Global bioplastics production capacity will more than double till 2015 - European Bioplastics

(Plastics Today) -- As has been widely reported, Danone has switched from polystyrene to polylactic acid, a plastic based on plant starch, for its Activia yogurt cups in Germany. The change was made for packs of 4x115g and 8x115g yogurt. According to a recent study funded by the trade association European Bioplastics, global bioplastics production capacity will more than double from 2010 to 2015, with capacity forecast to exceed 1 million tonnes this year.

PlasticsToday sat down with Steve Davies, marketing manager at NatureWorks, which supplies the PLA used in the Danone yogurt packaging, to talk about the yogurt project and also about his company's ongoing developments. As Davies pointed out, this was not Danone's first use of PLA in yogurt packaging. Stonyfield Farm last year switched from polystyrene to PLA; that dairy is owned 85% by Danone.

According to NatureWorks and Danone, the switch to PLA from polystyrene will improve the Activia packaging's carbon footprint by 25% and use 43% less fossil resources compared to the previous packaging, based on a life cycle assessment (LCA) study conducted by the Heidelberg, Germany-based LCA Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IFEU).

According to Davies, NatureWorks largest markets currently are foodservice wares, flexible films and non-wovens. The fastest growing end-use applications for the company's Ingeo-brand of PLA are in durable goods and non-wovens. Only about 1% of the supplier's output is sold for blowmolding of bottles.

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(BASF) -- BASF Color Solutions increases prices globally for all masterbatches by minimum 5%. New prices are effective for deliveries starting 1st of July, 2011, or as contracts allow. These price increases are necessary to cover further significant increase in raw material cost seen for pigments and light stabilizers, plasticizers and polymers as well as increases in other costs like energy and labor costs.


The product range of BASF's Pigments & Resins business unit includes pigments, effect pigments, pigment preparations and dyes, resins, light stabilizers, photoinitiators and additives as well as specific masterbatches in Europe.

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(Clariant) -- The masterbatches business unit of Clariant, a leading masterbatches player globally, announces global price increases for most of its products. "During the past months, the price development for our main raw materials, as well as other conversion costs, has reached a level which we cannot absorb ourselves anymore, despite our ongoing efforts to offset these costs with internal actions, such as in particular our Operational and Commercial Excellence program. Also to finance future investments to our supply chain in order to secure raw material availability, we have no alternative but to increase prices," comments Hans Bohnen, Head of Clariant`s Masterbatches Business Unit.

The price increases will become effective immediately or as contracts allow. Clariant customers will be contacted individually regarding the specifics of the price increase as they apply to their products and regions.

MRC

(Plastics Today) -- Chemical and engineering materials giant, DuPont is expanding its research and development reach in Asia and across the globe, opening a global Innovation Center in Korea, servicing the electronics and automotive industries, as well as one in Taiwan, focusing on the electronics and communications markets. This fall additional Innovation Centers will open in Thailand and India with more planned in Latin America, Europe, and North America in 2012 and beyond.

DuPont said its goal is to offer "local collaboration and application development and engage customers in inclusive innovation, wherever they are in the world." Connelly said in a presentation that the center would provide an "ideation environment", with real-time connection to DuPont's 75 global R&D and application development centers. The center will have design, testing, training, failures analysis, and processing capabilities, including injection molding and other processing technologies.

MRC

(ICIS) -- US June contract prices for polyethylene (PE) fell between 4-6%, depending on the grade, based on weak demand and downward pressure from global markets, sources said on Thursday.
Producers announced price reductions of between 2-3 cents/lb (USD 44-66/tonne, EUR 30-46/tonne) for high density PE (HDPE) grades, 4 cents/lb for linear low density PE (LLDPE) grades and between 4-6 cents/lb for low density PE (LDPE), sources said.

With the reduction, prices for LLDPE butene film were at 74-77 cents/lb DEL (delivered), LDPE film prices were at 84-86 cents/lb DEL and HDPE blow molding prices were at 72-74 cents/lb DEL, for small-volume buyers, as assessed by ICIS.

MRC