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Netstal's UK managing director Bob Jackson is to retire on April 22. He will be succeeded by operations manager Nigel Baker, who takes office on April 1.
Bob Jackson
Nigel Baker
Cadillac Plastics bought by its management February 21, 2005
Films and adhesives distributor Cadillac Plastics of Swindon has been bought from GE Advanced Materials Speciality Film & Sheet by its managing director Alistair Kennedy and finance director Martyn Jones. The company, which supplies films and adhesives from manufacturers such as GE Advanced Materials, DuPont Teijin, 3M and Avery Dennison, has a turnover of around £7 m.
Terwin Instruments moves house February 21, 2005
Extrusion instrumentation specialist Terwin Instruments has moved to: Unit 7, Winterbeck Industrial Estate, Orston Lane, Bottesford, Nottinghamshire, NG13 0AU. Tel: 01949 84 2000, fax: 01949 84 2004.
DSM plans yet more US Dyneema production February 21, 2005
Only a month after announcing a substantial expansion of its high performance polyethylene fibre line in the USA, DSM has earmarked a further $50 million to build a third line at Greenville in North Carolina and expand its Heerlen, Netherlands, plant by 10 per cent. The new Greenville line will increase US fibre capacity by more than half and is expected to come on stream in the third quarter of 2006.
Repsol to buy out Basell in Spanish PP company February 21, 2005
Basell is to sell its half share in the Transformadora De Propileno polypropylene plant in Tarragona Spain to its partner, Repsol. The plant has a capacity of 160,000 tonnes. Basell retains 360,000 tonnes of wholly-owned PP capacity in Tarragona.
In October Repsol bought Borealis' Portuguese polyolefins subsidiary Borealis Polímeros.
Returnable packaging firms combine February 21, 2005
Two Dutch and Swedish firms are joining forces in the world's largest manufacturer of plastic returnable packaging for materials handling. Schoeller Wavin Systems of the Netherlands and Sweden's Arca Systems are to combine in Schoeller Arca Systems, which will be based in the Netherlands and run by René Wolfkamp currently CEO of Schoeller Wavin.
Schoeller Wavin claims market leadership in the European crate and tray market for the beverage industry and pooling companies, and Arca has a similar position in plastic returnable packaging used in a variety of industries. The two companies have more than 30 production and sales operations in practically all European countries and in North America with hardly any overlap. Their total turnover in 2004 will amount to approximately Eur 520 million and together they have a staff of about 1,750.
Carbon nanotube composites agreement February 21, 2005
Arkema is looking to an expansion of its multi wall carbon nanotube production to industrial levels through a strategic partnership with Zyvex of the USA. Arkema has a 5,000 kg annual capacity for high purity nanotubes at Lacq in France. Zyvex disperses carbon nanotubes in additives and concentrates which can improve the thermal, electrical or mechanical properties of polymers. The target is to produce composite materials for use in sporting goods and in aerospace and automotive applications.
Indian Oil to make HDPE February 21, 2005
Indian Oil Corporation, which towards the end of last year announced its entry into the petrochemicals business with a plan for a 600,000 tonnes PP plant, has extended its plans with a 300,000 tonnes HDPE plant on the same site. It will also start up in 2007 and, like the PP plant, will run Basell technology - the Hostalen low-pressure slurry process for the production of bimodal HDPE.
Top men leave Battenfeld UK and Germany February 9, 2005
Battenfeld UK's managing director Robert Sayers has left the company. North of England Sales Manager Mike Everett, who has been with the company since 1989, has taken his place. Service manager Andrew Tolley, who joined Battenfeld in 1983, has been promoted to technical director and joins the managing board.
Mike Everett
Andrew Tolley
In Germany Dr Fritz Dorner, who manages the Meinerzhagen plant, is leaving the company to take up a new post outside the industry.
Basell takeover speculation hots up February 8, 2005
Three companies are now reported to be in the frame to buy Basell. According to Reuters news agency Ineos Chlor, Iran's National Petrochemical Company and a combination of investor Purnendu Chatterjee and India's Haldia Petrochemicals have made it to the third round in the bidding, which could reach Eur 4·4 billion.
