastman Chemical Company of Chevron Chemical Company's ethylene methyl acrylate and ethylene butyl acrylate copolymer businesses last September, Cairn International has been reappointed to handle UK distribution.

DuPont Canada films business goes solo

January 3, 2000 - DuPont Canada is planning to sell off much of its packaging film and liquid systems business. As of January 1 the business has been renamed Enhance Packaging Technologies and remains a wholly owned subsidiary of DuPont Canada. However, by mid-year DuPont plans to float 60 per cent of the common shares in an initial public offering.
     Enhance products include liquid and food packaging systems sold under the Enhance tradename, Sclairfilm polyethylene films, Dartek nylon films and Vexar netting. The company is also distributing DuPont's Mylar and Melinex polyester films and Kaladex polyethylene naphthalate films to the Canadian market. Sales revenue in 1998 for these products was in excess of CDN$130 million.

Carbon black price increase

January 3, 2000 - Degussa-Hüls is increasing the price of carbon blacks for rubber compounding by Eur 25/tonne on January 17. The company says that since the beginning of 1999 the price of the crude oil component of carbon black has risen 150 per cent, and that its impending price increase represents only a part of its increased costs.

Bunzl sells Stewart

January 3, 2000 - The Stewart Group, the Croydon-based injection moulder specialising in gardenware and food preparation and food storage products, has been sold by Bunzl to an institutional buy-out funded by NatWest Equity Partners.

Conair owner buys Rapid

January 3, 2000 - Rapid, the European market leader in granulators, has been sold by its Swedish owner to an American company, which also owns Conair. Rapid has been part of Inductus, the industrial arm of Industrivärden, since 1992. It has been sold to Sewickley Capital, which intends to operate it as an independent company.

Continental PET increases single-stage capacity

January 3, 2000 - Continental PET Technologies has expanded the potential of its Gyor, Hungary, plant by installing single stage stretch blow moulding machinery there. The company hitherto used Husky and Sidel two-stage equipment to produce multilayer and hot fill PET containers for customers such as Coca Cola and Gatorade. Addition of the Aoki single-stage plant is intended to enable the company to diversify into other product areas, offering more specialist and short run containers, as it expands into Eastern and Southern Europe with an increased presence in the household, personal care and spirits container markets.
     PET Technologies, a division of the Owens-Illinois Plastics Group, has plants in the UK, Holland, Hungary, Finland and Saudi Arabia, and already reckons to be one of Europe's largest manufacturers of single-stage PET injection stretch blown containers.

Rippon bows out of blow moulding

January 3, 2000 - The various blow moulding machinery agencies represented by Bokor Promac now have new homes following the retirement of Bokor Promac's principle Peter Rippon after nearly 40 years in the blow moulding business.
     John Williams, who has been at Bokor Promac for 15 years, has set up Automa UK to represent both Automa and Ossberger. Automa UK is operating from 93A Warwick Road, Kenilworth, CV8 1HP, telephone 01926 777441, fax 01926 777442, email automa@onet.co.uk.
     Representation for Meico ST has passed to Henry Lenox Industrial whose managing director John Breaks has been working with Meico for 15 years.

Brooks promoted at Hanna

January 3, 2000 - Alan Brooks, UK technical sales manager of M A Hanna Engineered Materials, has been appointed UK sales director, based at Coventry.

Mannesmann moves plastics machinery into Demag-Krauss Maffei

January 3, 2000 - As speculation rumbles on about the future of Mannesmann's engineering businesses with or without a takeover by Vodaphone, the company has announced a streamlining move directly affecting Mannesmann Plastics Machinery. On January 1 the company, responsible for all the Mannesmann Group's plastics machinery businesses, was amalgamated with Mannesmann Demag Krauss Maffei AG and will be managed as a division of MDKM - Mannesmann says the current multibrand policy will continue with the individual companies operating independently.
     Chairman of the board of management of MDKM Dr-Ing Jörg Stark left the company on December 31, and is replaced by Dipl-Ing Wolfgang Vogl, the present managing director of MPM.

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