- Email: [email protected]
US: Zinc Oxide LLC – ZnO
F O C US applications will be in the paint and cosmetic sectors, but the company is also developing a range of natural pigments suitable for use in concrete construction products. Original Source: Chimie Pharma Hebdo, 3 Nov 2014, (694), (Website: http://www.industrie.com/chimie) (in French) © ETAI Information 2014
France: Viba – masterbatch Viba (headquartered at Tradate, 50 km northwest of Milan) is one of the top ten masterbatch suppliers in Europe, but, because of subdued market conditions, the company’s French subsidiary became unprofitable and it was declared bankrupt by the Tribunal de Grande Instance at Sarreguemines in March 2014. The company’s plant, located at the Forbach Sud Technical Park in Folkling (20 km west of Sarreguemines) was shut down soon after that. Most of the equipment was sold by auction in mid-October. Viba’s plant at Folkling had startedup in 2002. Immediately prior to its closure, it had nine extrusion lines and employed 33 people. With the closure of the French plant and the closure of its Hungarian plant five years ago, Viba now has only three masterbatch plants – Tradate and Rome (Italy) plus Barcelona (Spain). Original Source: Compounding World, Oct 2014, 5 (Website: http://www.amiplastics.com/mags) © Applied Market Information Ltd 2014
Germany: Carbon Clean Tech – carbon black ex-scrap tyres Carbon Clean Tech GmbH (CCT, headquartered in Potsdam) has developed a process for recovering carbon black from post-consumer scrap rubber, mainly tyres. Besides recovered carbon black, described by the company as rCB, the process yields by-product compressed metals and oil. Less than 4% of the original input weight is left as residual waste. Relatively few technical details have been released and the company stresses that its focus is on manufacturing and marketing products, not on licensing technology. The carbon black product can be used as a “drop-in replacement” for conventional carbon black in plastics masterbatches.
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CCT’s first production plant, with undisclosed capacity, has been operating at Möckern (25 km east of Magdeburg) onwards from mid-2012. The company is now planning to build a second plant, which will be capable of producing 14,500 tonnes/y of rCB. This plant should be ready for production before the end of 2016. Original Source: Compounding World, Nov 2014, 3738,41 (Website: http://www.amiplastics.com/mags) © Applied Market Information Ltd 2014. Original Source: Carbon Clean Tech GmbH, Gregor Mendelstr 26, 14469 Potsdam, Germany, website: http://www.carbon-clean-tech.com (14 Dec 2014) © Carbon Clean Tech GmbH 2014
US & Netherlands: Penn Color – masterbatch Penn Color Inc (headquartered in Doylestown, PA) plans to spend more than $10 M to expand its plastics masterbatch plant at Hatfield, PA (50 km northwest of Philadelphia). In addition to raising capacity, the investment will cover the expansion of its research centre to accommodate the design and development of new colour and additive masterbatches. The company is also raising capacity at its Venray plant (30 km northwest of Venlo in the eastern Netherlands) thanks to the installation of a new twin-screw extruder. Altogether, Penn Color has seven masterbatch plants – Hatfield, PA; Elmwood Park, NJ; Richmond, VA; Milton, WI and Ringgold, GA (all in the United States); Venray (Netherlands) and Mumbai (India). The company also has a sales office in Shanghai. It has more than 650 employees worldwide and generates annual sales revenues in excess of $200 M. Original Source: Plastics News, 28 Nov 2014, (Website: http://www.plasticsnews.com) © Crain Communications Inc 2014
US: Brilliant Group – fluorescent pigments, dispersions & concentrates Brilliant Group Inc (headquartered in Richmond, CA, 25 km north of San Francisco city-centre) recently opened its first manufacturing complex, located on a 0.2 hectares site in the Richmond area. Hitherto, the company has relied on contract manufacturing by third parties. The new complex includes facilities for making fluorescent pigments as
