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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No hope for Environmental Polymers December 31, 2002
The fate of Environmental Polymers seems sealed and its board expects the PVOH specialist to go into liquidation. Its only salvation would appear to be if it were bought as a vehicle to access the Alternative Investment Market.
The company was placed in administration in August after troubled trading conditions drained its funds and expected revenues failed to materialise. Chief executive Philip Smith was fired in July - and is claiming unfair dismissal - and the administrator sought to sell the business as a going concern.
Despite early interest no buyer could found. Now the administrator has sold the company's business and assets to a subsidiary of The Investment Company and the board expects Environmental Polymers Group to be liquidated - unless a company buys it to use its AIM traded status, which remains listed until February 8.
Data transfer definitions for extrusion lines December 31, 2002
Euromap has published a set of recommendations for defining data transfer between an extruder and its downstream equipment. The new Euromap 27 recommendations have been drawn up for pipe and profile lines initially, and further work is likely to produce recommendations for further up and downstream implementation, and whether the interface could be used for other extrusion processes.
The four parts of the new CANopen interface are:
Euromap 27-1 - general definitions.
Euromap 27-2 - puller.
Euromap 27-3 - corrugator.
Euromap 27-4 - saw.
The full list of Euromap recommendations can be downloaded.
Ex-Herfurth man heads new welding equipment company December 31, 2002
A new company has been set up in the UK to sell Sonotronic Nagel ultrasonic welding systems. Sonotronic UK is based in Edgware, Middlesex, and is headed by John Pini, formerly sales director of Herfurth UK.
Sonotronic makes a standard range of ultrasonic generators from 400 - 4,000 W, a standard range of bench welding machines and hand-held welding guns, and a range of sonotrodes. It also builds customised systems, including systems with CNC-controlled welding tables.
Sonotronic UK will be working in association with Herfurth Laser Technology which makes direct diode laser welding equipment.
Coolmation has taken over the UK agency for the Italian-made Rhoss chillers and associated products, which had been represented in the UK by Thermal Engineering Systems.
Rhoss makes air and water cooled chillers from 3 to 1,500 kW, and its range is described as 'one of the most competitively priced in Europe'.
Dow MDI plant to be closed, not sold December 31, 2002
Dow Polyurethanes has failed in its attempt to sell its Dow Poliuretani Italia MDI plant at Brindisi in Italy, and instead is to demolish it. The 75,000 tpa plant has been shut down since December 2001, and for the past eight months Dow has been in negotiations to sell the plant to Chimica D'Agostino. Despite the signing of a letter of intent on November 8, Chimica D'Agostino has pulled out of the negotiations, and Dow says it now has no alternative but to close the plant permanently, with the loss of 126 jobs.
PolyOne quits Techmer December 31, 2002
PolyOne has pulled out of another joint venture, the second in a month. At the beginning of December the company sold its majority holding in Italian thermoplastic rubber producer So.F.teR and has now sold its majority interest in the US-based colour and additives concentrates company Techmer. Its 51 per cent stake has been bought by TPM Holdings, which owns the other 49 per cent.
Like So.F.teR, the Techmer joint venture is a legacy from the M A Hanna component of PolyOne, dating back to 1997.
Bridgestone invests to expand tyre production December 18, 2002
Japanese tyre maker Bridgestone Corporation is to invest Eur 400 million in its Bridgestone/Firestone Europe subsidiary. The money will be used in part to expand its manufacturing resources.
The production capacity for high performance car tyres will be strengthened by investment to aid rapid changeover to future products, and will include the expansion of the Poznan plant in Poland to more than double its capacity to 23,000 tyres per day from its current 10,000. Bus and truck tyre output from the Bilbao, Spain plant will be increased from 3,500 to 4,600 a day by the end of 2005
From January 1 Bridgestone/Firestone Europe SA will become Bridgestone Europe NV/SA.
Boardroom conflict as INEOS bids to buy EVC shares for employees December 18, 2002
INEOS Group is bidding for the 24·7 per cent of EVC that it doesn't already own, and is being resisted by supervisory board director William Prinselaar while the rest of the board is abstaining.
The bid from INEOS is through its associate company Hawkslease Finance Company, which wants eventually to put up to 10 per cent of EVC's shares into an employee share ownership scheme. The supervisory board and mangement board, with the exception of Mr Prinselaar, are abstaining because of a perceived conflict of interest: most of them are INEOS nominees, and all will be entitled to join the share ownership scheme.
DSM invests in Chinese composites December 18, 2002
DSM Composite Resins is increasing its investment in China by buying another 25 per cent share in the Jinling-DSM Resins joint venture with Sinopec Jinling Petrochemical Corporation. This will give DSM a 75 per cent holding. The partners have further agreed to invest in an increase in the capacity of the Nanjing production site.
DSM became a partner in the joint venture with Sinopec in 1996, when it took over BASF's 50 per cent holding. In recent years a number of DSM technologies have been incorporated into the company's manufacturing system, such as the Eurotinter technology for gelcoats.
