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Bielloni and Dolci - together like never before July 31, 2002
Bielloni Castello has acquired the loss-making Italian film extrusion business shut down earlier this year by Nextrom, and rekindled its former identity as Dolci. In so doing the two companies have come together in a way which would not have been possible in the fiercely independent marketplace in which they were born.
Bielloni and Dolci grew up together in the 1950s, with Bielloni developing bagmaking and film printing equipment while Dolci was building blown film lines. Mergers between like minded companies were not the norm 40 years ago but the two companies co-operated closely. Even after Bielloni developed its own film equipment business it was still selling on behalf of Dolci. It was Bielloni's presence in the Chinese market that in 1982 gave Dolci its first agricultural film line in China, which led to subsequent sales of several dozen similar lines.
Now, with the Dolci name owned by Bielloni, the two companies are to relive their roots but under the same ownership, with all the film extrusion business being handled by the Dolci division, while in September Bielloni will set up Bielloni Converting to produce printing, laminating, slitting/rewinding and extrusion coating equipment. Both divisions will operate independently - apart from centralised purchasing and other logistics.
Some 20 former employees of Nextrom are being retained in the new Dolci division and Bielloni is setting 'prudent' targets for growth, starting with a turnover of around Eur 7 million in the first 12 months.
Biodegradable packaging development agreement is formalised July 31, 2002
DuPont has formalised the relationship it set up in April last year with biodegradable packaging manufacturer EarthShell Corporation to develop applications for Biomax hydro/biodegradable polyester. EarthShell makes packaging materials from vegetable starches filled with minerals such as limestone. The starch/limestone paste is pressed into packaging such as clamshell boxes, bowls, plates and cups. After use it disintegrates totally.
Unfortunately, it could also disintegrate totally before use, so it needs protection from the elements and also support for its otherwise brittle nature. This is where the polyester film comes in. A layer of Biomax can protect the packaging long enough for it to do its job, and then will degrade, exposing the starch/limestone to degradation.
DuPont is not the only polyester company to have set up a development relationship with EarthShell. At last year's K exhibition Eastman showed a hamburger box made from EarthShell material and protected with a film of its Eastar Bio biodegradable polyester.
Solvay posts encouraging first half results July 31, 2002
Solvay's restructuring of its plastics interests seems to have paid off, with first half results for the sector up to 118 per cent of the same period last year. The addition of the Ausimont fluorinated materials and the BP speciality polymers more than compensated for weakness in some end use markets such as electronics, telecommunications and aerospace.
HDPE and PP compounds brought a greater return from good volumes, and the PVC business kept up volume and improved margins.
The modernization of Bayer's emulsion rubber production facilities at La Wantzenau in France and transfer there of production from Leverkusen in Germany planned in 1999 has been completed. Capacity for materials such as Perbunan and Krynac nitrile rubbers has been increased from 120,000 to 185,000 tonnes in a Eur 20 million investment, and the site has become the company's European centre for these materials.
Distrupol has been appointed sole distributor of DSM's Sarlink thermoplastic vulcanisate range in the UK, Ireland, the Nordic region, Benelux and France. The company was already providing small lot colour compounding services to Sarlink customers.
Producers join forces in routing and leak testing July 31, 2002
Two Italian manufacturers of CNC routers and other equipment have merged. SCM has bought 51 per cent of CMS, which last year bought 25 per cent of British CNC router manufacturer Rye Technology, which then became Rye CMS.
Leak and flow testing specialists Uson and Qualitek have been brought together by the acquisition of the Qualitek Group based in Cambridge by Roper Industries, the US-based parent of Uson LP.
Recycled PC and PC/ABS get UL Yellow Card July 31, 2002
Pressure on electronics and automotive manufacturers to use recycled materials under the European Union WEEE and ELV directives has led polycarbonate compound specialist Sytek to seek higher specification recycled grades, with quality certification.It has developed a polycarbonate and a PC/ABS using recycled materials and achieved UL Yellow Card certification. As well as meeting the need for regulatory use of reclaim, the new grades offer a 30 - 40 per cent reduction in cost over prime materials.
