- Email: [email protected]
US: Schulman – plastics masterbatch, colorants & compounds
FOCUS Omya also confirmed the closure of its Kimberly PCC plant (160 km north of Milwaukee, WI). This facility was one of four PCC plants purchased from Imerys towards the end of 2013. Its closure entailed 21 job losses. Original Source: Omya AG, 26 Jun 2015 (Baslerstrasse 42, 4665 Oftringen, Switzerland, Website: http://www.omya.com) © Omya 2015
US: Chemours & Dow – aniline Chemours has signed a definitive agreement to sell its 172,000 tonnes/y Beaumont, TX aniline plant to Dow Chemical for $140 M. The transaction will probably be concluded in 1Q 2016. As part of the agreement, Chemours will continue to meet Dow's additional aniline requirements from its plant at Pascagoula, MS. Commenting on the deal, Mr Vergnano (CEO of Chemours) said: "Dow owning the Beaumont aniline facility is a natural fit, since Dow has been our largest aniline customer for many years." Chemours was spun off as a separate entity from DuPont, effective 1 July 2015. Aniline had been an important component of DuPont's industrial chemicals business onwards from 2002 when the company acquired ChemFirst Inc for $408 M, propelling DuPont into market leadership in the US aniline industry, with a 25% market share. Prior to the Chemours spin-off, DuPont had sold its 250,000 tonnes/y aniline plant at Baytown, TX to the Bayer group. The sale of the Beaumont plant will leave Chemours with just one aniline plant – a 250,000 tonnes/y plant at Pascagoula, MS. In the US aniline market as a whole, the manufacture of methylene diphenyl isocyanate (MDI) for the polyurethane sector accounts for nearly 70% of consumption. Less than 5% of aniline consumption is accounted for by the dyes and colorants sector. Original Source: Chemours Co, 19 Nov 2015 (1007 Market Street, PO Box 2047, Wilmington, DE 19899, USA, Website: http:// www.chemours.com) © Chemours 2015
US: Huber – GCC Huber Carbonates LLC, a subsidiary within the JM Huber group (headquartered in Edison, NJ) plans to substantially increase capacity at its ground calcium carbonate (GCC) plant at Marble Hill (100 km north of Atlanta, GA). The company has also recently completed a significant expansion at its GCC plant in Quincy, IL (on the
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Mississippi River, 225 km northwest of St Louis, MO). No absolute figures were quoted to indicate the tonnage volumes or budgeted capital investments involved. Huber's industrial GCC products are used in a variety of applications, including: building materials, drilling fluids, rubber; thermoset composites, thermoplastics, swimming pool plasters, pet foods, cultured marble, paints, adhesives, caulks and sealants. Mr Matt O'Brien (Vice President & General Manager, GCC) said: "These continuing investments to expand and improve our manufacturing capabilities underline Huber's long-term commitment to the GCC business and the customers we serve." Original Source: Huber Engineered Materials, 14 Dec 2015 (Cumberland Center II, Suite 600, 3100 Cumberland Boulevard, Atlanta, GA 30339, USA, Website: http://www. hubermaterials.com) © JM Huber Corp 2015
US: S&E Specialty Polymers – masterbatch S&E Specialty Polymers LLC extended its masterbatch tolling capacity to 7000 tonnes/y last year and increased its workforce to 64 people. As well as making masterbatch to customer requirements, the company produces up to 23,000 tonnes/y of plastic compounds, based on polyvinyl chloride (PVC), PVC alloys, thermoplastic polyolefins and rubbers (TPOs and
TPRs). The company is based at Lunenburg. MA (about 70 km northwest of Boston). Original Source: Compounding World, Nov 2015, 74 (Website: http://www.amiplastics. com/mags) © Applied Market Information Ltd 2015
US: Schulman – plastics masterbatch, colorants & compounds Following its $800 M acquisition of HGGC Citadel Plastics, effective 1 June 2015, A Schulman Inc has announced that it will rationalise its activities in the Evansville, IN area (270 km southwest of Indianapolis). At its creation in 2007, Citadel inherited the business of Matrixx Group Inc (headquartered in Evansville) and then went on to acquire two other Evansville-based companies, namely Lucent Polymers and Quality Thermoplastic Resins. (See also 'Focus on Pigments', Jul 2015, 7). A plant at Evansville was one of the five acquired by Schulman from Ferro Corp in mid2014. (See also 'Focus on Pigments', Aug 2014, 7). Altogether, Schulman currently has seven separate plants in the Evansville area. Three of these plants have been earmarked for closure, with production to be transferred to the remaining four plants. In addition, Schulman will close a plastic compounding plant at Akron, OH, shifting production from this plant to one of the Evansville facilities.