A multi-million Euro capacity expansion programme is to start in the middle of next year to increase capacity to 50,000 tonnes.
Solvay sells off Italian chemicals December 18, 2002
Solvay has sold the Bussi, Italy, based hydrogen peroxide and persalts activities of Ausimont to Degussa to meet EC requirements following its acquisition of Ausimont. Degussa and Solvay owned the persalts business in a 50:50 joint venture called MedAvox.
Ausimont's hydrogen peroxide activities in Bitterfeld in Germany are not affected by this transaction and will stay within the Solvay group. Earlier this year Solvay signed an agreement to invest with BASF in a hydrogen peroxide plant to feed BASF's new propylene oxide process.
Jeroen van der Veer, president of Royal Dutch Petroleum Company and vice chairman of the committee of managing directors of the Royal Dutch/Shell group of companies, will also become chief executive officer of Shell Chemicals from January 1. He is taking over from Evert Henkes, CEO of Shell Chemicals since 1997, who retires in April after a career of almost 30 years with Shell.
Mr Henkes will remain chairman of the board of Basell Polyolefins and vice-chairman of the Nanhai JV until his retirement in April.
Flame retardant prices up December 18, 2002
Albemarle Corporation is to increase the price of its Pyro-Chek 68PB and Saytex HP-7010 brominated polystyrene flame retardants by 10 per cent globally on January 1.
The new chairman of the Polymer Machinery Manufacturers & Distributors Association is Peter Kirkham, managing director of Billion (UK) and the association's vice-chairman for the past year. He succeeds Brian Thorne of B A Thorne Machinery.
Brian Stinton of Tampoprint is the new president, following Peter Rippon who has been in the office for the past two years.
German materials handling company AZO has appointed Ingredient Handling Solutions as its sales agent for the UK and Ireland with the retirement of Martin Kent, managing director of the former agent, Essem (Systems and
Services).
Tricool sold December 18, 2002
Temperature control specialist Tricool Engineering is under new ownership. Its founders Ken Hockey and Trevor Franks are retiring after 25 years with the business, and have sold out to Arthur Forrest and Andy Blyth who join the company as chairman and managing director with a joint background of more than 30 years in the HVAC and process industries.
Chilling deal for PET processors December 18, 2002
PET equipment specialist Anker PET Equipment is to distribute chillers and temperature control equipment made by Frigomeccanica of Italy to PET processors. Frigomeccanica's main distributor in the UK, IsoCool, will provide technical service and installation support.
Lambert Courth will be the managing director of Bayer in the UK and Ireland from January 1, replacing Lennart Aberg who is retiring after 10 years in the role. Mr Courth, a German national, joins from Haarmann & Reimer, one of the world's largest producers of fragrances and flavours and until recently, part of the Bayer group.
Entries sought for bottle award December 18, 2002
The Worshipful Company of Horners is now actively seeking nominations for its bottle design award. The award is for a plastic bottle, jar or hollow container, not exceeding 20 litres in capacity and made by any process including extrusion blow, injection blow, injection stretch blow, injection moulding, rotational moulding and vacuum forming which has been developed, manufactured or sold in the United Kingdom.
Contact Sandy Weaver at the PMMDA.
Rhein Chemie Rheinau sale collapses December 6, 2002
The sale of Bayer's Rhein Chemie Rheinau rubber chemicals business agreed in October with a group of financial investors advised by Advent International Corporation of Boston, USA, has been stopped. A statement from Bayer says the deal 'has been dissolved by common consent of the parties, who were unable to agree on a number of outstanding points'. 'Various strategic options' are currently being considered.
Great Lakes expands antiox range with Flexsys buy December 6, 2002
Great Lakes Chemical Corporation has bought Flexsys America's non-staining phenolic antioxidants business and plans to merge the Santonox TBMC, Santovar TAHQ, and Santowhite BBMC products into its own range of Lowinox non-staining antioxidants. The company will increase production at its facilities in Catenoy, France, and Waldkraiburg, Germany, to meet the increased demand.
Huhtamaki restructures December 6, 2002
Finnish based consumer packaging specialist Huhtamaki has reorganised its European and North American operations, which together account for more than 80 per cent of the company's business. The new organization is based on divisions corresponding to the company's broad customer categories. In Europe, there will be three main divisions: Consumer Goods, Food Service and Fresh Foods. The North American business will be divided into two divisions: Consumer Goods and Foodservice & Retail.
The divisions will be further divided into business units. Manufacturing units will become cost centres, transferring their products at cost to sales units, which bear profit responsibility.
The new organization is designed to promote growth through adopting a pan-European mode and in North America focusing on areas outside the company's traditional markets.
Huhtamaki has operations in 36 countries, 16,000 employees and net sales of EUR 2·4 billion in 2001. It is the world's largest manufacturer of rigid, thin-walled plastic and paper packaging, primarily for the food processing, food service and food distribution industries. The company is also a world leader in moulded fibre packaging and a front-runner in high-performance flexible packaging.
