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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Britton Group bought out by management May 30, 2004
Britton Group (Holdings), which reckons to be the UK's second largest supplier of flexible plastics packaging and one of the top 10 producers in Europe, has been taken over in a £46 million management buy-out. The MBO was led by Mike Clark, who joined Brittons from Tyco Plastics as chief executive in November last year on the retirement of Dick Searle. The group includes Britton Taco in Winsford, Cheshire; Britton Merlin in Louth, Lincolnshire; and Britton Decoflex in Hartlepool, and has annual sales of around £90 million. It produces some 100,000 tonnes of packaging film annually, with around 850 employees.
The Britton Group was originally set up by two entrepreneurs as a vehicle to acquire a range of packaging companies engaged in film extrusion and corrugated box manufacture. During the 1990s the business grew through acquisition, and was itself acquired in 1998 by US-based ACX Technologies. The film side of the business then underwent a sale to management and shortly afterwards Britton acquired Merlin Flexible Packaging.
DuPont and Tate & Lyle harden up biopolymer development May 30, 2004
DuPont and sugar giant Tate & Lyle have formalised their co-operation in making polymers from renewable resources by setting up a joint venture with plans to build a commercial plant next to a Tate & Lyle factory in Loudon, Tessessee, USA by March 2006. Three years ago the two companies built a jointly-operated plant to make 1,3 propanediol (PDO), the precursor to a thermoplastic polyester, poly(trimethylene terephthalate) or PTT. This is a material combining the best properties of PET and PBT which has been commercialised by DuPont for fibre production as Sorona, and was also developed by Shell as Corterra - although using a more conventional petrochemical route. DuPont has been working on a biochemical route to PTT since the end of the 'nineties. Its Kinston, North Carolina, USA, plant was built to use a petrochemical process but to be switched when appropriate to biopolymer sources. Tate & Lyle has also been running a plant at its Decatur, Illinois, USA facility for several years.
The joint venture, based at Wilmington in Delaware, USA, has been named DuPont Tate & Lyle BioProducts and is owned equally by the two partners.
Price rises in plastics and polyurethanes May 30, 2004
Materials prices are set to rise further with impending increases in engineering plastics, PVC and polyurethanes.
From June 1 BASF will raise its European prices for Ultradur PBT compounds, Terluran ABS and Luran SAN by Eur 150/tonne.
Dow is also raising prices for its styrene copolymers 'in response to record oil prices', with Magnum ABS and Tyril SAN going up Eur 100/tonne on July 1. At the same time the company will increase the prices of its Calibre polycarbonate and Emerge advanced resins, also by Eur 100/tonne.
Fluoropolymers and fluoroadditives from DuPont will be increased in price on June 1. Teflon PTFE and Zonyl PTFE additives will increase in price by an average of 20 per cent. All industrial grades of Tefzel ETFE and Teflon PFA will go up by an average of 15 per cent. In, addition, some grades of Tedlar and Teflon films will increase in price by around 10 per cent.
The PVC price rise is being implemented by EVC from the beginning of June when it will increase the price of Evipol S-PVC by Eur 100/tonne because 'market conditions and increased raw materials prices justify a move of this magnitude to
establish acceptable levels of margin'.
Both BASF and Bayer are raising prices of polyurethane raw materials. From June 1 BASF will increase prices for 1,4-Butanediol (BDO) and its derivatives with BDO going up Eur 0·1/kg, THF by Eur 0·2/kg and PolyTHF also by Eur 0·2/kg.
Bayer is raising prices for both MDI and TDI and associated polyols on June 1. MDI for commodity applications will increase by up to Eur 0·40/kg and for system
applications by at most Eur 0·30/kg. TDI prices will go up Eur 0·10/kg. The prices of short-chain polyether and polyol systems for MDI-based applications in Europe will be increased by up to Eur 0·25/kg.
New plant for Hallite will save costs for Wellington May 30, 2004
Seals maker Wellington Holdings is to play safe on the disposal of its Hallite Seals plant and group headquarters at Hampton in Middlesex. Instead of moving to a 'sub-optimised' factory nearby, it is to lease a purpose-built factory on half the site it is selling. The company expects to make 'substantial savings' from the new energy-efficient premises and optimised shopfloor process flow.
Wellington is selling the site - in the books at £4·5 m - for £6·6 m. The new plant will become available progressively during next year.
