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The rumour mill has been wound up again and Reuters news agency is quoting 'sources close to the situation' in a prediction that BASF and Shell will name a buyer for Basell in the next few days - or then again, they may not, as a public flotation is said still to be an option.
If a buyer is named it is likely to be the National Petrochemical Company of Iran or an Indian consortium. Ineos Chlor, which was included in earlier speculation, is now reckoned to be a distant third in the bidding stakes.
Reuters comments that a successful bid by the Iranians might be complicated by the strained political relationship between Iran and the USA - where some of Basell's plants are - and suggests that 'US assets would be carved out of Basell in the event of a deal with the Iranians and sold separately'.
Ineos to seal the deal on EVC March 31, 2005
While it may not be likely to buy Basell, Ineos is definitely buying EVC. Ineos Vinyls Holdings, a subsidiary of Hawkslease Finance Company, itself a company controlled by the Ineos Group, is tidying up the long running purchase of EVC International with an offer to buy all the shares. Ineos/Hawkslease already hold around 93 per cent of the previously publicly-held EVC shares, and intend to remove EVC from the Euronext Stock Exchange and liquidate the company, continuing the business as Ineos.
Bayer plans Asian polyurethane growth March 31, 2005
Bayer MaterialScience is hoping to tap the 10 per cent annual growth in the Indian polyurethane market by setting up a system supply company there. Bayer has been steadily developing its global network of system houses - companies which take the basic materials and formulate systems for a specific application. The company to be set up in New Delhi will be its first on the Indian sub-continent. Further east, Bayer is expecting to double the output of its joint venture Bayer Jinling Polyurethane Co polyols plant by the end of the year The plant opened in 1999 with a capacity of 10,000 tonnes.
Hepworth purchase will add 20 per cent to the size of Wavin March 31, 2005
Wavin Group has now finalised its purchase of Hepworth Plastics from Vaillant, begun towards the end of last year. Hepworth Building Products had sales of Eur 236 million in 2004 in drainage, plumbing and concrete pipe systems. It has manufacturing and distribution facilities in the UK, Continental Europe and the Far East and employs more than 1,400 people. Its acquisition by Wavin increases the size of the Dutch pipe maker by around 20 per cent and gives it another product string in Hepworth's clay pipe business.
In the UK, the combination of Wavin Plastics and Hepworth Building Products will employ more than 2,000 people.
Huntsman Corporation is planning major expansions in its capacity for methylene diphenyl diisocyanate at Geismar, Louisiana, USA and Rozenburg in the Netherlands. The capacity of the Geismar plant will be expanded by 60,000 tonnes to 450,000 tonnes, while the capacity of the Rozenburg plant will be expanded by 100,000 tonnes to 400,000 tonnes. These expansions will take place in increments until late 2006.
Huntsman is also involved with BASF in an MDI joint venture project in Caojing, Shanghai, China, which is due to come on stream in mid-2006 and will provide an additional 120,000 tonnes of MDI. Following the completion of the Geismar and Rozenburg expansions and the Caojing joint venture project, Huntsman's total MDI manufacturing capacity is expected to exceed 950,000 tonnes per year.
Huntsman bought ICI's polyurethanes business in 1999 and Rohm and Haas' thermoplastic polyurethanes business in 2000.
Gloucester reinforces European presence March 27, 2005
SMS Plastics Technology is strengthening the European position of its US-based Battenfeld Gloucester Engineering film and sheet extrusion equipment manufacturing subsidiary by appointing a European director of International Business. David Constant has more than 25 years in the plastics industry.
BP olefins businesses to become independent as sell-off deadline nears March 25, 2005
BP has now given a name to its polyolefins sell-off package. From April it will operate as Innovene, a separate group within BP and headquartered in Chicago, USA. BP announced it was to sell its polyethylene and polypropylene businesses and other olefins derivatives operations a year ago to concentrate on petrochemicals with a higher return, like paraxylene, PTA and acetyls.
Since then it has been tidying up its operations, with moves such as an asset pool of its polystyrene business with that of Nova Chemicals and the bundling of its share of the joint business into the polyolefins sell-off; the addition of its Grangemouth and Lavéra refineries to the package to provide feedstock security; and the tightening up of its linear alpha olefins business by closing less competitive plants.
