BPTA splits up to improve polymer training

February 27, 2001 - Britain's main polymer training organisation has been split up to clarify what its management acknowledges has been a confusing position. Hitherto the British Polymer Training Association has carried out the three roles of deciding training strategy, provision of training and formulation of qualifications.
     Now these three functions are to be carried out by separately managed independent companies. The move creates concrete divisions between the three elements of training and is intended to sharpen and legitimise them.
     The BPTA board and the PAINTO national training organisation council are to merge as the Polymer NTO Ltd, and two new companies are to be set up - Polymer Training Ltd to carry out training, and Polymer Awarding Body Ltd to formulate vocational qualifications.
     Polymer NTO will research and identify training needs and put their fulfilment out to competitive tender. Polymer Training Ltd will compete with other training organisations for those tenders. This is seen as sharpening its training operation by forcing it to be more openly competitive. At the same time Polymer Training - which will be commercially self-financing - will develop other training products for which it sees a market.

     Hiving off the certification function as Polymer Awarding Body has been done to distance it from both the NTO and the training company. It formulates and awards National Vocational Qualifications and there is a perceived need for it to be seen as responsible for increasing standards of vocational training - not creating polymer qualifications as an easy route to NVQs.
     Financing of these companies will be largely self-funded. Polymer Training will be a commercial training company: its income will be through its training fees - although it does start with a good asset base in the Telford training centre. Polymer Awarding Body will also be self-financing. Its moderate costs will be met by the fees for NVQ certification.
     Funding of the Polymer NTO is more fragmented. There will be some - and possibly more in the future - income from Government. It also has income from the trust fund which has supported previous training structures. And it will be able to carry out other fund raising initiatives as necessary.

More changes at DSM

February 22, 2001 - DSM is planning organisational changes in its elastomers business on March 1. A new group, Corporate Venturing & Business Development, will be set up to combine the present groups New Business Development, Solutech, High Performance Fibres and SBR. DSM elastomers will become DSM EPDM, and will also include the Sarlink thermoplastic vulcanisate product line. In charge of Corporate Venturing & Business Development will be Paul Hamm, currently director of DSM Elastomers. The new DSM EPDM group will be managed by Ben van Kooten, currently director of DSM EPP which has been sold to Quadrant Holding.
 DSM is moving the headquarters of its composite resins division from Zwolle in the Netherlands to Schaffhausen in Switzerland in April as part of a plan to increase its pan-Euopean operations.

Webgrove adds Timbalex

February 22, 2001 - Automotive decorated trim manufacturer Excel Timbalex has been bought out of administration by Webgrove Holdings. Timbalex has plants at Didcot and Bicester in Oxfordshire, and its sales are currently in excess of £12 m to companies including Jaguar, Ford, General Motors and Volvo, as well as first tier suppliers such as Johnson Controls, Magna, Valeo and Visteon. Competitive pressures and the strength of the pound put Timbalex into administration a couple of months ago. Webgrove anticipates synergies within its group will enable next year's sales to rise to £20 million.
     Eighteen months ago Webgrove bought Arnold Plastic Moulding Tools of Birmingham, and in the previous year bought Showpla UK with the intention of expanding as a full service plastics products group.

Bourdon follows Stergiopoulos as Milacron's European boss

February 22, 2001 - General manager of Ferromatik Milacron Europe, Karlheinz Bourdon, is taking a wider role in Milacron's European operations, succeeding Jim Stergiopoulos who retires at the end of this month.
     He has been appointed senior managing director of European machinery businesses at Milacron and also becomes a vice president of the Milacron Marketing Company. Mr Bourdon continues his responsibilites at Ferromatik Milacron, as chairman of the general management, and will also be responsible for Uniloy Milacron blow moulding machinery operations in Italy, Germany and the Czech Republic.

Caradon man moves to head Heywood Williams

February 22, 2001 - Ian Stuart, divisional chief executive of Caradon's plumbing division, has left to become the new chief executive and director of the Heywood Williams Group.

New cellular polymer head at Vita

February 22, 2001 - British Vita has appointed Huub van Beijeren to its board, taking over responsibility for the world-wide cellular polymer operations from managing director David Campbell.

