US-based auxiliary equipment manufacturer Conair, which is part of the IPEG Group, has a strong presence in Asia, having set up a business in India, Nu-Vu Conair, in 2007 and continues to make headway in China and the rest of Asia. The firm recently promoted Larry Doyle, who has a background in plastics processing machinery from Vice-President of Global Sales and Marketing to President.

INDIAN conglomerate Reliance Industries is in talks with British oil giant BP to buy its 610 kilotonne/year purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant in Kuantan, Malaysia, as it seeks to replicate its domestic success in building fully integrated operations in all its businesses, said recent news reports.

SWEDISH firm Hexpol is increasing thermoplastic elastomer compounding capacity at a site in Germany it acquired last year to 4,500 tonnes by 2013 and is installing a new twin-screw extrusion line at its site in Lichtenfelswhich it acquired when it bought TPE compounder Horst Muller Kunstoffe from Rowa Group. The business is now known as Elasto Muller Kunstoffe.

INVESTING EUR60 million, German firm BASF has increased its global capacity for chemical intermediate PolyTHF (polytetra-methylene ether glycol – PTMEG) from 185,000 tonnes to 250,000 tonnes. In the plastics sector, PolyTHF is used as a chemical building block for thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU).

US compounder A. Schulman is acquiring privately-owned ECM Plastics for $36.5 million and has also sold its vinyl chloride compounding facility in Bellevue, OH, to Mitsubishi Chemical Performance Polymers, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Chemical. ECM Plastics, which provides custom colour matching, speciality additive formulations and compounding, generates US$40 million in annual sales.

GERMAN firm Dyneon, a subsidiary of 3M, is building a pilot plant in Burgkirchen, Germany, with the capacity to recycle 500 tonnes/year of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) scrap, converting it back to full value raw materials. Meanwhile, Japanese firm Teijin is setting up a recycling plant in China to recycle polyester fibre into a chemical DMT (used in PET).

THERMOSET systems for coatings, adhesives and PCBs are now augmented with Sabic Innovative Plastics’s Noryl SA90 and SA9000 additives for epoxy and non-epoxy systems, especially composites and coatings, electrical adhesives, copper-coated laminates and pre-pregs.

GLOBAL demand for PVC has grown from 22 million tonnes in 2000 to 32 million tonnes in 2011, according to a new report from GBI Research, with more than 65% of the demand from Asia and China. The higher demand was accounted by various industries such as electrical, packaging and construction.

PLASTICS may be a boon or a bane – whichever way you look at it! A new study in the US shows that the concentration of plastic has increased by 100 times over the past 40 years in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, to more than 18 million sq m. With this is also a rise in the eggs of a particular sea living insect.

THE fact that the global economy is slowing down is not affecting the global chemicals industry, according to German firm Ceresana’s Industry Monitor (CIM). Despite the economic crisis, some companies have not put a stop to hiring more employees and increasing their investments, except for Eastern and Western Europe, where workforce numbers are to be reduced.

GERMAN firm BASF says its Ultramid PA, Ultradur PBT and Ultraform POM are now approved for applications that come into contact with drinking water. To be marketed under the Aqua brand, the portfolio in the drinking water realm is complemented by the firm’s high-temperature resistant polyaryl sulfones Ultrason P3010 and Ultrason S3010.

BOREALIS says its latest BorPure RF490MO PP offers packaging converters the ability to reduce cycle time by 10% and energy consumption by 5%. The random copolymer PP innovation for transparent and non-opaque coloured closures sets a new benchmark in combining product performance with sustainability in the conversion of lightweight closure solutions.

  Injection Moulding

INDIAN conglomerate Larsen & Toubro is selling its entire stake in injection moulding machine maker L&T Plastics Machinery to Japan-based Toshiba Machine. Terms were not disclosed. The divesture is in line with L&T’s strategy to exit non-core businesses and to rationalise its portfolio.

US-based foam moulding technology firm Trexel is setting up a subsidiary in China, including a technical centre in Shanghai and an office in Shenzhen, Guangdong province. The firm says that this is to meet the interest and the adoption of its MuCell technology by processors operating inside China but also with Chinese owned companies.

SWISS-headquartered Priamus, a provider of monitoring, control and regulation systems for injection moulding is offering a cost-benefit-analysis system. The software will show the potential annual savings or return of investment (ROI) for a given part and this can be calculated by entering the required parameters.

GERMANY-based automotive interiors supplier Johnson Controls is providing a 5.7 kg lighter system for the new Kia. Swiss Autoneum Holding and Nittoku Tokushu Toryo are collaborating with Toyota to develop interior systems for hybrid vehicles, while Sabic’s Noryl resin is used by India’s Mahindra in the country’s first moulded plastic fenders for its SUV.

French automation firm Sepro Robotique and Switzerland-based Stäubli Robotics will team up to showcase their partnership for five and six-axis robots at the Fakuma exhibition in Friedrichshafen, Germany, from 16-20 October.

Swiss injection moulding machine maker Netstal has expanded its product range with the Elion 3200 and will be unveiling the new hybrid machine at Fakuma. The Elion 3200 will be shown as part of a complete system for manufacturing thinwall lids for cream cheese packaging, utilising moulds and automation from Müller Fabriques des Moules from Conthey (Switzerland).