Innovene will have more than $9 billion in assets and $15 billion in third-party sales, with more than 8,500 employees at 26 principal sites worldwide. It will be among the five largest petrochemical companies in the world and a Fortune 150-scale company, with global production of more than 15 million tonnes of petrochemicals a year.
BP expects to sell the company later this year, possibly through a public flotation.
Basell to take over Argentinian PP producer March 25, 2005
Basell is to buy out its partner in Petroken Petroquimica Ensenada of Argentina. The company is owned 50:50 by Basell and Repsol YPF and operates a 180,000 tonnes per year polypropylene plant, a 20,000 tonnes compounding facility and a propylene splitter.
Borealis names Ultrapolymers for roto powder distribution March 25, 2005
Ultrapolymers has taken on Europe-wide distribution of Borealis' rotational moulding grades of polyethylene and polypropylene. In addition to distribution and technical support it will also offer colour compounding and grinding services.
The board of British Vita is now recommending that its shareholders accept the offer from Texas Pacific Group, after pushing up the American corporation's bid from £3·35 to £3·60 a share. The board had fought off TPG's advances since early February because it said it was undervaluing British Vita. The latest bid values Vita at around £668 million.
Motan takes on Tria, and Nickerson is sold March 25, 2005
The Tria range of granulators, formerly distributed in the UK by Spaceminster, is now to be sold by Motan. The agreement, which lines up scrap granulation with Motan's materials handling and feed systems, was made before Spaceminster went into receivership at the beginning of this month.
Another outcome of the break-up of the Spaceminster group has been the sale of the Nickerson Europe moulding supplies company to Gerard Verdino who had been working for Plastic Moulding Supplies - and before that for Nickerson.
Boy UK, which was set up by former Spaceminster managing director Bob Wilson to take over sales of the Boy and Biraghi injection moulding machine ranges from Spaceminster, took orders for four Boy machines in its first week of trading. The first order, for a Boy 90A and a 22M, was from Small Plastic Parts, a long-time Boy user run by Terry Anderson, who himself sold Boy machines in the early 1970s when Boy was represented by Harrow Plastics Machinery.
Sandretto is sold to its new US distributor March 25, 2005
The Cannon Group of Italy has sold its Sandretto injection moulding machine business and the German-based Windsor ancillary injection unit manufacturer to Taylor's HPM of the USA. Earlier this year Taylor's HPM was appointed US distributor for Sandretto.
Cannon has sold the businesses because it has failed to build the synergies it thought possible between its primary interest of urethanes processing equipment and injection moulding.
HPM is a well-established name in the US moulding machine business and lays claim to having built the first American injection moulding machine in 1934. In 1998 it bought the German Hemscheidt company, but went into a period of decline and in 2001 was declared bankrupt. It was then bought by Taylor's Industrial Services.
Of particular interest to Taylor's is Sandretto's manufacturing capacity in Italy. It famously built its Componenti Presse high output fully automated manufacturing plant in 1990, just as the market for injection moulding machinery peaked.
World markets for both machinery makes are complementary. HPM is strong in North America, while Sandretto has a good market share in South America and Europe.
Sheet supply and machining partnership March 25, 2005
Sheet stockist Silwood Plastics of Brackley and Basildon-based machining specialist Multiplastics UK have formed a partnership to supply plastics sheets cut to complex shapes.
Silwood supplies acrylic, polycarbonate and PET sheet for sign and display work, but until now had only supplied straight cut sheets. Multiplastics specialises in processing and machining rigid sheet plastics and operates a multi-sheet CNC router and has facilities for diamond polishing, spindle moulding and the radiusing of the corners of square and rectangular panels.
CADCAM software developer Delcam has bought US-based CAM software specialist Engineering Geometry Systems. EGS developed FeatureCAM in 1995, which it says was the world's first Windows- and feature-based milling system. The product range has grown since then to include turning, wire-EDM, mill-turn packages and feature recognition for imported CAD files.
The purchase gives Delcam more exposure and market share in the USA, and Delcam's resources are expected to increase the level of automation achieved by FeatureCAM. EGS will be renamed Delcam USA.
