Israel-based Plasgad setting up US production with RPM in North Carolina

MOSCOW (MRC) -- An Israeli reusable plastic packaging injection moulder is spending millions of dollars to expand into the United States, working with an established company to create a new entity, as per Plasticsnewseurope.

Plasgad Ltd. is working with RPM Plastics LLC of Statesville, North Carolina, to create a US operating unit called Plasgad USA LLC. The new company is jointly owned by Plasgad and John Hobson, the owner of RPM, a company that makes new products and provides service to other plastic product manufacturers.

Plasgad USA now will control the product manufacturing aspect of the Statesville location while RPM will separately continue its other operations, including equipment service, installation and relocation for other firms.

The deal includes more than 20 injection molding machines for Plasgad to make its product line of reusable plastic pallets, bins, containers and crates. The manufacturing site employs 35 in 100,000 square feet. Plasgad made the investment after examining the US market for reusable packaging and seeing continued growth in that part of the business.

"Plasgad identified this huge potential few years back and started to build its Go to Market strategy to the US market. This recent acquisition is another stepping stone in implementing its strategy towards the U.S. market," company spokeswoman Naama Konin said in an e-mail interview.

"We believe that our [research and development] capabilities are well fit to the needs of the US market and now that we have our own local production base in the US we can grow our business dramatically," she said.

The creation of Plasgad USA will allow the company to considerably increase U.S. production, bringing he company closer to customers, CEO Ofer Karmon said in a statement. Plasgad, already has two production sites in Kibbutz Gadot and Kibbutz Gesher Haziv.

Work to establish a US presence began in 2016, Konin said. "We started with a study regarding the American market [industry, main players, segments, etc.], then we began to search of a suitable location for our operations in the states," she said in the e-mail interview.

The company focused on the Midwest, Northeast and Southeast and found RPM, "which perfectly fitted our needs," Konin said. RPM started as a subcontractor for Plasgad in 2017.

While this is the third production facility for Plasgad, the company actually has a sales and distribution network that includes more than 90 locations in 40 countries for its thousands of customers, according to the Plasgad website.

Markets for Plasgad include agricultural, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, electronic commerce, fashion and do-it-yourself. Exact terms of the new business were not disclosed, but Plasgad indicated the deal "involves investing millions of dollars" to buy into the production site.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Refiner Philadelphia Energy Solutions will begin dismissing some of its 640 union workers, more than a week before its stated Aug. 25 termination date, reported Reuters with reference to two sources familiar with the plan.

It was not clear how many of the workers would be dismissed early from the East Coast’s largest and oldest oil refinery, but one of the sources said it would be "a significant number."

Union employees are expected to be paid through Aug. 25, the sources said, as the fire-damaged plant continues to wind down operations after the company filed for bankruptcy protection last month. PES has said it hopes to sell the plant to a buyer that would restart it.

PES was not immediately available to comment.

The company has declined to offer workers severance pay and has said it would halt health insurance coverage at month’s end.

PES entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 21, a month after a fire at the 335,000-barrel-per-day plant destroyed an alkylation unit used in the production of gasoline. The company had emerged from a previous bankruptcy last year.

PES initially said it would dismiss union and non-union employees by mid-July following the fire, but it later extended the employment of the plant’s union workers.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Taiwanese supplier of plastic injection moulding simulation technology CoreTech System (Moldex3D) has partnered with Austrian machinery maker Wittmann Battenfeld to advance liquid silicone rubber (LSR) injection moulding and smart manufacturing, said Plasticsnewseurope.

In a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed 5 July, the two companies agreed to collaborate to further bolster the role of simulation in LSR injection moulding.

As part of the partnership, Moldex3D has invested in LSR injection moulding equipment, including a SmartPower 90/350 featuring a Unilog B8 control system from Wittmann Battenfeld and an LSR dosing system from Elmet.

The collaboration will involve applying Moldex3D simulations to acquire new insights into the LSR cold runner, mould design and process dynamics to improve part quality and reduce cycle time.

The two companies will aim to develop processes that enable manufacturers to integrate the virtual with the real world and improve performance and productivity.

"Furthermore, the integration of mould filling simulation and machine characterization is fully aligned with our vision of digitalizing the physical manufacturing world, enabling manufacturing companies to work smarter and better based on digital simulations," noted Wolfgang Roth, manager applications engineering at Wittmann Battenfeld.

Described by Moldex3D CEO Rong-Yeu Chang as “an important milestone toward smart design and manufacturing,” the MoU aims to create a total solution for the two companies’ mutual customers.

Based in Hsinchu, Taiwan, CoreTech System is a leading supplier of Moldex 3D CAE simulation solutions for the plastic injection moulding industry. Using this analysis technology supports the product development by optimising the design process, promoting design for manufacturability and shortening the time to market.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy, has brought on-stream, its fluid catalytic cracker (FCC) unit last weekend, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Japan, informed that, the company has resumed operations at its unit, in early-August, 2019. The unit was shut for maintenance, on June 10, 2019.

Located at Sendai, Japan, the FCC unit has a propylene capacity of 100,000 mt/year.

As MRC reported earlier, on June 17, 2018, JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy resumed operations at its cracker following an unplanned shutdown. The cracker was taken off-line in end-May 2018 owing to furnace issues. Located at Kawasaki in Japan, the cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 540,000 mt/year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Executives at Milacron Holdings Corp. remained tight-lipped on any new details regarding the July 12 announcement that Hillenbrand Inc. is buying the company, said Plasticsnewseurope.

Milacron President and CEO Tom Goeke told analysts 30 July in a second quarter earnings call that the company would not be taking any questions related to the transaction.

The blockbuster cash and stock deal is valued at about USD2bn (EUR1.8bn), including net debt of approximately USD686m (EUR615m), and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2020 if approved by Milacron shareholders.

"Our board carefully and thoroughly reviewed the strategic and financial merits of this combination and unanimously concluded that this transaction represents a unique opportunity for Milacron," Goeke said during the conference call.

As part of the merger, Milacron shareholders will receive USD11.80 (EUR10.58) in cash and a fixed exchange ratio of 0.1612 shares of Hillenbrand stock for each share of Milacron stock they own. Under terms of the agreement, Hillenbrand shareholders will own approximately 84% of the combined company and Milacron shareholders will own about 16%.

Both companies are traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares of Milacron opened at USD16.83 (EUR15.00) and were trading down 0.36% to USD16.73 during morning trading hours. Hillenbrand shares opened at USD34 (EUR30.49) and were trading down 1.2% at USD33.70 (EUR30.22). Overall trading on the stock exchange was slightly down for the morning hours on 30 July.

"In Hillenbrand, I believe we have found a tremendous partner," Goeke said. "Our goal at Milacron has always been to provide our customers with innovative products across our critical plastics and fluid technologies. Together with Hillenbrand, we will be able to continue delivering breakthrough products and customised systems to existing and new customers, and strengthen our service platforms and distribution capabilities."

Hillenbrand, based in Batesville, Ind., is the parent company of compounding extruder maker Coperion and auxiliary equipment firms K-Tron and Rotex. It is also the manufacturer of burial caskets under the 100-year-old Batesville Casket brand. Hillenbrand went public in 2008 and has been diversifying into industrial machinery.
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