powders, dispersions and concentrates for applications in the paint, plastic and textile industries. The company was founded by Mr Darren Bianchi in 2007. By then, Mr Bianchi had more than 15 years’ experience in the fluorescent pigments industry, first with Radiant Color and then with the Dane/Swada group. Both companies are now subsidiaries of RPM/DayGlo. Mr Bianchi is still the Chief Executive of Brilliant Group. Speaking at the inauguration of the new plant, he said: “This will dramatically improve our ability to serve our customers in a wide range of areas from logistics and flow of goods to new product development. With our enhanced capabilities, we look forward to bringing new and innovative products to the market.” Original Source: Plastics News, 3 Nov 2014, (Website: http://www.plasticsnews.com) © Crain Communications Inc 2014
US: Schulman – masterbatch Earlier this year, A Schulman Inc paid $91 M to acquire five plants from Ferro Corp producing customengineered plastic compounds and colorants. (See also ‘Focus on Pigments’, Aug 2014, 7). One of those plants was the colour concentrates and additives facility located at Stryker, OH (about 90 km west of Toledo). Now, Schulman has declared that it will close this plant by the end of April 2015, transferring production to some of its other plants in North America. The move is expected to generate operational savings of around $4 M per annum. As a result of the plant closure, there will be 70 job redundancies Schulman will show a $3 M charge in its accounts for the three months to end-November 2014. Further savings will accrue as a result of Schulman’s programme to eliminate 10 administrative jobs in North America during the current fiscal year. Original Source: Plastics News, 17 Nov 2014, (Website: http://www.plasticsnews.com) © Crain Communications Inc 2014
US: Zinc Oxide LLC – ZnO On 15 October 2014, Zinc Oxide LLC held a ceremony to celebrate the inauguration of its new 40,000 JANUARY 2015
F O C US tonnes/y zinc oxide plant at Dickson, TN (65 bkm west of Nashville). The event was timed to coincide with the end of the International Elastomers Conference (11-14 October), convened at Nashville. The company was founded two years ago and it is owned and managed by eight men who have a combined total of more than 250 years’ experience in the zinc oxide business, mostly with US Zinc Corp (part of the Votorantim group since 2007). The new plant at Dickson is the first zinc oxide to be built in North America for more than 20 years. It employs the conventional French process (aka indirect process), in which metallic zinc is melted in a specially designed reaction vessel and then vaporised at around 1000°C. The metallic zinc vapour reacts with air to create zinc oxide and the zinc oxide particles are then transported into a cooling duct for collection in bag filters (See also ‘Focus on Pigments’, Feb 2014, 4-5). The plant absorbed nearly $30 M in capital investment and it was built on a 23.5 hectares site formerly occupied by Wabash Alloys. Together with some of the buildings, including the building that houses the new zinc oxide plant, the site has two rail sidings and five loading bays. The plant, which currently occupies a floor area of 1.6 hectares, consists of two high-efficiency muffle furnaces. A project to install a third furnace is well underway. Ultimately, the company intends to have six muffle furnaces in operation. To ensure uninterrupted plant operation, a 1500 kW electricity generator and a 115 kilolitre propane tank were installed as part of the project. As marketing agents, Zinc Oxide LLC has appointed: TMC Materials Inc (headquartered in Shrewsbury, MA); Lintech International LLC (headquartered in Macon, GA); Greenview Chemical (headquartered in Chicago, IL); ChemSpec Ltd (headquartered in Uniontown, OH); and Cary Co (headquartered in Addison, IL). Original Source: Rubber and Plastics News, 11 Aug 2014, 44 (1), 18 (Website: http://www.rubbernews.com) © Crain Communications Inc 2014. Original Source: Zinc Oxide LLC, 600 Printwood Drive, Dickson, TN 37055, USA, website: http://www.zn-oxide.com (30 Jul 2014 & 8 Aug 2014 & 9 Dec 2014) © Zinc Oxide LLC 2014
