Vision Extrusion getting USD1.5 million from Ontario government

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Vaughan, Ont.-based Vision Extrusion Group is receiving USD1.5 million from the Ontario government to invest in new technologies and machinery, creating 76 new jobs and retaining more than 500 positions, as per Canplastics.

"This announcement is great news for the residents of Vaughan and the region as a whole. Ontario’s manufacturing sector must continue to invest in technology and innovation to stay ahead in a fiercely competitive global market," said Steven Del Duca, provincial minister of Economic Development and Growth.

The money is coming from the Ontario government’s Jobs and Prosperity Fund. Vision Extrusion is upgrading its machinery and investing in new technologies to automate production and reduce waste. The upgrades are expected to cost USD18.2 million total and be completed by December 2022.

"The investment we are announcing today continues the ongoing evolution of our company as a leader in the manufacturing of building products," said Vision Extrusion CEO Vic De Zen. "By further building our skilled team and adding to our technical capabilities, Vision Extrusion can offer even greater innovation and flexibility for our valued customers."

Vision Extrusion produces a range of building products, transforming plastic polymers into window frames, doors, fencing and railings. The company is a member of the Vision Group of Companies. Its Vaughan operations include more than 200 extrusion lines, R&D labs, tool and die shops, and plastics compounding facilities.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Mitsui Chemicals is likely to take its naphtha-fed steam cracker off-stream for a maintenance turnaround, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Japan informed that the plant is likely to be taken off-line for turnaround in mid-June 2018. It is slated to remain under maintenance until end-July 2018.

Located in Sakai, Japan, the cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 500,000 mt/year and propylene production capacity of 280,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote before, in March 2016, Mitsui & Co., Ltd. and Hankuk Carbon Co., a company listed on the Korea Exchange, entered into a strategic alliance agreement to engage in collaborative business activities relating to the processing of composite materials.

Mitsui Chemicals is a leading manufacturer and supplier of value added specialty chemicals, plastics and materials for the automotive, healthcare, packaging, agricultural, building, and semiconductor and electronics markets. Mitsui Chemicals is a Japanese Chemicals company, a part of the Mitsui conglomerate. The company has a turnover of around 15 billion USD and has business interests in Japan, Europe, China, Southeast Asia and the USA. The company mainly deals in performance materials, petro and basic chemicals and functional polymeric materials.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- China's decision to severely crack down on the import of recycled plastics is being felt throughout the world, as per Plasticsnews.

And ripples of that move will be evident at NPE2018 as the world of plastics gathers once again for the triennial gathering. Erema North America Inc., the machinery maker for plastics recycling, will be at the show as usual, along with a wide range of other companies involved in the plastics recycling industry.

The company sees an opportunity for people in the United States to take advantage of the situation. Many people made lots of money over the years simply by baling recovered plastics and sending them off to China for recycling. That was not out of the ordinary as that country became a huge outlet for a variety of recycled materials.

China first made news several years ago with its Green Fence initiative to clean up the plastic recycling stream. Green Fence was not as stringent as the current effort, dubbed National Sword, but it grabbed the attention of recyclers at that time. Things changed, but commerce ultimately continued.

National Sword, instead, has essentially outlawed the import of recycled plastics and other materials into China. Martin Baumann, vice president of sales at Erema North America, calls the situation "dynamic" and says there is opportunity for domestic recyclers.

"Above all, China's no longer being an international consumer for post-consumer waste plastic is a dramatic development, but since, unlike waste plastic, high-quality recycled pellets can still be exported to China, this represents a potential opportunity for plastics recycling in the USA and Canada," he said in a statement.

Erema will be demonstrating its Intarema T 1108 at its booth, processing clean low density polyethylene waste without preshredding. The company also will provide information on what the company calls "the world's first rPET inline Preform system."

The company will additionally highlight information about melt filters from the company's Powerfil business unit, which will be at NPE2018 for the first time.