National Petrochemical Company was tipped towards the end of last year as front runner in the process. Reuters comments that NPC's annual sales are only around a third of Basell's Eur 6 billion. It quotes a JP Morgan analyst's suggestion that NPC would be more interested in Basell's distribution network rather than its capacities, comparing any possible deal with the takeover of DSM's petrochemicals business by SABIC.
Investment plans by European vinyl makers February 8, 2005
Two European PVC makers are planning plant investments, one to meet 'the prospect of growing demand for PVC in Europe in the future' and the other to improve profitability and stability in the see-sawing vinyls market.
The world's largest PVC maker, Shin-Etsu of Japan, is expanding its European capacity by 100,000 tonnes to meet growing demand, and is considering further growth. The plant at Pernis in the Netherlands will go up from 350,000 to 450,000 tonnes in two phases, with completion scheduled for October 2006. The investment is around Eur 50 million.
Shin-Etsu bought the Shell Chemicals and Akzo Nobel Chemicals PVC and VCM businesses at the end of 1999 and renamed them Shin-Etsu PVC in 2000. As well as production from the Pernis plant Shin-Etsu also takes 90,000 tonnes of PVC a year from Neste in Finland. In November 2003 the company expanded its VCM capacity at Botlek in the Netherlands from 500,000 to 620,000 tonnes.
Shin-Etsu's total PVC capacity in Japan, Europe and the USA has reached 3·23 million tonnes. The company recently announced a $1 billion investment to build integrated manufacturing facilities for electrolysis, VCM and PVC in the USA.
Arkema has proposed a five year Eur 300 million investment programme as part of a long-term security package for its vinyls business. The Vinyl Products business accounts for 27 per cent of Arkema's Eur 5 billion turnover, alongside Industrial Chemicals and Performance Products. But the company says that the vinyls market is beset by overcapacity and acute competition and has suffered continuing erosion of margins over many years. It also has a cyclical pattern such that, in 2004, half way through the cycle, Arkema made a small profit while in 2003, at the low point of the cycle, it generated a major operating loss.
In order to maintain profitability throughout the cycle Arkema has put together a business plan which it says entails no site closures and no forced redundancies, and this plan has been submitted to Arkema's Central Works Council to seek trades union backing.
All of Arkema's vinyls sites would be affected - Saint-Auban, Saint-Fons, Balan, Jarrie, Fos, Lavéra and Berre. While Arkema has said there would be no site closures, it proposes to shut down some plants while expanding the most efficient. And while there would be no redundancies, Arkema proposes to shed 548 jobs through internal transfers and an early retirement package which could affect 318 staff. Belgium-based Tessenderlo Group - Europe's sixth largest PVC maker at 480,000 tonnes - is to invest Eur 4 million expanding the capacity of its Société Artésienne de Vinyle unit at Mazingarbe in northern France by 30,000 tonnes to 255,000 tonnes. The extra capacity will come on line this summer. Tessenderlo is considering a similar expansion at its Beek, Netherlands, site - 'as soon as market conditions make this a sensible investment'.
Vita under attack by American equity company February 8, 2005
An American private equity company is attempting to buy British Vita. Texas Pacific Group has made two bids, both of which have been rejected by British Vita because they do not value the company highly enough. The second bid of £3·35/share values the company somewhere short of £624 million, and was only marginally higher than the initial bid of £3·25.
A company statement said that 'the Board wishes to make it clear...that it will treat seriously any proposal put to it which it believes will deliver fair value to its shareholders' but that 'this opportunistic approach fails to reflect the underlying value and prospects for the business'.
US ultrasonics company sets up in Britain on the back of Kerry Ultrasonics February 8, 2005
American ultrasonic equipment specialist Sonics & Materials has opened a British office, in Stowmarket, and taken over the plastics assembly division of its former agent Kerry Ultrasonics. Kerry Ultrasonics was bought last year by Guyson International, adding its ultrasonic cleaning equipment business to Guyson's existing cleaning technologies. Sonics & Materials UK is headed by Malcolm Hayward, formerly of Kerry.
Packaging savings trigger Arcel expansion February 8, 2005
Capacity for Nova Chemicals' Arcel expandable blend of polystyrene and polyethylene is to be increased to around 45,500 tonnes by the end of 2006 through a series of expansion steps.