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COMPANIES Americhem buys LTL Compounders Americhem Inc (headquartered at Cuyahoga Falls, 10 km north of Akron, OH) has acquired the entire business and assets of LTL Color Compounders Inc (headquartered at Philadelphia, PA). The value of the transaction was not disclosed. LTL Compounders produces colour compounds based on engineering resins at two plants – Morrisville, PA (50 km northeast of Philadelphia) and Dongguan (70 km east of Guangzhou, China). Americhem plans to combine the LTL business with its existing Infinity Compounding business, creating a new operating unit – Infinity LTL Engineered Compounds. Americhem is best known as a masterbatch producer, with plants at: Cuyahoga Falls, OH; Concord, NC; Liberty, NC; Dalton, GA; Mansfield, TX; Manchester (northwest England); and Suzhou (Jiangsu province, China). Original Source: Plastics News, 3 Dec 2014, (Website: http://www.plasticsnews.com) © Crain Communications Inc 2014. Original Source: Americhem Inc, 2000 Americhem Way, Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44221, USA, website: http://www.americhem.com (3 Dec 2014) © Americhem 2014
Axieo becomes largest masterbatch producer in Oceania, thanks to purchase of Nuplex assets Nuplex Industries (formerly known as Revertex) has sold its Masterbatch and Specialties business units to Axieo Ltd, a new company created by Champ Private Equity (with principal offices in Sydney and Brisbane). Axieo has thus become the largest masterbatch producer in Australia and New Zealand, as well as having a masterbatch plant in Vietnam. Mr Sam Bastounas (formerly Regional President of Nuplex) has been appointed as CEO of Axieo. Champ Private Equity paid A$127.5 M to acquire the Nuplex businesses. The transfer of the Australian and New Zealand assets was completed on 30 November 2014, but the process of securing local anti-trust approval has delayed the completion of the transfer of the Vietnamese assets. Nuplex Industries (with its registered head office at
Ellerslie, New Zealand and corporate headquarters in North Sydney) reported annual sales revenues of NZ$1.6 bn for full-year 2013, most of which was derived from the sale of resins to the global paint, flooring, construction, pulp and paper industries. Nuplex is also a leading supplier of unsaturated polyester resins and gelcoats for fibreglass and other composite materials. The Specialties business has contracts with various multinational producers of speciality chemicals for marketing to customers in Australia and New Zealand. The Masterbatch business unit, employing 186 people, accounted for about 3% of total corporate sales revenue. Nuplex had established Culamix as a significant regional force in the masterbatch business during the 1990s. The company substantially boosted its position in September 2011 with the A$23.5 M purchase of the masterbatch assets of Acquos (a privately owned company, headquartered in Melbourne). Nuplex Masterbatch essentially resulted from the amalgamation of the Culamix and Acquos businesses. Acquos, which had always primarily specialised in polymer emulsions, moved into the masterbatch business with the acquisition of the Australian masterbatch assets of Ciba Speciality Chemicals in 2006. Acquos then enhanced its position as a result of purchasing Clariant’s masterbatch assets in 2007. (See also ‘Focus on Pigments’, May 2008, 5-6). Mr Cameron Buchanan (Managing Director of Champ Private Equity) said: “The latest acquisition continues our long history of acquiring non-core divisions of larger corporates and creating successful stand-alone businesses – in this case Axieo. We have developed a clear plan to invest in the business to drive organic growth and industry consolidation as well as expanding further into Asia using our worldclass facility in Vietnam as a springboard.” Original Source: Compounding World, Nov 2014, 6 (Website: http://www.amiplastics.com/mags) © Applied Market Information Ltd 2014. Original Source: Nuplex Industries, 182 Blues Point Road, North Sydney, NSW 2060, Australia, website: http://www.nuplex.com (22 Oct & 30 Nov 2014) © Nuplex 2014. Original Source: Axieo Pty Ltd, Level 3, 35 Cotham Road, Kew, VIC 3101, Australia, website: http://www.axieo.com (30 Nov 2014) © Axien 2014
