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Aug 1st, 2005                                Print this article

Demag-Haitian JV: Discussions ongoing

By Modern Plastics Editorial Staff

During the Chinaplas trade show in late June, MPW heard executives from competing injection press manufacturers, including two European ones speaking on condition of anonymity, say the Demag Haitian joint venture that Demag Plastics Group formed in 1998 with Chinese injection press maker Ningbo Haitian for the manufacture of horizontal presses was about to end, with Demag buying its partner's 40% stake. DPG officials at the show confirmed the rumors, but Gerd Liebig, chief strategic marketing officer in DPG headquarters in Schwaig, Germany, pointedly said last month that no such concrete plans exist. Haitian also has a joint venture with Japan's Sanjo Seiki in vertical injection machines.

Liebig does allow that DPG is actively considering its options regarding the JV. DPG is not pleased that Haitian markets machines in Europe branded Demag Haitian. But Liebig says talks with Haitian officials are going well and that DPG plans no rash moves.

Haitian in early 2004 opened its own sales/service office in Italy where it adds European components onto Chinese-built basic equipment; previously the firm was active in Europe only through an agent. Some of Haitian's toggle machines are built using technology licensed from Demag.

In other news, DPG does plan to begin manufacturing its Extra-series of hydraulic injection machines in China within the next five years. As DPG describes it, the series features "a favourable price/performance ratio for superior economics in molding standard products." Low-priced upgrade packages are available to expand the machine for specific duties and clamping forces ranging from 250 to 2000 kN.

In Brief

LG to raise ABS capacity

LG Chem (Seoul, South Korea) has started construction of a 150,000-tonne/yr ABS plant in Ningbo. Completion is scheduled by the second half of 2006. LG Chem commands a 15% share of the global market for ABS, ranking it as the global leader.

New compounding plant

Bayer (Leverkusen, Germany) is working on a new compounding plant for polycarbonate (PC) and PC blends with capacity of 40,000 tonnes/yr as part of the company's PC production facility at Caojing, China, scheduled to go onstream next year.

Arburg goes Dutch

Lossburg, Germany-based molding machine manufacturer Arburg is building a subsidiary in Utrecht. In keeping with Dutch tradition, Arburg board chairman Michael Hehl planted (with some help) a fir tree from Lossburg near the facility's planned lobby.

Perlos facility to close

Injection molder and contract manufacturer Perlos is closing its facility in Ylöjärvi, Finland, resulting in the loss of about 600 jobs, or 10% of the company's global work force. Perlos' largest customer is Nokia.

Same day, free

Mold component manufacturer D-M-E (Madison Heights, MI) now offers free same-day delivery to tool shops in the Grand Rapids, MI area. D-M-E cited the large number of moldmakers in the area as the reason for the move.

Pricing data available

Plastics information management company IDES (Laramie, WY) has published its Resin Pricing Report, based on feedback from more than 14,000 plastics purchasers Visit www.ides.com/prospector.

PolyOne opens China compounding facility

PolyOne in late May opened a new $10 million compounding plant in Shenzhen, South China, with capacity of about 10,000 tonnes/yr. It is one of PolyOne's first plants to manufacture a range of products at one location including color and additive concentrates, engineered materials, wire and cable compounds, vinyl compounds, and polymer coating systems.

Speaking at Chinaplas in late June, PolyOne President and CEO Thomas Waltermire said the Shenzhen facility now houses 20 extrusion lines, but designed capacity for the facility is 30,000 tonnes/yr, and the company has an option on the adjacent site that would enable it to build a warehouse or add more production.

"Currently, 4% of our company's total revenue comes from Asia, but we are confident that this figure will grow considerably in the coming years," says Bernard Baert, VP international of PolyOne. PolyOne operates two other compounding plants in China: in Shanghai (color and additives) and Suzhou (engineered materials). It also has facilities for compounding engineering polymers in Singapore and color and additive concentrates in Thailand.

VDMA: 2004 went well; 2005 more troublesome

Last year went well for German plastics processing machinery makers, with sales up 9.4% over 2003 to €7.595 billion. "The total [equipment making] branch can look back with satisfaction on the results of last year," says Jan-Udo Kreyenborg, president of the plastics and rubber machinery division of VDMA, Germany's machine manufacturers association (Frankfurt).

Speaking to the trade press in Mainz, Germany, he said signed contracts for core processing machinery were up by 5% over 2003. The cash value of these sales reached record sums 14% greater than the previous year, or €4.988 million. In individual categories, injection molding equipment increased in production value last year by 8.9% to €881 million, while extruders and extrusion lines reported an increase of 9.8% to €766 million.

Despite these positive trends, Kreyenborg is less optimistic regarding his prognosis for 2005. If conditions continue as they are now, he suggests there could be a decrease in orders by 8%, a reduction of production by 4%, and a drop in exports of 5%.