Wellington says it has started this year well with profits ahead of plan and of last year, with an order book at its highest level for five years 'helped by the high world oil prices and heavy machinery exports from Europe to China'.
German laser marking manufacturer Alltec has been taken over by American printing systems company Videojet. Videojet also has laser marking technology, and this is to be integrated with that of Alltec, with Alltec's Selmsdorf base as the worldwide centre for the company's laser activities.
Eurograv of Byfleet in Surrey, which represents several companies in the flexible packaging equipment sector, has become UK agent for Kiefel Extrusion of Germany. Kiefel makes blown film lines and winders, with emphasis on its Kirion range of co-ex lines, and a new modular extruder system which can be retrofitted to existing lines as well as being supplied as complete systems.
Moulders merge May 30, 2004
Two high tonnage injection moulding companies, Excel Technical Mouldings of Paignton and Plastic Technologies of West Bromwich, have merged to form XL Plastic Technologies. Both companies operated in similar market sectors, Excel with moulding capacity up to 850 tonnes and Plastic Technologies up to 3,150 tonnes. Annual sales from the combined operation are expected to exceed £10 million.
Brookhouse bought out May 30, 2004
Brookhouse Holdings has been bought by five of its former management team with new managing and financial directors. The company is a composites and metals engineering company with particular involvement in aerospace, although increasing involvement in automotive, motor sport, telecommunications and simulation.
More investment in China May 21, 2004
More Western companies are expanding operations in China. Netstal is setting up a sales subsidiary, Mold-Masters is building a manufacturing plant, and DuPont is expanding Chinese production of engineering compounds.
Netstal's intensification of its Chinese activities will see its existing agency representation absorbed into a wholly owned subsidiary in Shanghai. This will be followed by a showroom, training centre and customer trials facility. As well as its position in the optical disc machine market, Netstal is aiming to increase its share of injection moulding machines for PET bottle preforms and packaging and general purpose injection moulded products.
Canadian hot runner specialist Mold-Masters will open a 75,000 sq ft manufacturing plant west of Shanghai during the summer. In addition to manufacturing nozzles, components, manifolds, hot halves and providing engineering capabilities, the plant will be the centre of Mold-Masters' Chinese sales and customer service network. Mold-Masters has been active in China since the mid-1980s. Phase 1 of the new facility is currently under construction on a 15 acre site and there are plans to triple the space by 2007.
DuPont's latest move in China will be through an exclusive agreement with a licensed contract compounder in Shanghai, which will produce speciality grades of Zytel nylon, Thermx PCT, Rynite PET, Crastin PBT, Hytrel TPE, and Zenite LCP. This will be the first time that commercial quantities of these specialty grades will be available in China. Supplies are expected to enter the market from the 4th quarter of this year.
Stockline disaster investigation terms defined May 21, 2004
An official statement has defined the investigation into the Stockline Plastics/ICL Plastics tragedy in Glasgow. The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and Strathclyde Police will conduct a joint investigation with the Health and Safety Executive into the explosion. Strathclyde Police and HSE will report to the Procurator Fiscal on the outcome of their investigation. HSE will also report to HSC. If lessons for industry emerge from the investigation, HSE will communicate these to the appropriate organisations, in consultation with the Procurator Fiscal.
After the investigation and any subsequent criminal proceedings have been concluded, the Lord Advocate will consider the need for a Fatal Accident Inquiry, and consideration will be given to the need for, and nature and remit of, any other form of inquiry.
Scrap plastics converted to ammonia May 21, 2004
Post consumer and industrial waste plastics are being converted into liquid ammonia in Japan at the rate of 195 tonnes of scrap per day yielding 175 tonnes of ammonia.
The company doing it, Showa Denko, is the biggest ammonia producer in Japan. This Ecoann product is the commercial result of a waste plastics recycling project that began a year ago at the company's Kawasaki plant. Substituting waste plastics has almost halved its consumption of conventional feedstock such as naphtha, coke oven gas and petroleum off-gas.
The plastic waste is gasified at temperatures as high as 1,300 degC or more and converted into chemical products with no residues. There is no need to remove PVC from the waste and any chlorine contained in the resulting gas is neutralized with alkali and used in the electrolytic soda process at Kawasaki. Sulphur is recycled into its derivatives within the site. Metallic impurities are recovered and recycled.