GE Capital man joins MachinePoint

February 22, 2001 - Emilio Zaffignani has moved from GE Capital, where he was senior vice president of business development for Latin America, to become executive vice president at MachinePoint, the electronic marketplace for pre-owned plastics machinery.

New staff at Tricool

February 22, 2001 - Chiller manufacturer Tricool has appointed former F & R Cooling managing director Gary Hughes as business development manager. Also new to Tricool is Tim Whitfield, who joins the internal technical support staff. He has worked at Industrial Cooling Systems and before that, at Coolmation.

INEOS takeover of EVC goes ahead

February 22, 2001 - Approval for INEOS Vinyl Holdings to take a controlling stake in EVC has been given by EVC's shareholders. The interim chief executive officer and chief financial officer of EVC, Jacques Hurkmans and Kenneth Tjon, have stepped down and will be replaced by Ghislain Decadt of INEOS. Other members of the supervisory board have also resigned and will be replaced by Antoine Verrijckt of INEOS. At EVC's next general meeting Andrew Currie will be proposed as chairman of the supervisory board, and Calum MacLean as chairman of the management board.

Latest price increases

February 22, 2001 - EVC International is raising the price of its Evipol suspension PVC by Eur 100/t on March 1.
 All PE products from Basell go up in price by DM 150/tonne on March 1.
 The price of Great Lakes Chemical's BA-59P tetrabromobisphenol flame retardant is increasing by $0·13/kg globally on March 1, and those its DE-71 and DE-60FS flame retardants by 20 and 10 per cent respectively in Europe, the Middle East and Africa on March 15.

GE design buy-out

February 22, 2001 - GE Plastics' UK-based design company GE Polymer Design Associates has been bought out by its management with support from BI Group company BI Composites. The company is now trading as MG4. Both MG4 and BI Composites have a strong presence in the automotive sector, and the new co-operation is expected to bring MG4 business in non-automotive sectors such as telecoms and electrical appliances.

Barlo branches out

February 22, 2001 - Barlo Plastics has broadened its plastics sheet operations with the takeover of Athlone Extrusions of Ireland. Barlo is European leader in transparent plastics sheet and Athlone has a range of more than 7,000 coloured sheet products. Athlone's core business is in polystyrene sheet and film and ABS sheet, including acrylic-capped ABS.

Demag scores its first on-line machine sale

February 22, 2001 - Demag Ergotech has sold its first injection moulding machine on the internet - to Gebhard u Wagner, a moulder in Nürnberg, Germany. The order was placed one week after Demag Ergotech's new machine shop at www.portax.com went on line.
     The decision to buy was based on a combination of short delivery and low price. The purchaser is a medium-sized supplier of plastics components to automotive and mobile phone manufacturers which needs to respond quickly to changes in market demand. It is now also considering buying materials through Portax.
     The machines offered on-line by Demag Ergotech are badged Ergotech e@se and have 'an excellent price performance ratio', a high degree of standardisation and a delivery time of only four weeks. The company expects to sell some 30 of these machines through Portax during the coming year.

PU/PE swap squares the EU over Dow/Union Carbide merger

February 22, 2001 - The European Union's requirement for Dow to sell Union Carbide's half share in Polimeri Europa in order for the takeover of Union Carbide to be ratified is being met with a swap plus cash for EniChem's polyurethanes business.
     Addition of half of the UC/EniChem LLDPE joint venture to Dow's existing linear low business would have given Dow/Union Carbide too powerful a position in the market, said the EU, so something had to go. And in a move redolent of the board game Monopoly, EniChem acquires the whole of Polimeri Europa and Dow gets a much stronger European position in polyurethanes.
     The EniChem PU business gives Dow a European source of TDI for the first time, with 118,000 tonnes of capacity, and adds 80,000 tonnes of MDI and 160,000 tonnes of polyols. There are three plants in Italy and one in Belgium, and the business extends into systems manufacture with operations in Italy, France and Germany.

Laser-transparent black pigment

February 22, 2001 - A new black pigment has been developed by Bayer for use in laser welding operations. The pigment appears black in visible light, but transmits a high level of light in the near-infra red range, making it suitable for colouring the laser-transmitting component in a pair of components being laser welded. So far the pigment has been formulated for use in nylon, polycarbonate and PBT.

