US fourth quarter plastics machinery sales up 8%

MOSCOW (MRC) -- North American shipments of primary plastics machinery were up 8% in the fourth quarter of 2018, according to figures released 22 Feb by the Plastics Industry Association's Committee on Equipment Statistics, said Plasticsnewseurope.

The preliminary estimate of shipments value for injection moulding machines and extrusion equipment in the fourth quarter was $376.9m (€332m) million, according to the association. Injection moulding shipments were up nearly 9%. Single-screw and twin-screw extruder shipments were up 4.6% and 1.5%, respectively.

Compared with the fourth quarter of 2017, the value of single-screw and twin-screw extruders jumped 33.7% and 52%, respectively. The value of injection moulding shipments dropped nearly 5% over the same period.

“We projected higher shipments for the fourth quarter and that's exactly what transpired,” Perc Pineda, chief economist for the association, said in a statement. “The increase is not due to inflationary pressures of the economy, which one tends to think about when dollar value increases, but purely an increase in the quantity of shipments.”

Unit shipments of injection moulding machines rose 2.7% in the fourth quarter, and single-screw and twin-screw extruders increased 5.6% and 16.1%, respectively, Pineda said.

“All told, quantity shipments of primary plastics machinery increased by 3.8% from the third quarter,” he said.

In the committee's fourth quarter survey of plastics machinery suppliers, 75% of respondents said they expect conditions to either improve or hold steady in the first quarter of 2019. Sixty-seven% of respondents expect the market to be steady to better in 2019.

Suppliers said Latin America and Mexico are growing export markets for plastics machinery. But ongoing trade tensions between the United States and China remain a concern in addition to a shakier economic performance in most of Europe, according to the survey.

Major end markets that continue to have strong demand, according to surveyed suppliers, are medical and packaging.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Italian rubber & plastics machinery trade association Amaplast has announced a 3.6% year-on-year growth in revenue in 2018, without giving detailed figures for sales, said Plasticsnewseurope.

Data released by the association, which represents 170 plastic and rubber processing machinery companies, show that machinery production increased last year – albeit marginally, by a scant 0.6%.

Exports, which have been described by Amaplast as “the powerhouse for the sector”, however, contracted by 1.5% during the year while Imports and the domestic Italian market expanded by 3.1% and 4.7% respectively.

“On the whole, we can say we are happy with the results from the previous year,” stated Amaplast president Alessandro Grassi.

However, Grassi predicted that 2018 may turn out to be “a transition year”, which will see an “inversion of trends” in 2019 after eight years of consecutive growth.

“Companies are beginning to show signs of concern regarding the effects of the new governmental budget policies and the general trend in the economy,” said Grassi referring to the tax incentive overhaul in Italy and international developments such as Brexit and the US-China trade war.

In terms of regions, sales in Europe – which is historically the main market for Italian manufacturers – were flat at 60.1% of total revenue, marginally losing ground to the rest of Europe.

In the Americas, the NAFTA countries performed well, especially Mexico, while South America was impacted by a lacklustre economy in the two principal markets of Brazil and Argentina.

A “sudden slump” in the Middle East, particularly in Saudi Arabia and Iran, contributed to a slight decline in sales to Asia. The negative trend in China offset the “remarkable growth” in India, Amaplast said.

The top 10 export destinations remained the same last year with Germany leading the pack. Exports to Germany, however, declined by 2.2% last year, to EUR470,000.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Brazilian investment firm Itausa Investimentos SA delivered the highest bid and entered talks with state-controlled oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro SA on the contract to acquire LPG distribution unit Liquigas, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing with reference to the company's statement in a securities filing.

Itausa has partnered with Copagas Distribuidora de Gas SA and Nacional Gas Butano for the offer, Itausa said. Petrobras may still require new bids after the sale contract is drafted, the filing said, confirming a Reuters report on Friday.