Arcel combines 70 per cent PS and 30 per cent PE to give the toughness of polyethylene and the processability of polystyrene - Nova says it is nine times stronger then EPS at the same density.
The Arcel business has tripled in size during the last two years from demand from the protective foam packaging market, for which the material returns lower cubic dimensions and improved shipping efficiency.
K-Tron widens materials handling capabilities February 8, 2005
An additional range of materials handling equipment is to be available from K-Tron offices in Britain, France and Germany. K-Tron is to sell the Dutch-made Dinnissen range of mixers, coaters, sifters and big bag stations to enable it to offer more system solutions. K-Tron's feeders can be integrated with a Dinnissen mixer, with full support from K-Tron.
Italian masterbatch producer Viba has started up a joint venture with CVI of Hong Kong, which also makes masterbatches. Viba-CBI is aiming to develop the Chinese market for masterbatches for high performance polyolefin films, such as BOPP.
In 2003 Viba set up a French subsidiary to service masterbatch users in France and Northern Europe.
Solvay's Padanaplast subsidiary, which makes plastic compounds for crosslinkable pipe and cable, has linked with Shanghai Original Enterprise Development Co to make halogen free flame retardant thermoplastic and irradiation crosslinkable compounds. Padanaplast Original Advanced Compounds (Shanghai) Co is located in Shanghai and initially aims at the Chinese market, with a production capacity of 5,000 tonnes. The size of the company may be expanded at a later stage to meet demand, which is expected to grow 10 per cent a year over the next five years.
The Cornelius group has become exclusive UK distributor for Degussa's organofunctional silanes. Products of Degussa's Aerosil and Silanes department to be distributed by Cornelius can be used in applications such as adhesives and sealants, composites or as additives in paints and lacquers.
Degussa has also renewed and revised its distribution agreement with Bärlocher for PVC additives. The agreement under which Bärlocher sells Degussa's methacrylate polymers as processing aids and impact modifiers for PVC has run for nearly 20 years. It is now being extended with Bärlocher taking responsibility for technical and commercial customer service.
Chronos Richardson of Nottingham has won a $500,000 plus order to supply ingredient handling equipment to a compounding plant at SKF seals manufacturing subsidiary Chicago Rawhide in the USA. The new Chronos systems will be used to upgrade existing manual weighing and mixer feeding systems. A range of carbon black and white fillers delivered in sacks and Supasacks will be decanted and proportioned using Chronos Clean-Feed weighing systems. Precision compounds will be produced using specially sized vacuum scales for varying batch sizes.
Additional Chronos equipment is being supplied to provide the polymer compounding plant with liquid and small chemical ingredient preparation.
Biopolymer producer buys out Dow's interest... February 8, 2005
Dow has pulled out of another polymer joint venture - last month it agreed, with DuPont, to split up DuPont Dow - with the sale to its partner Cargill of its half share in biopolymer manufacturer Cargill Dow. Cargill has now renamed the company NatureWorks - the trade name of its corn-based polylactic acid packaging material.
Cargill claims substantial growth for NatureWorks. Since January 2003 the company has increased production capacity by more than 15 fold and reduced costs to be competitive with petroleum-based polymers such as PET. In 2004 sales rose 40 per cent over 2003. The number of customers doubled over the past 24 months with 1,500 new grocery stores selling products packaged in NatureWorks PLA since January 2004 and 3,000 additional retail stores selling products incorporating Ingeo PLA fibres.
One of the most recent adoptions has been by British Vita's French sheet extrusion subsidiary Carolex which has introduced Carobio packaging sheet. ...and chip maker switches to 100% PLA carriers Polylactic acid is to be used instead of polystyrene for all the embossed carrier tapes used by Fujitsu for packing integrated circuit chips on reels, moving usage up from the 20 per cent until now to 100 per cent. The change coincides with the February 16 date for the Kyoto Protocol to become binding on its 128 signatories. Japan's target is to reduce its greenhouse gas emission volumes between 2008 and 2012 by 6 per cent relative to emission volumes of 1990.