Maplan of Austria, the rubber injection moulding machine manufacturer in the Starlinger group, has a new managing director. Gert Kain, who was responsible for sales and marketing, has taken over the position from Richard Müssler, who has become managing director of Starlinger. Günter Zwinz of Maplan's service and sales department becomes head of sales and marketing. Rudolf Eisenhuber has been promoted to manage the technical department.
Husky names new machine boss March 25, 2005
Husky has appointed a former agricultural machinery executive to take reponsibility for its injection moulding machine business. Michael Evitts becomes vice president, machines after 30 years with John Deere where he was most recently general manager of the company's $1·3 billion tractor operation in Georgia, USA.
This is the second major appointment at the Canadian injection machine, robot and mould manufacturer since its founder Robert Schad announced his intention to retire towards the end of last year. In January John Galt, vice president, operations and chief operating officer was named as Mr Schad's successor as president and chief executive officer.
DSM to double Chinese compounding March 25, 2005
DSM is planning to double its engineering plastics compounding capacity in China. The company will add compounding lines for Stanyl PA46, Akulon PA6 and Arnite polyesters, and move its existing facilities from Zhouzhuang in Jiangyin, Jiangsu province to Jiangyin Hitech Development Zone in Jiangyin. The Asia Pacific Regional Development Service Center, opened in Jiangyin just over a year ago, will also be relocated to the same new site and its capabilities expanded. The total investment at the new site will be some tens of million US$ and the new location will be ready early in 2006.
Not at that price, says British Vita March 11, 2005
British Vita has once again rejected the takeover bid from Texas Pacific Group and is putting pressure on TPG to show its hand before the Takeover Panel calls time on the game. As reported yesterday TPG has made a third offer for British Vita, increasing its bid to £3·53/share - although Vita has grossed this down to £3·4675/share by excluding the final dividend announced on Monday.
Vita's board says the new offer - representing an 8·6 per cent increase on what TPG bid on February 2 - 'continues to undervalue the company and therefore cannot be recommended to shareholders'. Rather, it says, shareholders will achieve greater benefit from the £1/share cashback it announced on Monday, together with the company's programme for increasing profitability.
In light of the looming deadline for a final offer the Vita board has challenged TPG to say whether this latest offer is final - 'it will then be possible for the board of British Vita to determine whether TPG is capable of making a proposal which would merit granting access to perform their confirmatory due diligence'.
Restructure delivers massive profit growth to Borealis March 11, 2005
Borealis has met the financial targets it set three years ago and despite rising oil and feedstock prices, deteriorating $/Eur exchange rate, and slow European economies, turned in an operating profit for 2004 of Eur 278 million, compared with Eur 39 million in 2003. Net profit rose to Eur 203 million in 2004, from Eur 16 million in 2003.
The profits growth was on the back of 7 per cent higher sales volumes, which Borealis says significantly outpaced growth in the main markets, and is credited to a period of restructuring which included selling its plants in Portugal, and the creation of an operational hub in Scandinavia by merging the activities in Norway and Sweden. These restructuring steps simplified Borealis' European production base, allowing it to concentrate on four operational hubs: Belgium, Central Europe (Austria and Germany), Finland, and Scandinavia.
During this year Borealis will complete a major plant start-up and a number of expansions. In Austria it is building a Borstar PE plant to start-up in the second half of 2005 with an annual capacity of 350,000 tonnes. On the same site, the Borstar PP capacity is being expanded by 90,000 tonnes. In Norway, Borealis will expand its PP plant by 50,000 tonnes and its Noretyl joint venture cracker by 100,000 tonnes. And in the United Arab Emirates, the Borealis/Abu Dhabi National Oil Company joint venture Borouge is expanding its capacity for Borstar PE from 450,000 to 580,000 tonnes by mid 2005.
Husky Injection Molding Systems is facing mounting losses on higher sales because of the strong Canadian dollar, lower margins, and rising steel prices.
The company reported a second-quarter loss of $2·8 million (US) compared with a profit of $3·7 million a year ago on sales up from $177·9 million to $204 million.
Husky says that while third-quarter sales are expected to be in line with a year ago, profits will be lower than the $15·2 million it reported then.
