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Thailand: Best Plastics – masterbatch
FOCUS Israel: Dimona – precipitated silica from porcellanite Dimona Silica Industries Ltd (DSI) recently completed the construction of facilities at Dimona in the Negev Desert for mining and processing porcellanite to make 40,000 tonnes/y of precipitated silica. There are substantial deposits of porcellanite, containing 40-45% of amorphous silica, in this region. As well as having abundant raw materials, sufficient to support operations at current levels for more than 200 years, DSI also has access to relatively low energy costs thanks to the proximity of a 115 MWh power station. DSI sells its precipitated silica under the Dimosil brandname, mainly to tyre manufacturers. During 2007, the company plans to launch its range of highly dispersible (HD) silicas. The company also supplies precipitated calcium carbonate for applications in paper, paint, rubber and plastics. Chemical Week, 27 Sep 2006, 168 (32), 20-21
Italy & Germany: Eckart – aluminium pigment pastes Eckart (now part of the Altana Chemie group) intends to close its aluminium pigment pastes facility at Porto Marghera at the end of 2006. This will result in 36 redundancies. Production of aluminium pigment pastes will be transferred to Eckart’s existing pigment paste plants at Rivanazzano (Italy) and at Velden and Wackersdorf (Germany). Meanwhile, underlying its focus on the fine chemicals sector, Altana recently sold its pharmaceuticals business to Nycomed for €4.5 bn. Chimie Pharma Hebdo, 23 Oct 2006, (356), 14 (in French)
Spain: Ferro – ceramic colorants Ferro Corp (of Cleveland, OH) is nearing completion of two new plants at Castellon for making pigmented inks suitable for use in decorating ceramic tiles. The company intends to begin shipments from these plants in December 2006. Ferro was a pioneer in supplying decorative inks for ceramic tiles and the products from Castellon – to be sold under the brandname KeramInk – are described as “second generation products.”
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Ferro has now embarked on a project to build a 20,000 tonnes/y plant for making ceramic tile colorants (glaze stains and body stains) at Castellon. This plant, which will have a floor area of 12,000 square metres, should be ready by October 2007. Chimie Pharma Hebdo, 2 Oct 2006, (354), 10 (in French) & ICIS Chemical Business Americas, 2 Oct 2006, (Website: http://www.icbamericas.com)
Thailand: Best Plastics – masterbatch Best Plastics Technology Co Ltd has announced plans for a 30% increase in its plastic masterbatches capacity at its plant in Bangkok. This will entail installing six new extrusion lines at a cost of Baht 55.8 M (about $1.5 M), raising capacity to 15,000 tonnes/y by the end of 2007. Best Plastics reported sales revenue at Baht 186 M (about $5 M) for the latest fiscal year. The company intends to concentrate on producing masterbatches based on acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), polypropylene and engineering resins. At present, there is no domestic source for these resins. Plastics News, 22 Sep 2006, (Website: http://www.plasticsnews.com)
UK: Fujifilm – laser printer colorants At its Grangemouth research and development centre, Fujifilm Imaging Colorants Ltd (FFIC, part of the Japanese-owned Fuji Photo Film group) plans to spend £2.5 M to develop a range of toner colours for laser printers and a special chemical drying process. The investment will be backed by grants from Scottish Enterprise Forth Valley, a Government agency. Ms Laura Murphy (of FFIC) said: “Development of our product range and a constant focus on process efficiency are critical for FFIC to retain and grow its global market position.” The Grangemouth centre and the associated production facilities were part of the £150 M package of assets acquired by Fuji from Avecia in February 2006. This acquisition followed two other important acquisitions by the Fuji group, namely the Microelectronic Materials division of Arch Chemicals (of the US) and the industrial printing inks business of Sericol (of the UK).
