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CPIA, Plastics in Canada plan Summit
The plastics industry and the general economy have taken a hit in recent months, with disturbing government statistics and constant talk of recession. But the condition of the industry has been developing for several years, and this is just the latest wrinkle.
To address the challenges facing plastics manufacturing in Canada, the Canadian Plastics Industry Association and Plastics in Canada magazine are cooperating on the Plast-Ex Summit '08. This conference will be held on May 22 this year at the Rogers Center in Toronto (formerly the SkyDome).
A slate of high-profile speakers is now being finalised, and will be announced soon in an upcoming issue of this enewsletter. The target audience for the event is CEOs and senior executives who need to make strategic decisions in a perplexing and complex marketplace, and want to hear different options and network with others facing similar issues.
The cost for the event is $695. This price includes the Summit itself, a networking event, lunch and dinner, and a Blue Jays baseball game, seen from the Rogers private box. Further details will follow shortly, in upcoming enewsletters and on our website.
www.plasticsincanada.com, www.cpia.ca

Nova increasing Canadian PE output
Nova Chemicals Corp. (Pittsburgh, Pa.) is spending $80-million on expanding its PE capacity in Ontario. A two-year project will add 250-million lb of capacity per annum. The expansion results from an upgrade of its Corunna, Ont., cracker last year, which improved efficiencies as well as increasing ethylene output.
An LDPE plant in Mooretown, Ont., will be upgraded, as will an HDPE plant at the same sit. Additionally, HDPE and LDPE plants in Corunna, Ont., will be streamlined.
Jeff Lipton, Nova Chemicals' CEO, stated: "These projects should have about a two-year payback and will generate meaningful earnings growth for our shareholders in every part of the industry business cycle."
Chris Pappas, formerly senior vice-president and COO, was named president and COO of the company, effective January 1. Lipton retains the role of CEO.
www.novachem.com

Le Seda buys Montreal PET-precursor plant
La Seda de Barcelona SA has acquired Intercontinental Química SA (Interquisa), a subsidiary of Companía Española de Petróleos SA, another Spanish company. The Spanish PET supplier paid about $860-million for the deal, which includes a plant in Montreal making 1.3-billion lb of purified terephthalatic acid (TPA) annually. TPA is a precursor chemical used in making PET.
The Montreal plant is owned jointly by Interquisa and the Société Général de Financement, the Quebec government's investment vehicle, which have 51 per cent and 49 per cent shares respectively.
La Seda's chairman, Rafael Espanól Navarro, stated the acquisition gives La Seda access to North American raw materials and complements its current product line-up. "Interquisa's presence in North America offers a unique opportunity to access this dynamic market through a new state-of-the-art production facility," he said in a statement.
In 2006, Interquisa Canada had sales of $500-million and a profit of $35-million. For 2007, it expected sales to have risen 15 per cent to $580-million.
www.laseda.es

Basics of Plastics courses offered in April
Plastics in Canada magazine, in conjunction with the Plastics Touchpoint Group (Thornhill, Ont.), is presenting a course on the Basics of Plastics on April 10. This one-day seminar is specifically aimed at salespeople and support staff working in the plastics industry, who need a better grasp of its dynamics and the main processes it uses. However, it is open to anyone in the industry who wants to broaden his or her understanding of what it can do, how it operates, and why.
Giving the course is Paul Waller, president of the Plastics Touchpoint Group, who has conducted similar seminars for 20 years. He will be covering the main processes used in plastics, including injection moulding, extrusion, and blow moulding as well as the main end-use markets and the major environmental issues.
The event will be held at the Rogers Inc. campus in Brampton, Ont. The cost, which includes lunch and a printed booklet containing a summary of the course material, is $195.00.
www.plasticsinacanada.com, www.plasticstouchpointgroup.com

Austrian governments bail out Battenfeld
Battenfeld Kunststoffmaschinen GmbH (Kottingbrunn, Austria) has received interim funding from the Austrian government and from the state of Lower Austria. This, follows the reversal of its sale on December 21 to OOD Private Equity. The injection press supplier is currently back under the ownership of German private equity firm Adcuram AG.
The injection moulding machine building operations of Battenfeld were purchased in 2006 by Adcuram, after being offered for sale by German machinery firm SMS. Battenfeld reported good sales after K 2007 in October, so the sale by Adcuram was a surprise move.
Battenfeld's management promptly filed for insolvency, complaining that the "surprising and unexpected change in ownership had endangered the existence of the company," which needed an infusion of capital. Adcuram disputed this in a statement on January 4, blaming "extremely difficult and intensifying market conditions, as well as the cost structure of the company," for the insolvency proceedings. It also said, "a change of ownership per se cannot have anything to do with a stable company and does not represent any reason for an insolvency application."
Adcuram stressed that it follows long-term entrepreneurial aims and specialises in machinery companies in need of significant restructuring. Battenfeld's injection press business has been in crisis for years, battling with structural problems and with involvement in a highly competitive market.
Whatever the precise causes, Battenfeld found itself in a cash-crunch, and needed government funding for a bail-out. Its management was also anxious to recombine its part and service operations with manufacturing, since Adcuram had split the two in August 2007. This has now been done.
An official liquidator has presented a survival strategy to the board of creditors and the bankruptcy court, and this has been approved by the creditors. A reorganisation plan is in progress, that calls for finding new owners. Offers to buy the company have been made.
"My forecast for the future of the renowned company Battenfeld is definitely positive," said Dr. Georg Tinschert, acting general manager, in an official statement. "Despite the difficult position we are currently in, we were recently able to gain two major orders from international customers. This shows our customers backing Battenfeld with trust and loyalty all the way. Therefore we are very grateful. Naturally we will honour all orders that are in process in accordance with the agreements."
www.battenfeld-imt.com

