Italian processor invests at facilities in India and Mexico

(plastemart) -- Italian moulding and compounds company Finproject is making new investments to the tune of EUR8m at facilities in India and Mexico as part of its international expansion strategy.

The company produces more than 30,000tpa of vinyl and polyolefin compounds for various sectors, but it is most closely associated with footwear, in particular Crocs EVA foam clogs. Finproject's moulding division also makes soles, sandals and boots with polyolefin compounds bearing its own brand name XL Extralight for customers such as Hugo Boss and Samsonite.

The company expects a new moulding and compounds plant in Rajasthan, India to be completed in September. The new 8,000m facility will take over production from a site it currently rents in Rajasthan. The company is also investing in new technology and machinery at a facility in Mexico which belongs to Foam Creations, part of the Finproject group, based in Quebec, Canada. The facility started operations in 2010, making soles and polyolefin compounds.

The Finproject group now operates eight facilities around the world: three in Italy and one each in Romania, Canada, Mexico, India and China.
MRC

(plastemart) -- A low-cost, high-yield process for making polyethylene terephthalate (PET) by a team led by a University of Massachusetts chemical engineer.

You can mix our renewable chemical with the petroleum-based material and the consumer would not be able to tell the difference," said Paul J. Dauenhauer, an assistant professor of chemical engineering, who led the team of researchers from UMass and University of Delaware.

Their findings were recently published in the journal ACS Catalysis. The new process transforms glucose, a simple sugar derived from such things as grasses and trees, into paraxylene. As per the team leader, a complete cost analysis and process design is still one to two years away.

But the process has significant benefits over competing technologies- the process can achieve 75% yield of p-xylene, while competing technologies only achieve yields below 20%.
MRC

(chemmonitor) -- The Brussels-headquartered Belgium company Solvay S.A. unveiled its financial results of January-March 2012.
The company's REBITDA dropped by about 9% year on year, in Q1 2012, and demonstrated a 47% hike, if compared to October-December 2011.

Solvay's net sales from January through March reached about EUR 3.2 million. The figure rose by 8.1% year on year and by around 3%, as opposed to Q1 of the last year.

The Belgium chemical company showed a snug increase in its business through Q1, 2012.

mrcplast. com

(chemmonitor) -- The Russia-based company Omsk- Polymer, engaged in the production of polystyrene and its downstream products, was put up for tender for the fourth time at an initial price of around RUB 1.1 billion (USD 36 million).

However, potential buyers did not demonstrate any interest. As a result, the price was lowered to RUB 995 (USD 32) million, VAT not included.

Omsk Chemical Company is one of the industry leaders in polystyrene production in the Russian Federation and the CIS. Production volume has grown to 60,000 tons annually. Omsk Chemical Company supplies polystyrene to a number of chemical and light industrial enterprises.

Omsk Chemical Company is one of the biggest producers of polystyrene film, disposable tableware and packaging. The company is one of the largest suppliers of disposable utensils and packaging in the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belorussia, and the Baltic States.

MRC

(hydrocarbonprocessing) -- Dow Chemical said an early Wednesday lightning strike hit two storage tanks holding ethyl acetate and butyl acetate at its Bristol coatings plant near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The lightning strike led to a fire, which was safely extinguished by a combination of on-site emergency response along with local area fire companies.

"Material that escaped the tanks is contained in surround dikes with no anticipated impact to the community," Dow said in a statement.

The fire broke out at 3:35 a.m. local time at the Bristol plant. Employees at the site were evacuated and none were injured, Dow said.

However, a member of the Bristol fire department suffered a heart attack and died shortly afterwards, according to media reports.

MRC