Vita buys one compounder and closes another

January 30, 2002 - British Vita has bought a Swedish TPE compounder, Nolato Elastoteknik. Nolato is reckoned to be the TPE market leader in the Nordic region, with an emphasis on the medical, electronic and automotive markets. Vita has paid £5 million in cash, and anticipates using Nolato's products to extend its existing Vitaprene brand.
     British Vita's engineering plastics compounds division Vita Thermoplastic Compounds is rationalising its operations by closing the JGP Perrite plant in Washington and moving four of its five compounding lines to its Warrington site. Washington has been mainly involved with ABS compounding, and has shared Vita's contract to compound BASF Ronfalin with Warrington.

More options for scrap film disposal

January 30, 2002 - Two additional options for the acceptable disposal of scrap film are coming into being in the UK.
     Waste management specialist SRM - part of the Heidelberg Cement Group - is about to start up a factory to process dry organic waste into Profuel, a fuel for cement kilns. The factory will handle materials considered too expensive or difficult to recycle and which are currently sent to landfill.
     The plant is being built at Ketton in Rutland, and its output will be used by Castle Cement, on whose land the factory stands. Once the plant is running and fully audited the company expects to be able to issue PRNs - packaging waste recovery notes.
     SRM

 In Wales packaging waste specialist ENVY of Mid-Glamorgan is extending its packaging film waste recovery service to South Wales. The company says that while most companies have developed a basic segregation system for on-site packaging waste, finding a regular and reliable collection service has been more difficult, particularly for small volumes.
     ENVY has a reprocessing arrangement with British Polythene Industries. It collects film packaging waste with limited contamination such as pallet wrap, shrink wrap and bags, baled or unbaled, and can provide the necessary documentation required under the Packaging Waste Regulations.
     ENVY is considering extending its service to other parts of Britain, and is investigating the possibility of developing kerbside collection schemes.
     ENVY e-mail

Borealis links with Grace in catalyst production

January 30, 2002 - The catalyst manufacturing arm of W R Grace & Co has bought Borealis' catalyst production facilities in Stenungsund, Sweden and Porvoo, Finland. Borealis retains the technology involved and will continue to develop polyolefin catalyst systems.
     The deal gives Grace access to Borealis' technology and the rights to sell some catalysts, while Borealis benefits from Grace's manufacturing experience.
     Borealis
     W R Grace

Delcam invests in China - again

January 30, 2002 - CADCAM software developer Delcam has invested further in the Far East with the setting up of a company in Hong Kong. Delcam (Hong Kong) is a joint venture with Forida, Delcam's local representative.
     The new company will represent Delcam in Hong Kong itself, and will support the South China Technical Centre established earlier this year.
     Delcam

Taiwanese moulder sets up British sales base

January 28, 2002 - A Taiwanese moulding company has set up a sales subsidiary in St Albans to seek business from British companies. While its intention is initially to import components from its plants in Taiwan and Shanghai in China, Kemflo Europe says its long term aim is to set up a production plant in Europe.
     The man behind the company is David Walker, who has been sourcing injection mouldings in the Far East for many years, and who says that the low prices for mouldings in Taiwan and China enable 'British manufacturers to source top quality components at half the price they are currently paying'. As well as producing mouldings, Kemflo can deliver them packaged and with point-of-sale materials.
     Kemflo Europe

Solvay finishes PVC transfer to Solvin

January 28, 2002 - Solvay has passed over its last European PVC activity to Solvin, the 75/25 PVC joint venture between Solvay and BASF.
     Solvin has taken over Solvay's interests in Martorell of Spain. In Martorell Solvay had a 65 per cent stake in PVC and VCM production, Atofina holding - and continuing to hold - the rest.
     Solvin also has joint ventures with Atofina in France where it holds 21 per cent of the Fos VCM unit and 35 per cent of the Berre PVC plant.
     Solvin was set up in 1999.
     Solvin

