Expansions: Songwon’s electronic chemicals line in South Korea; Alpla expands PET recycling in Germany

Polymers stabilisers maker Songwon Industrial Co says that construction of its new electronic chemicals production line is nearing completion. Located at its Maeam plant in Ulsan, South Korea, construction is expected to be finished by the end of March, with start-up planned thereafter.

With its investment in the production line for electronic chemicals and expanded capacities, Songwon says it will be well-positioned to respond to the rapidly increasing demand for semiconductors. It will also be able to meet the subsequent rise in the demand for high-end specialty chemicals and raw materials for IT industries (incl. semiconductors) as well as display materials. When up and running, the advanced electronic chemical production line will make it possible for the company to deliver the small to big volume capacities demanded by customers.

In other news, Germany’s Alpla Group has become one of the largest PET recycling companies in Germany. With the acquisition of the recycling company Texplast from the FROMM Group and all of its shares in the joint venture PET Recycling Team Wolfen, the company says it will increase its processing volume in Germany to 75,000 tonnes/year of PET bottles.

With the complete acquisition of Texplast, a company based in Bitterfeld-Wolfen and previously part of the FROMM Group, as well as the joint venture PET Recycling Team Wolfen, the packaging solutions and recycling specialist adds it is significantly expanding its capacities. With this, Alpla says it is investing in the quality and availability of PET recyclate for the German ‘bottle-to-bottle’ cycle.

Following the acquisition of BTB Recycling in October 2021, it increased its processing volumes in Germany to a total of around 75,000 tonnes of PET input. This includes 55,000 tonnes by Texplast and PET Recycling Team Wolfen and 20,000 tonnes by BTB.

“Our goal is the cycle from bottle to bottle. We are stepping up our activities worldwide to meet growing demand for post-consumer recyclate. This investment will strengthen our position in the German market and guarantee high quality and availability of the material for our customers,” Alpla CEO Philipp Lehner explains.

Texplast, founded in 1992, produces PET pellets and flakes from used PET bottles. The pellets are primarily used for preforms for new PET bottles. The colourful PET flakes produced during the process are used by the packaging manufacturer FROMM to produce packing strap. However, the focus has increasingly shifted towards the bottle cycle in recent years.

The colourful flakes will also be supplied exclusively to FROMM in the future.

PET Recycling Team Wolfen specialises in the recycling of PET bottles from ‘yellow bag’ – German bin for household recyclables. These are returned from household collection to the recycling loop. The sorting and processing systems at Texplast’s site in Wolfen, which are unique worldwide, were set up in 2019.

The acquisition was officially finalised in February 2022. The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price or any further details. The acquisition is subject to the legal and regulatory approval of the competent competition authorities.

In early 2021, Alpla announced that it would invest an average of EUR50 million a year until 2025 in the ongoing expansion of its recycling activities. In particular, it plans to globalise its activities in the area of high-quality recyclates in order to close the materials cycle in as many regions as possible. In total, the annual production capacity of Alpla’s recycling companies, joint ventures and collaborations amounts to approximately 203,000 tonnes of rPET (recycled PET) and 74,000 tonnes of rHDPE (recycled HDPE).

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