- Email: [email protected]
Americhem expands product development lab capabilities to aid customers
STRATEGIES
Albemarle Corp (www.albemarle.com) has increased the price of its phosphorus-based NcendX® P30 (bisphenol A diphenyl phosphate) flame retardant by US$0.50/kg on all shipments. Brominated flame retardants Saytex HP-3010, HP-5010, 8010 and 4010 are subject to a 10% increase, Saytex 102E to a 15% rise and HP-7010 a 25% rise, while the price of Saytex CP-2000 has been raised by $0.25/kg. The company has also raised the global prices on all shipments of its Magnifin magnesium hydroxide flame retardants by up to 12%, depending on packaging type and grade, while prices of Martinal aluminium trihydrate flame retardants were increased by 25% on all shipments in the Americas after 15 April 2010. In addition, the company has raised global prices for elemental bromine and all grades of hydrobromic acid. Chemtura Corp (www.chemtura.com) has also increased prices in all regions on all brominebased products by up to 25%. Cristal Global (www.cristalglobal.com) has raised prices on all of its anatase and rutile Tiona® and Cristal titanium dioxide (TiO2) products by US$0.05/lb in the USA and Canada; by $100/tonne in Latin America, including Brazil and Mexico, and in the Middle East and Africa; by E100/ tonne in Europe; by $150/tonne in the Asia Pacific; and by A$100/tonne in Australia. The company was recently forced to declare Force Majeure with respect to all products manufactured at its Stallingborough TiO2 production facility in the UK as the result of an incident in early March which damaged units and required a temporary shutdown of the plant. The Pigments division of Huntsman Corp (www. huntsman.com/pigments) brought in further global price increases for all its TiO2 pigments. In Europe the increase is E100/tonne or US$150/tonne in dollar-based markets; in the USA US$0.05/lb and in Canada C$0.05/lb; and in the Asia-Pacific, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East US$150/tonne. Both Kronos Worldwide, Inc (www. kronostio2.com) and Tronox Inc (www.tronox.com) introduced a price increase of US$0.05/lb in North America; Tronox has also raised prices in Latin America by $150/ tonne, while Kronos has introduced a minimum increase of $150/tonne for all TiO2 products sold outside of North America and Europe from 15 April. Cytec Industries Inc (www.cytec.com) has announced a global selling price increase on its UV light stabilizer, antioxidant and antistatic agent product lines for polymers. The increase will range from 4–8%. Dover Chemicals (www.doverchem. com) introduced a US$.10/lb price increase on all Doverphos TNPP products, effective 1 March 2010, to offset the rise in costs, particularly of nonene and phenol. In France, a major increase of raw materials costs ‘supported by high demand in
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Additives for Polymers
Asia’ has prompted Eliokem (www.eliokem.com) to ‘readjust its pricing policy’ for Wingstay L antioxidant, with the selling price increased by 10%, instead of the 6% initially announced. It has also raised the price of its Chemigum and Sunigum elastomeric modifiers by up to 8% depending on the grade. And Lanxess (www.lanxess.com) has adjusted global prices for the rubber chemicals Vulkanox, Vulkacit and Renacit by up to E0.20/kg, depending on product and region. Arkema (www.arkema.com) has implemented a price increase of E80/tonne ($110/tonne) for all Evatane® high content ethylene vinyl acetate copolymers, used in technical polymer modification among diverse industrial applications. The Additives business unit of Clariant (www. clariant.com) has announced an increase in the price of its high-performance waxes for plastics and other applications, while Air Products (www.airproducts.com) increased prices for all polyurethane additives marketed under the Dabco® and Polycat® trade names by 6% globally. Eastman Chemical Co (www.eastman.com) is increasing prices on its Eastman™ TXIB Formulation Additive for flexible PVC by US$0.07/lb ($0.15/kg) in North America, $150/tonne in Latin America and the Asia-Pacific, and by E100/tonne in Europe. It has also introduced further increases in North and Latin American list and off-list prices for a range of plasticizers: Eastman DOP, DOA, DOA Kosher, TOTM, 425, 168 and 168-CA plasticizers are subject to increases of US$0.06/lb ($0.13/kg), while for DBP plasticizer the increase is $0.05/lb ($0.11/kg). In addition, the price of plasticizer intermediate 2-ethylhexanol was raised by $0.05/lb in North and Latin America on 1 April and by a further $0.07/lb ($0.154/kg) from 15 April.