Mannesmann Plastics Machinery - the end of the saga? July 26, 2002
The search by Siemens to find a buyer for the Mannesmann Plastics Machinery businesses after a previous sale to London-based private equity group Apax Partners was aborted last autumn, now seems to be over. Siemens has agreed to sell it as part of parcel of seven businesses to New York/London based investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. The price put on the deal is Eur 1·69 billion. Between them the seven businesses have a turnover of about Eur 3·5 billion.
The seven businesses will each be managed independently, but will be owned by a holding company called Demag Holding being set up in Luxembourg. KKR will own 81 per cent of Demag Holding and Siemens will own the rest.
When the Apax deal collapsed Siemens commented that it was in no hurry to sell - which was not surprising as the market for plastics machinery was tumbling and Apax had found its backers no longer willing to support the purchase of a business whose profits were now being forecast at a lot less than when they valued it. The new agreement with KKR has taken six months to pull together.
KKR currently has a portfolio of some 30 companies in the USA, Canada, Germany, Austria and the UK. It is familiar with the plastics market through its stake in Owens-Illinois, which makes glass and plastics bottles in the USA and the UK. Regulatory approval for the purchase is expected by the end of September.
Coincidentally (?) the sale of MPM follows close on a restructuring move in the USA where two group companies, Van Dorn Demag and Demag Ergotech, are to recombine their sales forces after splitting them two years ago. The split reflected the MPM philosophy of allowing its subsidiary companies to compete with one another; the new arrangement gives them a unified sales operation with each company's machines being pitched at specific market sectors. But they still have to compete with fellow MPM injection machine manufacturers Krauss-Maffei, Netstal and Billion.
The US Food and Drug Administration has followed up the recent call by medical activists Health Care Without Harm to phase out the use of phthalates as plasticisers in PVC medical equipment. It has sent a letter to medical professional societies warning them of the dangers of DEHP in medical equipment. It said that adolescent boys and pregnant or nursing women who receive dialysis are at risk of toxic exposure, as are heart transplant recipients and people receiving bypass surgery or large amounts of blood replacement after trauma.
The publication of this warning actually comes some 10 months after the FDA issued a safety study on DEHP as a plasticiser. While the study has been available on the FDA's website since September last year (a 119 page document can be downloaded from www.fda.gov/cdrh/ost/dehp-pvc.pdf), no correspondence was sent out in consequence because the FDA 'needed time to assess what the advice should be'.
The advice would appear to be that, if there are alternatives available, tubing and blood bags containing DEHP should not be used. But the FDA does say that the high risk procedures it describes should not be avoided 'simply because of the possibility of health risks' and that 'the risk of not doing a needed procedure is far greater than the risk associated with exposure to DEHP'. That view was underlined by AdvaMed, a trade association for medical device manufacturers, which deduced that the conclusions of the FDA's safety assessment were that there was 'little to no risk' associated with the vast majority of DEHP-plasticised medical devices.
In the UK Friends of the Earth has stoked up its campaign against risky chemicals - a definition which includes phthalate plasticisers alongside pesticides in fruit - with the aid of major high street retailers and a 7 ft teddy bear. Boots, Marks & Spencer, the Co-op, B&Q and the Early Learning Centre have signed pledges to clean up the products they sell. The pledges say they will identify within their products man-made chemicals known to or suspected of building up in people's bodies or interfering with the hormone, immune or nervous systems, and to phase them out within five years. The teddy bear - Toxic Ted - is being taken around the country to pass out cards for shoppers to hand to retailers calling for them to sign the pledge.