Rubber moulder free from gas meter ownership May 21, 2004
Metflex, once the rubber moulding division of gas meter manufacturers Slumberger, and then Actaris, is now independent following a management buy-in by managing director Lawrence Irving and executive chairman Phil Tempest. As well as giving the company more opportunity to sell diaphragms and other components to competing gas meter manufacturers, the new structure will enable it to expand its hi-fi speaker surround and drive coupling businesses, and to move into new markets.
Metflex was established in 1929, employs 89 people and is the UK's only manufacturer of gas meter diaphragms.
Guyson buys Kerry May 21, 2004
Ultrasonics specialist Kerry Ultrasonics, perhaps best known in the plastics business for its ultrasonic welding equipment, has been bought by Guyson International. Alongside its welders Kerry makes ultrasonic cleaning equipment, which fits well with the blast cleaning and spray washing equipment built by Guyson.
Dyneema investment will aid US anti-terrorism measures May 21, 2004
High performance polyethylene fibre producer DSM Dyneema has opened its first yarn production facility in the USA, at Greenville in North Carolina. The line has an annual capacity of 600 to 750 tonnes, depending on product mix, enabling DSM to produce both fibre and unidirectional bullet-resistant material in the USA - Dyneema will give US military requests priority because of the increased demand for personal security and protection against terrorism.
Besides the new yarn line, DSM Dyneema has recently brought on stream two new lines for unidirectional bullet-resistant materials, one of which is located at the Greenville site, the other in Heerlen in the Netherlands. DSM Dyneema now operates three lines in the USA, one yarn line and two UD (unidirectional) lines. Recently both UD lines in the US have dedicated to producing materials for bullet-resistant cockpit doors for aeroplanes flying to and from the USA.
More price rises for plastics and additives May 21, 2004
Dow is increasing European prices of its polyethylene and polypropylene by Eur 100/tonne on June 1. The company's epoxy products will also go up in price at the same time. Dow is planning an increase of Eur 150/tonne for its liquid and solid epoxy resin grades, and Eur 120/tonne for its solid solution epoxy resins and standard brominated resins. The increase for specialty resins varies by product.
Merquinsa is raising the prices of its Pearlthane and Pearlcoat speciality thermoplastic polyurethanes by Eur 300/tonne on June 1.
Rohm and Haas is raising prices for its plastics additives on July 1. Paraloid impact modifiers and processing aids will go up by 10 per cent, and Advastab stabilisers, Advalube lubricants and Advawax waxes by 12 per cent.
So that's what happened to Clayton Goodfellow May 21, 2004
In October 2002 we published a plea from a South African reader for help in tracking down a manual for a Clayton Goodfellow injection moulding machine. Now we have had this belated but welcome reply from Neil Greenhalgh of Planters Clayton:
"I have just noticed this article from October 17, 2002, whilst I was searching for other information. As per your article I can confirm that Clayton Goodfellow did indeed become Clayton Plastics Machinery, which unfortunately went out of business in the early 1990's. However, Clayton equipment and spares are still available through our company Planters Clayton Ltd. We will obviously do our best to help out your South African reader if he still has a need. Depending on the date of manufacture we may even have a copy of the manual he is looking for."
Basell hints at future investment as it inaugurates new PB-1 plant May 21, 2004
The largest polybutene-1 plant in the world has been inaugurated at Moerdijk in the Netherlands. Basell's 45,000 tonnes PB-1 plant is the first to be built in Europe in more than 30 years. It is part of the company's Eur 2 billion turnover Advanced Polyolefins business and will make a range of materials for use as neat plastics or in blends with other polyolefins for applications ranging from easy-open packaging to hot water pipes.
The Eur 80 million plant took 18 months to build and uses new process technology developed at Basell's Ferrara, Italy, pilot plant, which is more efficient than the process used at its American PB-1 plant and is said to produce materials with a wider balance of mechanical strength, processability, and copolymer options. The new plant has enabled it to devise a new family of soft, elastomeric C4-based polyolefins 'the like of which has never been seen before'.
Basell says the nameplate capacity of its new plant is bigger than the current world demand for PB-1, which it estimates at 30,000 tonnes, 75 per cent of which is used in piping and most of the rest in packaging. Basell has around 80 per cent of the market, the only other manufacturer of PB-1 being Matsui of Japan.
Growth in demand for PB-1 in 2003 was just under 20 per cent. Growth in Asia is particularly high and Basell says that demand in the Asia-Pacific region could overtake that of Europe and the USA combined and has hinted at building a further plant in the region.
