DowDuPont to invest USD100M to expand manufacturing capacity at Sabine River Works

MOSCOW (MRC) -- DowDuPont announced a plan to make a series of investments totaling approximately USD100 million over the next two years to expand manufacturing capacity and to modernize facilities at the Sabine River Works (SRW) plant in Orange County, Texas, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The investments will incrementally expand production capacity to support global growth of specialty materials manufactured at the site, specifically the Surlyn, Nucrel, Fusabond and Vamac product lines. Additionally, the company is evaluating longer-term plans to invest in a new facility to further support market growth.

The joint investment will support customer growth of both the Packaging & Specialty Plastics (P&SP) business of DowDuPont's Materials Science Division (to be named Dow), as well as the Transportation & Advanced Polymers (T&AP) business of its Specialty Products Division (to be named DuPont).

"This is another great example of the power of our historic merger and our ability to quickly respond to customers' growing needs," said Diego Donoso, business president for Dow Packaging & Specialty Plastics. "We see tremendous potential to deliver more supply of these iconic specialty products to our customers in the food packaging and consumer goods markets."

The added capacity is expected to come online in several phases starting in 2020 and will enable both divisions to meet growing demand for Surlyn, Nucrel, Fusabond (P&SP) and Vamac (T&AP) specialty materials used for applications in food packaging, transportation and consumer goods.

"With this increased capacity, we will be able to support growth in the automotive space at a time when customer demand for our advanced polymers is very strong," said Randy Stone, business president for DuPont Transportation & Advanced Polymers. "This investment will enable us to continue to deliver innovative solutions that serve high-growth end markets and reinforces our commitment to enhancing our leadership position in these key market segments."
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Most pearls are produced by oysters in the saltwater environment of the world’s oceans — which makes it fitting that the first ever bottle made completely from post-consumer plastic recovered from the oceans has a resemblance to a pearl, as per Canplastics.

Sporting a silver metallic, pearlescent-effect finish due to some compounding expertise by colourant and additive maker Techmer PM LLC, the world’s first HDPE bottle molded from 100 per cent ocean-bound plastic has just hit the market. Techmer partnered with global sustainable technology developer Primal Group, Ontario, Calif.-based blow molder Classic Containers Inc., and plastics recycler Envision Plastics Industries LLC, of Reidsville, N.C., to manufacture the bottle, which is completely made from recycled plastic collected from at-risk ocean areas and sold by Envision under the brand name OceanBound Plastic.

The project was challenging for several reasons. First, Primal Group, which is headquartered in Miami, Fla., wanted a specific colour and reflective finish on the bottle, which is being used to package its ViTA brand of natural, plant science-based personal care products. Typically, an extrusion grade of PE would be needed in the masterbatch as a carrier for the colourant, but that wasn’t an option in this case because Primal Group wanted the end product to be made completely from OceanBound Plastic. “The high-viscosity recycled plastic recovered and supplied by Envision is a fractional melt that makes the colourant’s metallic particles without shearing them and ruining the ultimate visual effect,” said Savvas Roubanis, a sales engineer with Los Angeles-based Techmer. “Compounding of the recipe required additional process design to assure the metallic and pearlescent effect pigments could be smoothly compounded into the recovered plastic."

A final potential hurdle was economic, and came at the blow molding stage: If Classic Containers couldn’t manufacture the bottles within its normal, everyday processing window — which was vital to producing a bottle at the desired price point — the project wouldn’t fly. “The material processed amazingly well without any concerns,” said Kevin Tibbets, executive director of sales for Classic Containers. “Aside from the necessary additives, pigments, and non-resin components that we needed to process it effectively, the balance of the recipe is 100 per cent OceanBound resin."
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- ORBIS Corporation, a manufacturer of plastic recycling bins and organic barrels, has acquired Piedmont, S.C.-based Response Packaging, a manufacturer and supplier of reusable custom dunnage and fabricated rack solutions, as per Canplastics.

The terms of the transaction have not been disclosed. Included in the acquisition are design, testing, and manufacturing facilities in Piedmont, and Greenville, S.C.; Auburn Hills, Mich.; and Leon, Mexico.

