ITW buys Decorative Sleeves

February 27, 2000 - Decorative Sleeves of Kings Lynn and Decorative Labels of Wakefield (formerly Smurfit Labels) have been bought by the US-based ITW group. The deal gives ITW shrink sleeve production for the first time and adds UK stretch sleeve production to its existing sites in Austria, Brazil and North America.

Swanstone moves

February 27, 2000 - Swanstone, the UK agent for Geiss thermoforming machines, is moving to new premises in Telford. The address is Cygnet House, C2 Halesfield 23, Telford, Shropshire TF7 4NY. The telephone and fax numbers are unchanged.

Record profits at Wavin

February 27, 2000 - Profits were up 90 per cent at plastics pipe manufacturer Wavin last year on turnover up 3 per cent. In tonnage terms sales volume was up 8 per cent at 362,000 tonnes. The dramatic profits rise was due in the main to improved sales in France and the company's Northern European activities which pushed operating profit up 30 per cent to NLG 137 million, taking net profits to an all-time high of NLG 92 million, compared with NLG 48 million in 1998.

Top appointments at Thompson

February 27, 2000 - Thompson Plastics Group has appointed three new directors following its recent period of expansion and acquisition of Borderfoam and the Plastech rotomoulding division of T & D Industries.
     Steve Parkinson becomes director and general manager of the vehicle industry division at Hull and John Watkins becomes group technical director. At Borderfoam Bill McKeown becomes director and general manager. All three have been with the group for some years.

High temperature nylon expansion

February 27, 2000 - DuPont is to double capacity for its Zytel HTN high temperature resistant nylon. A new compounding line is to be installed at its Maitland, Ontario, Canada plant, adding an extra 8,200 tonnes, with start up scheduled for the third quarter of this year.

Potential for RF heating in plastics forming processes

February 27, 2000 - Improved control and flexibility in radio frequency heating is opening up cost and time savings in polymer processing, according to energy specialist EA Technology. The company has developed equipment which can apply volumetric heating to materials used in processes normally involving surface heating, such as thermoforming. Trials on a forming machine showed that the temperature of polymer components can be raised to 120 degC in less than 15 seconds using only 300 Watts. Other applications of RF heating tried by the company include the shaping of pipework and bushes, the curing of glazing gaskets, and the manufacture of structural composites. It also sees potential in reheating preforms in blow moulding.
     EA Technology is now seeking partners to join it in applying for an EU Framework 5 Craft Programme.

800 mm single screw extruder

February 27, 2000 - Berstorff is to build the world's biggest single screw extruder for processing polyethylene. The KE800 will have a screw diameter of 800 mm, a processing length of nearly 15 metres and a throughput of up to 40 tonnes/hour.
     It has been ordered by the Technip Group for installation at an LDPE plant operated in Malaysia by Petlin/Malaysia, a joint venture between Petronas, Polifin and DSM.
     Berstorff has built 52 single screw extruders between 400 and 600 mm diameter.
   Recently Krupp Werner & Pfleiderer delivered a twin screw extruder with a 40 tonnes/hour capacity for compounding polypropylene.

Borstar boost to Chinese polyethylene

February 27, 2000 - A new polyethylene plant scheduled to start up near Shanghai in 2002 will be China's largest. The 250,000 tonnes plant will use Borealis Borstar technology. It will be run by Shanghai Petrochemical company, part of the China Petrochemical Company SINOPEC.

EVC sees brighter future for PVC

February 27, 2000 - Despite losing almost as much as it did in 1998, EVC is more confident about the future for PVC production. Its 1999 operating loss of Euro 37·1 million (1998 Euro 38·5 million) occurred mostly in the first half of the year as the weak trading conditions of 1998 continued. But from May onwards demand started to improve and prices started to increase, such that of the group's whole year loss, only Euro 4·6 million occurred in the second half. EVC says the recovery started last summer has continued into this year, and together with the limited increase in market capacity expected over the next two years, should lead to higher operating rates for PVC producers.

Degussa plans further silicas expansion

February 27, 2000 - Degussa-Hüls is investing around Euro 80 million in modernisation and expansion of its precipitated silicas plant at Wesserling in Germany. The company already reckons to be global leader with a capacity of 250,000 tonnes. Last year it took over two Indian plants and more recently bought a plant in Thailand.