Americhem expands product development lab capabilities to aid customers
C
olour and additive masterbatch firm Americhem Inc has added multilayer bottle blowing equipment to its packaging product development lab at the Cuyahoga Falls, OH, USA, manufacturing plant. It has also announced plans to install a spun-bonded nonwoven pilot line at its fibre product development lab in Dalton, GA. The new equipment at both labs allows for pilot runs, which will speed colour and additive product development for the company’s customers in the targeted industries.
May 2010
STRATEGIES
The company’s Ohio Packaging Design Center now boasts four bottle blowing machines with a range of manufacturing capabilities. In addition to multilayer blown bottles, Americhem can produce extrusion blowmoulded and single- and two-stage injection blowmoulded bottles. The facility also offers a ‘Match While You Wait’ service, which enables customers to walk away with a complete design and prototype samples during a one-day visit, it says. ‘By adding manufacturing simulation capacity to our design centre, we continue to stay on top of industry processing demand’, says Rod Manfull, Americhem’s general manager for moulding products. ‘We are able to replicate our customers’ processes and help them get differentiated products to market faster and more cost-effectively.’ The new technology will also aid in Americhem’s sustainability efforts, helping customers create multilayer packaging designs that combine the lowest cost with the least environmental impact, Manfull continues. At Dalton the new custom-made, spun-bonded line will be installed in the summer of 2010. It is designed to run 1 to 3 dpf (denier per filament) spun-bonded polypropylene samples. Customers will therefore be able to make visual assessments of nonwoven fabric at the same location where Americhem designs and manufactures the masterbatch products for the nonwovens market. This will allow product optimization while minimizing the amount of time and money required for trials on customers’ own equipment. ‘By adding nonwoven manufacturing simulation capacity to our design centre, we are unique among masterbatch manufacturers’, says Larry Campbell, Americhem’s global technology director for nonwoven fibres. Contact: Americhem, Inc, Cuyahoga Falls, OH, USA. Tel: +1 330 929 4213, Web: www.americhem.com
Schulman purchases masterbatch manufacturer McCann Color, consolidates production
A
Schulman, Inc has purchased fellow Ohiobased firm McCann Color, Inc, a producer of high-quality colour concentrates, for less than US$10 million in cash. The company has also
May 2010
decided to close its Polybatch Color Center located in Sharon Center, OH, and will consolidate production to the McCann facility in North Canton. McCann Color provides specially formulated colour concentrates to match precise customer specifications. Other products and services include UV absorbers, dry colour, toll compounding and blending, and flame retardant compounds. Its products are used in end markets such as packaging, lawn and garden, furniture, consumer products and appliances. McCann Color serves customers from its state-of-the-art, 48 000 ft2 (almost 4500 m2), expandable North Canton facility, which was built in 1998 exclusively to manufacture colour concentrates. The facility will complement Schulman’s existing masterbatch manufacturing and product development facilities in Akron, OH, and San Luis Potosi, Mexico. McCann Color is a ‘perfect fit’ with Americhem’s strategy to be a leading global manufacturer in the masterbatch business and, specifically, to advance the profitable growth of its North American colour operations, says A. Schulman’s CEO Joseph M. Gingo. ‘This strategic move allows us to gain a high-quality, custom colour operation that has the capacity, flexibility and efficiency to advance our growth in our targeted markets and reduce our dependence on the automotive market. We are extremely selective about the acquisitions we make, and McCann Color meets our criteria of providing growth opportunities for our business, generating maximum return on invested capital and creating additional shareholder value’, Gingo explains. The consolidation and the acquisition integration are expected to be completed by the end of the company’s current fiscal year, 31 August 2010. Including the acquisition and the Sharon Center restructuring, A. Schulman expects to show an annual operating income improvement of $2–$3 million, of which the full effect will be realized in fiscal 2011. The company posted revenues of $1.3 billion for the last fiscal year ended 31 August 2009, down from $1.98 billion the previous year. In its most recent financial results, for its fiscal 2010 second quarter ended 28 February, A. Schulman reported a net loss of $6.8 million on net sales of $331.0 million, which is an improvement on the same period a year earlier when the company reported a net loss of $10.5 million on sales of $272.7 million. Contact: A. Schulman, Inc, Akron, OH, USA. Tel: +1 330 666 3751, Web: www.aschulman.com
