Vestolit stalks EVC as performance improves

July 27, 2000 - Vestolit is squaring up to buy EVC International. In a statement today EVC said: 'EVC International NV has received an approach from Vestolit GmbH & Co KG which may lead to a cash offer being made for the company. No agreement has been reached and, due to the preliminary and conditional nature of this approach, there can be no certainty that an agreement will be concluded regarding any potential transaction.'
     The statement followed publication of EVC's interim half year results which, while described as 'far from satisfactory' because of operational problems, mainly in the UK, were still a substantial improvement on the equivalent 1999 figures. The half year to June 30 showed a net loss of EUR 6·2 million from an operating profit of EUR 5·5 million on a turnover of EUR 608·0 million. In the first half of last year EVC lost EUR 37·2 million from an operating loss of EUR 32·5 million on a turnover of EUR 411·5 million.
     During the period EVC brought on stream its new S-PVC line at Schkopau in Germany, but a seven-week statutory shutdown of the VCM plant at Runcorn put VCM in short supply to the UK PVC plants and, having shut down its Brindisi, Italy, plant at the end of 1999, EVC was under capacity. However, the company says it is now 'well placed to take advantage of any future growth in PVC demand'.

Dynacast to sell SPM

July 27, 2000 - Dynacast International is selling its SPM plastics injection moulding operation to United Plastics Group of the USA to concentrate on its primary activity, diecasting. Dynacast was bought from Coats Viyella by private equity investor Cinven in April last year for £322 million. The decision to sell SPM was made in December last year following a review of the group's activities which pointed to a growth and acquisition strategy in diecasting.

PBE bought by CER

July 27, 2000 - Hot foil and pad printing equipment producer PBE Marking Systems of Slough has been bought by French hot stamping equipment manufacturer CER of Oyonnax.

Ciba/Bärlocher in Korean stearates deal

July 27, 2000 - Ciba Speciality Chemicals, The Bärlocher Group and Doobon Fine Chemicals have set up a joint venture in Korea to make stearates and customer-specific preblends for the local polymer industry. Doobon Fine Chemicals already supplies stearates to polyolefin processors in Korea and Bärlocher is the world's biggest producer of metal stearates. Ciba will add its PolyAd preblend technology.
     Ciba and Bärlocher are to invest more than $3 million in upgrading the existing stearate facility and to build new production facilities for PolyAd preblends.

Icon starts growth trail with Warne takeover

July 27, 2000 - Icon Material Technologies of Camberley, which makes seals, hoses, curtains and nozzle rubbers for road sweepers, has bought Barking-based William Warne. Warne makes rubber products for a range of industries including transport, pharmaceutical, defence, aerospace, mail handling and leisure. The takeover is the first step in Icon's plan to build a £50 - £60 million group of companies over the next five years.

David S Smith buys another American company

July 27, 2000 - David S Smith Packaging is buying its second American company in five months. It is to acquire Packaging Systems, which trades as Rapak, a specialist in bag-in-box packaging. Earlier this year it bought injection moulder Formative Engineering, which specialises in moulding components for liquid packaging.
     The latest move strengthens Smith's position in liquid packaging systems from aseptic and non-aseptic filler installations and systems to a range of dispense fitments and bag-in-box packaging.

Ashland makes compounding plant over to Schulman

July 22, 2000 - Ashland Plastics - Europe is transferring ownership of its compounding plant at Gorla Maggiore in Italy to A Schulman Plastics. The deal emphasises Schulman's role as a compounder and Ashland's as a distributor - Ashland will continue to distribute the products made at the plant.

TPV price increase

July 22, 2000 - DSM Thermoplastic Elastomers is increasing the price of Sarlink thermoplastic vulcanisate by 5 per cent on August 1.

Crystal Polymers to close as Shell sells PET

July 22, 2000 - The Crystal Polymers plant at Glanford in Lincolnshire will be an early casualty of the Mossi & Ghisolfi takeover of Shell's PET business. M & G says that in its current size and configuration Crystal Polymers is not economically viable in the short term, and that its solid stating capacity will be absorbed into the remainder of the M & G PET group to make direct cost savings. Crystal Polymers closes on October 1 and its 23 staff are likely to be made redundant. However, the company plans to review the long term future and may find expansion possibilities there.
     Acquisition of the Shell business has made M & G the third largest producer of PET for packaging with a capacity of around 680,000 tonnes.