BP names sole continental European distributor December 6, 2002
BP has appointed Biesterfeld Plastic Europe of Hamburg in Germany as sole European distributor for its polymers outside the UK, Ireland and Scandinavia, where it uses Distrupol.
The company says that the mergers and growth in its European business in the past four years have brought it a large and extremely diverse set of polymer distribution channels in different countries. 'This single European agreement will now offer customers clarity and consistency, wherever on the continent they are buying BP polymers.'
BP expects the new agreement to be phased in across Europe during 2003.
The editor of Plastics & Rubber Weekly, Nick Edwards, is leaving the paper tomorrow to become deputy editor of Health Services Journal, another publication within the Emap group. No appointment has yet been made for his successor.
BP buys full control of US PP maker December 5, 2002
BP has bought Itochu's stake in the companies' joint venture, ARCO Polypropylene which has a 200,000 tonnes polypropylene plant in Carson, California, USA. Through its subsidiary ARCO Polypropylene Company BP held 85 per cent of the company, Itochu's 15 per cent being held through CIPLAS America.
ARCO Polypropylene was formed as a joint venture between ARCO and Itochu in 1998 and the Carson plant began production in 1999. ARCO's stake in the joint venture was the only chemicals asset acquired by BP in its purchase of ARCO in April 2000.
The plant and the associated commercial operations will now be consolidated into BP's North American Polymers business unit. CIPLAS America will continue to market production from the Carson facility in Asia and South America as a sales agent.
The purchase confirms BP's total US polypropylene production capacity at 1·2 million tonnes.
PolyOne has pulled out of its Italian joint venture with Bifan in thermoplastic rubber producer So.F.teR and has sold its 70 per cent holding to an Italian company administered by So.F.teR's managing director Dr Italo Carfagnini.
The tie up dates from 1998 when M A Hanna Company, which is now part of PolyOne, entered into the joint venture with Bifan, the holding company that controlled So.F.teR.
The two companies retain a relationship, with PolyOne having an exclusive technology and trademark license for the production and sale of So.F.teR's Forprene thermoplastic vulcanizate technology in North America and Asia, and continuing to distribute So.F.teR products to its European customers.
So.F.teR has three production facilities in Italy where it compounds a variety of thermoplastic materials, including filled polyolefins, cross-linked polyethylene, TPEs and its patented TPV product range. Its products are used in the footwear, automotive, appliance, building materials, leisure and appliance markets.
The chief executive of Netstal, Dieter Klug, is planning to retire at the end of this year. He will be succeeded as chief executive by marketing and sales director Bernhard Merki, with Jakob Albrecht as director of finance and information.
Mr Klug will not be leaving Netstal altogether. He will become vice president of the board of directors and hold this position until September 2004.
Materials handling equipment supplier Chronos Richardson has been sold by the Babcock International Group, who bought it 18 months ago, to Premier Tech of Canada. Chronos Richardson specialises in packaging systems and equipment for powders and granules, and materials handling equipment for rubber compounding plants.
The sale is part of Babcock's current move to quit the materials handling business, which is not core to its operations. The Chronos Richardson business had been losing money (in the six months ended September 30 it made a pre-tax loss of £1·3 million on a turnover of £11·3 million; full year 2002 £0·2 million pre-tax loss on £32·0 million) and the sale to Premier Tech is for 'a nominal sum'.
Premier Tech says the acquisition positions its packaging business among the world's top five suppliers of flexible industrial packaging equipment
Constab focuses production on Czech Republic December 3, 2002
Speciality compound and additive masterbatch manufacturer Constab is amalgamating its German and Czech Republic operations, with production focused on the Czech Republic and sales, marketing and distribution continuing in Germany. Moving production to the Czech Republic will bring it closer to Constab's research and development centre, which has been at the Polymer Institute in Brno for some years.
The new chairman of Euromap (the European Committee of Machinery Manufacturers for the Plastics and Rubber Industries) is Ulrich Reifenhäuser, managing director of film equipment manufacturer Reifenhäuser and vice chairman of the German plastics and rubber machinery association within the VDMA. He succeeds Dr Peter Neumann of Austrian injection moulding machine manufacturer Engel.
Luciano Anceschi, managing director of Italian granulator manufacturer Tria and also president of the Italian trade association Assocomoplast, becomes vice president, succeeding Marco Biraghi of Italian injection moulding machinery company BM Biraghi.
BMC Controls takes over Steve Thompson blow moulding support December 3, 2002
Blow moulding machine rebuilder and service agent Steve Thompson Engineering is closing, and Steve Thompson is moving to the USA to work for a technical moulding company.
The spares and repairs side of the business has been transferred to BMC Controls, which builds ancillary equipment for blow moulding and represents Moog for its parison programmers and servovalves. BMC is setting up a separate division called ST Parts.
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