BASF to stop Spanish plasticiser production July 26, 2002
BASF is rationalising its European plasticisers production because of overcapacity in the market. It is stopping plasticiser and phthalic anhydride production in Spain in favour of production from its bigger plants at Ludwigshafen in Germany and Feluy in Belgium. The Spanish plants at Tarragona were built in the 1970s purely to supply the Iberian soft PVC market.
The rationalisation started a while ago with the closing of a plasticiser intermediate plant in Tarragona in June 2001 and the purchase of two Belgian plasticiser and phthalic anhydride plants from the Italian SISAS group in the same year.
GE expands with added-value effects July 26, 2002
GE Plastics is expanding its product range by adding new special effect forms to its existing engineering materials. It has joined forces with another US company, GLS Corporation, to develop new thermoplastic and elastomer combinations to produce a series of overmoulding elastomers for GE's engineering materials, to be sold under the name Softfx.
GLS has been producing application-specific custom TPE compounds since 1984, based, among others, on materials from DSM and Kraton Polymers.
GE's existing Visualfx range of special colours and finishes has been extended, and the company has introduced a series of in-mould decorating films.
The new effects are Luminescent and Ferrite. Ferrite, available in Cycoloy ABS/PC, is a dark, soft, gunmetal metallic effect designed for computing, business equipment and telecommunications products. Luminescent, available in Lexan polycarbonate, is a series of five pastel shades which glow in the dark for an hour or two, giving a yellow-green light.
The new polycarbonate in-mould decorating films are intended for applications requiring mass customisation (different finishes from the same mould), flow line masking, and colour effects that cannot be achieved in moulded colours. They include metallic, angular metamerism and pearlescent effects.
Higher prices charged for its polyolefin and polystyrene products have reduced quarterly losses for Nova Chemicals. Reporting on the second quarter Nova said its olefins/polyolefins business made a net loss of $3 million compared with a $14 million loss in the first quarter, while the styrenics business reduced the first quarter's $39 million loss to $11 million. The second quarter also included a $3 million charge for Nova's polystyrene restructuring plan.
There was a 'small volume increase' in the olefins/polyolefins business while styrenics sales remained at levels similar to the first quarter, largely due to styrene monomer supply problems.
Increased flame retardant capacity July 26, 2002
Increasing demand for halogen-free flame retardants is leading to an expansion of Clariant's Knapsack, Germany capacity for Exolit AP ammonium polyphosphate flame retardant. A new line is starting up this month to add 'several thousand tonnes' of material per year.
The privately-owned Mossi & Ghisolfi group, which two years ago bought Shell's PET and PEN business, is confirming its position as the world's second largest PET producer with the purchase of Rhodia's Brazilian-based PET operation Rhodia-ster. Rhodia-ster operates a 200,000 tonnes PET plant, a 90,000 tonnes polyester fibre plant, and has a majority stake in Rhodiaco Indústrias Químicas which has a 225,000 tonnes PTA plant.
Together with the 275,000 tonnes PET plant it is building in Mexico the acquisition will give M & G a total capacity of 1·2 million tonnes, compared with market leader Voridian's 1·5 million tonnes.
Product development companies pool resources July 23, 2002
A rapid product development company has been set up in the North East with the amalgamation of three rapid prototyping and tooling businesses. Omega Plastics (UK), formed in 1998 as a joint venture between Express Group and Omega Plastics of the USA and wholly owned Express Group subsidiary Tooling Technologies have joined with Amsys Rapid Prototyping to form Fitstogether. Fitstogether has bought the share capital of the three companies, and is itself owned by the Express Group, venture capitalists Northern Enterprise and the company's management team.
The skills pooled by the three companies are rapid prototyping, including SLA and SLS, from Amsys; rapid cut tooling and low volume component production from Omega; and fully hardened long-run tool manufacture from Tooling Technologies. The company initially has 70 employees but anticipates expansion, achieving a turnover of £20 million in five years. The three member companies will continue to operate as individuals at first, although increasing collaboration, and eventually they will be integrated with their particular specialities operating as strategic business units.