Total sales revenues from Fuji’s printing-related activities are expected to reach Yen 300 bn in 2008/09, compared against Yen 220 bn in the year to end-March 2005. Chemical and Engineering News, 25 Sep 2006, 84 (39), 47-48 (Website: http://www.cen-online.org)
US: Tronox – TiO2 During September 2006, Tronox Inc suffered problems with nitrogen supplies at its 110,000 tonnes/y chloride-route TiO2 pigment plant at Savannah, GA, resulting in an unscheduled drop in output. Consequent losses were of the order of $1-2 M, which showed up in the company’s reported financial results for 3Q 2006. Supplies of nitrogen were restored to normal on 16 September. Chemical Week, 27 Sep 2006 (Website: http://www.chemweek.com)
TECHNOLOGY Alqemia Tracer masterbatches in the battle against counterfeiting The Alqemia group recently launched its Tracer range of plastic masterbatches to help to prevent counterfeiting of CDs, CD-ROMs, DVDs and packaging for electronic, medical and cosmetic products. The masterbatches incorporate special mineral particles in the 1-2 micron range and they can be easily detected at concentrations down to a few parts per billion using a special hand-held instrument, which is about the size of a mobile phone. The concept is that genuine copyright articles could be shown to contain Tracer, whereas counterfeits and forgeries could not. The Alqemia group (with headquarters at Rotterdam) is a holding company for three masterbatch producers, which continue to market their products under their own brandnames. They are: Kafrit (of Negev, Israel); Areton (of Wrexham, North Wales); and Constab (of Ruethen, Germany). The Dutch distributor for masterbatches from this group is Will & Co (of Badhoevedorp, near Amsterdam). Kunststof en Rubber, Sep 2006, 59 (9), 87 (in Dutch)
NOVEMBER 2006
Italy & Germany: Eckart – aluminium pigment pastes Eckart (now part of the Altana Chemie group) intends to close its aluminium pigment pastes facility at Porto Marghera at the end of 2006. This will result in 36 redundancies. Production of aluminium pigment pastes will be transferred to Eckart’s existing pigment paste plants at Rivanazzano (Italy) and at Velden and Wackersdorf (Germany). Meanwhile, underlying its focus on the fine chemicals sector, Altana recently sold its pharmaceuticals business to Nycomed for €4.5 bn. Chimie Pharma Hebdo, 23 Oct 2006, (356), 14 (in French)
Spain: Ferro – ceramic colorants Ferro Corp (of Cleveland, OH) is nearing completion of two new plants at Castellon for making pigmented inks suitable for use in decorating ceramic tiles. The company intends to begin shipments from these plants in December 2006. Ferro was a pioneer in supplying decorative inks for ceramic tiles and the products from Castellon – to be sold under the brandname KeramInk – are described as “second generation products.”
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Ferro has now embarked on a project to build a 20,000 tonnes/y plant for making ceramic tile colorants (glaze stains and body stains) at Castellon. This plant, which will have a floor area of 12,000 square metres, should be ready by October 2007. Chimie Pharma Hebdo, 2 Oct 2006, (354), 10 (in French) & ICIS Chemical Business Americas, 2 Oct 2006, (Website: http://www.icbamericas.com)
Thailand: Best Plastics – masterbatch Best Plastics Technology Co Ltd has announced plans for a 30% increase in its plastic masterbatches capacity at its plant in Bangkok. This will entail installing six new extrusion lines at a cost of Baht 55.8 M (about $1.5 M), raising capacity to 15,000 tonnes/y by the end of 2007. Best Plastics reported sales revenue at Baht 186 M (about $5 M) for the latest fiscal year. The company intends to concentrate on producing masterbatches based on acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), polypropylene and engineering resins. At present, there is no domestic source for these resins. Plastics News, 22 Sep 2006, (Website: http://www.plasticsnews.com)
UK: Fujifilm – laser printer colorants At its Grangemouth research and development centre, Fujifilm Imaging Colorants Ltd (FFIC, part of the Japanese-owned Fuji Photo Film group) plans to spend £2.5 M to develop a range of toner colours for laser printers and a special chemical drying process. The investment will be backed by grants from Scottish Enterprise Forth Valley, a Government agency. Ms Laura Murphy (of FFIC) said: “Development of our product range and a constant focus on process efficiency are critical for FFIC to retain and grow its global market position.” The Grangemouth centre and the associated production facilities were part of the £150 M package of assets acquired by Fuji from Avecia in February 2006. This acquisition followed two other important acquisitions by the Fuji group, namely the Microelectronic Materials division of Arch Chemicals (of the US) and the industrial printing inks business of Sericol (of the UK).
Total sales revenues from Fuji’s printing-related activities are expected to reach Yen 300 bn in 2008/09, compared against Yen 220 bn in the year to end-March 2005. Chemical and Engineering News, 25 Sep 2006, 84 (39), 47-48 (Website: http://www.cen-online.org)
US: Tronox – TiO2 During September 2006, Tronox Inc suffered problems with nitrogen supplies at its 110,000 tonnes/y chloride-route TiO2 pigment plant at Savannah, GA, resulting in an unscheduled drop in output. Consequent losses were of the order of $1-2 M, which showed up in the company’s reported financial results for 3Q 2006. Supplies of nitrogen were restored to normal on 16 September. Chemical Week, 27 Sep 2006 (Website: http://www.chemweek.com)
TECHNOLOGY Alqemia Tracer masterbatches in the battle against counterfeiting The Alqemia group recently launched its Tracer range of plastic masterbatches to help to prevent counterfeiting of CDs, CD-ROMs, DVDs and packaging for electronic, medical and cosmetic products. The masterbatches incorporate special mineral particles in the 1-2 micron range and they can be easily detected at concentrations down to a few parts per billion using a special hand-held instrument, which is about the size of a mobile phone. The concept is that genuine copyright articles could be shown to contain Tracer, whereas counterfeits and forgeries could not. The Alqemia group (with headquarters at Rotterdam) is a holding company for three masterbatch producers, which continue to market their products under their own brandnames. They are: Kafrit (of Negev, Israel); Areton (of Wrexham, North Wales); and Constab (of Ruethen, Germany). The Dutch distributor for masterbatches from this group is Will & Co (of Badhoevedorp, near Amsterdam). Kunststof en Rubber, Sep 2006, 59 (9), 87 (in Dutch)
NOVEMBER 2006