Fujitsu expects this substitution to represent an 11 per cent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. The reduction combines an 18 per cent drop in energy used in polymer production with the reduced impact expected on landfill and incineration waste.
Fujitsu and Fujitsu Laboratories jointly developed the biodegradable plant-based embossed carrier tape, and in 2000 Fujitsu became the first company in the world to use plant-based embossed carrier tape as a packaging material for certain large-scale integrated circuit chips for mobile phones. The tape has met demands for durability, protection against electrostatic discharge, and its ability to maintain accurate dimensions.
Automotive suppliers combine in Europe and China February 8, 2005
Philips Electronics is selling its High Tech Plastics automotive components subsidiary, based in Belgium, to Helvoet Holding of the Netherlands. Helvoet also makes plastics and rubber components for motor vehicles, and the HTP business will line up alongside operations in Belgium, Singapore, India, South Korea, Mexico, the United States and China. The Solvay/Plastic Omnium joint venture Inergy Automotive Systems is also expanding, with a deal in China. It is to buy a majority stake in Yangzhou Yapp Automotive Plastic Parts Company in the second half of this year. Yapp is China's leading plastic fuel systems manufacturer, with production sites in Yangzhou, Shanghai and Tangshan, supplying major international car manufacturers operating in China. Turnover last year was around Eur 50million. Inergy already has operations in Japan, Korea and Thailand among its 28 plants in 17 countries.
The Ilfracombe, Devon, plant of injection moulder JBD Plastics is to close following the acquisition by JBD's parent, Colson Castors - part of the Chicago, US, based Colson Group - of Aldridge Plastics in the West Midlands. Colson aims to rationalise the two businesses and sees the West Midlands site as offering the most space and accessibility for its customers.
Free tech support for composites projects February 8, 2005
A free technical support service is now on offer to companies involved in or considering the use or manufacture of composite materials. The Technology Transfer activity of the recently formed National Composites Network is being jointly funded by industry and the DTI, and managed by materials joining centre TWI.
Free services on offer include:
A technical helpdesk on 01223 894662 - one-to-one access for technical advice and information.
Round the clock technical information at www.ncn-uk.co.uk including guides to best practice.
Technology demonstrations - access to materials, processes and equipment to show the potential of implementing proven technology from one sector into another.
Product and process reviews - up to two days review at a company to investigate technical problems or help with implementing improved processes or materials.
Feasibility studies - up to five days examination of issues arising from a product and process review, possibly involving testing and trials.
Near-market R & D or prototyping support - up to seven days detailed work following a feasibility study, typically to introduce innovation into a product or manufacturing process.
The target for the service is principally the SME sector, which the National Composites Network says generally does not have easy access to extensive, specialised technical resources.
The services cover polymer, ceramic and metal matrix composites plus all related topics and technologies, including: applications; design; materials development and selection; manufacturing; assembly; joining; disassembly/recycling; process modelling and economics; supply-chain issues; testing and analysis of materials and products; non-destructive examination; repair; standards; training; quality assurance; safety; and environmental issues.
K-M sets up joint venture with Chinese extruder customer February 8, 2005
Krauss-Maffei has consolidated relationships with its biggest Chinese extrusion customer Dalian Shide, which in recent years has bought staggering numbers of extrusion systems for window frame production from K-M and other European producers. Now K-M is joining forces with Dalian Shide to build extrusion lines in China. The joint venture will cost around Eur 10 million and will be 90 per cent owned by Krauss-Maffei. It will be set up in Zhejiang Province between Shanghai and Ningbo.
The factory will produce mainly profile and pipe extruders, targeted at the middle and upper price segments, and downstream equipment, and will act as the company's extrusion technology service centre serving China and the rest of Asia. As well as cutting lead times and transport costs for Dalian Shide machines, it will enable Krauss-Maffei to sell its technology in China and elsewhere in Asia with the same benefits. The factory is expected to be in production by the end of October. One of the other beneficiaries of the Dalian Shide business in the past couple of years has been Technoplast of Austria, which has just finished deliveries of 294 sets of profile tooling worth Eur 23 million in a year. The company is anticipating further orders from China in 2006.