New chairman of the board of executive directors of BASF from next May will be Dr Jürgen Hambrecht. The current chairman, Dr Jürgen Strube has been nominated for election to the supervisory board.
Other appointments are Eggert Voscherau to deputy chairman and Dr Kurt Bock as chief financial officer succeeding Max Dietrich Kley who has also been nominated to join the supervisory board.
Price increases July 23, 2002
Ticona is increasing the prices of its acetal and thermoplastic polyesters on August 15. Hostaform POM goes up Eur 200/tonne, and Celanex PBT and Impex PET by Eur 80/tonne.
BASF has increased the prices of its polymer dispersions in Europe by Eur 60 - 80/tonne.
The cost of antimony trioxide flame retardants from Great Lakes Chemical is being increased by $300/tonne in Europe from August 1. The prices of other antimony derivatives - TMS,Timonox, Trutint and Microfine - are also being increased according to their antimony content.
Mesh specialist moves July 23, 2002
Specialist film/mesh extruder and converter Boddingtons has moved to larger premises at Blackwater Trading Estate, The Causeway, Maldon, Essex, CM9 4GG. Telephone is 01624 874200, fax 01621 874299.
German polyurethane moulder Thieme has set up a UK subsidiary, Thieme KPX, in Huddersfield. The company is headed by Philip Janman, and is at Upper Bankfield Mills, Almondbury Bank, Huddersfield HD5 8HF. Telephone 01484 511333, fax 01484 541799, email pj@thieme-products.com.
Big blow moulders are getting bigger July 23, 2002
Following its recent analysis of packaging blow moulders, Applied Market Information has now identified the 50 largest custom blow moulders in Europe. In a new report Corporate Performance and Ownership Among Custom Blow Moulders - A Review of Europe's 50 Largest Players AMI describes blow moulding as one of the most consistently performing sectors of plastics processing in recent years. Annual polymer consumption has increased by an average of at least 5 per cent since 1990 and this year should account for more than 4 million tonnes, rising to 5 million tonnes by 2005.
Around 24 per cent of Europe's blow moulding business - excluding in-house packaging operations - is handled by the top five companies, a figure that has grown over recent years. The top 10 companies ranked by AMI are:
Recycling company expands with twin screw compounder July 23, 2002
Linpac Plastics Recycling has made its first move into twin screw operation with the installation of a Berstorff ZE60A UT compounder at its Allerton Bywater plant. The machine has been bought to meet a growing demand for recycled technical thermoplastics, particularly from the automotive industry. Capacity of the new line is around 1 tonne/hour.
Production of Torlon polyamide-imide is being increased by 30 per cent at Solvay Advanced Polymers' plant at Greenville, South Carolina, USA (formerly BP Amoco). The plant expansion is scheduled to be complete by the end of the first quarter next year.
Davis-Standard sells off downstream range July 23, 2002
US extrusion systems supplier Davis-Standard has sold its Versa range of tube haul offs and cutters to one of its sales agents, Jeda Equipment Services. Jeda will operate the business under the Versa name.
Phthalate plasticisers under attack again July 15, 2002
A new attack on phthalate plasticisers has come from an organisation called Health Care Without Harm, which has published a report in which it calls for a phase out of the production and use of phthalates.
A major strand of its argument is the accumulation of phthalates which it says overcomes the safety limits set by regulators. It says that supposedly safe limits set by regulators 'are a nonsense because they are calculated on each phthalate separately. In fact, cumulatively, most people are subjected to phthalate doses well over the accepted safe levels.'
The report criticises the use of DEHP in PVC medical equipment used in the care of premature babies - 'the tubes, IV bags and blood bags keeping them alive are also delivering a phthalate dose at the worst possible moment in their development'. The organisation says that while the phthalate exposure from the medical equipment itself may not be harmful when seen in isolation, 'regulators are being unrealistic by ignoring the fact that patients going to hospitals are already carrying phthalates in their bodies'. It says that women of reproductive age are exposed to some of the highest levels of phthalates, putting their unborn children at increased risk of damage to their developing reproductive systems.