Exatec goes commercial in Peguform Czech plant March 11, 2005
The first commercial plant to use the Bayer/GE joint venture polycarbonate automotive glazing technology is to be built in the Czech Republic by Peguform. The plant will use the Exatec process to make cleverGlass side and rear car windows and panoramic roofs for car manufacturers worldwide. Exatec's products combine an enhanced 10-year weathering layer with a glass-like plasma topcoat for abrasion resistance.
Peguform Bohemia has a target to increase its turnover by 50 per cent in the next five years and sees the new cleverGlass business as one of the most important steps in achieving this. It currently has three plants and a tool shop in the Czech Republic with production focused mainly on plastic parts and systems such as painted bumpers, instrument panels, door panels, centre consoles and radiator grills. Customers include Skoda, Audi, Toyota/PSA (TPCA), GM and Suzuki. Construction will start on the glazing facility, which will include a purpose-built clean room, this year.
Graham adds hole-in-the wall bottle plants March 11, 2005
Graham Packaging Company, which last year bought Owens-Illinois' plastics container business and virtually doubled in size, is now to buy four bottle plants from Tetra Pak. All four are 'hole-in-the-wall' plants making HDPE bottles for nutritional beverages and value-added dairy beverages in Belgium, Brazil, Turkey, and the United States.
The four businesses generate $21 m in annual revenues. The cost of acquisition is not disclosed.
US-based Graham Packaging Company makes around 20 billion bottles a year at 90 plants in 16 countries and had worldwide sales of $2·1 billion in the year to June 30, 2004.
TPG bids again for British Vita as the deadline looms March 10, 2005
Texas Pacific Group has renewed its efforts to buy British Vita and has raised its £3·35/share offer of a month ago to £3·53. According to a Reuters report TPG made its revised offer on Tuesday morning, but as nothing was forthcoming from British Vita it has gone public with the announcement. The American group is fast running out of time. It has said it needs a week - with British Vita's co-operation - to go through the books for due diligence, but the Takeover Panel has set a deadline of March 21 for a final offer. The British Vita board is meeting today to discuss the revised offer.
Earlier this week British Vita announced its 2004 results and said it would be returning more money to shareholders, underlining that it considered the TPG bid to be short on shareholder value. The company will be returning £1 per share at a cost of £185 million, and has stressed its policy of returning surplus capital to shareholders in the future. British Vita returned £108 million - excluding dividends - to shareholders between 2001 and 2004.
The company has posted broadly neutral results for 2004, with sales up 2 per cent (£940·1 m to £959 m) yielding a profit down 3 per cent at £49 m - a creditable performance according to chairman David Cotterill 'given we have experienced some of the most extreme raw material prices seen in recent years'.
Crompton to buy Great Lakes March 10, 2005
Crompton Corporation of the USA, which makes plastics additives among other chemicals, is planning to buy Great Lakes Chemical Corp which also makes plastics additives, in a $1·54 billion all-share deal which will create the third largest specialty chemicals company in America behind Rohm & Haas and Engelhard. Aggregated sales of the two companies in 2004 were more than $4·1 billion.
A key addition to Crompton's plastics additives line will be Great Lakes' range of flame retardants.
Crompton, which has just completed a long term restructuring programme to reduce costs, also owns rubber and urethanes manufacturer Uniroyal Chemical, and extrusion equipment manufacturer Davis-Standard. Davis-Standard was last year tipped as a potential disposal because it does not fit in with the company's mainstream chemicals business. And while it pushed sales 17 per cent higher in 2004 its operating profit declined 5 per cent - although still contributing $3·3 million to reduce Crompton's overall net loss of $34·6 million on a turnover of around $2·55 billion. Smaller Great Lakes had a turnover of $1·6 billion last year, achieving a net profit of $62·9 million.
Qatar pitches at petrochemicals with Shell's help March 10, 2005
Qatar is aiming to capitalise on its hydrocarbon resources and is planning to build a world-scale ethane based cracker and derivatives complex in Ras Laffan Industrial City. Quatar Petroleum has signed a letter of intent with Shell Chemicals to develop the complex which will produce petrochemicals to be sold into primarily Asian growth markets, with a start-up date early in the next decade.