New CEO at Wellington February 8, 2005
David Jones is the new chief executive of seal maker Wellington Holdings. He joined the company last year from the Morgan Crucible Company ceramics division, and takes over from Chris Wilkins who continues as a board member with specific executive tasks concerned with the expansion of Wellington's international business.
Hostalen HD plant for Saudi Arabia February 8, 2005
A 300,000 tonnes HDPE plant is to be built by The Saudi Arabian Oil Company and Sumitomo Chemical Company as part of an integrated refining and petrochemical complex at the Red Sea town of Rabigh, Saudi Arabia. It will use Basell's Hostalen dual reactor, low-pressure, slurry process to make bimodal HDPE with two reactors in series or in parallel. Bimodal HDPE offers better processability without a loss in mechanical strength, which permits downgauging, and in pressure pipe applications allows wall thickness to be reduced, which not only reduces raw material requirements, but also increases pipe flexibility, says Basell.
Start-up is planned for late 2008.
Compounding equipment compounded February 8, 2005
Italian compounding machinery manufacturer Comerio Ercole has taken over the rubber and PVC compounding equipment activities of Meccaniche Moderne, leaving it to concentrate on building extrusion equipment.
In the UK Comerio Ercole's agent for rubber compounding equipment, Brian Ward (Manchester) has expanded its activities to handle the Meccaniche Moderne range.
The merger between the Institute of Packaging and Institute of Materials and Mining is to go ahead. The proposal was given majority support at an extraordinary general meeting of the IoP at the end of January, and nominations are now being taken for the membership of the board.
High street majors to test RPET in packaging February 8, 2005
Trials to assess the technical feasibility and customer acceptance of recycled PET in retail packaging are to be run with a number of major high street retailers and brand owners, including Coca-Cola Enterprises, Marks & Spencer and Boots. The trials will be funded by WRAP - the Waste & Resources Action Programme.
In 2003 250,000 tonnes of PET was used in the UK, of which around 15,000 tonnes of PET bottles (500 million) were recycled across Britain. But very little of this went back into packaging production and the project aims to help close the loop by encouraging steady market demand for the material.
Over 2,000 tonnes of RPET is expected to be used in the initial trials and each partner is planning to continue using the material after the trials have ended, providing the results are positive.
Two of the three trials involve food and beverage packaging and are designed to prove the safety and suitability of RPET, which is regularly used in food contact packaging in other countries but only to a very limited extent in the UK. Coca-Cola will use RPET in a range of bottles for both carbonated and non-carbonated soft drinks. The recycled material will be tested for both performance and consumer appeal over a six month period, during which the products will be on national distribution. Marks & Spencer will use RPET in a selection of food and beverage packaging lines, including juice and smoothie drinks bottles and prepared salad bowls. The trial packaging will be clearly labelled as containing recycled plastic and consumer attitudes and perceptions will be tested using market research as part of the project.
Boots will be testing the use of the material in bottles used in personal care products.
The trial packaging will be on shelves this year. The project will be completed in March 2006 and the results made publicly available by early Summer 2006.
ARRK expands in product development February 8, 2005
Product development and prototyping specialist ARRK Product Development Group has bought a major share in PCL Group, a design, engineering and analysis company in Germany. PCL has a turnover of Eur 55 million and 600 employees and provides engineering, design and computer simulation services for product development in the European automotive, aerospace and transportation industries. Its customers include BMW, DaimlerChrysler, EADS, Scania and VW Group.
PCL operates through three subsidiaries, P + Z Engineering in Germany,
Tesco in Italy and ARTWARE in France, and these companies will continue to operate under their own names as separate businesses.
ARRK, which is a Japanese held company, employs around 250 people in the UK, more than 400 in Europe and more than 10,000 worldwide.
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Belgium-based Tessenderlo Group - Europe's sixth largest PVC maker at 480,000 tonnes - is to invest Eur 4 million expanding the capacity of its Société Artésienne de Vinyle unit at Mazingarbe in northern France by 30,000 tonnes to 255,000 tonnes. The extra capacity will come on line this summer. Tessenderlo is considering a similar expansion at its Beek, Netherlands, site - 'as soon as market conditions make this a sensible investment'.