HCWH's claims are rebutted by the European Council for Plasticisers and Intermediates. It says that exceeding the exposure levels set by legislators is not the same as encountering a risk, because the safety levels are set at a factor of from 100 to 1,000 times less than those deduced as safe from animal testing - and that anyway, phthalates are broken down by the body and excreted within 24 hours and so do not pose a bioaccumulation concern.
For background on the phthalate plasticiser debate see: Greenpeace uses toy fair to highlight phthalate plasticiser concerns (1/2/98) Phthalate plasticisers: testing is uncertain 'so they are safe' (17/2/98) Dutch institute is more confident about phthalates (2/3/98) Dutch testing gives cleaner bill of health for PVC toys and brings a commitment from manufacturers (25/9/98) British laboratory claims the lead in phthalate plasticiser migration testing (9/11/98) Dutch phthalate extraction test gets TNO endorsement (1/6/99) More spin in the phthalate plasticisers debate (28/6/99) Immediate EC ban on PVC toys containing phthalates (10/11/99) Soft PVC toy ban deferred (25/11/99) Unanimous decision to uphold PVC toy ban (2/12/99) DEHP reclassified as non-carcinogenic (2/3/00) European Parliament wants to toughen phthalate plasticisers ban (8/7/00) Greenpeace claims danger from floors and carpets (3/3/01) BASF unveils plasticiser alternative. BASF has introduced a plasticiser to meet the market need for sensitive applications which, with a testing bill of around Eur 1 million, it says is 'the most extensively tested new plasticiser on the market by far'. Hexamoll DINCH (di-ester based cyclohexanedicarboxylic acid) is intended for use as a straight replacement for other PVC plasticisers in applications such as food packaging, medical equipment and toys. It is already in increasing use by German compounder Rottolin, and doll manufacturer Götz is planning to switch production entirely to Hexamoll DINCH. Rottolin's experience of using the new plasticiser was that it was necessary only to fine tune the formulation and the processing temperature to achieve the same results as with conventional plasticisers.
Hexamoll DINCH is made in a process termed aromatic ring hydrogenation using a newly developed catalyst, and BASF has applied for worldwide patents on both the product and the process. A 25,000 tonnes production plant is being brought on stream at Ludwigshafen in Germany at a cost of around Eur 10 million.
Production of plastics and rubber processing equipment in the Euromap countries (Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom) excluding Luxembourg and the Netherlands, fell in 2001 by 2·4 per cent over the previous year from Eur 9·3 billion to just over Eur 9·0 billion. The brunt of the decrease was taken in France, Germany and Italy while nationally manufacturers in Spain, Switzerland and Austria saw production rise.
The forecast for the current year is generally for a further decrease.
The VDMA from Germany has confirmed a production decline of 2·7 per cent in 2001 on 2000, but the actual production included orders received during 2000, and by the end of 2001 the level of orders yet to be fulfilled was significantly lower than at the end of 2000.
Within the primary processing sectors, injection moulding machine manufacture fell 14·1 per cent to Eur 873 million while extrusion equipment manufacturers saw a 2·1 per cent increase in production. Blow moulding machine manufacture continued its decline with a further 11·1 per cent fall.
Italy's Assocomoplast chose not to define the fall in 2001, but instead reported on a production increase of 14 per cent from 1999 to 2002.
Funding awarded for plastics recycling July 15, 2002
£330,000 of research money is being invested by WRAP in three plastics recycling projects. WRAP is a not-for-profit company funded by DEFRA, DTI and the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish administrations established to promote sustainable waste management and create markets for recycled materials and products.
The funding for the three plastics projects is part of a £1·9 million award for research into the recycling of glass, paper, plastics and wood made under WRAP's continuing research program.