Maillefer, Conenor team up in extruding wood-plastics

Wire-, cable-, and pipe-extrusion equipment maker Maillefer (Ecublens, Switzerland) and Conenor (Tampere, Finland) are joining forces to develop manufacturing solutions for wood-plastics composites (WPC) using a novel extrusion process, Conex, developed during the 1990s by Maillefer's previous owner, Nextrom. The companies rate plastics/wood composites growth at more than 20%/yr.

The rights to the Conex conical extrusion technology are owned by Conenor, which licenses it to processors to extrude pipe and cable. Under the agreement between Conenor and Maillefer, the two companies will open a skills center at Maillefer's Vantaa, Finland site to investigate improvements in extruding mixtures of resin and wood flour.

Both parties in the partnership are interested in further development and commercialization of a Conex extruder-the CWE 500-2-specifically for processing wood composites or plastics containing other natural fiber materials.

Markku Vilkki, managing director of Conenor, says this extruder combines several processes (grinding, drying, extrusion) into one step through a single piece of equipment. Fiber content up to 80% can be extruded in single or multiple layers. Output is up to 400 kg/hr.

Maguire expands China operations

With 2005 sales in China alone promising to be triple or even quadruple those of 2004, Maguire Asia has substantially increased its sales and service capabilities in China. This includes new offices in Beijing and Guangzhou for sales, technical support, field service, and spare parts; a new office in Suzhou (west of Shanghai) for sales service; and expansion of its China head office in Shanghai to include a new laboratory and demonstration facility with operating equipment representing the full range of Maguire materials handling systems. The expansion comes only a year after Maguire Asia opened its headquarters in Singapore and at the same time established the office in Shanghai.

Driving this expansion is booming sales growth for the Maguire Weigh Scale Blender, LPD vacuum dryer, Clear-Vu loading system, liquid color and additive pumps, and other equipment and related software, according to Hubert Nerlich, managing director of Maguire Asia. "The dosing precision of our gravimetric blenders has provided a real advantage for Chinese manufacturers of products as widely different as tiny electronic connectors and high-volume packaging film, and our fundamentally new vacuum dryer has begun to replace conventional desiccant drying systems at a rapid pace," says Nerlich. "In fact, the LPD dryer is our fastest-growing equipment system in China."

Partners make power play at Borealis

Norway's petrochemical producer Statoil (Stavanger, Norway) is selling its 50% share in the Borealis (Kongens Lyngby, Denmark) polyolefins joint venture for €902 million plus €80 million in a guaranteed dividend for 2005, to its partners, International Petroleum Investment Co. (IPIC; Abu Dhabi, U.A.E.) and OMV (Vienna, Austria). As a result of the sale, IPIC now owns 65% of the company while OMV has the remaining 35% share.

According to figures from analysts at Maack Business Services (Au, Switzerland), Borealis is the eighth-largest global PP producer (1.44 million tonnes of nameplate capacity), and number 10 in PE production (1.98 million tonnes capacity).

China petrochemical site startup a success

The $2.9 billion, 220-hectare site near Nanjing formed by BASF (Ludwigshafen, Germany) and its 50-50 Chinese joint venture partner Sinopec has opened. The plant has a 600,000-tonne/yr steam cracker producing ethylene and propylene for polymer feedstock in downstream plants.

By 2010, BASF expects to generate 20% of its sales and earnings in its chemical activities in Asia-Pacific, with 70% coming from local production.

Changes at Basell include closures, JV ownership sale

Polyolefins producer Basell (Hoofddorp, Netherlands) will sell its half share of the Polibrasil polypropylene joint venture to its partner Suzano Petroquimica. Polibrasil has a total capacity of 625,000 tonnes/yr at three sites in Brazil. Basell will acquire full ownership of Polibrasil's compounding business, which primarily supplies the Latin American automotive sector.

In other news from Basell, after announcing the planned closure or mothballing of 300,000 tonnes/yr capacity of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) in Europe last year, it has decided to idle another 100,000 tonnes of HDPE capacity at its Wesseling, Germany facility. Werner Breuers, president of Basell Polyolefins Europe, says the move allows the company to focus on its 320,000-tonne/yr plant at Wesseling, which was recently commissioned. Basell also has another HDPE plant in Poland at its joint venture Basell Orlen Polyolefins, set to start up at the end of this year.

Basell will dedicate its two small 120,000-tonne/yr HDPE lines in Frankfurt and Münchmünster, Germany to specialized grades.

Color-matching service goes commercial

A way for processors and masterbatchers to obtain round-the-clock color-matching services, first introduced at last year's K show in Düsseldorf, has started after more than nine months of beta testing. MatchMyColor, developed by partners Ciba Specialty Chemicals (Basel, Switzerland) and DuPont Titanium Technologies (Wilmington, DE), additives producers; instrument builder X-Rite (Grandville, MI); style forecaster Nelly Rodi; and Internet information provider SpecialChem (both Paris), now offers the Web platform to simplify and accelerate color development, says Christophe Cabarry, founder of SpecialChem.

