Solvay mortgages its HDPE interests to buy Ausimont

December 21, 2001 - Solvay has now signed the agreement with Montedison and Longside International to buy the Ausimont fluorinated specialties group, and in so doing has sent strong signals that it plans to pull out of its recently inaugurated HDPE joint venture with BP.
     To raise the Eur 1·3 billion it is prepared to pay for Ausimont without excessive borrowings, Solvay is 'cashing in' the value of its option to sell out to BP in 2004 and 2005, through a financial intermediary. This gives the company a double-headed coin. It can pull out of commodity plastics altogether in three/four years time and reap the benefits now, or if the markets change it can repay the cash and stay in the joint venture.
     The Ausimont purchase - assuming it gets all the required approvals - will be the biggest ever acquisition made by Solvay and will double the size of its activities in the fluorinated specialities sector, making Solvay the world's second largest fluoropolymers producer behind DuPont. After completion Solvay's fluorinated specialties would generate an annual turnover of around Eur 900 million with 2,700 employees. Completion is anticipated for the first half of 2002.
     Solvay

Hendry comes home in gas injection

December 21, 2001 - Jim Hendry, regarded by some as the 'grandfather of gas injection' has joined Cinpres Gas Injection as a consultant. He has more than 20 gas injection patents in his name and first started production of mouldings pressurised by gas at KMMCO in Detroit in 1982. His consultancy work with the Peerless Group in the 1980s resulted in the formation of Cinpres, which earlier this year merged with the Gas Injection company run by another ex-Peerless gas man, Terry Pearson, to form CGI. Jim Hendry's work with CGI will largely cover the external gas moulding process, for which he is credited as the inventor.
     Cinpres Gas Injection

GE buys LNP

December 21, 2001 - GE Plastics is buying compounder LNP Engineering Plastics. It has entered an agreement with LNP's owner Kawasaki Steel Corporation of Japan to buy the stock of Kawasaki Chemical Holding Company, and the sale is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2002 - subject to regulatory approval.
     LNP started life in 1948 as the Liquid Nitrogen Processing Corporation, indicating its original method of grinding plastics, 'breaking them up without breaking them down'. It will be combined with GE's existing compounding resources to form a business unit with 13 manufacturing sites in the USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, the Netherlands, Italy, the UK and Malaysia. The headquarters will be at Exton, Pennsylvania, USA.
     LNP
     GE Plastics

DSM abandons interest in Rhodia

December 21, 2001 - DSM has finally spiked rumours that it was planning to buy nylon maker Rhodia by issuing a statement that contacts it has had with Aventis (Rhodia's principal shareholder) and Rhodia itself (which it had previously denied) have not been successful and so have been terminated.

Retirement catches on at Hamiltons

December 21, 2001 - The Hamiltons organisation is not just losing its long-time managing director of Demag Hamilton, Barry Taylor, but also Hamilton Machinery Sales Managing director Vic Hind, and administrative linchpin Christina Docherty.
     Vic Hind has been with Hamiltons since 1963, largely involved with Bekum blow moulding machines, and managing director since 1996. He retires at the end of the year and, like Barry Taylor, he is being replaced by a committee - Peter Green, finance, Jeff Farrow, sales and Dave Hollis, technical and service will run the company from January 1.
     Chris Docherty is leaving to teach in Vietnam for two years with her husband.

Degussa buys into Turkish silicas company

December 21, 2001 - Degussa has bought 25 per cent of Turkish precipitated silicas manufacturer Egesil, and intends ultimately to take a majority stake. Egesil currently has around 8,000 tonnes of capacity, sold mainly to tyre manufacturers and manufacturers of rubber articles and emulsion paints. This capacity will be expanded to 15,000 tonnes, including new technology plant for high performance tyre silicas.
     Degussa already claims the lead worldwide in precipitated silicas, and with its lead position in silanes and second position in rubber and pigment carbon blacks, its advanced fillers and pigments business unit achieved 2000 sales of Eur 1,186 million.

Bayer to make its polymers business independent

December 20, 2001 - The core polymers and chemicals businesses of the Bayer Group are to operate as independent companies. Following the reconstruction of its healthcare and crop protection businesses Bayer will become a management holding company with independent operating subsidiaries from January 1, 2003.
     Reversing the group's view when the new structure was announced that the polymers division did not need to be split off, Bayer is now intending to merge its rubber, plastics, polyurethanes, coatings and colorants business groups to create one of the world's largest polymers companies with sales of more than Eur 11 billion.
     The new company will share technological structures - especially in manufacturing, logistics and marketing - and a common IT platform. This will support increasing customer requirements for single-source suppliers and service back-up. According to chairman Dr Manfred Schneider, 'In an improved economic climate our polymers business can achieve a 15 per cent operating margin and generate the cash flows necessary for sustained value creation. We are strong enough in polymers to grow organically and expand.'
     Bayer's basic and fine chemicals and specialty products business groups will also be merged to create an independent corporate unit with some Eur 4 billion in sales and a targeted return of 12 - 13 per cent. A major factor in this decision was the need to plan for a 'strategic partnership', a move foretold in suggestions earlier this year that the company should break up. The medium term goal is to find a like-minded partner to set up a joint venture to expand the two companies' technical and marketing positions internationally.
     As part of its restructuring Bayer plans to dispose of three non-core German businesses: Haarmann & Reimer, a manufacturer of fragrances and flavours, Rhein Chemie Rheinau, a specialist in additives for rubber, lubricants and plastics, and its 50 per cent stake in PolymerLatex. As Degussa, Bayer's partner in PolymerLatex, also wants to pull out the sale will be conducted jointly.
     Bayer