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France: Viba – masterbatch Viba (headquartered at Tradate, 50 km northwest of Milan) is one of the top ten masterbatch suppliers in Europe, but, because of subdued market conditions, the company’s French subsidiary became unprofitable and it was declared bankrupt by the Tribunal de Grande Instance at Sarreguemines in March 2014. The company’s plant, located at the Forbach Sud Technical Park in Folkling (20 km west of Sarreguemines) was shut down soon after that. Most of the equipment was sold by auction in mid-October. Viba’s plant at Folkling had startedup in 2002. Immediately prior to its closure, it had nine extrusion lines and employed 33 people. With the closure of the French plant and the closure of its Hungarian plant five years ago, Viba now has only three masterbatch plants – Tradate and Rome (Italy) plus Barcelona (Spain). Original Source: Compounding World, Oct 2014, 5 (Website: http://www.amiplastics.com/mags) © Applied Market Information Ltd 2014
Germany: Carbon Clean Tech – carbon black ex-scrap tyres Carbon Clean Tech GmbH (CCT, headquartered in Potsdam) has developed a process for recovering carbon black from post-consumer scrap rubber, mainly tyres. Besides recovered carbon black, described by the company as rCB, the process yields by-product compressed metals and oil. Less than 4% of the original input weight is left as residual waste. Relatively few technical details have been released and the company stresses that its focus is on manufacturing and marketing products, not on licensing technology. The carbon black product can be used as a “drop-in replacement” for conventional carbon black in plastics masterbatches.
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CCT’s first production plant, with undisclosed capacity, has been operating at Möckern (25 km east of Magdeburg) onwards from mid-2012. The company is now planning to build a second plant, which will be capable of producing 14,500 tonnes/y of rCB. This plant should be ready for production before the end of 2016. Original Source: Compounding World, Nov 2014, 3738,41 (Website: http://www.amiplastics.com/mags) © Applied Market Information Ltd 2014. Original Source: Carbon Clean Tech GmbH, Gregor Mendelstr 26, 14469 Potsdam, Germany, website: http://www.carbon-clean-tech.com (14 Dec 2014) © Carbon Clean Tech GmbH 2014
US & Netherlands: Penn Color – masterbatch Penn Color Inc (headquartered in Doylestown, PA) plans to spend more than $10 M to expand its plastics masterbatch plant at Hatfield, PA (50 km northwest of Philadelphia). In addition to raising capacity, the investment will cover the expansion of its research centre to accommodate the design and development of new colour and additive masterbatches. The company is also raising capacity at its Venray plant (30 km northwest of Venlo in the eastern Netherlands) thanks to the installation of a new twin-screw extruder. Altogether, Penn Color has seven masterbatch plants – Hatfield, PA; Elmwood Park, NJ; Richmond, VA; Milton, WI and Ringgold, GA (all in the United States); Venray (Netherlands) and Mumbai (India). The company also has a sales office in Shanghai. It has more than 650 employees worldwide and generates annual sales revenues in excess of $200 M. Original Source: Plastics News, 28 Nov 2014, (Website: http://www.plasticsnews.com) © Crain Communications Inc 2014
US: Brilliant Group – fluorescent pigments, dispersions & concentrates Brilliant Group Inc (headquartered in Richmond, CA, 25 km north of San Francisco city-centre) recently opened its first manufacturing complex, located on a 0.2 hectares site in the Richmond area. Hitherto, the company has relied on contract manufacturing by third parties. The new complex includes facilities for making fluorescent pigments as