Polyolefin film can be HF welded for medical products

February 27, 2000 - A polyolefin-based film which can be high frequency welded has been introduced by Dow Chemical as an alternative to PVC and EVA films for medical applications.
     The new Covelle film can be used on existing welding lines with little or no adjustments, and is said to outperform its vinyl-based counterparts. Tear, puncture and chemical resistance, as well as softness and flexibility, are said to be superior to other films allowing downgauging without loss of performance. Even without downgauging Dow says Covelle offers up to 25 per cent yield advantage over alternative films, and up to 30 per cent when compared with PVC.
     Other claims are that Covelle produces better seals, is lighter and more flexible, is less brittle and does not fog. There are also no problems with plasticiser migration.
     Covelle films are EtO and gamma sterilisable, and can be laminated to fabrics and foams. Potential applications include medical collection and drainage bags, bed-sore resistant bedliners, medical packaging, and support devices such as braces and tourniquets.

Higher sales at Solvay

February 27, 2000 - A 9 per cent growth in sales from Euro 2,428 million in 1998 to Euro 2,651 million in 1999 at Solvay's plastics division was above the average within the group, which recorded a 6 per cent sales growth from Euro 7,451 million to Euro 7,897 million. The plastics division made up 34 per cent of group sales.

Middle East explosion in production and consumption

February 27, 2000 - Growth in Middle East polymer production is escalating, but much of the extra production is likely to be used domestically as local conversion rates also rise, according to Fahad Al-Sheaibi, group president, polymers of the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation, (SABIC). SABIC's capacity for ethylene production is set to grow from 3·2 million tonnes to 5·5 million tonnes over the next three years, and its total chemicals production will rise from 35 million tonnes this year to at least 48 million tonnes by 2010.
     SABIC sells 40 per cent of its production in Saudi Arabia itself, and rising demand will mean, for instance, that by 2002 all its PET packaging resin production will be consumed locally. Overall consumption of polymers in the kingdom has increased 8·5 per cent a year since 1985. It reached 650,000 tonnes in 1999 and is predicted to pass 1 million tonnes by 2004.
     Outside Saudi Arabia, Mr Al-Sheaibi pointed to world scale projects due for commissioning over the next five years in Kuwait, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Oman and Egypt which will significantly increase capacity in LLDPE, polypropylene and other general industrial chemicals.

Borealis squashes tighter margins with higher sales

February 27, 2000 - Despite the steady rise in polyolefin prices during last year, the average price during 1999 still remained slightly lower than the average 1998 price, and the faster rise in naphtha brought about an overall decline in the margin on making polyolefins, says Borealis in its 1999 report. Despite this, the company increased its net profit by almost 20 per cent, from Euro 119 million to Euro 141 million. This was due to cost reductions and a 9 per cent increase in sales volume over 1998. Sales rose from Euro 2,739 million to Euro 2,987 million.

Polyethylene price rise

February 25, 2000 - Elenac is increasing the price of all its polyethylene products by DM 0·1/kg on March 1. The company blames higher prices for naphtha and ethylene and says further price increases in the second quarter cannot be ruled out.

T & D sell off - five down, one to go

February 23, 2000 - Two more of the six divisions of T & D Industries have been sold by the administrator, leaving only the Vauxhall Motors hole-in-the-wall automotive components plant in Luton, for which a sale is expected 'shortly'.
     Following the recent disposal of the two T & D Plastech divisions and MGB Randall, PriceWaterhouseCoopers has sold the packaging division, and more latterly the Bison intermediate bulk container business.
     The packaging division, with sites at Bradford and Liverpool, has been bought by its management headed by Mike Lynch, with a £10 million finance package. It is trading as T & D Packaging Ltd.
     The Bison division in Bradford has been sold to Metal Spinners (Newcastle), part of Precision Engineering International and will trade as Bison IBC Systems.
     Sale of these five divisions has so far preserved 515 jobs.

Huntsman reunites ICI polyurethane businesses

February 23, 2000 - Huntsman ICI Chemicals has bought the Australian Orica Polyurethanes business and will integrate it into Huntsman Polyurethanes - formerly ICI Polyurethanes. Orica was itself formerly owned by ICI.