£3 million expansion for expanded polyolefins

December 20, 2001 - Nitrogen-expanded polyolefin foams specialist Zotefoams is to install new capacity at its Croydon plant. The company's Azote foams are made by a high pressure process in which sheets of solid PE or PP are impregnated with nitrogen under elevated temperature and very high pressure. The nitrogen-saturated sheets are subsequently expanded into their foamed structure in low pressure autoclaves.
     The new investment will be in high pressure capacity. It will add flexibility to the company's UK production and also support growth in Europe and North America. It follows the implementation of Zotefoams' £9 million expansion in North America - the commissioning of a facility in Kentucky earlier this year.
     The new autoclave is due on site in the first quarter of next year and is scheduled for completion and commissioning in the autumn. A total investment of around £3 million will give approximately 2,000 tonnes of additional capacity across the product range.

Akcros focuses PVC stabiliser production

December 20, 2001 - Manufacture of PVC stabilisers at Akcros Chemicals' Eccles site is increasing as it takes on production of Interlite stabilisers from the Dahlem plant in Germany. European production of Akcros PVC additives is now centred on two sites only, Eccles in the UK and Greiz in Germany.
     The Interlite solid mixed metal soap stabilisers are established in medical and food related applications and are now being used in more demanding technical applications in plasticised PVC. They are usually calcium/zinc based, and so offer the additional benefit of being lead, barium and cadmium free.

Government aid for exhibiting abroad

December 20, 2001 - The British Plastics Federation has secured government funding for aid in participating in three international plastics exhibitions: Chinaplas from June 25 - 29, 2002, in Shanghai; Brasilplas from March 10 - 14, 2003 in São Paulo; and Plastindia, from February 15 - 20, 2003 in New Delhi.
     The BPF has been at Chinaplas before, but will be at Brasilplas and Plastindia for the first time.
     The grants cover 60 per cent of a company's expenditure on stand space and construction up to a total of £2,300.
     Information

Smith increases pallet offering with Cookson buy

December 20, 2001 - DS Smith Plastics has bought Cookson Plastic Mouldings (Europe) which makes structural foam pallets. Smith already has twin sheet thermoformed pallets in its range, made by its French subsidiary Kaysersberg Plastics. It also makes beverage crates, bulk and unit load containers, made-to-measure boxes and materials handling systems and layer pads.
     DS Smith Plastics is part of DS Smith plc, an international group with a turnover in excess of £1·4 billion which employs more than 10,500 people and operates from more than 90 sites worldwide.

BP enters Chinese petrochemicals JV

December 13, 2001 - BP has entered a joint venture in China to build a world scale petrochemicals complex. It has taken a 50 per cent stake in Shanghai Secco Petrochemical company which is to build a $2·7 billion ethylene cracker and chemical derivatives company at the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park at Caojing near Shanghai. Its partners are Sinopec Corporation (30 per cent) and Shanghai Petrochemical Company (20 per cent).
     The plant will be based on a 900,000 tonnes naphtha-fed cracker with downstream capacity for polyethylene (600,000 tonnes), propylene (590,000 tonnes), polypropylene (250,000 tonnes), styrene (500,000 tonnes), polystyrene (300,000 tonnes), acrylonitrile (260,000 tonnes), aromatics (500,000 tonnes) and butadiene (150,000 tonnes). It is expected to start operating in 2005.
     BP

Solvay bids for Ausimont

December 13, 2001 - Solvay is now officially talking to Montedison about the takeover of fluorine specialist Ausimont through the purchase of its holding company Agora. Ausimont was reckoned to be for sale in July, at the time Montedison was fighting a takeover bid from Fiat and Electricite de France. The sale would have given Montedison a cash boost to fight the takeover. At the time Solvay was reported as being the potential purchaser, but these reports were quickly deflated.
     Ausimont has fluorine operations in Italy and the USA, selling around Eur 600 million a year, which would be complementary to Solvay's existing fluorinated specialities business.
     Agora, a company owned 80 per cent by Montedison and 20 per cent by Longside International, bought Ausimont from Montecatini a year ago.
     Solvay

SATRA buys test equipment company

December 13, 2001 - SATRA Technology Centre has bought test equipment manufacturer Hampden Test Equipment. Hampden makes hardness, resilience and abrasion test machines and ozone cabinets. It will be added to SATRA's Equipment Sales operation, but run as a separate business by Equipment Sales manager Stephen Andrew. Hampden has sales of around £2 million annually; SATRA's turnover is more than £6 million.
     SATRA has its roots in footwear research but now operates as a technology centre for a wider range of consumer products. Hampden was set up by Adrian Miller and has been run latterly by his widow Loretta.
     Satra

Transparent 'rubber' for vacuum casting

Vacuum casting resin is flexible and fully transparent.

