This page is an archive of news and news background stories. Stories are placed here when they expire from the news pages and are filed in date order, most recent on the top. Go to the most recent or browse through the headline links.
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In an attempt to boost its loss-making styrenics business Nova Chemicals is increasing production of expandable polystyrene and reducing capacity for solid polystyrene.
The Beaver Valley, Pennsylvania, USA plant is to be expanded to double capacity for Arcel high performance EPS, with work starting in the third quarter this year. Nova has also obtained patents for VOC-free EPS and has introduced Ultra-Low, a pentane EPS which it anticipates creating demand from companies needing to lower their volatile organic compound emissions.
In the fourth quarter the company will start a de-bottlenecking programme at Beaver Valley to increase production of its Dylark styrene monomer/maleic anhydride engineering material by 10,000 tonnes/year.
To reduce capacity in the oversupplied solid polystyrene market Nova is shutting down reactors at its Breda, Netherlands plant, cutting 33,000 tonnes and at Chesapeake in Virginia, USA, cutting 50,000 tonnes. Both plant closures are scheduled for September 1.
Nylon, acetal and flame retardant prices rise June 30, 2002
BASF is continuing to force up its nylon prices with another Eur 200/tonne price rise for caprolactam and Ultramid B and BS nylon 6. Prices last went up in April and nylon 6 and 66 compound prices were increased by the same amount
in May. The increases come into force on July 1.
At the same time BASF is raising the price of its Ultraform acetal, also by Eur 200/tonne.
Flame retardant manufacturers Dead Sea Bromine Group and Great Lakes Chemical are raising the prices of some of their materials in July. Dead Sea Bromine is raising the price of its FR1210 Deca (decabromodiphenyl oxide) by an average 10 per cent globally on July 1, and Great Lakes is increasing the price of PeBDPO pentabromodiphenyl oxide in Europe, the Middle East and Asia from July 22. Both companies have already announced July 1 increases for some other grades.
Basell switches on new Tarragona PP plant June 30, 2002
Basell has started up its new Spanish polypropylene plant at Tarragona with a capacity of 260,000 tonnes - an increase on its original planned capacity of 225,000 tonnes. The new plant is part of a European scrap and build policy in which 330,000 tonnes of older PP capacity is being shut down or mothballed in the face of reduced demand.
The new plant, based on Novolen technology, will make a wide range of homopolymer and heterophasic copolymer grades.
Ticona has finished building its new 30,000 tonnes GUR ultra high molecular weight polyethylene plant at Bishop, Texas, USA and plans to start production early in July. The plant replaces an existing plant at Bayport in Texas, and doubles the company's North American GUR capacity.
Seals maker starts work on new factory June 30, 2002
High performance seals specialist Precision Polymer Engineering is building a new factory on the Greenbank Business Park in Blackburn to meet growing international demand.
The 35,000 sq ft factory is costing more than £2 million and should be completed by the end of the year.
DuPont to sell shrink films business June 30, 2002
DuPont is selling its Clysar shrink film business to US packaging company Bemis. The Clysar product line, made in France and the USA, consists of high clarity polyolefin films for the display and protective shrink wrapping of CDs, electronics, paper products and other consumer goods. Bemis already makes industrial shrink film alongside shrink bags and heat set polyester and polypropylene film. It anticipates synergies with its high barrier technology to produce new barier films for food and consumer products.
Solvay broadens its offerings to car makers June 30, 2002
Solvay's US-based Engineered Polymers division, which supplies thermoplastic polyolefin materials to US, European and Asian car makers, is taking on global distribution of a range of thermoplastic vulcanisates which could lead to its acquiring the company that makes them. Solvay already makes Respond thermoplastic elastomers.
It has struck a deal with Thermoplastic Rubber Systems - a new company in the TPV market, only starting operations in 2000 - to distribute NexPrene TPVs worldwide. The agreement gives Solvay exclusive distribution to automotive companies outside Asia, and non-exclusive distribution to Asian automotive companies and other industries worldwide. In the agreement is an option for Solvay Engineered Polymers to acquire Thermoplastic Rubber Systems.
