FOCUS The three plant closures at Evansville and the plant closure at Akron will result in a net workforce reduction of 26 people. Commenting on the move, Mr Bernard Rzepka (President & CEO) said: "We are swiftly executing our integration of Citadel. While these decisions are not easy for those impacted, the additional Citadel plants in the Evansville area required that we evaluate our capacity utilisation and manufacturing capabilities, so as to achieve efficiencies and cost savings.'' Employee severance and similar expenses will result in a charge of $2-3 M, to be booked in the company's financial results for the quarter to endNovember 2015. In addition, Schulman will take a charge of $5-6 M in respect of accelerated depreciation for machinery and equipment. The company expects the rationalisation to generate savings of $9.5 M per annum. For the year to end-August 2015, Schulman reported post-tax income at $24.2 M on sales revenues of $2.39 bn, compared against $56.2 M on $2.45 bn for the previous year. Sales revenue for the latest year breaks down as: 33% from plastic compounds; 31% from masterbatches; 8% from custom colour concentrates; 13% from distribution services; 12% from speciality powders; and 2% from composites. Europe, the Middle East and Africa remained by far the most important market region for Schulman in 2014/15. Thanks to the contribution from activities acquired from Citadel, North America will account for a substantially larger share of total sales revenue in 2015/16. Schulman reports its sales data in terms of both volume and value for each of the four major market regions of the world. Sales volumes increased: by 19% to 34,300 tonnes of custom colorants; by 11% to 349,200 tonnes of plastics masterbatch; and by 21% to 263,200 tonnes of plastic compounds. However, average realised selling prices for all three product groups were lower in the year to end-August 2015, compared against the previous year. In 2014/15, the company's average realised selling price for masterbatch worldwide was $2.12 per kilo, but regional prices ranged from $1.49 per kilo for North America to $3.13 per kilo for Latin America. The company's average realised selling price for custom colour concentrates worldwide was $5.58 per kilo, but regional prices ranged from $2.82 per kilo for Asia/ Pacific to $6.46 per kilo for North America. The company's average realised selling price for plastic compounds worldwide was $2.99 per
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kilo, but regional prices ranged from $2.92 per kilo for Latin America to $3.10 per kilo for North America. Original Source: Compounding World, Nov 2015, 12 (Website: http://www.amiplastics. com/mags) © Applied Market Information Ltd 2015. Original Source: A Schulman Inc, 20 Oct 2015 (3637 Ridgewood Road, Fairlawn, OH 44321-1678, USA, Website: http://www. aschulman.com) © Schulman 2015
US: Techmer PM – plastic compounds Techmer PM is building a new plastics compounding plant at NewCastle (10 km south of Wilmington in the state of Delaware. The commissioning phase of the project should be completed in January 2016 and full-scale production should be achieved during 2Q 2016. The new facility will replace Techmer's plant at Aston, PA (20 km northwest of Wilmington) and it will have 50% more capacity than the Aston plant. Most of the 60 workers at Aston will be offered transfers to NewCastle and more than 40 new employees will have to be recruited. Like the Aston plant, the NewCastle plant will manufacture mainly coloured, impact-modified and filled compounds for transportation, business machines and military applications. Original Source: Plastics News, 26 Oct 2015, (Website: http://www.plasticsnews.com) © Crain Communications Inc 2015
COMPANIES Frutarom buys Amco (of Poland) & Incentive/Prowin (of China) Frutarom Industries (headquartered in Herzelia, Israel), one of the world's top ten suppliers of natural colours and flavour additives) made two more acquisitions towards the end of 2015, bringing the total number of acquisitions for the year to 12. Frutarom paid $20.7 M to buy a 75% majority stake in Amco (of Poland). Frutarom also has an option to acquire the remaining 25% of the equity in Amco at any time prior to June 2018. Amco has a plant and a research centre in Warsaw, developing and producing savoury flavours, including seasoning blends, marinades and other functional ingredients for the food processing sector. Amco has a workforce of 70 people, including 12 scientific
researchers, and it generated sales revenues of $19.5 M for the year to end-September 2015. In mid-December 2015, Frutarom signed an agreement to buy Inventive Technology Ltd. and Prowin International Ltd for a total of $17 M. The purchase agreement includes a mechanism for future payments by Frutarom conditional on the company's business performance over the three year period following the acquisition. Inventive and Prowin specialise in producing and combining flavours with fruit components, chocolate, grains and nuts in dairy products, ice creams, pastries and beverages. The two companies share marketing headquarters in Hong Kong, a research centre and a sales office in Shanghai, and a production facility at Zhaoqing (100 km west of Foshan, Guangdong province). The company's products are sold to customers in China, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and South America. Sales revenues for the year to end-October 2015 were around $13.7 M. Frutarom sees this acquisition as providing an important platform for boosting its marketing presence in China for its entire product portfolio, including natural food colours. Original Source: Chimie Pharma Hebdo, 16 Nov 2015, (738) & 14 Dec 2015, (742), (Website: http://www.industrie.com/chimie) (in French) © ETAI Information 2015
PolyOne buys Magenta masterbatch business from BASF PolyOne paid BASF $22 M to acquire the entire assets and business of Magenta Master Fibres Sarl (MMF), effective 9 December 2015. MMF produces masterbatches and solid colour concentrates for the mass dyeing of polyester and polyamide fibres at plants in Magenta (30 km west of Milan, Italy) and Shanghai (China). MMF was founded in 1976. Ciba took a majority stake in the company in 1998 and this was inherited by BASF when it acquired the Ciba Specialty Chemicals group in early 2009. MMF's sales revenue for 2016 has been forecast at $16 M. BASF's masterbatch business will now be focused on producing customised colour masterbatches at its plant in Cologne (Germany). Original Source: BASF, 9 Dec 2015 (Carl Bosch Strasse 38, 67056 Ludwigshafen, Germany, Website: http://www.basf.com) © BASF 2015
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