Spaceminster splits as it goes into administration March 6, 2005
The Spaceminster Group, perhaps the biggest remaining agency-structured plastics machinery business in Britain, is being broken up. It went into financial administration this week and already the agencies it held are being dispersed.
Managing director Bob Wilson has set up a new company which has bought the distribution rights for the Boy and BM Biraghi injection moulding machines. His new company starts trading at the Spaceminster address on Monday (March 7). And the Taiwanese Shini range of hopper loaders and hot air dryers sold under Spaceminster's BPI brand since 1989 have been taken on by STV - where Spaceminster founder Karl Perry is currently working - with the setting up of Shini UK at STV's address.
Administrator Kroll was not able to comment on its plans for the company in the light of its assets - the agency agreements - already evaporating.
A major question mark hangs over the Nickerson Europe 'Big Yellow Book' offshoot, and it is understood that a management buy-out there is under consideration. Other major machinery brands sold by Spaceminster include GWK temperature controllers, Tria granulators, Virginio Nastri conveyor systems, Alfa robots and Athena hot runner controllers.
The writing has been on the wall for Spaceminster since its last managing director, Philip Staniford, left two years ago because of difficulties of maintaining the company against tough market conditions.
Bunzl plans to split for operational simplicity March 6, 2005
Food packaging and plastics group Bunzl is planning to split up. It is to make its Filtrona business a separate public company, owned by the existing Bunzl shareholders.
Bunzl's two main operating streams have little overlap, and the group sees a split as bringing benefits to both businesses as a continuation of the simplification strategy it has exercised for more than 10 years.
After the split, planned for June this year, Bunzl will consist of its Outsourcing Division, which operates across North America, Europe and Australasia, distributing a range of products including food packaging, disposable supplies and cleaning and safety products.
Filtrona is a worldwide supplier of cigarette filters, ink reservoirs and other bonded fibre products, protection and finishing products, self-adhesive tear tapes and security products. It also extrudes of custom plastic profiles. It accounts for around 16 per cent of Bunzl's sales and nearly a quarter of operating profits.
The division has 38 plants in 14 countries and its plastics-focused businesses include: Globalpack of Brazil which makes packaging for the cosmetic and personal care, pharmaceutical, food and chemical industries; Bunzl Extrusion with plants in the USA and Mexico and Enitor in Holland making thermoplastic profile, sheet, and speciality tubes; Moss Plastic Parts and Skiffy in Europe and Alliance Plastics and Molding Specialists in the Americas making injection moulded and dip moulded vinyl products for general protection, masking, electrical, fastening, security and finishing applications; and film makers PP Payne which specialises in self adhesive tear tape for easy opening, consumer communication and product and brand security applications, Morane a supplier of coated film products for encapsulation, lamination, industrial and document security applications, and Laminex which supplies identity systems, cards and accessories for security, health and safety, and promotional use.
Project aims to reduce PET recycling cost March 6, 2005
A new recycling project funded by WRAP (the Waste & Resources Programme) will investigate innovative processes for the recycling of post-consumer PET bottles, with the aim of developing a more efficient system for the production of food-grade PET. If successful, the work could help secure a food-grade plastics recycling facility for the UK.
The project will be led by Closed Loop London in collaboration with London Remade and plastics experts from UK universities and European reprocessors. It will use locally sourced waste PET bottles and investigate the most efficient and cost effective methods of recycling through a series of small and large scale trials.
Closed Loop London puts the average cost of reprocessing plastic waste into food-grade quality recycled plastic at £400 - £600 per tonne. This project aims to reduce this cost by approximately 20 per cent.
The UK currently produces approximately 200,000 tonnes of PET bottles, of which only 15,000 tonnes are collected for recycling in the UK and overseas. If the costs of reprocessing this material can be reduced, and a UK facility provided, it will make the market more viable and help local authorities to implement cost effective plastics recycling services.
The project will be completed by May this year and the results made publicly available.
Thompson buys additional large component capacity March 6, 2005
LMC Technik, part of the Thompson Plastics Group, has taken over pDCPD RIM moulder Polymer Engineering of Crewe which makes large, complex mouldings, such as bonnets, for customers including Caterpillar, CNH and Terex. In addition, it produces a range of domestic door products for the construction industry.