Conversion equipment companies combine

January 28, 2002 - German film, paper and board conversion machinery manufacturer Fischer & Krecke has bought Kochsiek, which operates in similar markets including flexo and gravure printing machines. Narrow web printing machine specialist SMB Sondermaschinenbau is also now part of the group, which is represented in the UK by Edlon Machinery.
     Edlon Machinery e-mail

OK for Chinese acetal plant

January 28, 2002 - The Chinese acetal plant planned by Ticona, Polyplastics and Mitsubishi Gas Chemical has been given the go-ahead by the Chinese government. It will be called PTM Engineering Plastics (Nantong) and will be built in Jiangsu, coming on stream in 2004.
     The plant will have a capacity of 60,000 tonnes of acetal copolymer.
     Ticona

Vita rationalises sheet production

January 28, 2002 - British Vita is rationalising its sheet production facilities with a focus on three plants. ABS, acrylic-capped ABS and PVC alloy sheet are being concentrated on the VTS Royalite plant in Scotland; polystyrene and thin-gauge polypropylene at VTS Doeflex in Redhill; and thicker gauge polypropylene and HDPE at VTS Plastec in Widnes.
     Vita recently bought Fabex, which makes mainly polystyrene sheet, and moved it into Redhill. Thin gauge PP is currently also made at Widnes, and this production will be moved to Redhill.

Graham to shut Wrexham blow moulding plant

January 28, 2002 - Graham Packaging is planning to close its blow moulding plant in Wrexham in the second quarter of this year. The company blames a shift in the customer base for the plant to other parts of the UK, or to continental Europe. Attempts were made to sell the business but these failed, and the site is now to be put up for sale.
     Graham maintains that it remains committed to the European market, citing an investment of $50 m over the past two years including new plants in Poland and Spain, and expansion of a plant in Belgium. The company plans to open a new plant in France later this year.
     Graham Packaging

PolyOne quits Australian PVC but stays in compounds

January 28, 2002 - PolyOne has pulled out of the Australian PVC maker Australian Vinyls Corporation, but retains its compounding facilities. AVC was jointly owned by PolyOne (37·4 per cent) and Orica - formerly ICI Australia - which owned 62·6 per cent. Orica has also sold its share, the buyer for the business being a group led by a former AVC managing director Murray Winstanley.
     AVC made a loss in 2001. Its plant in Altona, Victoria is to be closed and not sold to Winstanley.
     Both PolyOne and Orica are continuing their ownership (in the same proportions as their AVC shares) of AVC's three PVC compounding plants in Greater Melbourne, which will trade as Welvic Australia.
     PolyOne

Plant-based plastics debut in duvets

January 28, 2002 - The maize-based thermoplastics developed by Cargill Dow are being used as fibres to fill duvets, pillows and mattresses. The new NatureWorks fibres are already in use by British sleep product manufacturer Monogram with products expected in the shops later this year and are being introduced to a wider manufacturing base at a textiles exhibition in the Netherlands.
     The materials are polymerised from fermented plant sugars, and the fibres are said to deliver the comfort and warmth of natural fibres with the easy care attributes of synthetics.
     Cargill Dow

New UK boss for Bridgestone/Firestone

January 28, 2002 - John McNaught has been appointed managing director of Bridgestone/Firestone UK, starting work on February 4. He has worked in the tyre industry since 1976.

BASF to raise speciality nylon output

January 28, 2002 - BASF is planning to increase capacity for its Ultramid C PA6/66 copolymer by 15,000 tonnes during the course of this year by debottlenecking existing facilities. There is an estimated annual growth in demand for this type of product of 8 - 12 per cent.

Basell grants licence to make Hifax

January 28, 2002 - Basell has licensed Lehmann & Voss to make Hifax flame retardant polypropylene compounds for use in the electrical, electronic and home appliance sectors and has handed over existing business. L & V will use Basell's trademarks and nomenclature.