NexPrene is a range of fully vulcanised EPDM-based TPVs incorporating patent-pending technology which gives them improved tensile strength, tear strength, fogging resistance and processability compared with conventional TPVs.
K-M to buy Elastogran's PU machinery business June 14, 2002
Elastogran is rationalising its polyurethane activities and pulling out of machine manufacture. It is to sell its metering equipment business to Krauss-Maffei, and as a result, will eventually close its Schwarzeheide, Germany, plant. Two firms which work closely with Elastogran in machinery systems, Heidel and Siempelkamp Handling Systems, will continue the relationship with Krauss-Maffei.
The remaining PU chemicals business will be restructured on a Europe-wide basis with product-related business teams dealing with all countries, rather than running grouped operations in individual countries.
The addition of the Elastogran equipment division will broaden Krauss-Maffei's industry base. In the past it has been focused mainly on the automotive industry. Elastogran, on the other hand, has had its greatest presence in white goods. Bringing in Elastogran's household goods experience will add to the move already made in this direction by Krauss-Maffei, which set up an Italian subsidiary in Abbiategrasso earlier this year to tap into Italy's strength in white goods - around 8·5 million units a year, mainly refrigerators and freezers, are made in Italy, more than in any other European country and roughly ten percent of world production.
The new chairman of the British Plastics Federation's Rotamoulding Group is Allan Joyce, managing director of Balmoral Tanks. He takes over the chairmanship from Bob Wood of Borealis.
Advanced polyolefin price increase June 12, 2002
Basell is to increase the prices of all its advanced polyolefin materials by Eur 100/tonne on July 1 because of unsatisfactory margins. The APO range includes Adflex soft, flexible polyolefins; Adsyl low seal initiation temperature materials; Hifax polyolefins for exterior automotive applications and wire and cable; Hostacom glass fibre-reinforced and mineral filled grades for electrical appliances and automotive interior and under-bonnet applications; Polybutene-1 for seal-peel, film modification, hot melt and polyolefin modification applications; Moplen for extrusion coating; Hostalen high molecular weight polypropylene used in pipe and sheet applications and grades of PEX for pipe and automotive petrol tanks.
Plastic Extruders has appointed Rick Oldaker as sales manager for its Machinery Division. He has previously worked for K R Mathews and S & B Plastics Machinery.
Prices up for PC sheet and epichlorohydrin June 10, 2002
More price increases have been announced, this time for polycarbonate sheet and epichlorohydrin.
Makroform of Germany has increased the price of its mono and multi-wall sheet. Makrolon mono has gone up Eur 0·40/kg and the multi-wall version by Eur 0d50/kg.
Dow Epoxy Products and Intermediates is increasing the price of epichlorohydrin in Europe by a minimum of Eur 200/tonne on July 1.
Sandretto now distributes Corema chillers June 10, 2002
UK distribution of the Italian-built Corema chiller range has been taken over by Sandretto (UK). Corema builds chillers from beside-the-press units to full mould shop systems. Corema used to have its own UK company headed by Trevor Wallis.
Increased capacity for PET trigger spray bottles June 10, 2002
New tooling for PET trigger spray bottle preforms has gone into action at Owens-Illinois Plastics as part of a £6 million investment being made this year at the Chalgrove, Oxfordshire plant. The tooling runs on one of the company's new Nissei 650 machines and makes preforms for a newly designed 500 ml trigger spray bottle with a 28/410 neck finish to suit Calmar and Canyon trigger sprays.
The bottle is so far being used for Wilko branded cleaners, in clear form, but can be moulded in colours. An HDPE version of the design is also available. Owens-Illinois says that its investment in trigger spray bottles is to meet greatly increased demand.
New cooling company from ex GWK MD June 9, 2002
A new company specialising in process cooling has been set up by former GWK (UK) managing director Nigel Hallett. IsoCool is selling equipment sourced mainly from Italian manufacturer Frigomeccanica Industriale of Brescia (not to be confused with umpteen other Italian refrigeration companies called Frigomeccanica).