Hanna sells one of its remaining Cadillac businesses

July 22, 2000 - The Richmond Aircraft Products unit, one of the four businesses left over when M A Hanna sold Cadillac Plastics to GE Plastics, is being sold to European aerospace company UMECO plc. Richmond distributes films, bagging materials and structural foam materials

Huntsman adds Rohm and Haas TPU business

July 22, 2000 - Rohm and Haas is selling its thermoplastic polyurethane business to Huntsman Corporation for $120 million. The business, acquired just over a year ago when Rohm and Haas bought Morton International, will be integrated into Huntsman Polyurethanes. It has two manufacturing sites, one in Osnabrück in Germany, and the other in Illinois, USA.
 Huntsman and BASF, together with their Chinese partners, have been given approval to build the 160,000 tonnes crude MDI plant near Shanghai for which a full proposal should be ready by early next year.

Engel gears up for Korean production

July 22, 2000 - Construction of Engel's Korean plant begins next month, with completion expected by August 2001. The first injection moulding machines are scheduled for assembly in September/October 2001, and will initially be tiebarless machines in the 70 - 150 tonnes clamp range. The plant has a design capacity of 600 machines a year up to 400 tonnes for sale in the Asian market.

Fuel systems JV gets the green light

July 22, 2000 - Solvay and Plastic Omnium now have the go-ahead from both the European Union and the US Federal Trade Commission for their joint venture automotive fuel systems company. The equally-owned partnership, to be called Inergy Automotive Systems, will start operations in September, with 30 sites in 15 countries employing 3,300. Most of the global car manufacturers will be its customers, and turnover next year is anticipated as Euro 1 billion.

Trexel picks off two more machinery companies for its MuCell process

July 22, 2000 - Two Mannesmann Plastics Machinery companies, Krauss-Maffei and Van Dorn Demag, have taken licenses to supply machines for the Trexel MuCell microcellular moulding process. The American technology company is now steadily decreasing the number of moulding machine manufacturers not offering the option of using its material-saving, stress and warpage-avoiding micro-foaming process.

Spanish antioxidants for Britain

July 22, 2000 - General Quimica, part of Spain's Repsol group, has appointed Omya UK as distributor for its Rubator and Rubenamid accelerators and Rubatan antioxidants.

Antioxidant price rise

July 22, 2000 - Great Lakes Chemical Corporation has increased the price of its Anox range of antioxidants for rubber by Euro 0·10/kg in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

German vacuum casters new to the UK

July 22, 2000 - Vacuum casting equipment made by M K Technology in Germany is now available in Britain from Laser Lines. The machines range from an inexpensive manual machine to 'the largest double chambered system currently available' which can handle parts up to 2·5 m long, or be operated as two independent machines.
     Among the features of the machines are a sawtooth routine to improve efficiency when degassing the silicone and a go-to function to move to a set pressure without the need for manual adjustment. Pressures can be controlled independently in the upper and lower parts of the chamber so that resin can flow into small sections without causing distortion.

New force in telecoms plastics

July 22, 2000 - A Finnish-American merger is set to produce a global supplier of plastics components to the telecommunications industry through plants in Europe and America already supplying the major telecommunications manufacturers. Eimo of Finland and Triple S Plastics of the USA between them employ around 1,500 people and last year their sales totalled Euro 178 million. Eimo has five plants in Finland, a site in the Netherlands, and is planning to open a factory in Hungary this year. Triple S has plants in Texas, Michigan and New York. There are plans to expand in the US and in Asia, possibly through further acquisitions.

Plastic bag ban in India

July 18, 2000 - India's largest state has banned the use of plastic bags.
     Northern Uttar Pradesh has banned plastic bags because of the litter stemming from India's poor rubbish collection facilities, and the thousands of deaths of sacred cows which choke on the bags while trying to eat the vegetable waste inside. New Delhi and several other states have said they will also impose a ban.
     It is anticipated that a ban on plastic bags will lead to the closure of 90 bagmaking plants in state capital Lucknow, with the loss of at least 15,000 jobs.      