Atochem subsidiary quits optical fibre sheathing

February 23, 2000 - Alphacan, a subsidiary of Elf Atochem in Northern France, is selling its polyethylene activities for optical fibre applications to Novoplastic, France's leading producer of PE sheathing for optical cables. Alphacan is selling its pipe production facilities in Roncq, and the goodwill for PE sheathing for underground fibre optic protection. It is keeping its other PE pipe businesses, in particular for gas and water transportation and the protection of electric cables.

Blow Moulding Controls brings US blow machines to Europe

February 22, 2000 - Allied Plastic Systems blow moulding machines from the USA are now available in the UK - and eventually Europe - through Blow Moulding Controls.
     APS was set up by Uniloy sales and engineering personnel to rebuild Uniloy machines, and now makes its own reciprocating screw machines.
     There are already two APS machines in the UK at an undisclosed moulder making dairy bottles.

Ex-Moss boss at new trade moulder

February 22, 2000 - A new trade moulding company has been set up in Banbury. DJM Plastics has been formed by Julian Croft-Pearson, until three years ago managing director of Moss Plastic Parts and more latterly of Promold, and Dave Merry, who 10 years ago set up toolmaker DJM Engineering.
     DJM Plastics has three new Krauss-Maffei machines of 30 - 80 tonnes with a 110 tonnes machine on order. It aims to operate as a general custom moulder - there is no intention to set up a catalogue of stock parts. DJM Plastics and DJM Engineering are independent companies, but can offer a package of tooling and moulding. E-mail.

DSM says standard test methods are grossly inaccurate for high temperature applications

February 22, 2000 - Standard industry tests for continuous use temperature (CUT), temperature index (TI) and relative temperature index (RTI) could be disastrously inaccurate if used to determine safe high temperature working conditions, says DSM. Predictions from these tests should be reduced by between a half and two thirds to reflect how a plastic performs under stress in an actual high temperature application.
     During research into its Stanyl high temperature nylon 4.6 DSM discovered that not only was the performance predicted by the standard tests far higher than in reality, the error differed for different materials.
     There are three sources of error in the standard tests, says DSM. These come from taking measurements at room temperature rather than at the actual working temperature; from using relative values; and from extrapolating from accelerated ageing results. Further discrepancies are caused by extrapolating from accelerated ageing tests that use much higher temperatures than the applications are exposed to, or by using parameters based only on relative change.
     DSM has devised its own test to produce what it calls an absolute real operating (ARO) value. This is an extended test in real time (5,000 hours) rather than using accelerated ageing predictions, and is conducted at operating temperatures rather than at room temperatures.
     Tests to ISO 527 comparing Stanyl with PPA, PS and PA6.6 showed substantial differences in tensile strength between measurements at 23 degC and 150 degC, as well as differences in the change in tensile strength over time at these temperatures. They also showed that the relative measurements for the four materials changed according to temperature so that, for example, in the standard tests at 23 degC, the polyphthalamide marginally outperformed nylon 4.6 and significantly outperformed the nylon 66, whereas when tested at 150 degC the nylon 4.6 showed clearly superior tensile properties and there was little to choose between the PPA and PA6.6.

Death knell for Carilon

February 21, 2000 - Shell is shutting down Carilon polyketone production because it can't find a buyer.
     Carilon is the latest - and nearly the last - of Shell's polymer business being sold off as part of a restructuring plan to concentrate on chemicals activities that are 'closer to the cracker'. Only a couple of weeks ago Shell announced the sale of its polyester business. And last year it pulled out of polystyrene and PVC, and reduced its involvement in polyethylene.
     The restructuring plan calls for the disposal of around 40 per cent of Shell's chemical business. Shell has been in discussions for some time with possible buyers for the speciality materials, and while it had interest for Carilon, it had been unable to reach a sale. The 7,000 tonnes plant at Carrington will continue for a while to allow customers to find alternative materials, and the start-up of the 25,000 tonnes plant at Geismar in the USA is being halted.
     Shell is also in discussions to sell its Kraton TPE business. Its Corterra PTT business, which is making inroads in fibres and has barely explored potential in engineering polymers, is not for sale.

Columbian increases black prices

February 21, 2000 - Columbian Chemicals has introduced what it calls 'a temporary surcharge' on carbon black prices in Europe and North America. The increase is a result of rising feedstock costs, and amounts to Euro 22/tonne in Europe - on top of the Euro 25/tonne increase which took effect on February 10 - and $0·01/lb in the US.