Ticona to hasten LCP expansion May 21, 2004
Ticona is bringing forward the planned expansion of its Vectra LCP plant at Shelby in North Carolina, USA. The plant has been steadily expanded since it was built in 1988 and a debottlenecking operation to increase its current 6,000 tonnes capacity by 40 per cent had been planned for next year. But this has been brought forward because of increased global demand for LCPs.
Zeppelin adds Motan Materials Handling May 21, 2004
High volume plastics handling specialist Zeppelin of Germany has bought Motan Materials Handling from F L Smidth Holding of Denmark. Motan, which was previously called Motan-Fuller, is also involved in bulk materials handling, in volumes higher than the other Motan company, with which it was once associated.
Cognis sells out of PVC stabilisers May 21, 2004
Cognis has sold its PVC stabilisers business to a consortium comprising Reagens of Italy and Singapore-based Sun Ace Kakoh because it 'has little in common with our core competencies in the area of oleochemicals, and few synergies with our other businesses'. Reagens and Sun Ace are among the market leaders in PVC stabilisers in Europe and Asia. The Cognis acquisition brings them calcium/zinc stabiliser technology, and a stronger market presence in Germany and northern and eastern Europe.
The Netherlands-based PVC profiles conglomerate Group Deceuninck has sold its stake in Coventry-based Godiva Windows to the British management to further concentrate on its core business. Deceuninck owned 80 per cent of the company, Coventry City Council owned the rest. A management buy out has taken full control.
An explosion earlier today destroyed the Glasgow factory of fabricator and plastics stockholder Stockline Plastics and its parent ICL Plastics. The emergency services are searching for victims of the blast. At least 16 of the 100 or so people who work at the factory are reported to have been trapped under rubble. No fatalities have yet been confirmed.
The cause of the blast is unknown but there are reports of an explosion in an industrial gas oven. Update, May 12, 9 am Disaster rescue teams working through the night brought out more trapped people from below the rubble. Seven of those trapped have now been rescued and the fire service has said that 'knocking sounds' suggest that more people are trapped but alive. Seven lives have been lost, and at least 16 people are reported as seriously injured. Update, May 13, 2 pm Stockline Plastics chief executive Stewart McColl has been named as one of the seven fatalities identified yesterday. An eighth body was found shortly after midnight this morning. One man is still missing, but rescuers are optimistic they will find him alive. Update, May 16 A ninth body removed from the wreckage of the factory on Friday is believed to that of the last missing person, and the search for further survivors has ceased. A public enquiry will be held into the cause of the blast, which is still thought to have been an explosion in a gas oven.
Another East European furniture foam investment by Vita May 5, 2004
British Vita is to back up the polyurethane foam factory it is building in Hungary with a foam conversion plant, 150 km away at Timisoara in Romania. Timisoara is in Timis county, one of the largest centres in Romania for the production of upholstered furniture. The factory will be supplied with block foam from Hungary when production comes on-stream later this year. New equipment is being installed during May and commissioning is planned for June.
Romania has seen a rapid expansion in furniture and bedding manufacture, brought about through recent investment by Western European furniture manufacturers. Production is largely for export out of Romania, but with a population of 22 million and increasing prosperity, Vita says this industry will more and more service the local market.
Higher prices for flame retardants May 5, 2004
Great Lakes Chemical Corporation is to increase prices worldwide by up to 20 per cent for all bromine and phosphorus-based specialty chemicals - mainly flame retardants - within its Polymer Additives division, with the exception of phosphite antioxidants. The increase is effective from May 24.
Dow to shut wire and cable compound plant May 5, 2004
Dow Wire & Cable is to shut the former Union Carbide Unigard flame retardant compounds and semiconductive compounds plant at Bound Brook, New Jersey, USA by the end of July. Manufacturing will be transferred to plants on the Gulf Coast of the USA, including Seadrift, Texas.
After manufacturing stops the Bound Brook plant will be used as a business development centre and will continue to house the research & development and other non-manufacturing functions already located there.
Project aims to close recycling loop on HDPE milk bottles May 1, 2004
A pan-European project to extend the scope of bottle-to-bottle recycling from PET to HDPE milk bottles has been started by WRAP, the government-backed private company set up to promote sustainable waste management.