Durston hardens up flexible position at Danisco

July 18, 2000 - John Durston has been appointed chief executive of Danisco Flexible, taking over from Henrik Jansdorf who becomes executive vice president of Danisco Culton, the Danisco Group's ingredients division. Mr Durston was chief executive of the Sidlaw Group from October 1996 until it was taken over by Danisco in April 1999, when he became a non-executive adviser to the Danisco board on flexible packaging matters.

Borealis in joint venture talks

July 18, 2000 - Borealis is in talks on joint ventures in Spain and Norway.
     In Spain it has signed a letter of intent with Repsol YPF to set up a company pooling both parents' polyolefin interests on the Iberian peninsula. This would consist of Repsol's Puertollano and Taragona plants in Spain, and Borealis' plant at Sines in Portugal. Total capacity would be 1·2 million tonnes a year making it the largest polyolefins company in the area.
     The Norwegian talks are with Norsk Hydro which currently shares Noretyl ANS with Borealis, with Hydro owning 51 per cent. Noretyl owns the cracker at Rafnes in Norway,which is currently operated by Hydro Polymers, and supplies feedstock to Borealis' polyolefins site at Rønningen and Hydro Polymers' chlorine/VCM plant at Rafnes.
     The plan is to set up a new company called Noretyl AS which will be owned equally by Borealis and Norsk Hydro and will both own and operate the Rafnes cracker.

Elenac now Europe's second PE producer

July 18, 2000 - The integration of the Hostalen business during last year accounted for most of the 45 per cent increase in sales by Elenac in 1999 over 1998. Around two million tonnes of polyethylene were produced, making Elenac the second largest PE producer in Europe. Sales were DM4·27 billion, giving a pre-tax profit of DM380 million.

More shiny TPE

July 18, 2000 - Vita Thermoplastic Polymers has added a thermoplastic elastomer coloured with interference colorants to its pearlescent, translucent and luminous grades. Vitaprene Shot Silk is pitched at packaging applications, such as the elastomer component of two-shot injected closures, and also automotive where it could be used for colour-keyed body accessories such as mudflaps, door handles or dashboard furniture and switch surrounds.

European Parliament wants to toughen phthalate plasticisers ban

July 8, 2000 - The European Parliament has voted to toughen the ban on some PVC babies' toys containing phthalate plastisers which was imposed by the European Union towards the end of last year.
     In a vote to make permanent the original ban, MEPs added additional requirements, apparently against the judgement of the Commission.
     Changes voted for by the Parliament included:

• Extending the ban on six named phthlates to all phthalates.
• Reducing the maximum concentration of phthalates in PVC from 0·1 per cent to 0·05 per cent.
• Banning any toys containing perfumes, such as fruit flavours, which tempt children to suck them.
• Printing warning labels on all toys for young children, not just those intended to be put in the mouth.

Rubber producers worry about the power of internet buying

July 8, 2000 - While the polymer world at large seems to welcome the idea of internet trading in materials, a section of the natural rubber business has realised that it could put pressure on prices. President of the Thai Rubber Association, Choosit Opaswong, told a meeting of Thai, Indonesian and Malaysian rubber producers that a proposed buying cartel of tyre producers would increase their purchasing power. The new site, RubberNetwork.com, is being set up by Cooper Tire & Rubber, Goodyear Tire and Rubber, Michelin, Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Pirelli and Continental. Between them these companies account for around 70 per cent of world rubber demand.
 US internet firm Commodinet plans to launch a rubber trading site later this month.

Ciba buys Amosorb oxygen absorbers

July 8, 2000 - Ciba Specialty Chemicals has bought the Amosorb 2000 inorganic oxygen absorber product line from BP Amoco, and is to sell the products globally as Shelfplus. These additives are used in food packaging to absorb oxygen and thus extend shelf life. The deal does not include the Amosorb 3000 additives which are specific to PET.