Polystyrene price increase

January 28, 2002 - Dow Europe is increasing the European price of all grades of its Styron polystyrene by Eur 100/tonne on February 1.
     Dow Styron

Robot distributors wanted

January 28, 2002 - An Italian manufacturer of injection moulding robots is looking for distributors in other European countries. TecnoMatic builds robots suitable for moulding machines from 50 to 2,000 tonnes. Negotiations are being handled by Craig Stimac, an American living in San Marino.
     Craig Stimac e-mail
     TecnoMatic

Promotions at GE Plastics

January 28, 2002 - The new head of GE Plastics Europe is Charlie Crew, since January 2000 vice president for commercial operations in Europe and global commercial process leader for GE Plastics worldwide. He takes over from Art Harper, who has been appointed executive vice president of GE Capital Services, succeeding another ex-GE Plastics man Ferdinando 'Nani' Beccalli who becomes president and chief executive officer of GE Europe.

Basell to quit UHMWPE

January 13, 2002 - Basell is planning to sell its ultra high molecular weight polyethylene business to Polialden Petroquimica of Brazil. Polialden already has UHMWPE interests, alongside being one of the biggest HDPE producers in South America, and plans to set up a new subsidiary in Wilmington, Delaware, USA to run the merged UHMWPE business.
     Polialden is controlled by Copene, which is owned by Mitsubishi Chemicals and Nissho Iwai of Japan, and is one of the companies which will be merged soon to form the largest petrochemicals company in South America, Braskem.
     Not included in the sale is Basell's UHMWPE plant at Lake Charles in the USA. This is to be closed at the end of this month as part of a restructure at Lake Charles, which will also see the mothballing of a polyethylene plant at the end of March because of the US overcapacity in polyethylene. Basell is, however, planning to invest in the two polypropylene plants at Lake Charles to maintain their long term competitiveness.

EU recycling targets 'a disincentive to mechanical recycling'

January 13, 2002 - A change in the European Union's Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive has angered European Plastics Recyclers, the body representing plastics recyclers and suppliers of plastics recyclate in Europe.
     EuPR has been pressing for a 20 per cent target for mechanical recycling in Europe, but the latest version of the EU proposal has added chemical depolymerisation to this target, downplaying the importance of mechanical recycling.
     EuPR argues that feedstock recycling and energy recovery should focus on the remaining 80 per cent of the plastic waste streams and not at the minimum 20 per cent which can be recycled mechanically. Currently around 10 per cent of plastics waste is recycled mechanically and EuPR was looking to a 20 per cent target as an incentive to develop this sector. Instead it says: 'A decision to include possible future chemical recycling will result in poor development or even reduction of the current potentials in mechanical recycling.'
     EuPR

New version of two-in-one injection technology

Original Twinshot process uses a screw within a screw (top) click for animation while the new version click for animation has a two-stage screw with transport of stage 2 materials through stage 1.

January 13, 2001 - The Twinshot process which enables co-injection on a single barrel injection moulding machine by plasticising the core material with a second screw rotating within the main screw, has been refined to replace the screw-within-a-screw structure with a simple transport channel.
     In Twinshot Version II a two-stage screw acting like the screw of a vented extruder processes both materials, with the ratio of materials fed being controlled by starve feeding one or both screw stages. Material from the second stage of the extruder passes through the first stage to form the first part of the melt pool.
     Compared with the original process Twinshot Technologies says that injection piston design is no longer a consideration, no new pistons or castings are needed, the clutch which links/separates the two screws in version I is eliminated, the required level of control sophistication has been lowered, the process can be used with smaller screws - down to 20 g shot, and it can be installed or removed in the same way as a conventional screw and barrel replacement.
     Twinshot Technologies