Schulman: Sales Volume & Value, by Region & Product Type North America
Latin America
EMEA
Asia/ Pacific
Total World
Custom colours 2014 2015 2014 2015
($ M) ($ M) (M kilos) (M kilos)
34.1 44.3 4.8 6.8
4.0 4.6 0.8 0.8
146.6 131.6 22.0 22.7
3.5 11.0 1.2 3.9
188.2 191.5 28.9 34.3
137.0 156.5 90.8 105.0
95.2 91.2 28.4 29.1
452.9 412.5 160.7 178.0
81.7 81.1 33.4 37.1
766.8 741.4 313.4 349.2
133.6 245.0 38.9 86.7
51.2 46.2 16.5 15.8
475.0 391.4 133.5 126.1
94.0 104.6 28.1 34.6
753.7 787.3 217.0 263.2
Masterbatch 2014 2015 2014 2015
($ M) ($ M) (M kilos) (M kilos)
Plastic compounds 2014 2015 2014 2015
($ M) ($ M) (M kilos) (M kilos)
Europe, Middle East & Africa Annual data relates to Schulman’s fiscal year, from 1 Sep to 31 Aug
January 2016
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
January 2016
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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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US: Chemours & Dow – aniline Chemours has signed a definitive agreement to sell its 172,000 tonnes/y Beaumont, TX aniline plant to Dow Chemical for $140 M. The transaction will probably be concluded in 1Q 2016. As part of the agreement, Chemours will continue to meet Dow's additional aniline requirements from its plant at Pascagoula, MS. Commenting on the deal, Mr Vergnano (CEO of Chemours) said: "Dow owning the Beaumont aniline facility is a natural fit, since Dow has been our largest aniline customer for many years." Chemours was spun off as a separate entity from DuPont, effective 1 July 2015. Aniline had been an important component of DuPont's industrial chemicals business onwards from 2002 when the company acquired ChemFirst Inc for $408 M, propelling DuPont into market leadership in the US aniline industry, with a 25% market share. Prior to the Chemours spin-off, DuPont had sold its 250,000 tonnes/y aniline plant at Baytown, TX to the Bayer group. The sale of the Beaumont plant will leave Chemours with just one aniline plant – a 250,000 tonnes/y plant at Pascagoula, MS. In the US aniline market as a whole, the manufacture of methylene diphenyl isocyanate (MDI) for the polyurethane sector accounts for nearly 70% of consumption. Less than 5% of aniline consumption is accounted for by the dyes and colorants sector. Original Source: Chemours Co, 19 Nov 2015 (1007 Market Street, PO Box 2047, Wilmington, DE 19899, USA, Website: http:// www.chemours.com) © Chemours 2015
US: Huber – GCC Huber Carbonates LLC, a subsidiary within the JM Huber group (headquartered in Edison, NJ) plans to substantially increase capacity at its ground calcium carbonate (GCC) plant at Marble Hill (100 km north of Atlanta, GA). The company has also recently completed a significant expansion at its GCC plant in Quincy, IL (on the
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Mississippi River, 225 km northwest of St Louis, MO). No absolute figures were quoted to indicate the tonnage volumes or budgeted capital investments involved. Huber's industrial GCC products are used in a variety of applications, including: building materials, drilling fluids, rubber; thermoset composites, thermoplastics, swimming pool plasters, pet foods, cultured marble, paints, adhesives, caulks and sealants. Mr Matt O'Brien (Vice President & General Manager, GCC) said: "These continuing investments to expand and improve our manufacturing capabilities underline Huber's long-term commitment to the GCC business and the customers we serve." Original Source: Huber Engineered Materials, 14 Dec 2015 (Cumberland Center II, Suite 600, 3100 Cumberland Boulevard, Atlanta, GA 30339, USA, Website: http://www. hubermaterials.com) © JM Huber Corp 2015
US: S&E Specialty Polymers – masterbatch S&E Specialty Polymers LLC extended its masterbatch tolling capacity to 7000 tonnes/y last year and increased its workforce to 64 people. As well as making masterbatch to customer requirements, the company produces up to 23,000 tonnes/y of plastic compounds, based on polyvinyl chloride (PVC), PVC alloys, thermoplastic polyolefins and rubbers (TPOs and
TPRs). The company is based at Lunenburg. MA (about 70 km northwest of Boston). Original Source: Compounding World, Nov 2015, 74 (Website: http://www.amiplastics. com/mags) © Applied Market Information Ltd 2015
US: Schulman – plastics masterbatch, colorants & compounds Following its $800 M acquisition of HGGC Citadel Plastics, effective 1 June 2015, A Schulman Inc has announced that it will rationalise its activities in the Evansville, IN area (270 km southwest of Indianapolis). At its creation in 2007, Citadel inherited the business of Matrixx Group Inc (headquartered in Evansville) and then went on to acquire two other Evansville-based companies, namely Lucent Polymers and Quality Thermoplastic Resins. (See also 'Focus on Pigments', Jul 2015, 7). A plant at Evansville was one of the five acquired by Schulman from Ferro Corp in mid2014. (See also 'Focus on Pigments', Aug 2014, 7). Altogether, Schulman currently has seven separate plants in the Evansville area. Three of these plants have been earmarked for closure, with production to be transferred to the remaining four plants. In addition, Schulman will close a plastic compounding plant at Akron, OH, shifting production from this plant to one of the Evansville facilities.
Schulman: Sales Volume & Value, by Region & Product Type North America
Latin America
EMEA
Asia/ Pacific
Total World
Custom colours 2014 2015 2014 2015
($ M) ($ M) (M kilos) (M kilos)
34.1 44.3 4.8 6.8
4.0 4.6 0.8 0.8
146.6 131.6 22.0 22.7
3.5 11.0 1.2 3.9
188.2 191.5 28.9 34.3
137.0 156.5 90.8 105.0
95.2 91.2 28.4 29.1
452.9 412.5 160.7 178.0
81.7 81.1 33.4 37.1
766.8 741.4 313.4 349.2
133.6 245.0 38.9 86.7
51.2 46.2 16.5 15.8
475.0 391.4 133.5 126.1
94.0 104.6 28.1 34.6
753.7 787.3 217.0 263.2
Masterbatch 2014 2015 2014 2015
($ M) ($ M) (M kilos) (M kilos)
Plastic compounds 2014 2015 2014 2015
($ M) ($ M) (M kilos) (M kilos)
Europe, Middle East & Africa Annual data relates to Schulman’s fiscal year, from 1 Sep to 31 Aug
January 2016
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
January 2016
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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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