Additives for Polymers
9
Albemarle Corp (www.albemarle.com) has increased the price of its phosphorus-based NcendX® P30 (bisphenol A diphenyl phosphate) flame retardant by US$0.50/kg on all shipments. Brominated flame retardants Saytex HP-3010, HP-5010, 8010 and 4010 are subject to a 10% increase, Saytex 102E to a 15% rise and HP-7010 a 25% rise, while the price of Saytex CP-2000 has been raised by $0.25/kg. The company has also raised the global prices on all shipments of its Magnifin magnesium hydroxide flame retardants by up to 12%, depending on packaging type and grade, while prices of Martinal aluminium trihydrate flame retardants were increased by 25% on all shipments in the Americas after 15 April 2010. In addition, the company has raised global prices for elemental bromine and all grades of hydrobromic acid. Chemtura Corp (www.chemtura.com) has also increased prices in all regions on all brominebased products by up to 25%. Cristal Global (www.cristalglobal.com) has raised prices on all of its anatase and rutile Tiona® and Cristal titanium dioxide (TiO2) products by US$0.05/lb in the USA and Canada; by $100/tonne in Latin America, including Brazil and Mexico, and in the Middle East and Africa; by E100/ tonne in Europe; by $150/tonne in the Asia Pacific; and by A$100/tonne in Australia. The company was recently forced to declare Force Majeure with respect to all products manufactured at its Stallingborough TiO2 production facility in the UK as the result of an incident in early March which damaged units and required a temporary shutdown of the plant. The Pigments division of Huntsman Corp (www. huntsman.com/pigments) brought in further global price increases for all its TiO2 pigments. In Europe the increase is E100/tonne or US$150/tonne in dollar-based markets; in the USA US$0.05/lb and in Canada C$0.05/lb; and in the Asia-Pacific, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East US$150/tonne. Both Kronos Worldwide, Inc (www. kronostio2.com) and Tronox Inc (www.tronox.com) introduced a price increase of US$0.05/lb in North America; Tronox has also raised prices in Latin America by $150/ tonne, while Kronos has introduced a minimum increase of $150/tonne for all TiO2 products sold outside of North America and Europe from 15 April. Cytec Industries Inc (www.cytec.com) has announced a global selling price increase on its UV light stabilizer, antioxidant and antistatic agent product lines for polymers. The increase will range from 4–8%. Dover Chemicals (www.doverchem. com) introduced a US$.10/lb price increase on all Doverphos TNPP products, effective 1 March 2010, to offset the rise in costs, particularly of nonene and phenol. In France, a major increase of raw materials costs ‘supported by high demand in
8
Additives for Polymers
Asia’ has prompted Eliokem (www.eliokem.com) to ‘readjust its pricing policy’ for Wingstay L antioxidant, with the selling price increased by 10%, instead of the 6% initially announced. It has also raised the price of its Chemigum and Sunigum elastomeric modifiers by up to 8% depending on the grade. And Lanxess (www.lanxess.com) has adjusted global prices for the rubber chemicals Vulkanox, Vulkacit and Renacit by up to E0.20/kg, depending on product and region. Arkema (www.arkema.com) has implemented a price increase of E80/tonne ($110/tonne) for all Evatane® high content ethylene vinyl acetate copolymers, used in technical polymer modification among diverse industrial applications. The Additives business unit of Clariant (www. clariant.com) has announced an increase in the price of its high-performance waxes for plastics and other applications, while Air Products (www.airproducts.com) increased prices for all polyurethane additives marketed under the Dabco® and Polycat® trade names by 6% globally. Eastman Chemical Co (www.eastman.com) is increasing prices on its Eastman™ TXIB Formulation Additive for flexible PVC by US$0.07/lb ($0.15/kg) in North America, $150/tonne in Latin America and the Asia-Pacific, and by E100/tonne in Europe. It has also introduced further increases in North and Latin American list and off-list prices for a range of plasticizers: Eastman DOP, DOA, DOA Kosher, TOTM, 425, 168 and 168-CA plasticizers are subject to increases of US$0.06/lb ($0.13/kg), while for DBP plasticizer the increase is $0.05/lb ($0.11/kg). In addition, the price of plasticizer intermediate 2-ethylhexanol was raised by $0.05/lb in North and Latin America on 1 April and by a further $0.07/lb ($0.154/kg) from 15 April.