powders, dispersions and concentrates for applications in the paint, plastic and textile industries. The company was founded by Mr Darren Bianchi in 2007. By then, Mr Bianchi had more than 15 years’ experience in the fluorescent pigments industry, first with Radiant Color and then with the Dane/Swada group. Both companies are now subsidiaries of RPM/DayGlo. Mr Bianchi is still the Chief Executive of Brilliant Group. Speaking at the inauguration of the new plant, he said: “This will dramatically improve our ability to serve our customers in a wide range of areas from logistics and flow of goods to new product development. With our enhanced capabilities, we look forward to bringing new and innovative products to the market.” Original Source: Plastics News, 3 Nov 2014, (Website: http://www.plasticsnews.com) © Crain Communications Inc 2014
US: Schulman – masterbatch Earlier this year, A Schulman Inc paid $91 M to acquire five plants from Ferro Corp producing customengineered plastic compounds and colorants. (See also ‘Focus on Pigments’, Aug 2014, 7). One of those plants was the colour concentrates and additives facility located at Stryker, OH (about 90 km west of Toledo). Now, Schulman has declared that it will close this plant by the end of April 2015, transferring production to some of its other plants in North America. The move is expected to generate operational savings of around $4 M per annum. As a result of the plant closure, there will be 70 job redundancies Schulman will show a $3 M charge in its accounts for the three months to end-November 2014. Further savings will accrue as a result of Schulman’s programme to eliminate 10 administrative jobs in North America during the current fiscal year. Original Source: Plastics News, 17 Nov 2014, (Website: http://www.plasticsnews.com) © Crain Communications Inc 2014
US: Zinc Oxide LLC – ZnO On 15 October 2014, Zinc Oxide LLC held a ceremony to celebrate the inauguration of its new 40,000 JANUARY 2015
F O C US tonnes/y zinc oxide plant at Dickson, TN (65 bkm west of Nashville). The event was timed to coincide with the end of the International Elastomers Conference (11-14 October), convened at Nashville. The company was founded two years ago and it is owned and managed by eight men who have a combined total of more than 250 years’ experience in the zinc oxide business, mostly with US Zinc Corp (part of the Votorantim group since 2007). The new plant at Dickson is the first zinc oxide to be built in North America for more than 20 years. It employs the conventional French process (aka indirect process), in which metallic zinc is melted in a specially designed reaction vessel and then vaporised at around 1000°C. The metallic zinc vapour reacts with air to create zinc oxide and the zinc oxide particles are then transported into a cooling duct for collection in bag filters (See also ‘Focus on Pigments’, Feb 2014, 4-5). The plant absorbed nearly $30 M in capital investment and it was built on a 23.5 hectares site formerly occupied by Wabash Alloys. Together with some of the buildings, including the building that houses the new zinc oxide plant, the site has two rail sidings and five loading bays. The plant, which currently occupies a floor area of 1.6 hectares, consists of two high-efficiency muffle furnaces. A project to install a third furnace is well underway. Ultimately, the company intends to have six muffle furnaces in operation. To ensure uninterrupted plant operation, a 1500 kW electricity generator and a 115 kilolitre propane tank were installed as part of the project. As marketing agents, Zinc Oxide LLC has appointed: TMC Materials Inc (headquartered in Shrewsbury, MA); Lintech International LLC (headquartered in Macon, GA); Greenview Chemical (headquartered in Chicago, IL); ChemSpec Ltd (headquartered in Uniontown, OH); and Cary Co (headquartered in Addison, IL). Original Source: Rubber and Plastics News, 11 Aug 2014, 44 (1), 18 (Website: http://www.rubbernews.com) © Crain Communications Inc 2014. Original Source: Zinc Oxide LLC, 600 Printwood Drive, Dickson, TN 37055, USA, website: http://www.zn-oxide.com (30 Jul 2014 & 8 Aug 2014 & 9 Dec 2014) © Zinc Oxide LLC 2014