Xaloy and Bernex become one

July 8, 2000 - Screw and barrel supplier Xaloy and its sister company Bernex have tied the knot and become one. The ten companies in Europe, the USA and Asia are now all integrated as Xaloy, and Berna AG in Switzerland, a subsidiary of Saurer, has been renamed Xaloy AG.

K-M becomes Single agent

July 8, 2000 - Krauss-Maffei UK is to become UK agent for Single temperature controllers. The close relationship between Single and K-M in Germany is being extended such that the UK company's RPM division will fit Single temperature controllers on all the machines it supplies, and has taken on UK sales and service to existing users. Single has hitherto been represented by Simar.

Valmet to rationalise winder production

July 8, 2000 - Valmet Converting Group is to close the former Atlas Hurley Moate film winder plant at Heywood near Manchester. Valmet-Atlas winder production will be split between the Kempston, Bedford plant and the Valmet Rotomec plant in northern Italy. Kempston will build wide film winders, and other winder production will move to Rotomec.

Ciba explores process cost savings, but has to put up additive prices

July 6, 2000 - Ciba Specialty Chemicals has brought technological heavy guns to bear on the manufacture of polymer additives through a research co-operation with Symyx Technologies of the USA. Symyx has technology for 'combinatorial chemistry/parallel synthesis' which enables it to carry out hundreds or thousands of experiments in a day, compared with the one or two of the more traditional research processes. Ciba anticipates developing process improvements to keep production costs down.
 Costs have been going up in the manufacture of Ciba's antioxidants and stabilisers, such that the company is bringing in a 5 per cent price increase in Europe for its Irganox PS800 and PS802 on July 15.

Berry buys Capsol caps

July 6, 2000 - Berry Plastics, the former Norwich Injection Moulders, has bought the aerosol overcap business of Capsol Certwood. Capsol Certwood UK will be renamed Certwood and continue as a trade injection moulder. While equipment is being relocated to Berry's North Walsham, Norfolk, site Certwood will continue to make caps for Berry.
     Berry's parent company Berry Plastics Corporation of the USA has recently expanded its packaging operations with the purchase of Poly-Seal Corporation. The acquisition by the UK subsidiary of the Capsol Certwood business is described as a signal of the group's intention to expand its global closure and aerosol activities through the UK-based operation.

Top change at Borealis

July 6, 2000 - The Statoil representative on the main board of Borealis is now Erling Øverland, Statoil's executive vice president of manufacturing and marketing, who has become chairman of the Borealis board. The previous chairman, Terje Vareberg, has left Statoil to become chairman of one of Norway's larger banks.

More space for High Pressure Plastics

July 6, 2000 - High Pressure Plastics has moved into a new factory giving it a 35 per cent increase in production space. The high pressure forming specialist is now in a 20,000 sq ft factory at 5B Grange Road in Livingston, West Lothian, not far from its former plant on the Houstoun Industrial Estate. Part of the reason for the expansion has been the placing of orders worth £1 million over the next two years.

Plan to use sandwich moulding for car windows

July 6, 2000 - Research into automotive glazing at the University of Warwick's Warwick Manufacturing Group has brought a refinement to the sandwich moulding process such that it can be used for optically critical components. Patents have been granted on a number of aspects of automotive glazing, and the detail of the process improvements is wrapped in commercial confidentiality, but the essence is control of the gating to enable a skin of uniform thickness to be formed.
     This development is what WMG sees as a third generation of automotive glazing technology - and the second generation is also still under a commercial blanket. The starting point is the hard coating of polycarbonate, as used to make headlamp lenses and some vehicle glazing. WMG's view is that hard coating alone is not sufficiently durable for glazing, and that while it imparts scratch resistance, the coating itself is vulnerable to damage. The second generation process adds 'a weatherable skin' to the polycarbonate, which is then hard coated. What this skin is, and how it is applied, WMG is not saying. It is also not forthcoming about what specific benefits it brings, beyond that it gives 'an all-round improvement'.

CDs/DVDs help boost profits at Axxicon

July 6, 2000 - Sales of CD and DVD moulds by Axxicon increased 50 per cent in the first half of this year over the first half of 1999. This growth, together with all-round improvements in its other operating divisions, gave the company a 92 per cent increase in operating profit to Euro 3·7 million on a turnover up 49 per cent to Euro 39·5 million.