A castle under siege: Battenfeld's headquarters in Kottingbrunn, Austria

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Recent results Environmental concerns about plastics are clearly increasing. Do you think: The industry should show more concern about the substances it uses 44% There will be bans on certain substances such as bisphenol-A as a feedstock 26% There is too much pseudo-science in this area 22% Environmental concern ebbs and flows, and this too shall pass 7%

Changes

Andy Appleby has been named district sales manager by Buckhorn Canada Inc. (Brampton, Ont.). He has responsibility for all Buckhorn accounts in the western and northern Ontario districts, and is based in Cambridge, Ont.
www.buckhorncanada.com

Andy Appleby

The Conair Group, Inc. (Pittsburgh, Pa.) has entered into a joint agreement with Husky Injection Molding Systems (Bolton, Ont.) to provide complete manufacturing solutions for the PET preform market worldwide. This global agreement allows for closer integration and joint development of Husky's injection moulding systems and Conair's plastics auxiliaries systems, including its new EnergySmart PET drying technology.
www.conair.net, www.husky.ca

McMaster University's Faculty of Engineering (Hamilton, Ont.) has started a year-long celebration of its 50th anniversary. Since it was established in 1958, the faculty has grown from four departments and a small group of faculty members and students to seven departments, 145 faculty members, 123 staff, more than 3,700 undergraduate and graduate students, and over 12,500 alumni.
http://eng50.mcmaster.ca

The Automotive Composites Alliance (ACA) of the American Composites Manufacturers Association (ACMA) has created a new website: www.autocomposites.org

The Collins & Aikman Canada Inc. plant in Guelph, Ont., is to close. It employs more than 500 workers. Layoffs already occurred in November after Chrysler announced it would stop production of its Pacifica SUV. C&A has been divesting and closing plants since declaring bankruptcy in 2005.
www.collinsaikman.com

Lutek Plastic Equipment, Inc. (Dorval, Que.) now represents auxiliary equipment from AEC Inc. (Schaumburg, Ill.) Lutek's territory includes Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia.
www.aecinternet.com

ITM Instruments Inc. (Newmarket, Ont.) is celebrating its 25th anniversary. Its products include measuring instruments from Fluke, AEMC, Reed, Kyoritsu, Megger, and Raytek, among others.
www.itm.com

Germany steel company Salzgitter AG has bought the PET bottle-related machinery business of SIG Holding AG. Terms were not disclosed. The deal includes the blow moulding machinery builder SIG Corpoplast GmbH & Co. KG of Hamburg, Germany, and SIG's proprietary Plasmax barrier technology. Salzgitter already owns injection moulding machinery firm Klöckner-Werke AG.
www.sig.biz

Wayne Hertlein has joined Progressive Components (Wauconda, Ill.) as an applications engineer. He will work with Progressive's engineering department to design and develop new products for the tooling industry.
www.procomps.com

Tom Groff has joined Optical Gaging Products, Inc. (OGP) as North American sales manager. In this capacity, he is responsible for all OGP sales throughout the US, Canada, and Mexico.
www.ogpnet.com

Chroma Rotational Molding Division has named R. Dru Laws director of development. R. Dru Laws graduated from Brigham Young University with a BS in mechanical engineering and mathematics. He then graduated with honors from Queens University of Belfast with an MSc in polymer engineering, with emphasis on rotational moulding.
www.chromarmd.com

R. Dru Laws (left) with Paul T. Kinsella Jr., Chroma's general manager.

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Miscellaneous

- Equipment Financing

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Coming Events

2008

February 12: Plastic Film Manufacturers Association of Canada's Triple M Technical Conference, with table top exhibits. At Bellvue manor, Vaughan, Ont. (Contact: Marilyne Berman at 905-678-7748 or mberman@cpia.ca).

March 12: Space draw for Expoplast 2008. Details to follow. (Contact: Tom Sockett at 905-678-7748 or tsockett@cpia.ca).

April 6-9: The International Card Manufacturers Association (ICMA) Annual Expo will be held at the Loews Royal Pacific Resort in Orlando, Fla. (Contact: Stacy Flint at 609-799-4900, ext. 62, or SFlint@icma.com).

April 8-11: Plastimagen 2008, Mexico's premier plastics show, at Centro Banamex, Mexico City (Contact: Guadalupe Olvera Arellano at 52-55-1087-1650 or golvera@ejkrause.com).

April 10: Basics of Plastics, an introduction to the elements of the plastics industry. At the Rogers campus in Brampton, Ont. (Contact: Edward Mason at 416-764-1514 or edward.mason@plastics.rogers.com)

May 22: The Plast-Ex Summit 2008 is a look at the urgent issues facing the plastics industry in Canada. Co-sponsored by Plastics in Canada magazine and the Canadian Plastics Industry Association. At the Rogers Center, Toronto. (Contact: Nick Passingham at 416-764-1527 or nick.passingham@plastics.rogers.com).

September 30 - October 2: Interplas 2008, Britain's national plastics show, at the Birmingham NEC, UK. (Contact: Graham Earl at 020 8910 7890 or graham.earl@reedexpo.co.uk).

October 22-23: Rotoplas '08, the international rotational moulding event, at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, Rosemont, Ill. ( Contact: Maria at 630-578-3266 x225, or mariap@cmservnet.com)

October 20-21: Expoplast 2008, Quebec's triennial plastics show, at the Palais de Congres in Montreal. (Contact: Tom Sockett at 905-678-7748 or tsockett@cpia.ca)

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Automotive exterior components
Mould steels- what's new
Extrusion report on sheet and profile production
Injection moulding – Developments in controls
Spotlight on Chillers
Raw materials report
Processor profile

Closing: January 16, 2008

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