(PlasticsToday) -- SABIC Innovative Plastics (Pittsfield, MA) is adding polypropylene (PP) compounding to its Bay St. Louis, MS site, including planned production of its Stamax long-glass-fiber-reinforced PP composites, with an eye on the automotive market. SABIC officials noted that the combination of SABIC Innovative Plastics engineering thermoplastics portfolio, with the specialty polypropylene (PP) the company added in 2002, gives it a materials range that covers 60% of the plastics currently used in automotive.
For the new PP capacity, the company will convert existing compounding lines at the Bay St. Louis operation, which originally supported SABIC's acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) business, to run glass, mineral, and long-glass fiber PP compounds.