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COMPANIES Americhem buys LTL Compounders Americhem Inc (headquartered at Cuyahoga Falls, 10 km north of Akron, OH) has acquired the entire business and assets of LTL Color Compounders Inc (headquartered at Philadelphia, PA). The value of the transaction was not disclosed. LTL Compounders produces colour compounds based on engineering resins at two plants – Morrisville, PA (50 km northeast of Philadelphia) and Dongguan (70 km east of Guangzhou, China). Americhem plans to combine the LTL business with its existing Infinity Compounding business, creating a new operating unit – Infinity LTL Engineered Compounds. Americhem is best known as a masterbatch producer, with plants at: Cuyahoga Falls, OH; Concord, NC; Liberty, NC; Dalton, GA; Mansfield, TX; Manchester (northwest England); and Suzhou (Jiangsu province, China). Original Source: Plastics News, 3 Dec 2014, (Website: http://www.plasticsnews.com) © Crain Communications Inc 2014. Original Source: Americhem Inc, 2000 Americhem Way, Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44221, USA, website: http://www.americhem.com (3 Dec 2014) © Americhem 2014
Axieo becomes largest masterbatch producer in Oceania, thanks to purchase of Nuplex assets Nuplex Industries (formerly known as Revertex) has sold its Masterbatch and Specialties business units to Axieo Ltd, a new company created by Champ Private Equity (with principal offices in Sydney and Brisbane). Axieo has thus become the largest masterbatch producer in Australia and New Zealand, as well as having a masterbatch plant in Vietnam. Mr Sam Bastounas (formerly Regional President of Nuplex) has been appointed as CEO of Axieo. Champ Private Equity paid A$127.5 M to acquire the Nuplex businesses. The transfer of the Australian and New Zealand assets was completed on 30 November 2014, but the process of securing local anti-trust approval has delayed the completion of the transfer of the Vietnamese assets. Nuplex Industries (with its registered head office at
Ellerslie, New Zealand and corporate headquarters in North Sydney) reported annual sales revenues of NZ$1.6 bn for full-year 2013, most of which was derived from the sale of resins to the global paint, flooring, construction, pulp and paper industries. Nuplex is also a leading supplier of unsaturated polyester resins and gelcoats for fibreglass and other composite materials. The Specialties business has contracts with various multinational producers of speciality chemicals for marketing to customers in Australia and New Zealand. The Masterbatch business unit, employing 186 people, accounted for about 3% of total corporate sales revenue. Nuplex had established Culamix as a significant regional force in the masterbatch business during the 1990s. The company substantially boosted its position in September 2011 with the A$23.5 M purchase of the masterbatch assets of Acquos (a privately owned company, headquartered in Melbourne). Nuplex Masterbatch essentially resulted from the amalgamation of the Culamix and Acquos businesses. Acquos, which had always primarily specialised in polymer emulsions, moved into the masterbatch business with the acquisition of the Australian masterbatch assets of Ciba Speciality Chemicals in 2006. Acquos then enhanced its position as a result of purchasing Clariant’s masterbatch assets in 2007. (See also ‘Focus on Pigments’, May 2008, 5-6). Mr Cameron Buchanan (Managing Director of Champ Private Equity) said: “The latest acquisition continues our long history of acquiring non-core divisions of larger corporates and creating successful stand-alone businesses – in this case Axieo. We have developed a clear plan to invest in the business to drive organic growth and industry consolidation as well as expanding further into Asia using our worldclass facility in Vietnam as a springboard.” Original Source: Compounding World, Nov 2014, 6 (Website: http://www.amiplastics.com/mags) © Applied Market Information Ltd 2014. Original Source: Nuplex Industries, 182 Blues Point Road, North Sydney, NSW 2060, Australia, website: http://www.nuplex.com (22 Oct & 30 Nov 2014) © Nuplex 2014. Original Source: Axieo Pty Ltd, Level 3, 35 Cotham Road, Kew, VIC 3101, Australia, website: http://www.axieo.com (30 Nov 2014) © Axien 2014
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