Processors wanting to avail themselves of MatchMyColor pay a time-use fee ranging from e50 to e300/month, depending on the level of service. Contract lengths range from one to six months or longer, says Cabarry. The color-matching system covers 80% of all resins used in today's market, he says.

Ampacet making international waves

Masterbatch producer Ampacet Corp. (Tarrytown, NY) broke ground on its first plant in Mexico, in Queretaro. The will be operational by the end of the year with capacity in excess of 5 million lb and a custom color lab. The company had supplied Mexican clients from its sites in Crockett, TX and DeRidder, LA, as well as facilities in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile.

On the European front, Ampacet acquired Polish masterbatch producer and distributor, Sembodja (Warsaw). Ampacet Polska gives the company new distribution sites in Warsaw, Poznan, and Micholow. Beyond Ampacet's products, the company distributes polyolefins and styrenics from local stocks. The facility has three extrusion lines.

In Asia, Ampacet added multiple extruder lines to its Rayong, Thailand facility, bumping production to 20,000 tons/yr for custom color masterbatches. Located two hours southeast of Bangkok, the plant opened in 1999, initially producing white and specialty additive masterbatches.

VW chooses Dow Automotive's LESA technology for hybrid parts

Volkswagen will be the first commercial user of the LESA (Low Energy Surface Adhesive) hybrid plastics/metal technology developed by Dow Automotive (Schwalbach, Germany). The carmaker will use LESA on the long-fiber-reinforced polypropylene/metal front-end systems for its new VW Polo vehicles, commercially available now in Europe.

During the Plastics in Automotive Design conference in Stuttgart, Germany earlier this year, Dow automotive officials hinted at this project (May 2005 MPW, p. 69). According to Dow, VW will save about 1.5 kg in weight per part, compared to its previous Polo front ends.

Dow supplies the LGF-PP as well as its Betamate adhesive for the parts, which are molded by Inplas (Azemeis, Portugal), a subsidiary of Simoldes, one of the world's leading manufacturers of injection molds.

LESA moldings include a closed box design, with the box closed by a metal insert. Dow Automotive says this design allows higher-stiffness parts to be realized at smaller weights than those from other hybrid technologies.

UPG targets free-trade zone for China expansion

Injection molder United Plastics Group Inc. (Oakbrook, IL) has again expanded in Suzhou, China, this time in a free-trade zone exempt from the export duties its other two Suzhou operations contend with. The $10 million, 115,000-sq-ft, greenfield plant, which will open in the fourth quarter, will have room for 50 to 60 injection molding machines and contain a Class 100,000 cleanroom for medical molding.

Located in the Suzhou Industrial Park, the UPG plant will also feature assembly, mold maintenance, and vertical-insert and multimaterial injection molding, serving all of UPG's primary markets: medical, automotive, electronics, and consumer products.

The company has expanded three times in three years in China, and according to VP of Sales and Marketing Bill Featherstone, this one, like the others, will be a wholly owned foreign enterprise (WOFE). "A [WOFE] really gives us complete control over our quality, our business process," Featherstone said, "without having to rely on a partner."

According to UPG VP of Engineering/Asia Operations Tom Opielowski, current China sales are $18 million, and they should be helped by the new location in the export zone. "It's like doing work in another country without all the restrictions and costs," Opielowski says, "but still being able to utilize the low cost of labor in China."

During the Chinaplas trade show in late June, MPW heard executives from competing injection press manufacturers, including two European ones speaking on condition of anonymity, say the Demag Haitian joint venture that Demag Plastics Group formed in 1998 with Chinese injection press maker Ningbo Haitian for the manufacture of horizontal presses was about to end, with Demag buying its partner's 40% stake. DPG officials at the show confirmed the rumors, but Gerd Liebig, chief strategic marketing officer in DPG headquarters in Schwaig, Germany, pointedly said last month that no such concrete plans exist. Haitian also has a joint venture with Japan's Sanjo Seiki in vertical injection machines.

Liebig does allow that DPG is actively considering its options regarding the JV. DPG is not pleased that Haitian markets machines in Europe branded Demag Haitian. But Liebig says talks with Haitian officials are going well and that DPG plans no rash moves.

Haitian in early 2004 opened its own sales/service office in Italy where it adds European components onto Chinese-built basic equipment; previously the firm was active in Europe only through an agent. Some of Haitian's toggle machines are built using technology licensed from Demag.

In other news, DPG does plan to begin manufacturing its Extra-series of hydraulic injection machines in China within the next five years. As DPG describes it, the series features "a favourable price/performance ratio for superior economics in molding standard products." Low-priced upgrade packages are available to expand the machine for specific duties and clamping forces ranging from 250 to 2000 kN.

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