Yushin stakes claim as world's biggest robot maker

July 6, 2000 - Yushin Precision Equipment built more than 5,000 robots for use with injection moulding machines last year, which it reckons makes it the world's biggest manufacturer of moulding robots. A major market for the company is the USA, and it is to build a factory there in Rhode Island.
     A new range of robots with artificial intelligence is on the stocks. These will be able to analyse the machine cycle and adjust their traverse speeds accordingly, ultimately reducing energy consumption and cutting wear.
     Yushin has also recently installed its largest machine to date, on a 6,000 tonne moulding machine in the USA.

PAEK for powder coating

July 6, 2000 - Victrex has developed a version of its PEEK polyaryl ether ketone for powder coating using conventional equipment. Applications envisaged for PEEK-Coat include agitators and vessels used in corrosive environments in chemical plants and offshore oil installations. Powder coating gives PAEK performance to products that could otherwise not be produced in PAEK, and reduces the cost of moulding a solid part. The only difference between coating with PAEK and coating with other polymers such as nylon is the temperature of the oven in which the powder is melted to form a surface film, and which is around 400 degC for PEEK-Coat.
     Where the substrate could not withstand the oven treatment, it is possible to thermal spray PEEK-Coat, spraying molten PAEK on to a 'cold' substrate.

ARRK plans rapid tooling expansion

July 6, 2000 - ARRK Styles is to invest £500,000 in expanding its rapid toolmaking facility, and plans further expenditure later in the year in injection moulding.
     The initial investment will be used to buy a high speed vertical machining centre, a solid sink electro discharge machine and spotting press, and to hire two design engineers, a CAM engineer, a project manager and six toolmakers.
     The addition of injection moulding capacity will augment the company's polyurethane prototyping facilities for applications where prototypes have to perform under the same conditions as the production parts, such as in automotive crash testing.

New structure for Huntsman

July 6, 2000 - Huntsman Corporation has been restructured into four new businesses.
     Huntsman Specialty Chemicals includes the polyurethanes, PO and performance chemicals operations. It is headquartered in Everberg, Belgium, under the control of Patrick Thomas.
     Huntsman Tioxide, the titanium dioxide business, is based in London and managed by Douglas Coombs.
     Huntsman Petrochemicals, which includes polymers, is based in Houston, Texas, USA and headed by Thomas Keenan.
     And Huntsman Surfactants, which includes oxides and glycols, is also based in Houston, and headed by Richard Lundgren.

Bayer buys more PC sheet capacity

July 6, 2000 - Bayer has strengthened its position in the Asian polycarbonate sheet market with the purchase of Sewon Enterprise Co in South Korea. The company, to be renamed Bayer Sewon, also makes acrylic and PVC sheet. Bayer also has a subsidiary in China, Bayer Guangyi Panel Co based in Peking, which produces multi-wall polycarbonate sheet.
     In the last two years Bayer has bought a number of PC sheet producers - Laserlite of Australia, Axxis of Belgium, and DSM Sheffield Plastics in the USA. It has also entered a joint venture - Makroform - with Röhm in Germany which started trading this month.

EC approves Phillips/Chevron merger...

July 5, 2000 - The merger of Phillips Petroleum and Chevron Corporation's chemical businesses will not be opposed by the European Commission. In giving its approval the Commission said: 'The parties' chemical operations are largely complementary and do not give any significant overlaps in any product areas.'

...but puts the brakes on Industri Kapital and Perstorp

July 5, 2000 - Not so lucky was Nordic finance group Industri Kapital which is planning to buy Perstorp of Sweden. Industri Kapital already holds a controlling position over Neste Chemicals of Finland and is hoping to buy Norwegian chemicals and explosives company Dyno. Neste, Dyno and Perstorp all have interests in formaldehyde, among other speciality chemicals, and the EC is concerned that the ultimate grouping will have too dominant a position in the formaldehyde and phenolic resins business. The takeover of Dyno is already under investigation, and the EC now plans an investigation of the proposed takeover of Perstorp which will add another four months to the proceedings.