Research endorsement for anti-microbial additive

January 13, 2002 - The effectiveness of its BakerBio+ as an anti-microbial additive has been confirmed by Douglas Baker Plastics through testing by farming products testing laboratory ADAS. BakerBio+ was tested to evaluate both its active compound and its effectiveness when used in a film.
     The active compound tests involved E-Coli and Ps Aeroginosa, which is known to be largely resistant to microbial inhibitors. The ADAS report concluded that there was strong inhibition of E-Coli and an apparently significant effect on Ps Aeroginosa.
     The film was tested to assess its inhibition of the growth of food mould Neurospora Crassa. ADAS concluded: 'Visual examination confirmed that the films containing the active material were inhibitory to the test organism'.
     Douglas Baker says it has posted the full report on its website, but if it has, we can't find it.
     Douglas Baker

Netstal to distribute data management systems

January 13, 2002 - Austrian production data acquisition system manufacturer TIG is now selling its systems in the UK and Ireland through Netstal. TIG supplies data retrieval and management systems for production planning, quality, maintenance and production condition storage and set up.
     TIG
     email@netstal.co.uk

Cookson sells out of plastics

January 6, 2002 - The Cookson Group has now completed the sale of its plastic mouldings business, begun nearly two years ago as part of the group's long term restructuring programme to concentrate on electronics, ceramics and precious metals. The businesses have been sold in four separate transactions to four, as yet undisclosed, companies - although one is known to be DS Smith Plastics. The £38 million raised will be used by Cookson to reduce its borrowings.
     Cookson's plastics mouldings businesses in the UK and USA make products ranging from pallets to swimming pool panels. They earned £2 million on sales of £93 million in 2001, and had an asset value on disposal of £58 million.
     When it was announced in 1999, the group restructuring plan was to close or rationalise activities at 30 manufacturing and distribution facilities; to discontinue certain product lines; and to streamline managerial and divisional administrative functions.
     It was anticipated that the plan would result in a reduction worldwide of approximately 700 people, representing 4·5 per cent of the total workforce.The group cut 3,700 jobs last year after issuing a series of profit warnings.
     Cookson

£3 million thermoforming investment

January 6, 2002 - Packaging thermoformer MY Plastics of Aylesham in Kent - formerly Sharp Interpack - has installed one Sentinel and three TFT thermoforming machines in a £3 million tranche of a £7 million investment programme. More machines are planned for purchase in the next six months. Along with the machine investment MY has built new staff facilities and made other changes to the property.
     The company is anticipating a 25 per cent increase in its business in the coming year.

Vita buys Fabex

January 6, 2002 - British Vita has bought sheet producer Fabex of Blackburn for £3 million and is moving it to its existing thermoplastic sheet facility, VTS Doeflex at Redhill in Surrey.
     Last year Fabex's turnover was £6 million, mainly in high impact polystyrene sheet for the point of sale and speciality packaging markets.
     British Vita

Formech moves

January 6, 2002 - Vacuum forming machine manufacturer Formech International has moved to: Unit 4, Thrales End Farm, Thrales End Lane, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, AL5 3NS. Tel: 01582 469797, fax: 01582 469646.
     Formech

More Gabriel colour from Pan

January 6, 2002 - Gabriel Chemie and Pan Polymers have strengthened their colour masterbatch distribution agreement with Pan taking on sales of Gabriel's full range of colour and additive masterbatches. Pan will focus on the stock range of 120 colours supplying 50, 25, 10 and 5 kg lots on a a next day basis. It is also selling Gabriel's speciality additive masterbatches which include antistatic, anti-slip, blowing agent, flame retardant, laser printing and UV stabilisers.
     sales@panpolymers.co.uk

Delcam invests in China

January 6, 2002 - Delcam has opened a technical centre in Guangzhou, China, to support the growing number of customers for its CADCAM software in Guangdong Province and the neighbouring regions of southern China. This area is the centre of rapid expansion in manufacturing, particularly in the production of shoes, toys, electrical appliances and other plastic consumer goods, both for the domestic market and for export. The company has existing customers in Taiwan and Hong Kong who are expanding into southern China.
     Delcam