As well as equipment sales, IsoCool is also offering a consultancy service for cooling system design and energy saving.
Frigomeccanica makes pressurised closed circuit chillers with free-cooling facilities, and also air cooling units for use in blown film and blow moulding and other closed circuit cooling equipment including air blast coolers. Away from cooling, Frigomeccanica makes temperature controllers for water up to 100 degC or pressurised to 180 degC, oil heaters to 350 degC and electric heating systems.
PVC building products extruder Everwhite of Aberdare in Mid-Glamorgan is to invest £2·1 million over three years in new production equipment to improve efficiency and enable new product lines to be introduced. There will also be an increase in production space, and the investment is expected to create 40 new jobs.
Everwhite's turnover was £6·5 million last year and is expected to reach £8 million this year. The investment programme is intended to take turnover up to £15 million. £600,000 of the investment cost will come from a Regional Selective Assistance Grant from the National Assembly of Wales.
Price rises for polymers and additives June 9, 2002
Styrene copolymers
BASF is instigating price increases across its family of styrene copolymers on June 15. Terluran ABS, Ronfalin ABS and Luran SAN all go up Eur 200/tonne, as does the speciality copolymer Luran S. Other speciality materials Terlux, Terblend N and Luranyl go up Eur 150/tonne. SBR latex
Rising raw materials prices have triggered a rise in the price of Dow Europe's styrene-butadiene latex. The company says that since January latex prices have remained stable while raw materials prices 'have risen dramatically with further increases expected'. Now the company is to increase SBR latex prices by Eur 150/t on July 1. Flame retardants
More increases in flame retardant prices are being made by Great Lakes Chemical. In addition to the ATH and HBCD price increases planned for June 15, the company is to increase the price of its BA-59P tetrabromobisphenol A and BC-58 brominated carbonate oligomer materials by $0·25/kg (BA-59P) and $0·08/kg (BC-58) worldwide on July 1.
Dead Sea Bromine Group is increasing its price for hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD) flame retardants. Its FR1206 material goes up globally by an average of 10 per cent across grades on July 1. Impact modifiers
The price of Rohm and Haas' Paraloid MBS impact modifiers increases 5 per cent on July 1.
New MD at Clear Packaging June 9, 2002
Transparent carton manufacturer Clear Packaging of Cheltenham has a new managing director. Ian Jamie has taken control following the death of Richard Drew, with whom he set up the business 18 months ago. To concentrate on the Clear Packaging business Mr Jamie has relinquished the managing directorship of Coventry-based Carton Edge.
Learn the full facts about plastic carrier bags, says PIFA June 9, 2002
The Packaging and Industrial Films Association has started a campaign in support of the plastic carrier bag, which could be threatened if the British government imposed a similar environmental tax to that brought in earlier this year in Ireland.
In Ireland supermarkets make a charge for carrier bags which must be passed on to the customer. Soon after the adoption of the tax one supermarket chain reported a reduction in carrier bag usage of more than 90 per cent.
PIFA is opposing such a tax in Britain on three broad fronts - plastic bags do not cause litter; they are not simply one-trip bags but are re-used; and that alternatives are less environmentally acceptable.
The claim that plastic bags cause litter has two fundamental flaws, says PIFA. Firstly, bags do not cause litter - people do. So it is preferable to concentrate on educating people not to drop litter rather than penalise one industry arbitrarily. Secondly, PIFA contests the suggestion that plastic carrier bags represent a significant component of litter, and quotes a number of research reports as evidence.
The concept that plastic carrier bags are single-trip items is also wrong, says PIFA, which quotes a DEFRA survey which suggests that more than 80 per cent of users re-use plastic bags for other purposes such as bin liners, waste bags and lunch bags. Removing carrier bags would just increase demand for other types of bag.
Lastly, if plastic bags were taxed out of use, the alternative one-trip paper bags would present a greater environmental detriment because they are more energy-intensive, according to life cycle analysis comparisons.
PIFA also makes the case for the recyclability of conventional plastic bags compared with the overall energy loss of using biodegradable bags which by their nature are single-trip with limited re-use.