Tech centre for film converters

February 22, 2001 - Valmet Converting, which builds printing and web handling equipment for both film and paper, is planning to add a technology centre to its Valmet Rotomec plant near Milan in Italy. Valmet, whose parent company Valmet Corporation has recently been renamed Metso Paper, expects the centre to open early next year. It will cover an area of around 2,000 m² and will house Rotomec gravure and flexographic printing, coating and laminating equipment, Atlas and Titan slitting and rewinding machines and General vacuum metallising systems.

Rosy outlook for Italian machinery

February 22, 2001 - Italian plastics and rubber machinery sales rose 8 per cent last year, and trade organisation Assocomplast is forecasting further growth this year.
     The domestic market appears buoyant at the moment, also growing 8 per cent over the year. This increase fuelled both Italian machinery production and imports, which rose 14 per cent. Italian machinery exports were also up.
     During this year Assocomoplast expects domestic demand to continue to grow, although imports may slow down. Packaging output is expected to rise, while automotive demand seems less optimistic. There are also good forecasts for plastics consumption in building and construction, white goods, and general technical parts.

New structure for Ciba Specialty Chemicals

February 22, 2001 - Ciba Specialty Chemicals is to restructure in line with its customer industries from March 1. The existing nine business units will be grouped into five segments responsible for marketing, research and development, technology, production and sales. They are: Plastics Additives comprising the polymer additives and process and lubricant additives business unit; Coating Effects including the imaging and coating additves and colours for inks, paints and plastics business units; Water and Paper Treatment; Textile Effects; and Home and Personal Care.
     The simplified structure is aimed at increasing growth and profits and not primarily at saving costs.

New source of climate chambers

February 22, 2001 - Nortest has taken on the agency for the German-made Binder range of temperature and climatic chambers. All the chambers have a proprietary preheating technology and operating temperatures range from -40 degC to 300 degC with optional facilities for CO₂ injection, variable air exchange rates, vacuum drying, hybridisation, sterilisation and other applications.

Britton makes coex/laminate investment

February 22, 2001 - Britton Group has installed a new three-layer co-extruder and solventless laminating unit at its Louth plant in a £1·5 million investment. The film line is from Macchi and will produce general purpose films as well as materials for lamination on the new Simplex SL laminating machine. This unit, which handles materials up to 1·3 m wide, is designed to produce high specification double laminates using a solventless adhesive process.

Vita combines PVC compounders

February 22, 2001 - Vita Thermoplastic Compounds has merged its Doeflex and Vitapol compounding operations to become Doeflex-Vitapol, described as Britain's biggest independent PVC compounder.

Baxenden buys Akcros polyesters

February 22, 2001 - Baxenden Chemicals has bought the Akcros saturated polyester resins business from Akzo Nobel and will integrate it into its Applied Chemicals Division in Droitwich, complementing its existing range of polyester resins.

Polyolefins profits tumble at DSM

February 19, 2001 - DSM's current business direction out of petrochemicals and basic polymers and into higher value materials seems vindicated by its latest financial results. While over the year both its Performance Materials and Polymers & Industrial Chemicals divisions increased profits, the fourth quarter figures show a strong climb (+79 %) for Performance Materials and a sharp dive (-62 %) for Polymers & Industrial Chemicals.
     Within the Polymers & Industrial Chemicals division, it was the polymer element that did the most damage. This was mainly due to a fall in worldwide selling prices towards the end of the year due to overcapacity and lack of volume growth in polyethylene - to which DSM added a new LLDPE plant at Gelsenkirchen in Germany. DSM's polypropylene business benefitted from record sales by the Automotive Polymers business unit, but this was insufficient to stem tumbling profits. One bright spot is that the figures would not have been so bad had they not also included an accelerated depreciation of two old slurry plants at Geleen in the Netherlands.
     DSM took its first steps to distance itself from polyethylene and polypropylene earlier this year when it combined the two business with its hydrocarbons operations to form a separate business unit, DSM Petrochemicals.
      One area where polyethylene is bringing growth for DSM is in the production of its bullet-stopping polyethylene fibre, Dyneema. Dyneema is produced by a DSM-patented gel spinning process, and is said to be up to 15 times stronger than steel and 40 times stronger than aramid.
     At present DSM has three lines making Dyneema at its Heerlen, Netherlands, site with a capacity of around 1,500 tonnes/year. These plants are to be de-bottlenecked during this year to add around 400 tonnes, and fourth plant will be built adding a further 600 tonnes. Production of Dyneema UD, used in personal protection equipment and vehicle armour plate, is also to be expanded in the USA where a second line is to be built and a study is to be carried out into further expansion.