As MRC wrote previously, in October 2017, Petrobras’s minority stakes in Braskem and Deten Quimica was excluded from Petrobras’s divestment program, according to a government decree published in Brazil’s Official Gazette. The decree prevented Petrobras from immediately selling its minority stake in Braskem, which had been announced last year. A new decree will be required to release the stock sale.

Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Petrobras is an integrated energy firm. Petrobras' activities include exploration, exploitation and production of oil from reservoir wells, shale and other rocks as well as refining, processing, trade and transport of oil and oil products, natural gas and other fluid hydrocarbons, in addition to other energy-related activities.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- has taken off-stream its low density polyethylene (LDPE) plant for a maintenance turnaround, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Malaysia informed that the company has started turnaround at the plant last weekend. The plant is slated to remain off-line till the first week of October 2019.

Located at Kerteh in Terrenganu, Malaysia, LDPE plant has a production capacity of 255,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed earlier, Petronas plans to build a C6-based metallocene linear LDPE plant and a low density polyethylene (LDPE)/ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) swing plant at its greenfield integrated refinery and petrochemical complex in southern Johor state in 2019. The proposed metallocene LLDPE will have a capacity of 350,000 tpa, while the LDPE/EVA will have a capacity of about 150,000 tpa. The two plants are part of Petronas" planned Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development project in Pengerang at Johor.

Petronas, short for Petroliam Nasional Berhad, is a Malaysian oil and gas company wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia. The Group is engaged in a wide spectrum of petroleum activities, including upstream exploration and production of oil and gas to downstream oil refining; marketing and distribution of petroleum products; trading; gas processing and liquefaction; gas transmission pipeline network operations; marketing of liquefied natural gas; petrochemical manufacturing and marketing; shipping; automotive engineering; and property investment.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Austrian plastics sheet and film producer Senoplast Klepsch & Co. is growing its business to the east and west, building a new plant in China and launching a capacity expansion in Mexico, said Plasticsnewseurope.

Last month, the Piesendorf-based extruder formally broke ground on the site of its planned factory at Suzhou near Shanghai, China. Initially, phase one of the plant will turn out co extruded sheets and film for thermoforming applications, mainly interior and exterior auto vehicle parts and bathtubs.

Senoplast is sinking around €13m in stage one of the project which is set to go on stream next year. The plant comprises a 4,000m2 operation with a workforce of about 40 who will include several specialists brought in from the firm’s Piesendorf headquarters, the firm said.

“With our new location, we want to serve the relevant industries directly on site with our quality products," explained project manager Michael Reeves. Meanwhile, Senoplast has already begun extending its only existing foreign manufacturing unit, located at Queretaro in central Mexico, to serve a growing regional market. Set up in the year 2000, the operation was intended to supply customers in the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA) faster and more efficiently.

The group is investing EUR7.7m at Senoplast Mexico where it plans to install a fourth production line and expand offices and storage capacity. In addition to serving increasing demand in North America, it aims to supply film and sheet to the growing markets of South America.

Senoplast is currently creating new office space covering 850m2 and building a new 3,000m2 warehouse at the Mexican site. Construction for the expansion there began in March this year and is scheduled to be completed by mid-September 2019.

“With the (Mexican) expansion, we expect production growth to increase by 35% and employment to rise by 20%,” explained Senoplast Mexico chief executive officer Constancio Leal. Senoplast group’s range of ‘Senosan’ semi-finished sheet and film products are made from different polymers and composites including ABS, polycarbonate, poly methyl methacrylate (PMMA), acrylonitrile styrene acrylate (ASA) and polystyrene.

To date, the company has achieved an annual production of around 50ktpa at its main plant in the Austrian village of Piesendorf and at the Mexican operation serving customers worldwide.

Last year, Senoplast invested EUR6.1m in a further expansion project, this time at its main base in Austria. In September, it launched a new 3,600m2 industrial extension with space for two new extrusion lines and a cleanroom facility along with a modern storage unit.
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