Watts pools rubber compounding businesses

February 21, 2000 - Watts Industrial Group has set up a new business unit to integrate its existing rubber compounding division with the Wellington Holdings compounding operations which it bought at the end of last year. The new Watts Industrial Polymers has sites at Lydney, Keighley and Hertford and has targeted sales this year of £38 million, mainly in the UK tyre, automotive, engineering and construction markets.
     Since buying the Wellington business Watts has spent £400,000 at the former Ondura plant at Keighley, where it has installed a Kobe twin screw dump extruder.

Dow Corning expands Indian silicones interests

February 21, 2000 - Dow Corning has bought out its majority partner in Universal Silicones & Lubricants of India, and renamed the company Dow Corning India. USLL was set up in 1992 by Dow Corning and Gandhi & Associates, with Dow Corning taking a 40 per cent stake. This was increased to 49·9 per cent in 1998. Now Dow Corning will integrate its India Liaison Office with USLL for the company to become its operating arm in India.

Mannesmann engineering businesses to go solo

February 21, 2000 - The spin-off of the Mannesmann engineering and automotive businesses is to go ahead as planned before the merger between Mannesmann and Vodafone AirTouch. An initial public offering of shares is scheduled for June this year.
     The division comprises Rexroth, Dematic, VDO, Sachs and Demag Krauss-Maffei. The Mannesmann Plastics Machinery group was merged into Demag Krauss-Maffei at the beginning of this year.

Pipe dream comes true for Uponor

February 21, 2000 - Plastic pipe system sales rose 32 per cent while profits increased 66 per cent last year to help Uponor to a 16 per cent sales rise and 22 per cent profits increase over 1998. Net sales were Euro 1,347 million and operating profit Euro 107 million.

Dutch container recycler to expand in the US

February 21, 2000 - Dutch round trip container specialist Ifco Systems is planning to raise around $160 million by a public share offering as it merges with American pallet company PalEx. When the merger is complete the company will operate the largest rental pool of round trip containers in Europe, the second largest in North America, and will become the largest provider of new and recycled pallets and reconditioned industrial containers in North America.

Dearer flame retardants

February 21, 2000 - Great Lakes Chemical Corporation has increased the price of some brominated flame retardants as a result of higher chlorine prices. PHT-4 and DP-45 tetrabromophthalic anhydride and derivatives have gone up by $0·15 - $0·18/kg and PH-73 and FF-680 tribromophenol and derivatives have gone up $0·11/kg.

Schmalbach-Lubeca buys US blow moulding plants

February 21, 2000 - Schmalbach-Lubeca is to buy the PET bottle facilities run by Cott Corporation, which reckons to be the world's biggest retailer brand beverage supplier, with plants in the US, Canada and UK. Schmalbach will supply bottles to Cott, which gains by a cash injection to invest in its core businesses and by sourcing bottles from a major world supplier.
     The deal makes over to Schmalbach-Lubeca Plastic Containers USA several blow moulding sites in the US and the injection moulding plant at Leland in North Carolina.

Carbon black price rise

February 19, 2000 - Degussa-Hüls is increasing the prices of both pigment and rubber compounding carbon blacks because of increasing oil prices.
     Pigment blacks - furnace, gas and lamp blacks - will go up worldwide between 4 and 8 per cent on March 15, except in the Far East and Australia where the prices increase on April 1.
     Rubber blacks are increased in Europe on March 15 by Euro 22/tonne.

Macfarlane sells Flo-pak

February 19, 2000 - Macfarlane Group has sold its Flo-pak (UK) EPS loose fill and plastic wood business, which was deemed not to fit into the four-division structure set up for the group in the second half of last year. The buyer is Freeflow Packaging International of the USA, a worldwide manufacturer of loose fill products.
     Freeflow is paying £3·8 million. Flo-pak's turnover is £3·3 million and last year's profit was £0·4 million. Net assets are £3·1 million.

Reifenhäuser quits pipe and profile

February 19, 2000 - Reifenhäuser is selling its pipe and profile extrusion machinery business to Hans Weber Maschinentechnik. The move is part of a restructuring programme started three years ago to concentrate on the company's packaging and synthetic fibre divisions.
     The core businesses are now complete lines for blown and cast film, thermoforming sheet, extrusion coating, nonwovens, strapping tape and monofilaments, and machine components such as extruders, dies and winders.