Dow in non-wovens joint venture

February 19, 2001 - Dow Chemical Company has joined forces with non-wovens specialist BBA Group of London in a 50:50 joint venture called Advanced Design Concepts, based in Germany. The aim is to develop materials-to-fabrication systems for use in such markets as hygiene, industrial fabrics and automotive.

Asian silicones boost for GE

February 19, 2001 - General Electric is to expand its silicones business through a joint venture operation in Asia. It is setting up - through a partnership with Toshiba - a company equally owned by Shin-Etsu Chemical of Japan which will make silane monomers and siloxanes in Thailand.
     The new Asia Silicones Monomer will cost around $250 million to set up, and when it starts production in 2003 is expected to be the largest silicones manufacturing plant in Asia. Initial capacity will be 70,000 tonnes of siloxane which will be supplied to GE and Shin-Etsu's silicones operations in the Pacific. Manufacture and sale of silicone finished products will continue to be carried out separately by the two partners.

BP now offers mLLDPE technology package

February 19, 2001 - Another knot has been unravelled from the complex issues surrounding the development of metallocene catalysts for polyethylene production. The various patents and cross-licenses had built a situation where, effectively, no patent holder was able to use its own patents without agreements from its competitors. The takeover of Union Carbide by Dow, and the merging of their Montell, Elenac and Targor polyolefins interests by Shell and BASF muddied the waters further.
     One of the casualties was BP, which had been collaborating with Dow to develop catalysts based on Dow's Insite technology for use with its own Innovene gas phase LLDPE process. This collaboration ended when Dow announced plans to merge with Union Carbide, leaving BP to continue the development on its own.
     Union Carbide is part of the Univation joint venture with Exxon. This markets polyethylene production technology and includes Union Carbide's Unipol gas phase process and Exxon's Exxpol catalysts. The takeover by Dow meant that Dow's Insite process lined alongside the Univation package, a situation which the European Commission felt was unfair to BP. To gain EU approval for the merger Dow had to agree to offer open licenses to its background metallocene patents covering gas phase and slurry production and to sell its gas phase metallocene PE technology to BP. It also had to agree not to license or transfer its background metallocene patents to Univation, ensuring that the Insite technology could not be used with the Unipol process.
     Now the i's have been dotted and t's crossed, and BP is now able to offer a package of its Innovene gas phase technology with the metallocene catalysis it developed with and subsequently bought from Dow.
     Early use of the technology will be at BP's own plants in Europe, although just where will not be decided until the new 350,000 tonnes plant at Grangemouth has been commissioned and the buy-out of Bayer's share in Erdölchemie is over.

Polyolefins expansion in Saudi Arabia

February 19, 2001 - ExxonMobil has completed a double expansion of facilities it shares with Sabic in Saudi Arabia, including the setting up of a new 260,000 tonnes production facility for polypropylene. It has started up the expansion of the Yanpet complex at Yanbu, which is a 50:50 joint venture between Sabic and Mobil Yanbu Petrochemical Company, itself an associate of ExxonMobil Chemical.
     Included in the expansion is a second 800,000 tonnes steam cracker, a 535,000 tonnes polyethylene plant and a 410,000 tonnes ethylene glycol plant. The plant's annual ethylene capacity is now 1·7 million tonnes and ethylene derivatives production has been doubled. Yanpet is now described as the world's largest polyethylene manufacturing site.
     Earlier ExxonMobil had completed the $1 billion expansion, started in 1998, of the Kemya plant, which is also a 50:50 joint venture with Sabic. This expansion included a 700,000 tonnes steam cracker, a new LDPE plant and a larger LLDPE plant.