Americhem expands product development lab capabilities to aid customers
C
olour and additive masterbatch firm Americhem Inc has added multilayer bottle blowing equipment to its packaging product development lab at the Cuyahoga Falls, OH, USA, manufacturing plant. It has also announced plans to install a spun-bonded nonwoven pilot line at its fibre product development lab in Dalton, GA. The new equipment at both labs allows for pilot runs, which will speed colour and additive product development for the company’s customers in the targeted industries.
May 2010
STRATEGIES
The company’s Ohio Packaging Design Center now boasts four bottle blowing machines with a range of manufacturing capabilities. In addition to multilayer blown bottles, Americhem can produce extrusion blowmoulded and single- and two-stage injection blowmoulded bottles. The facility also offers a ‘Match While You Wait’ service, which enables customers to walk away with a complete design and prototype samples during a one-day visit, it says. ‘By adding manufacturing simulation capacity to our design centre, we continue to stay on top of industry processing demand’, says Rod Manfull, Americhem’s general manager for moulding products. ‘We are able to replicate our customers’ processes and help them get differentiated products to market faster and more cost-effectively.’ The new technology will also aid in Americhem’s sustainability efforts, helping customers create multilayer packaging designs that combine the lowest cost with the least environmental impact, Manfull continues. At Dalton the new custom-made, spun-bonded line will be installed in the summer of 2010. It is designed to run 1 to 3 dpf (denier per filament) spun-bonded polypropylene samples. Customers will therefore be able to make visual assessments of nonwoven fabric at the same location where Americhem designs and manufactures the masterbatch products for the nonwovens market. This will allow product optimization while minimizing the amount of time and money required for trials on customers’ own equipment. ‘By adding nonwoven manufacturing simulation capacity to our design centre, we are unique among masterbatch manufacturers’, says Larry Campbell, Americhem’s global technology director for nonwoven fibres. Contact: Americhem, Inc, Cuyahoga Falls, OH, USA. Tel: +1 330 929 4213, Web: www.americhem.com
Schulman purchases masterbatch manufacturer McCann Color, consolidates production
A
Schulman, Inc has purchased fellow Ohiobased firm McCann Color, Inc, a producer of high-quality colour concentrates, for less than US$10 million in cash. The company has also
May 2010
decided to close its Polybatch Color Center located in Sharon Center, OH, and will consolidate production to the McCann facility in North Canton. McCann Color provides specially formulated colour concentrates to match precise customer specifications. Other products and services include UV absorbers, dry colour, toll compounding and blending, and flame retardant compounds. Its products are used in end markets such as packaging, lawn and garden, furniture, consumer products and appliances. McCann Color serves customers from its state-of-the-art, 48 000 ft2 (almost 4500 m2), expandable North Canton facility, which was built in 1998 exclusively to manufacture colour concentrates. The facility will complement Schulman’s existing masterbatch manufacturing and product development facilities in Akron, OH, and San Luis Potosi, Mexico. McCann Color is a ‘perfect fit’ with Americhem’s strategy to be a leading global manufacturer in the masterbatch business and, specifically, to advance the profitable growth of its North American colour operations, says A. Schulman’s CEO Joseph M. Gingo. ‘This strategic move allows us to gain a high-quality, custom colour operation that has the capacity, flexibility and efficiency to advance our growth in our targeted markets and reduce our dependence on the automotive market. We are extremely selective about the acquisitions we make, and McCann Color meets our criteria of providing growth opportunities for our business, generating maximum return on invested capital and creating additional shareholder value’, Gingo explains. The consolidation and the acquisition integration are expected to be completed by the end of the company’s current fiscal year, 31 August 2010. Including the acquisition and the Sharon Center restructuring, A. Schulman expects to show an annual operating income improvement of $2–$3 million, of which the full effect will be realized in fiscal 2011. The company posted revenues of $1.3 billion for the last fiscal year ended 31 August 2009, down from $1.98 billion the previous year. In its most recent financial results, for its fiscal 2010 second quarter ended 28 February, A. Schulman reported a net loss of $6.8 million on net sales of $331.0 million, which is an improvement on the same period a year earlier when the company reported a net loss of $10.5 million on sales of $272.7 million. Contact: A. Schulman, Inc, Akron, OH, USA. Tel: +1 330 666 3751, Web: www.aschulman.com
Additives for Polymers
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