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In this Edition November 2011 |
COMPANY NEWS |
MATERIALS NEWS |
MACHINERY NEWS |
INJECTION MOULDING ASIA |
RUBBER JOURNAL ASIA |
 ELECTRONIC ISSUE |
PRA October-November 2011 Electronic Issue Still Available |
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Company News
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Mexican pipe maker aims for leading position
Mexican PVC pipe and speciality chemicals maker Mexichem has made a bid to acquire all the outstanding shares of Netherlands-based pipe maker Wavin, making it the largest integrated producer of pipes and solutions in the world if the deal is approved. Mexichem's offer price is EUR8.50 per share, which it says reflects the company's current conditions and fundamentals.
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Evonik centres focus on Asia
Germany-based Evonik will open two R&D centre for additives for paints and coatings in Asia, in Shanghai and Singapore, with a "single-digit million US dollar amount."
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Victrex's Japanese technology centre
Another company with its finger on the pulse of the growing Asia Pacific market is UK PEEK material supplier Victrex that has set up a R&D centre in Japan.span>
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PET film maker to expand
The world's fourth largest producer of thin PET film with facilities in India, Thailand and Turkey, Polyplex is investing US$13.2 million in a second thermal lamination film line at its Rayong facility in Thailand, to start up by 2013, the company said recently in its filing.
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Indorama reaps in a bounty
Meanwhile, Thai integrated PET producer Indorama Ventures, despite the country's recent flooding that forced it to close its facility in Lopburi, saw its earnings grow by 76% in the first nine months of 2011 to US$515 million from US$292 million in the same period last year.
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Chinese oxo plant to use American process
US-based Davy Process Technology, a Johnson Matthey company and a unit of Dow Chemical Oxygenated Solvents, will supply the LP Oxo Selector 10 technology to Wison Clean Energy's 125,000 tonnes/year oxo alcohols plant in Nanjing, China.
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Sino/European alliance expands reach of tobacco films
Germany-based BOPP films processor Treofan has signed a marketing partnership agreement with Chinese flexible packaging producers Shiner International and Alliance Packaging whereby Treofan will have exclusive responsibility for marketing coated films and tobacco films for Shiner in Europe and the Americas (Canada excluded).
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In Brief
Indian facility for RehauGerman PVC door/window manufacturer Rehau is setting up a facility with India-based Active Green Windows Solutions in Andhra Pradesh. It will incorporate German technology and the product range includes windows, sliding doors and French doors.
Leoni expands in China
German supplier of wiring systems and cables to the automotive market, Leoni, is investing EUR23 million in a wire harness plant in Shangdong province, Northeast China. It will make products for General Motors and other customers. Leoni says it will also takeover two plants it operates in Weihai and Penglai under a joint venture with a South Korean firm. Leoni now has 11 facilities in China that employ 6,000 workers, making the country its third largest market, after Germany and France, with sales expected to total RMB3 billion this year.
BASF to relocate dispersion hq to Asia
As of 1 January 2012, BASF will set up the global headquarters of its Dispersions & Pigments division in Hong Kong and move about 50 global positions, currently located in Germany and Switzerland, to the Chinese city. The move is indicative of the growing Asian market the company says. The division produces pigments, resins, dispersions and additives such as light stabilisers and formulation additives. It had sales of EUR3.2 billion in 2010.
Buy out of prototype business
US-based 3D Systems has purchased speciality materials maker Huntsman's Advanced Materials Division for US$41 million. The business, which makes RenShape-brand stereolithography print materials and Digitalis-brand 3D printers, had sales of US$7 million last year, mostly from print materials. 3D Systems says Huntsman's materials complement its own product line and are ideal for printing snap-fit PP and ABS parts and selectively coloured medical models on its SLA printers.
Materials News
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Turning waste films into something useful
Closed-loop recycling of post-consumer and retail waste plastic films could become a full-scale commercial reality in the UK within four years, according to British company Axion Consulting, following the outcome of successful feasibility trials.
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PLA film for packaging applications
Another Japanese company Teijin has developed film and sheet versions of its Biofront heat-resistant PLA, which already is available for use as a fibre and resin.
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Films to combat counterfeiting
Sabic has launched two new polycarbonate (PC) films designed to simplify the process of adding security features to ID cards to combat counterfeiting and identity theft.
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EVOH composites with barrier additive
Osaka-based speciality resin maker Nippon Synthetic Chemical Industry (Nippon Gohsei) has entered into an exclusive global licensing agreement with Spanish company Nanobiomatters Industries for the use of its O2Block Barrier additive in EVOH composites. Details of the agreement were not disclosed.