The three projects being supported with this grant are:
Rapra Technology (£220,000) - assessment of recycling and weather applications.
Recoup (£50,000) - identifying and maximising bottle collection from household waste.
Intruplas (£60,000) - using recycled mixed plastics/glass fibre to produce coil carriers for the steel industry.
SMS Plastics Technology (the corporate face of Battenfeld) has bought a specialist manufacturer of insulation board downstream equipment. SMB David of Herrsching near Munich in Germany, makes equipment for the finishing of the sides and surfaces of EPS, XPS, PU and PE foam, glass and rock wool. The acquisition enables SMS to offer turnkey plants for foam board extrusion.
PU price rise July 15, 2002
Dow is raising the European price for its flexible polyols and copolymer polyols by Eur 200/tonne and TDI by Eur 300/tonne on September 1. These increases follow a 5 - 10 per cent increase already implemented in the second quarter.
Mold-Masters invests more in Europe July 15, 2002
Canadian hot runner specialist Mold-Masters has invested Eur 4 million in expanding its German plant for the second time to cope with growing demand. The 5,000 m² expansion at Mold-Masters Europa in Baden-Baden adds a third more space, increases production space by 2,800 m², and will house the new European Research and Development Laboratory.
World production of biaxially oriented polypropylene films passed 3 million tonnes for the first time in 2001, and is set to nearly double by 2010, according to a new report from Applied Market Information. As applications for the material expanded from the original specialist replacement of cellulose film, production mushroomed and during most of the 'nineties annual growth was around 10 per cent.
However, the boom market was not all it might have been, as enthusiastic attempts to match capacity to growth led to overcapacity in some regions, and, particularly in Asia and Latin America, overcapacity in PET film forced down prices. Hence AMI Consulting calculates that capacity in 2001 was more than 3·5 million tonnes, giving an average utilisation rate of 82·4 per cent.
According to AMI there are around 200 BOPP plants around the world, and while there are inevitably dominant producers, the market share of the top 10 slipped from 45 per cent in 1990 to 39·6 per cent in 2001. The market changes are demonstrated by the market leader, ExxonMobil Chemical Films, whose share slipped from 12·5 per cent in 1990 to 7·7 per cent in 2001 while the world's second largest producer, Vifan of Italy, would not have figured as a major player 10 years ago. AMI predicts a further shake-out in the market as film customers demand greater globalisation - the recent acquisition by Israel's Dor Chemicals of Basell's Moplefan business and the addition to it of regional Basell film units being an example.
One of the strongest markets in the next few years will be China, where AMI forecasts a 9 per cent annual growth compared with 7 per cent worldwide. By 2010 AMI expects the Chinese market to account for 1 million tonnes out of a world demand of 5·7 tonnes. High growth, albeit from a low initial base, is expected in India, the Middle East and Eastern Europe, while the established markets in the USA, Western Europe and Japan will grow at around 4 - 6 per cent.
Braney chairs SPE European Thermoforming Division July 15, 2002
New chairman of the Society of Plastics Engineers' European Thermoforming Division is Ken Braney, Brown Machine's sales and marketing director for Europe, Middle East, Africa and India. He follows Cor Janssen of Nelipak Verpakkingen who had been chairman for two years.
MEGA installation by RGE July 15, 2002
Five 1,000 tonne Sandretto MEGA TS injection moulding machines have been installed at the Whittlesey, Peterborough factory of RGE Engineering to mould parts for household appliances. The machines were supplied with dehumidifying driers and CNC robots. Ten MEGA series machines have been installed in the UK in the first quarter of this year.
Biggest Arburg yet July 15, 2002
Arburg's biggest injection moulding machine yet is to be unveiled at the Fakuma exhibition in Germany in October. The AllRounder 820S has a 400 tonne clamp with 820 mm tiebar spacing, and a new 3200 injection unit with a shot capacity of 1,860 g in PS.
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