Tekni-Plex purchases Italian healthcare packaging manufacturer Lameplast

MOSCOW (MRC) -- U.S.-based packaging and tubing supplier Tekni-Plex Inc. continues its buying spree with the purchase of Italian healthcare packaging company Lameplast SpA from Milan-based private equity firm Aksia Group for an undisclosed amount, said Canplastics.

Headquartered in Rovereto sul Secchia near Modena, the company is described as a leading Italian manufacturer of plastic single/multi-dose containers for pharmaceutical, diagnostic, medical device, veterinary and cosmetic applications, with an emphasis on ophthalmic, vaccine, vaginal and rectal applications. “Lameplast is also known for its injection molding, blow molding and injection blow molding expertise which enables it to produce custom packaging solutions for demanding applications,” Tekni-Plex said in a July 2 press release.

"We continue to drive our strategy by growing our business organically and through mergers and acquisitions (M&A),” Paul Young, Tekni-Plex’s president and CEO, said in the press release. “We have specifically focused on expanding our healthcare packaging offerings, with M&A in product or technology adjacencies. Lameplast brings Tekni-Plex specific expertise in unit and multi-dose packaging that was not part of our portfolio previously. We will now be able to offer a rigid packaging solution for prescription and over-the-counter medications and vaccines, in addition to our Tekni-Films flexible packaging options."

The acquisition adds approximately 130 more employees to Tekni-Plex’s 3,000-strong global workforce; Lameplast general manager Luca Iulli will continue to oversee the operation.

The company’s quality management system is ISO 15378 and ISO 9001 certified. Lameplast is also a CE-mark holder for Class I medical devices, which indicates compliance with applicable European Union (EU) regulations and enables the commercialization of products in the 32 EU countries. Production is carried out in Class ISO 7 (Class 10,000) and ISO 8 (Class 100,000) controlled contamination environments according to ISO 14644-1.

Lameplast is the twelfth acquisition that Wayne, Pa.-based Tekni-Plex has made in the past five years. Tekni-Plex supplies products for such end markets as medical, pharmaceutical, food, beverage, personal care, household, and industrial.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- JG Summit Petrochemical has restarted its polypropylene (PP) plant following a maintenance turnaround, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in the Philippines informed that the company has resumed operations at its plant on July 1, 2019. The plant was shut for maintenance in early-June, 2019.

Located in Batangas City, the Philippines, the plant has a production capacity of 190,000 mt/year.

As MRC wrote before, in November 2017, JG Summit Olefins Corp. awarded an engineering, procurement and construction contract to Posco Engineering & Construction to expand an existing naphtha cracker and build a hydrogenation unit in Simlong, Batangas, Philippines.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Venezuela’s Amuay and Cardon refineries are halted following a blackout in the early morning hours, reported Reuters on Sunday with reference to two oil industry sources with knowledge of the issue.

The twin refineries together form the 955,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Paraguana Refining Center, which has been operating well below capacity for years because of chronic operational problems that have been aggravated by Venezuela’s economic crisis.

"Blackout in both refineries," one employee who works in the complex wrote in a text message. "It’s going to be difficult to get the system back up."

We remind that, as MRC informed before, in late February 2019, Houston-based Citgo Petroleum slowed work on an overhaul of its 235 Mbpd Aruba refinery due to a lack of financing stemming from US sanctions on Venezuela's state-run PDVSA.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- China aims to launch a bonded low-sulfur bunker fuel oil contract that will allow foreign investors to participate in trading by the end of 2019, reported Reuters with reference to the Shanghai Futures Exchange's (ShFE) statement.

A 0.5 percent sulfur content cap in shipping fuel set by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) comes into effect in 2020.

"The contract will help expand China’s pricing influence in global bunker fuel oil market and help China to improve its maritime transportation capacity," ShFe Chairman Jiang Yan said in a statement.

"Bunker fuel markets will see bigger opportunities and challenges in 2020. China may reverse the current situation of fully relying on imports on high-sulfur bunker fuel oil and become the world’s biggest low-sulfur heavy bunker fuel oil supply center," Jiang said.

China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has planned a low-sulfur fuel oil supply of 4 million tonnes a year, a senior company executive said. The first batch of the fuel was dispatched from its Dalian Petrochemical plant in early June.

Sinopec Group, another Chinese oil giant, said last year it would start supplying IMO 2020 standard bunker fuel in 2019 and all of its supplies would meet IMO 2020 standard by Jan. 1.

The low-sulfur fuel oil contract would be China’s second bonded oil futures followed by crude oil futures on the Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE), a ShFE subsidiary.

INE has recorded 103 million lots of trade in crude oil contracts since its launch in March 2018 till the end of June this year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - July contract price of propylene in Europe was agreed down by EUR80/tonne from the level in June. Therefore, all European producers announced a proportional decrease in export polypropylene (PP) prices for July shipments to the CIS markets, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

Negotiations over July prices of European PP have begun this week. All market participants said that European producers had to cut export prices of polymers of propylene for shipments in July significantly under the pressure the lower cost of the main raw materials in the region.

Deals for July shipments of homopolymer propylene (homopolymer PP) were negotiated in the range of EUR1,070 -1,120/tonne FCA, whereas last month's deals were done in the range of EUR1,150 -1,200/tonne FCA.

Deals for block copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) were negotiated in the range of EUR1,140-1,180/tonne FCA.

Demand for European PP has subsided significantly from consumers in the CIS countries in May-June due to high export prices. But a significant reduction in July prices may change the situation with the demand for a European polymer for the better.
MRC