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Using SMA to boost ABS's temperature
In a recent benchmark analysis of heat boosters, Netherlands-based Polyscope Polymers has highlighted the benefits that can be obtained by the use of XIRAN SMA (styrene maleic anhydride) copolymers as a modifier in thermoplastic polymers.
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Coloured medical-grade TPES
UK developer of custom formulated thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs) Elasto has introduced a new range of coloured medical grade of products.
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New material increases temperature limit
UK-based rapid prototyping and 3D printing specialist Objet has launched a new material said to be capable of simulating the thermal performance of engineering plastics.
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Machinery News
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Kiefel cashing in on cup forming in Asia
German thermoforming machinery supplier Kiefel has seen sales of its KTR4 cup forming thermoformers increasing in Asia, said Regional Manager of Sales Willem Julienne, speaking to PRA at the recent P&R Indonesia exhibition in Jakarta.
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Schwing's sales swing to Asian markets
Thermal cleaning systems provider Schwing Fluid Technik may have been in the Asian market for 30 years but it is only in the last few years it has seen its sales grow monumentally. "Today, 60% of our total sales come from Asia," said Vice-President, International Sales Ottmar Vallinga, speaking to PRA at P&R Indonesia.
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Basking in Asian growth
Machinery maker KraussMaffei has been seeing a growth of 10% in Asia over the past few years, said Prawit Yodprechavigit, Managing Director of its Asian office, speaking to PRA at the Tiprex show in Thailand. "Over the past two years our turnover has been EUR10 million and we have achieved our target," he said.
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Two-in-one pelletiser
Pelletiser/pulveriser supplier Reduction Engineering Scheer has launched the Bullet Series Strand Pelletiser that combines the technologies of Model 304 pelletiser and the E-Series pelletiser, which Reduction took over through its acquisition of Scheer Pelletizing Machinery in Stuttgart, Germany.
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South Korean to set up BOPP film plant
South Korean construction/chemical firm Daelim Industrial is setting up a film extrusion facility for the packaging market. It will use a five-layer BOPP film line from Austrian equipment supplier Andritz. The facility in Jeonju is expected to start up by 2012 and will have a capacity of 38,600 tonnes/year. The new line, capable of producing films with a thickness of up to 60 microns and a width of 8.7 m, will primarily be used to produce films for the packaging industry.
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Thai's push for better technology
Compatriot machine maker Wittmann Battenfeld, meanwhile, expects to sell 100 units in Asia by 2013. "From 2008 until now we have sold 40 injection moulding machines. This is encouraging and we are expecting further sales," said Jimmy Teo, Director of the Singapore office.
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. Injection Moulding Asia
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New PPs do not impart odours
Austrian supplier of resins Borealis has introduced a new range of BorPure random polypropylene (PP) copolymers with improved organoleptics, for transparent thinwall food packaging.
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KM drives away with BMW's large order
German injection moulding machine supplier KraussMaffei has received a large order from BMW to supply injection moulding, reaction process and automation machines and systems.
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New unit to focus on battery production
Due to the growth of the global battery marketplace, German supplier BASF is creating a new business unit, Battery Materials, that will bring together its current and future battery-related electromobility activities, effective 1 January 2012.
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IMHP technique with improvements
New IMHP (in-mould hold pressure) technology from US-based DuPont is said to enable significant productivity increases during the injection moulding of semi-crystalline thermoplastics, which, due to their high rate of volume shrinkage during cooling, require longer holding times.
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Batch series production of auto parts
To update their models, car manufacturers overhaul and replace minor details such as the case of the new VW Beetle, where the indicator was replaced with one containing a fog light. For pilot series production, Germany-based Modelllbau Robert Hofmann was able to supply 300 modules in 12 weeks, using rapid technology like LaserCUSING.
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Chinese auto parts supplier aiming for leading position
Chinese interior trim supplier Ningbo Huaxiang Electronics will acquire three units of bankrupt German supplier Sellner Holding, to expand its markets to Europe and the US. It is paying EUR27.3 million for the companies, which produce wooden interior components for the automotive industry, making it the second largest global supplier in this market upon closing of the deal.
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Malaysian auto tie-up for IAC
Luxembourg-headquartered International Automotive Components (IAC) has formed two joint ventures with Malaysia-based automotive parts supplier APM Automotive Holdings (APM), to expand into Malaysia and Thailand
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In Brief
BMW buys stake in SGLLuxury car maker BMW has bought a 15.6% stake in German carbon fibre maker SGL Carbon, to keep Volkswagen, which bought at 8.2% stake in SGL earlier this year, at bay. Both companies are relying on the use of SGL's carbon fibres for plastics in lightweight construction of cars and vying for the top spot in the luxury car market. Volkswagen is the parent of Audi, which aims to surpass BMW as the world's largest maker of luxury vehicles by 2015.
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