PET has a higher resistance to contamination by the foodstuffs it encloses than HDPE, so while the recycling loop for PET has been closed, there is still no commercially viable process for making food grade PE from post-consumer recyclate, says WRAP.
The new project, in which WRAP is investing £235,000, will build on the technology used for PET, and add to existing data on the absorption and migration characteristics of HDPE with statistical data on the composition and concentration of typical contaminants found in post-consumer plastic. This will allow assessment of the efficiency of the two 'super cleaning' processes to be trialled - vacuum stripping and super-critical CO2.
The project will aim to:
accept and safely recycle HDPE from all common UK collection systems such as kerbside and bring sites.
demonstrate commercially viability and environmental sustainability.
satisfy the requirements of EC Directive 2002/72/EC, which relates to plastic materials and articles intended to come into contact with food.
ensure the product is safe for use with regard to all other safety considerations, including being free from contaminants resulting from the unplanned use of the original HDPE container.
Companies involved in the project are:
Delleve Plastics of Stratford upon Avon (sourcing of baled bottles from several UK suppliers).
RTT Systemtechnik of Zittau, Germany (bottle sorting).
Sorema/Previero of Alzate Brianza, Italy (grinding and washing sorted bottles).
Erema of Linz, Austria (recycling using vacuum stripping).
Rapra Technology of Shawbury (recycling using super critical CO2 and polymer characterisation).
Nampak Plastics of Milton Keynes (bottle blowing and mechanical properties of the recyclate-containing bottles).
Dairy Crest of Telford (filling, product shelf life testing).
Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging of Freising, Germany (project management, analytical screening of post-consumer HDPE, determination of process cleaning efficiency, challenge testing and compliance testing and evaluation). What's reclaim worth? - Pricing information on recycled materials is now available through WRAP's website. The Materials Pricing Report, which is produced by ICIS-LOR, is intended to encourage transparency in the recyclables market by enabling collectors of recyclable materials to access up-to-date price information sourced from a selection of sellers.
For the last three weeks a selection of waste management companies, local authorities and social economy businesses have been assisting in the production of trial editions of the report, and full subscription is now open to all collectors by logging on to www.wrap.org.uk/mpr.
The report, initially a six-month pilot, covers paper, plastics and glass, is published weekly, and is free of charge to subscribers who commit to provide price information on a confidential basis.
Ex-Spaceminster men form moulding company May 1, 2004
Ian Crawford, most recently sales director of Demag Hamilton and before that with Spaceminster, and Dave Oakley, former technical director of Spaceminster, have teamed up in Cranfield Solutions, offering injection moulding with 'no quantity too small', tool design, product design and project management.
The company is located next to Cranfield Institute of Technology and has Boy machines up to 50 tonnes.
The company's address is 16B Hurst End Farm, North Crawley, Buckinghamshire, MK16 9HS. Telephone 07932 893645/07867 973147.
Austrian films company buys its UK distributor May 1, 2004
Austrian film producer Unterland Flexible Packaging has bought a 75·1 per cent stake in its UK distributor for agricultural stretch film, Norvic Associates of Norwich. Norvic managing director John Debbage will continue to work with the company and retains a 24·9 per cent shareholding.
Unterland's 2003 turnover was Eur 90 million with 400 employees. It has itself recently been bought by CMP, a Berlin-based private equity firm.
Vita promotes for business growth May 1, 2004
British Vita has appointed business development directors for its Cellular/Nonwovens and Industrial Polymers divisions - into which the company's operations were consolidated at the beginning of March. Their function will be to grow their divisions through acquisition and organic growth.
Chris Hopkinson becomes business development director for the Industrial Polymers division and Keith Bradshaw business development director at Cellular/Nonwovens. Both men already worked for British Vita. Chris Hopkinson until recently was responsible for the operational management of Vita's colour masterbatch, TPE and mouldings businesses in the UK and mainland Europe and Keith Bradshaw was involved in developing Vita's cellular business in Eastern and Central Europe.
Epoxy price rise May 1, 2004
Dow Chemical is increasing prices on all grades of Derakane epoxy vinyl ester resins by $100/tonne in Europe, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent on June 1.
Spheripol for new Saudi PP plant May 1, 2004
Basell technology is to be used in a new polypropylene plant to be be built in Saudi Arabia. The 400,000 tonnes Spheripol plant will be built by National Petrochemical Industrial Company at Yanbu Industrial City with start-up scheduled for 2007.
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