Moldflow to buy C-Mold

February 14, 2000 - The two market leaders in injection moulding modelling software are to become one. C-Mold has accepted an $11 million cash offer from Moldflow and will be a wholly owned subsidiary of Moldflow Corporation by May 31.
     Moldflow says it intends to continue to support all C-Mold and Moldflow product lines, but will start to develop a new series of software that combines the strengths of both companies.
     Moldflow is currently raising money on the stock market, with a plan to sell 3 million shares of common stock at a project price of $12 - $14/share. It expects to net around $34·8 million from the offering and, assuming an initial share price of $13, the 9·1 million shares of common stock outstanding in the company will give it an initial market capitalisation of around $118 million.

ABS/SAN price rise

February 11, 2000 - Dow is increasing the price of its Magnum ABS and Tyril SAN across Europe on March 13. Both materials go up DM 0·3/kg.

Another piece of T & D is sold

February 11, 2000 - Another part of the T & D Industries business has been sold by the receiver. The Rotherham-based building products plant of T & D Plastech has been sold to Titan Plastech, part of Kingspan Environmental Group in County Down. With it goes MGB Waste Systems which makes wheelie bins. Last month the Bridgend T & D Plastech rotational moulding plant was bought by Thompson Plastics.

Chevron and Phillips to merge their chemicals businesses

February 8, 2000 - Chevron Corp and Phillips Petroleum, respectively the second and eighth largest oil companies in the USA, are to merge their chemicals businesses. The new company, as yet unnamed, will have a capacity in ethylene ranking it fifth in the world and will be the world's fourth largest polyethylene producer. Chevron's polystyrene capacity will go into the new venture - it currently ranks second in the USA and seventh in the world - and the addition of Phillips' paraxylene (a precursor for polyesters) to Chevron's greater capacity will take the new company up to third place in world rankings.
     In absolute terms the new company's capacity will be:


	Million tonnes
Ethylene	3.7
Polyethylene	2.5
Aromatics	3.4
Alpha olefins	0.7
Styrene monomer	0.8
Styrene polymers	0.5
Specialty chemicals	0.02

     The new company will be a limited liability company owned equally by Chevron and Phillips. On establishment it will borrow $1·6 billion and pay Chevron and Phillips $800 million each. Combined revenues of the two businesses in 1999 were nearly $6 billion. The new company will make cost savings through elimination of duplication, including a 10 per cent reduction in staffing across the 6,000 employees of the two chemical companies. Annual costs savings are expected to be around $150 million.
     Management of the new company will be drawn equally from Chevron and Phillips. President and chief executive officer will be Jim Gallogly from Phillips, and chief financial officer will be Kent Potter from Chevron Overseas Petroleum.
     It is six months almost to the day since the formation of the world's biggest polyolefins company and second biggest chemical company was announced, when Dow and Union Carbide revealed they were to become one.

£3·3 million window profile investment in the UK

February 8, 2000 - The Heywood Williams Group is planning to invest £3·3 million over the next six months in its HW Systems and Spectus Systems window profiles. It is planning to buy two new extruders for installation at HW Plastics' site in Gloucester, and three for Macclesfield. The Macclesfield site is also to be extended. This investment is expected to increase output by 20 per cent.

Solvay buys X-linked PE compounder

February 7, 2000 - Solvay has increased the portfolio of specialised compounds sold by Solvay Polyolefins Europe by buying 80 per cent of Italian compounder Padanaplast of Roccabianca near Parma. Padanaplast specialises in cross-linked polyethylenes, mainly for hot water and sanitary pipes and cable sheathing.
     Following the takeover - which has still to receive the blessing of the statutory authorities - Solvay plans to introduce a silane cross-linked PE100 compound for pressure/gas pipe.

Goodbye Cincinnati

February 7, 2000 - US machinery manufacturer Cincinnati Milacron has dropped the Cincinnati from its name and is now plain Milacron, with an extra handle to indicate the business sector. It has extended the Ferromatik Milacron name to cover all its injection moulding machinery activities, with the exception of its Fanuc electric machine co-operation which will sell machines in North and South America as Milacron-Fanuc.
     The US-based extrusion systems business - in December it sold its Austrian-based European business to Battenfeld - has been renamed ExtrusionTek-Milacron. The blow moulding machinery business is consolidated under Uniloy-Milacron, and the D-M-E tooling components business continues as it was.