Response Packaging will operate and be branded as a part of ORBIS Corporation. “This acquisition brings us talented people, efficient plants and strong capabilities in geographic areas where ORBIS wants to grow,” ORBIS president Bill Ash said in a statement. “Response Packaging is strongly aligned with ORBIS in areas like supply chain expertise, innovation and customer knowledge."

Response Packaging has 245 employees in the U.S. and Mexico and serves the automotive and industrial markets with highly engineered custom dunnage designed for part protection. Additionally, it specializes in fabricated rack and dunnage systems for the safe and efficient transport of vehicle components in the supply chain.

Headquartered in Oconomowoc, Wis., ORBIS is a leading manufacturer of plastic returnable/reusable products for use in a wide range of material handling applications. The company has an injection molding plant in Toronto.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Tosoh Corporation has established Tosoh China Holdings Co., Ltd. in Shanghai, China, as a regional holding company on 21 March 2018, as per GV.

Tosoh owns and operates eleven consolidated subsidiaries in China, which consist of companies that sell the group's products, and other companies that manufacture and sell polyurethane-related products as well as polyvinylchloride (PVC). As operations expand in China, the companies will gradually be put under the control of Tosoh China.

As MRC informed before, in 2013, Tosoh's proposed restructuring of operations in Nanyo led to a net loss of 320,000 tpa of vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) capacity, thereby tightening feedstock supply to the PVC industry. Almost one year after a fire seriously damaged its complex in Nanyo, Tosoh Corporation (Tokyo, Japan) touted plans to raise output at the site's number 3 vinyl chloride monomer plant. The building phase of the 200,000 t/y capacity expansion was to kick off in November 2013, with completion scheduled for October 2014.

The Tosoh Group comprises over 100 companies worldwide with over 12,000 employees and net sales of JPY 743.0 billion (USD 6.9 billion) in fiscal 2017. The group is one of the largest chlor-alkali manufacturers in Asia. Tosoh’s petrochemical operations supply ethylene, polyethylene, and functional polymers, while its advanced materials business serves the global semiconductor, display, and solar industries.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Clariant announced that the company is making good progress with the implementation of its dedicated China strategy, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

After announcing this strategy in 2016, Clariant continued its commitment to innovation and sustainability in combination with improvements in governance, increased production capacity and more local cooperation. These regional growth initiatives have the potential to double sales from the 2015 baseline until 2021.

“2017 was a successful year for Clariant in China, with 13 % sales growth and an increase in profitability. We are convinced that with our holistic growth initiative we are able to double our sales from the 2015 baseline until 2021 by continuing this successful shift towards adapting ourselves to the Chinese market and business mindset«, said Christian Kohlpaintner, Clariant’s Executive Committee Member responsible for and based in China, at Clariant’s“»Defining the Future 8« Conference in Hangzhou, China.

Since China is fundamental to Clariant’s overall growth strategy, the company acted on various fronts in order to improve its position in this vital market. Its continued commitment to innovation and sustainability has made the company one of the industry leaders in these areas. At a time where the Chinese industry continues to upgrade to a higher value and more technology-driven solutions and prioritizes environmentally-compatible chemical solutions, Clariant is well positioned to capture these growth opportunities.

Capacity expansions, such as the two additional Chinese production facilities for the Additives business unit announced in 2017, enable the company to meet this growing local demand and improve proximity to customers as well as raw material suppliers. This proximity is stimulated further by setting up new joint ventures, partnerships and other forms of cooperation with local Chinese companies and research institutions. Over the past year, Clariant established a joint venture with Tiangang Auxiliary to serve the growing need of process and light stabilizers made in China, signed a major cooperation agreement with China's largest petroleum and chemical company SINOPEC and continued the momentum of local collaborative innovation with the Chinese academic sector by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOE) with Shanghai University.

Clariant also looks to expand its e-commerce sales throughout the Greater China region via an online store on 1688.com, a business-to business (B2B) platform within the Alibaba group.

Finally, a new regional governance model built on Chinese top managers with profit and loss responsibilities greatly improved strategic dialog and alignment. These benefits will be further leveraged within the One Clariant Campus, an integrated regional headquarters and innovation facility being built in Shanghai and scheduled to be completed by 2020.
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