Eastman plans to split into two

February 6, 2001 - Eastman Chemical Company is planning to split into two at the end of the year. The intention is to increase the value of the company to its shareholders - who will become shareholders in each independent company - and replaces previous considerations of divestment of some of the company's operations or a restructure to achieve the same ends.
     The two new companies will be focused on speciality chemicals and plastics, and PET plastics and acetate fibres.
     The specialty chemicals and plastics company, which will have revenues of more than $3 billion, will include Eastman's coatings, adhesives, inks, specialty polymers and plastics, performance chemicals and intermediates businesses. The PET plastics and acetate fibres company, with revenues of more than $2 billion, will incorporate PET - which in itself turned over more than $1 billion last year - acetate fibres and polyethylene.
     Eastman's chairman and chief operating officer Ernest Deavenport will see the company through to the separation, and then retire. J Brian Ferguson, president of the polymers group, will become CEO of the specialty plastics and chemicals company. Allan Rothwell, president of the chemicals group, will become CEO of the PET and acetate fibres company. Other present board members are expected to be divided between the new companies.
 Concurrent with the announcement of its intention to split, Eastman concluded its acquisition of Hercules' hydrocarbon resins business and parts of its rosin resins business.

Fast turn round brings compound plant expansion

February 6, 2001 - Cotswold Compounds, which has been making hay out of the polycarbonate shortage by slashing the delivery times for coloured compounds quoted by the major suppliers, is now having to expand. It is currently fitting out one of its buildings at its Thrupp, Stroud site to house a new twin screw compounding line scheduled for installation in the summer.

German heater company sets up shop in the UK

February 6, 2001 - German heater manufacturer Keller Ihne & Tesch has set up a UK subsidiary. KIT Electroheat is offering a range of 3,000 products including cartridge, band and nozzle heaters, many of which will be ex-stock, through its KIT Express service. It is operating from The Corner House, Ovington, Alresford, SO24 0RE. Its heater sales hotline is 01962 738800 and it is on-line at www.kitelectroheat.co.uk. The main man is Peter Farren.

Bayer to offer 'rubber drill' mould cooling technology

February 1, 2001 - Bayer is extending the service package it offers to European injection moulders by setting up a formal alliance with Innova of Germany which has a patented technology for improving mould cooling. This extends a co-operation between the two companies started in the USA in June last year, and formalises an arrangement of several years' standing. The Contura technology involves analysing the precise cooling requirements of a mould, and providing waterways to achieve these requirements, regardless of the geometry.
     To do this Innova designs the mould in 'slices' to enable it to machine grooves following the contours of the part. These 'slices' are then bonded together using vacuum brazing so that the grooves form cooling channels, optimally placed to give uniform cooling. Innova compares it with using a 'rubber drill' to bore the channels.
     The claims made for this approach include an average 30 per cent reduction in cooling time leading to a 15 per cent reduction in part cost; shorter mould commission time; shorter start up time; greater control of shrinkage and part warpage leading to reduced scrap; and more uniform surface gloss. Payback of the Contura investment is reckoned as less than a year.
     Bayer sees this technology as an addition to the gate design, hot runner technology and rheological simulation it already offers in its role as a 'solution provider'. The Contura technology will be offered as part of a package to improve its customers' moulding operations.
     Contura was introduced in Europe in 1994 and around 3,000 tools are estimated to be using the technology.

TiO₂ price increase

February 1, 2001 - Kerr-McGee is increasing the price of Tronox titanium dioxide pigments in Europe by Eur 140/tonne on February 15.

Biostat masterbatch for film or moulding

February 1, 2001 - A biocidal masterbatch for injection moulded or extruded/blown film packaging has been developed by Douglas Baker Plastics. BakerBio can inhibit the growth of microbial organisms and fungi, and also provides UVA and UVB absorption. In addition to packaging, BakerBio is being suggested for applications such as food storage boxes, chopping boards, kitchen work surfaces etc. It is FDA-approved.

Arrk combines RPD operations

February 1, 2001 - Rapid product development specialist Arrk Formation is to absorb the Styles RPD company which it bought early last year and both companies will trade as Arrk Product Development Group from the Gloucester and Teesside sites. Toolmaker PTS Europe of Paignton, which Aark bought later last year, will continue to operate as a separate business.

Wax distributor

February 1, 2001 - Honeywell's A-C range of copolymer speciality waxes and Okerin industrial waxes are now available in the UK and Republic of Ireland through Omya UK. These waxes are made in Belgium and the USA and are produced in a range of physical forms.