Shell selling polyester and polyurethane businesses

February 5, 2000 - Shell is selling its polyester - PET and PEN - businesses to the Mossi & Ghisolfi Group of Italy, which operates through its holding company M & G Finanziaria Industriale.
     The sale will include the manufacturing plants in the United States, Italy, Mexico and England as well as sales and marketing networks and associated research and development activities. It is expected to be completed by mid year.
     Shell Chemicals' polyester businesses produce PET for carbonated soft drinks, mineral water and other food and beverage packaging, and PEN (polyethylene naphthalate) for various applications. It has been a boast of the company that it offers the widest range of polyester packaging materials of any supplier.
     The divestment of the PET businesses is another step in Shell's chemicals portfolio restructuring program announced in December 1998 which has recently seen the sale of its polystyrene business and rationalisation of its polyolefin interests.
     At the same time as announcing the polyester sale, Shell also revealed that its polyurethane systems business Resina Chemie of Foxhol in the Netherlands has been sold to its management - also as part of the restructuring plan.
     Resina Chemie, which was bought by Shell in 1987, is one of Europe's larger independent polyurethane systems houses with an annual turnover in excess of Euro 25 million.

Bayer and Röhm in PC and PET sheet merger

February 2, 2000 - Bayer and Röhm are to merge their European polycarbonate and PET sheet operations under the umbrella of the existing joint venture Makroform. Bayer will transfer its affiliates Axxis of Belgium, and Carbolux of Italy - which will remain independent companies - to the Makroform group and Röhm will contribute all its PC operations. Bayer will hold a majority stake in Makroform. The merger is scheduled to close on July 1.
     The new Makroform will have sales in excess of Euro 100 million/year.It will manufacture and market extruded solid, twin-wall and corrugated sheet in Makrolon polycarbonate, Bayloy PC blends and also Axpet/Vivak (thermoplastic polyesters).

Maguire ties up blending with liquid colour, and improves small addition accuracy

February 2, 2000 - Blender specialist Maguire Products has made two advances with the granting of a patent for its liquid colour dosing process, and new software for controlling very small ingredient additions.
     Adding colour to solid ingredients such as virgin polymer, regrind and powder or granule form additives during blending has conventionally called for the use of pellet masterbatches or powders. Liquid colour has had to be dosed directly into the extruder feed throat, or has required a process to pre-coat it on to the pellets of material before dosing.
     In 1996 Maguire, which started life building liquid colour pumps, developed a system which fed liquid colour directly to the weigh chamber of a gravimetric blender, enabling the colour to be added to the moulding material in the mixing chamber. Now it has been granted a US patent (No 6,007,236) covering 'the use of a weigh scale blender to measure and blend granular plastic resin together with liquid colour material prior to moulding or extrusion'.
     Maguire's latest development in small ingredient dosing is the ability to control accurately the rate of addition of highly concentrated additives, typically added at 1 per cent or less, poorly flowing waxy additives such as blowing agents, and long glass fibre concentrates whose pellet configuration inhibits consistent flow.
     Essentially what Maguire has done is to tighten up the steps taken by the dosing controller to verify and rectify the cumulative addition rate during dosing, making the system correct itself more frequently and in smaller steps than before to maintain consistent addition. And it has done this without reducing throughput.
     The higher level of accuracy is achievable on existing Maguire gravimetric blenders through a controller chip change.
     Maguire products are sold in the UK by Summit Systems.

Bayer plans Indonesian PU production

February 2, 2000 - Bayer plans to start production of polyurethane raw materials in Indonesia in the first half of this year by taking a majority stake in PT Lyondell Indonesia. This is part of its takeover of Lyondell's polyol business.
     PT Lyondell Indonesia has capacity to produce 32,000 tonnes per year of polyols.

New director for DSM Melamine

February 2, 2000 DSM has appointed Hans Dijkman director of DSM Melamine from September 1, succeeding Pieter Harten who retires in October. Mr Dijkman is currently director of the DSM Automotive Polymers business unit, part of DSM Polypropylenes.

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