December 13, 2001 - A rubber-like prototyping material newly developed by MCP Equipment is totally clear, enabling designers to produce prototypes of soft transparent products such as diving masks as well as clear over-mouldings for soft touch applications. MCP says that rubber-like vacuum casting materials have tended to be black, dark brown or amber in colour, but its new MCP 9070 material is totally transparent. It can also be pigmented or tinted.
     Alongside the transparent material MCP has also introduced seven more rubber-like materials with hardnesses of 25 - 90 Shore A.
     MCP

Taylor bows out after 34 years

Barry Taylor.

December 13, 2001 - Barry Taylor, managing director of Demag Hamilton since 1983, is retiring at the end of the year. He has worked in the company in its various guises - Hamilton Machinery Sales, Mannesmann Demag Hamilton and latterly Demag Hamilton - for more than 34 years.
     The running of the company is being handed over to Graeme Herlihy (sales director), Florian Koenig (financial director) and Nigel Flowers (technical director) in January.

Birkby's takes technology to Motown

December 13, 2001 - Injection moulder Birkby's Plastics, part of the Marubeni Corporation, has made a bid for more automotive work by opening a technical centre in Detroit, USA. The centre, originally scheduled to have opened in April, becomes the company's third site in Detroit. Birkby's currently numbers Ford, Toyota and BMW among its worldwide automotive customers.
     Birkby's

US distribution imminent for water soluble plastics

December 13, 2001 - Environmental Polymers Group is on the verge of signing a distribution agreement for water-soluble film products in the USA. It has signed a letter of intent with MonoSol, formerly Chris-Craft Industrial Products, a long standing producer of water-soluble products, to make and sell laundry bags and similar products for distribution through the existing MonoSol distribution channels. The bags will be branded as both MonoSol and depart - EPG's polyvinyl alcohol brand name - and first year sales are expected to exceed $1 million.
     Earlier this year EPG announced a number of overseas co-operations for its depart products and the start-up of commercial scale production.

Trelleborg plans British investment

December 13, 2001 - Anti-vibration specialist Trelleborg Industrial AVS, is to invest around £10 million in a new plant near Leicester. The new factory will be built on a green field site at Bursom Park and will replace a factory dating back to 1915 in the inner city of Leicester.
     New equipment will be installed in the 13,000 sq ft plant, and existing presses and tools will be refurbished. The new mixing facility will prepare compound in clean conditions from masterbatch produced at other factories in the Swedish-based Trelleborg group. The building is expected to be finished next September.
     Trelleborg IAVS was formed last year when Trelleborg bought the anti-vibration interests of Invensys, notably the Metalastik and Novibra brands.

Plastribution pulls together

December 13, 2001 - Plastribution is consolidating its Anglo Polymers subsidiary into the main body of the company. This will enable some support functions to be amalgamated for greater efficiency, and there will be some redundancies. The new company will continue to use the Plastribution name, and Anglo Polymers will be used in some specific markets. Mike Boswell continues as managing director, and Alan Moules of Anglo Polymers becomes commercial director.
     Plastribution

£500,000 toolmaking investment

December 13, 2001 - Ryford has invested £500,000 in automation equipment for its toolmaking operation in Walsall. It has installed two EDM cells from Agie Charmilles equipped with robotic handling equipment. Each cell can hold up to 660 tools and 44 work pieces pre-loaded on to pallets. Positioning of work pieces and electrodes is known so that when the robot loads an electrode into the EDM machine it is automatically positioned correctly, eliminating manual setting up and checking.

Swanstone changes its sheets

December 13, 2001 - Swanstone, which represents Geiss vacuum forming and CNC trimming machines in the UK, is now selling sheet materials made by ILPA MP3 of Italy. These replace the Hagedorn materials for which Swanstone became agent earlier this year, and which it has ceased to sell because of Hagedorn's legal dispute with Hoechst over the performance of the Hostaglas PET business in Ireland which it bought at the end of 1998.
     ILPA is not able to supply PET sheet to replace Hostaglas, but it does have a range of PS, HIPS, ABS, PMMA, HDPE and PP sheet and roll materials as an alternative the Hagedorn Thermo-Plastics range.
     Swanstone

K-Tron buys again in Britain

December 13, 2001 - Another British company has been bought by US-based materials handling equipment specialist K-Tron. It has taken over Pneumatic Conveying Systems of Stockport which makes vacuum conveying equipment. Just over a year ago it bought Colormax.
     Roger Burgess, one of the two owners of PCS, continues with the company as sales director. The other former owner, Hector Bickerton, is planning to retire. Guy Parker, head of K-Tron's pneumatic conveying division, becomes managing director.
     K-Tron International