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, said PlasticsEurope.

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.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- France-based packaging machinery and equipment supplier Sidel Group has acquired Cognac Moules Emballages Plastiques (COMEP), a French producer and designer of moulds for PET blow moulding, said PlasticsEurope.

Founded in Salles-d'Angles in 1998, COMEP is specialised in the design and manufacturing of moulds for PET bottles and produces over 4,000 moulds per year for customers around the world.

With 60 employees, COMEP was a “first-mover” in low blowing pressure technologies, Sidel said in an 18 July statement.

The financial size of the transaction has not been disclosed.

The acquisition, which will strengthen Sidel’s moulds making and tooling capabilities, follows the Swiss group’s takeover of Italian brand strategy and design consultancy firm PET Engineering srl in October last year.

“With this move, we are continuing on the journey we started back in October 2018… By acquiring COMEP, we enlarge our set of capabilities even further and extend our mould and tooling portfolio to offer complete packaging solutions to our clients,” said Pavel Shevchuk, EVP Services, Sidel.

Post-acquisition, the two firms will maintain their current business focus “with a strong, adapted go-to-market strategy.”

COMEP will represent a separate channel to market for moulds and tooling, meaning the two companies will take “distinct commercial approaches… while capitalising on efficiencies,” Sidel said.

“We are confident that each company’s expertise will prove key in meeting the growing need for complete packaging solutions this industry is showing,” commented COMEP’s CEO Christophe Amarant.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Celanese Corporation, a global specialty materials company, has increased August list and off-list selling prices for Vinyl Acetate Monomer (VAM) sold in Europe, the Middle East and Afric, as per the company's press release.

The price increases below were effective for orders shipped on or after 30 July, 2019, or as contracts otherwise allow, and are incremental to any previously announced increases.

Thus, VAM prices rose by EUR100/mt for Europe, the Middle East & Africa.

As MRC reported earlier, Celanese last raised its VAM prices for the stated above regions and Asia on 24 April, 2019, as follows:

- by EUR100/mt - for Europe, the Middle East & Africa;
- by USD50/mt - for AOC.

Celanese Corporation is a global technology leader in the production of differentiated chemistry solutions and specialty materials used in most major industries and consumer applications. Based in Dallas, Celanese employs approximately 7,700 employees worldwide and had 2018 net sales of USD7.2 billion.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russia's production of high density polyethylene (HDPE) totalled 564,500 tonnes in the first seven months of 2019, down by 1% year on year. Two producers out of four reduced their output, according to MRC's ScanPlast report.

Russia's total HDPE production was 78,300 tonnes in July, which virtually corresponded to the last month's figure. Thus, overall HDPE output reached 564,500 tonnes in January-July 2019, compared to 571,000 tonnes a year earlier. Kazanogrsintez and Stavrolen's increased output could not offset the absence of production at Nizhnekamskneftekhim and lower output at Gazprom neftekhim Salavat.

The structure of polyethylene (PE) production by plants looked the following way over the stated period.

Kazanorgsintez's total HDPE production rose to 49,600 tonnes in July from 39,500 tonnes a month earlier, the Kazan producer reduced its output in favour of the linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) production in June. The Kazan plant's overall HDPE output reached 318,400 tonnes in January-July 2019, up by 2.4% year on year.

Stavrolen produced about 28,400 tonnes last month versus 27,300 tonnes in June. The plant's overall output reached 182,500 tonnes over the stated period, up by 6% year on year. It is worth noting that Stavrolen plans to shut its production for a long turnaround on 1 September.

Gazprom neftekhim Salavat virtually didn’t produce anything in July due to a shutdown for a scheduled maintenance, whereas it's HDPE production was about 11,400 tonnes a month earlier. The Bashkir plant's overall HDPE output exceeded 61,500 tonnes in the first seven months of 2019, up by 11% year on year. We remind that the Salavat producer did not take off-stream its production capacities for maintenance last year.

Nizhnekamskneftekhim produced exclusively LLDPE over the stated period.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- A fire was extinguished on Thursday after breaking out at a refinery owned by Indonesian state oil and gas company PT Pertamina in Balikpapan in East Kalimantan province, reported Reuters with reference to the company's statement.

The fire was put out after 3 hours and an investigation will be carried out into its cause, company official Heppy Wulansari said, adding that the refinery remained operational.

Earlier in the day, Wulansari told Metro TV that one of the units at the 260,000 barrel per day capacity Balikpapan plant had been shut due to the fire. The plant supplies fuel to eastern Indonesia.

A Pertamina spokeswoman told reporters there had been no casualties.

As MRC informed before, in September 2018, Eni and PT Pertamina (Persero) signed in Porto Marghera, at Eni Green Refinery, a Memorandum of Understanding further expanding the relationship into green refinery.

Pertamina is an Indonesian state-owned oil and natural gas corporation based in Jakarta. It was created in August 1968 by the merger of Pertamin (established 1961) and Permina (established 1957). Pertamina is the world's largest producer and exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG)
MRC