News Plastech
First Cans Already Supplied from Modern Slovakia Plant. Crown Holdings, Inc. announces that it has officially opened its new beverage can plant in Kechnec, in eastern Slovakia, allowing Crown to better serve customers in Central and Eastern Europe.
The value of the European plastics injection moulding industry slumped to €42.6bn in 2009, losing 23% of its value from €55bn in 2008, according to a report from AMI.
Borealis’ joint venture Borouge, a leading provider of innovative, valuecreating plastics solutions, inaugurated its first manufacturing plant in China at a ceremony held at the plant in Shanghai on April 20, 2010.
Rapid Granulator AB is proceeding as planned with its restructuring to ensure a strong and prosperous future for the Rapid Group and its customers around the world. Rapid announced today the winding up of its Moditec subsidiary based in Lyon, France. This is the latest move in a series of cost reduction steps and organizational changes that have already been implemented by Rapid.
The packaging market is booming. But what distinguishes a successful folding box from others? Steffen Schnizer, Head of Marketing at CD Cartondruck AG, provides answers. The Southern German business specializes in high-quality folding boxes and has won several packaging awards for them.
In a clear commitment to introducing new value-added products into the market, La Seda de Barcelona has developed PETAUTO, a project oriented towards improving recycling and sustainability in the automotive industry.
With the opening of a laboratory in Lodz / Poland, the Gabriel-Chemie Group continues its growth on the European market.
The year 2009 was dominated by the global economic crisis. As a consequence, the 2009 business year was for Krones AG, the world´s market leader for beverage filling and packaging technology, probably the most difficult in the company´s 59 years of existence.
The outlook for plastics and rubber machinery has improved further. The final quarter of 2009 closed with orders for German machinery up by a nominal 35 per cent. October 2009 saw a resumption of demand growth for the first time since early 2008. This trend continued in the two months that followed.
The first signs of recovery on the world self-adhesive label industry probably began late last spring but, as with the start of all ‘green shoots’, only the merest tip of growth was showing. It is going to be some while until we begin to gather a harvest comparable in size to the ‘good old days’ of selfadhesive
Polymers and petrochemicals group Ineos is considering a relocation of its headquarters and tax residence from the UK to Switzerland. It said potential cash tax savings would be €450m between now and 2014 if it went ahead with the move, which would need the consent of its lenders.
Engel and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Plastic Technology Co., Ldt. (MHI-PT) have made a cooperation agreement concerning the marketing of large-scale Engel multi-component injection moulding machines for Japanese customers. The purpose is to distribute Engel duo combi-machines with clamping forces 1.000 tons and lower in Japan jointly under the brand name Mitsubishi-Engel.
German Engineering Federation (VDMA: Domestic plastics and rubber machinery sales fall less sharply than forecast but the market situation is still uncertain.
- Coca-Cola does it, Frito-lay does it and so too do Samsung and Hyundai. This is how Andy Sweetman, Chairman of the European Bioplastics’ Board summarises the fact that an increasing number of renowned brand owners are turning to bioplastics to enhance their products image.
A. Schulman reports improved fiscal 2010 first-quarter results.
Russia: good long-term prospects inspire confidence in plastics and rubber market.
BASF has developed a fully biodegradable packaging system for its Interceptor insecticide-treated mosquito nets.
Motan, Colortronic and Colortronic Systems join forces and combine their sales organizations.
Borouge, a joint-venture between the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, one of the world’s major oil companies, and Borealis, a leading provider of chemical and innovative plastics solution, is expanding its marketing, sales and innovation capabilities in Guangzhou and Shanghai, China.
- The slowdown in 2009 which Europe’s plastics and rubber equipment manufacturers had predicted turned out to be a deep slump and hit the branch much more than it expected one year ago - said Bernhard Merki, President of Euromap, Europe’s association for plastics and rubber machinery manufacturers.
In letters sent out to its European clients, Sabic Innovative Plastics (Bergen op Zoom / The Netherlands) announced several price increases for its technical thermoplastics, effective 11 January 2010.
Borealis, a leading provider of chemical and innovative plastics solutions has inaugurated its international Innovation Headquarters in Linz, Austria. This event is the culmination of approximately one and a half years of construction and a total investment volume of EUR 50 million.
Key business and technology issues facing the polyethylene and polypropylene supply chains got a good airing at the PEPP 2009 global congress on polyolefins organized by Maack Business Services in Zurich in October.
The European Commission is fining a number of plastics additives producers, including Ciba, Elf Aquitaine and Baerlocher, €173.9m for price fixing and market sharing cartels.
Borealis announces changes in its distribution partnerships for automotive materials.
Germany-based Evonik Industries has finalized the sale of the AlzChem Group to the Luxembourg-based private equity fund bluO. The deal was closed on October 27, 2009, after it was approved by the boards and the relevant antitrust authorities. Less debts, the cash sale price amounts to €78.5 million.
Plastics and rubber machinery manufacturers in Europe: hopes for Recovery in 2010 after a Serious Fall in 2009.
Canadian hot runner specialist Mold-Masters has acquired UK-based PMS Systems, a supplier of hot- runner temperature controls.
Pregis Protective Packaging Europe has confirmed its market leadership in Poland and throughout Eastern Europe with the introduction of coextruded bubble wrap technology with air retention barrier, following major investment in its new factory in Gliwice in Poland.
LyondellBasell Industries announced that it will close the low density polyethylene (LDPE) plant located at its Carrington, UK, site by the end of this year.
Plastech publishes an interview with Manfred Geiss, Managing Director of Geiss AG. The Geiss company offers worldwide equipment for thermoforming and processing of plastics from one single source and is one of the leaders in the thermoforming market.
The ongoing recession continues to hit the industry heavily. Despite this, Engel again succeeded in expanding its market share considerably in the past financial year. On top of this, due to an extremely positive first sixth months in 2008/09, a turnover of some 591 million Euros was achieved. Targeted measures, geared to facilitate investments by customers, will continue to reinforce Engel's position on the market.
With immediate effect, Bayer MaterialScience has lifted force majeure for the polyurethane raw material toluene diisocyanate (TDI) in the Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA) region.
We publish an interview with Dr. Jürgen Hambrecht, Chairman of BASF. In this interview, BASF's CEO Jürgen Hambrecht discusses problems and solutions for the economic crisis. BASF is the world´s leading chemical company.
Plastech publishes an interview with Alessandro Grassi, General Manager of Frigosystem. The company was one of the almost 700 exhibitors at Plastpol exhibition in Kielce, Poland, on May this year. Plastpol is the largest fair event dedicated to the plastics industry in Central and Eastern part of Europe.
LyondellBasell has turned its attention to its European polyolefins operations as part of its plan to restructure and deal with a $23bn debt burden.