Polymer Engineering has a £3 million turnover and employs around 50 people. Production continues at the site and Polymer Engineering's management team remains in place.
Automation takeover March 6, 2005
Assembly equipment manufacturer Modular Automation International of Birmingham, which was created from a buy-out from the receiver of the similarly-named company in 2003 has been taken over by engineering group C H Bailey. Modular Automation manufactures automated assembly lines for a range of industries including medical, automotive, electrical and brewing. It is also to distribute the German-made Rose & Krieger Easy-link flexible conveyor system in the UK.
BASF increases its stake in Far Eastern engineering plastics March 6, 2005
BASF is planning a substantial expansion of its compounding capacities for engineering plastics in the Asia-Pacific region in the next two years. The company will build a 45,000 tonnes plant at its existing Pudong site in Shanghai, China, scheduled to come on stream by the end of 2006. In addition, BASF is expanding its compounding facility in Pasir Gudang, Malaysia. The expansion from 30,000 tonnes to about 45,000 tonnes will be completed by the second quarter of this year. Together with the plant in Pudong, the total investment will range in the double-digit million Euro area. Both plants produce Ultramid (polyamide) and Ultradur (PBT) compounds.
In the next 10 years BASF expects the Asia Pacific market for engineering plastics to grow on average by 8 per cent annually. Expanding the engineering plastics business in Asia is another step towards BASF's goal to generate 20 per cent of sales and earnings in its chemical activities in Asia Pacific and increase the share of local production to 70 per cent by 2010.
After these two investments have been completed, BASF's compounding capacity for engineering plastics in the Asian region will exceed 100,000 tonnes.
Raw materials for the plants in Pudong and Pasir Gudang will be partially supplied from BASF's 50-50 joint venture with Toray in Kuantan, Malaysia which will have a capacity of 60,000 tonnes of PBT when it starts commercial production in the first quarter of 2006.
Basell adds PE to Saudi PP joint ventures March 6, 2005
An integrated polyethylene complex is to be built at Al-Jubail Industrial City in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as a joint venture between National Petrochemical Industrialization Company (Tasnee Petrochemicals) and Basell. Basell will take a 25 per cent stake and the rest of the equity will be split between Tasnee Petrochemicals and other Saudi investors, including SIPCHEM and Sahara Petrochemical Company.
The complex, scheduled to start up in 2008, will include a gas cracker and two 400,000 tonnes polyethylene plants. One plant, based on Basell's Hostalen process, will produce high density PE. The second, based on Basell's Lupotech T technology, will produce low density PE. The units will be the largest Hostalen and Lupotech T plants in existence.
Basell and Tasnee Petrochemicals have already cooperated in Saudi Polyolefins Company, a 450,000 tonnes polypropylene joint venture in Saudi Arabia and last year Basell agreed a joint venture with Sahara Petrochemical Company to build a 450,000 tonnes propylene plant and propane dehydrogenation unit.
Solvay plans further Thai vinyls investment March 6, 2005
Following its decision towards the end of last year to double its vinyl chloride monomer production, Solvay's Thai vinyls affiliate Vinythai has decided to fully integrate upstream by also doubling the chlorine and ethylene dichloride production capacity at its plant in Map Ta Phut. The project, which is based on the latest bipolar membrane technology, is estimated to cost roughly Eur 45 million. The total cost of this additional expansion together with the previously announced VCM expansion will be approximately Eur 90 million.
Production is expected to commence at the end 2006. The expansion will give Vinythai a chlorine capacity of 240,000 tonnes and EDC capacity of 320,000 tonnes. This new EDC capacity will be the major feedstock for the 200,000 tonnes VCM expansion project which is expected to start production in September 2006.
Vinythai is the third largest vinyls producer in South East Asia with a fully integrated PVC production capacity of 210,000 tonnes. It is a public company with major shareholding by Solvay (46·4 per cent) and the Charoen Pokphand Group companies of Thailand (25·9 per cent).
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Further east, Bayer is expecting to double the output of its joint venture Bayer Jinling Polyurethane Co polyols plant by the end of the year The plant opened in 1999 with a capacity of 10,000 tonnes.