Soya-based polyols for carpet backing June 9, 2002
A renewable source alternative to petroleum-based products for the manufacture of polyurethane carpet backings has been introduced by Dow Chemical. The Biobalance material is derived from soya bean oil from which the gums and waxes have been removed to make SoyOyl polyols.
The new material is being used by Universal Textile Technologies in the US for all the company's polyurethane non-cushioned and cushioned backings.
Two senior appointments have been made at Kiefel Extrusion. Technical director Edgar Gandelheidt has been appointed chief operating officer and in the sales department Kurt Freye has been promoted to worldwide sales director.
PET sheet takes twice the knocks June 9, 2002
A higher performance copolyester for sheet production has been introduced by Eastman. Spectar Clear is said to have 'measurably improved' sheet clarity and edge colour, with approximately double the notched impact strength, 50 per cent higher instrumented impact strength and better chemical resistance than the standard Spectar material.
More throughput from glass/PU process June 9, 2002
A £700,000 enhancement to the Cannon InterWet glass-reinforced PU moulding process installed by the Thompson Plastics Group two years ago is expected to double throughput and reduce product lead time.
Thompson has added a rotary table to carry the tooling, enabling the machine to be used during product cure time.
Thompson has also added water jet trimming for use with both glass/PU composites and rigid or soft touch materials, and glass-filled polypropylene.
Bayer sells Agfa-Gevaert but keeps fibres business June 9, 2002
Bayer has finally sold the balance of its stake in the Belgian imaging technologies company Agfa-Gevaert. It put its 30 per cent holding up for sale last year in line with its strategic restructuring plan, and then promptly cancelled the sale because of the company's, then, poor performance.
Now Bayer has sold the shares to investment bank Goldman Sachs, bringing in a tax-free Eur 200 million.
In a similar way to the Agfa stall, the current depressed global business climate is forcing Bayer to hang on to its fibres business. Bayer Faser, with three sites at Dormagen and Goch in Germany and Bushy Park, South Carolina, USA, is best known for its Dorlastan spandex fibre. It has been on the disposals list but, the company says, 'the market is not prepared to pay an appropriate price for this business at the moment' so it is being retained 'for the foreseeable future' and fattened up for sale with measures to improve its profitability.
Lego sells another mould shop June 9, 2002
The German mould making plant operated by Danish toy manufacturer Lego has been bought by Wentworth Technologies of Canada. Lego Werkzeugbau was set up in Hohenwestedt in 1956. It has been renamed AMTEC - Advanced Mould Technologies - and will continue to make moulds for Lego as well as other customers for precision tools in the medical, telecommunications, electronics and computer industries. Three years ago Lego sold its Swiss mould making plant to German mould maker Otto Männer.
BP completes one more downstream sell-off June 9, 2002
BP has sold the last part of its Plastic Fabrications Group which is part of the divestments it is making to concentrate on its core petrochemicals business. It sold its controlling interest in synthetic paper maker Arjobex last autumn and earlier this year sold its Performance Films division to Parkside Flexibles.
Now it has sold its rigid packaging, specialist laminating and voltaic films business based at Dietenheim in southern Germany and its injection and blow moulding operations at Rottenacker in southern Germany and Charlotte, North Carolina, USA to Barclays Private Equity.
Sharp Interpack is back June 9, 2002
MY Plastics has resurrected the name Sharp Interpack along with the Sharpak brand name as the next stage of the company's development following its buy out from the Malbak Group. Sharp Interpack is currently undergoing a £7 million investment.
Silicone processor goes solo June 9, 2002
The Silicone Engineering division of Meggitt has been sold to its management in order for Meggitt to concentrate on aerospace and defence.
Silicone Engineering, which says it is the UK market leader in the manufacture of silicone products, is based in Blackburn and has more than 100 employees. The £2 million buy-in was led by MD Dennis Beadman and sales director Barrie Warren - until recently head of sales in northern Europe for GE Bayer Silicones - with former financial controller Peter Nuttall.
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