As usual, NPE2018 will feature a variety of plastics recycling related exhibitions. Here's a rundown of those companies that responded to a Plastics News request for information regarding their activities at the show.

Vertellus Specialties Inc. (Booth S10155) will introduce two new technologies for "driving increased use of recycled polyester in nylon resin" and "enhancing the benefits of recycled" PET at NPE2018, the company said.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Calgary-based polyethylene supplier Nova Chemicals Corp. is partnering with M. Holland Company and Osterman & Company to expand its reach in North America, as per Canplastics.

The two firms will distribute Nova’s butene linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) in Mexico. In December 2016, Nova started up its expanded PE1 LLDPE facility in Joffre, Alberta; the new capacity will help meet the growing demand for polyethylene in Mexico and customers throughout the Americas.

"We greatly value our relationships with M. Holland and Osterman & Company, and we are excited to expand our Mexico sales with both of them,” said Todd Becker, vice president of sales for Nova’s polyethylene business. “This is another critical step in our journey to provide the best products and service to customers and converters in Mexico."

Both distributors have “strong ties” to Mexico, Nova said in a statement. “M. Holland, a North American distributor of thermoplastic resins, formed M. Holland Latinoamerica, S.de R.L. de C.V. after acquiring Mexican plastics and chemicals distributor Grupo Solquim of Mexico City. Osterman & Company, a global plastic resin distributor, formed Osterman Plastics de Mexico S. de R.L. in 2015."

"The addition of Nova’s LLDPE butene resins to our product line fills an important need in the Mexican market," said John Dwyer, president of Osterman & Company. "Offering this high-quality Nova product, as well as having access to their top-notch technical support, will allow us to further expand our Mexico sales and round out our Latin America supply offering."
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Cyberhawk has been awarded a three-year contract by an oil and gas supermajor to provide a digital asset management solution during the construction of its new world-scale petrochemical complex in the USA, as per Yourpetrochemicalnews.

The main construction phase of the project is already underway, which involves the construction of processing units, cooling towers, rail and truck loading facilities, water treatment plant, office buildings and laboratory at the new petrochemical site.

As part of the construction, the operator sought a comprehensive, detailed software solution which would allow a digitised view of drone (also known as unmanned aerial vehicles) captured data such as orthophotos, spherical images, 3D point cloud models and videos collected on-site on a weekly basis.

Following a rigorous tender process, Cyberhawk was chosen to provide drone content management and distribution services thanks to its industry-leading visual asset management software, iHawk. This intuitive, cloud-based software has been developed to host inspection and survey data from various sources and has industry specific solutions for the wind, utilities, oil and gas and infrastructure sectors.

For this project, iHawk Construction is providing all stakeholders with an up-to-date, at-a-glance visual overview of the project at any given time and from anywhere in the world.

Unlike similar asset management software solutions in the market, the operator was impressed with iHawk’s high level of adaptability and deep industry focus. This meant the software could be customised to meet the client’s detailed requirements, which was a crucial factor in its decision.

iHawk is being now being used by hundreds of engineers, designers, managers and consultants involved in the construction project, in various entities across four continents. It is already proving its worth by improving safety, tracking progress and improving decision making on this complex construction project.

This iHawk solution has been specifically developed to grow as the project progresses, creating a central repository of project information which can be referenced throughout construction as well as once the plant is live.

Chris Fleming, CEO at Cyberhawk said: “Despite having worked with this oil and gas supermajor for the last eight years, in more than eight countries, this is the first time iHawk has been adopted at such large scale. The client was impressed by the functionality offered by iHawk and Cyberhawk's ability to build on this platform to create a fully customised, bespoke solution for its needs.

"Since launching iHawk in 2014, we have significantly invested in ongoing development to create a world-leading digital asset management solution. Data has become crucial part of the energy sector and whilst collecting detailed information is important, how we use this data to create efficiencies is real objective. “We are extremely encouraged that our experience and investment in iHawk has been recognised for this important project.”
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