Innovating in extrusion, rotomolding, and compounding

As an increasingly rare breed operating a full-fledged processing operation in Singapore, Peter’s Polyethylene prioritizes material and product originality to differentiate itself from larger competitors.

The city state of Singapore is well known for its injection molders, many of whom have migrated substantial portions of their operations offshore in search of cost efficiencies. There is one processor, however, who is flying the home flag high, and that with the unlikely combination of rotomolding, film extrusion, and compounding. Peter’s Polyethylene Industries managing director Peter Sng started his career in waste management and already had an affinity for plastic trash bags when Singapore’s largest supplier went belly-up in the 1980s. “I saw an opportunity to get into a promising business and grasped it,” recalls Sng.

Peter Sng

His interest in plastics further piqued, Sng started studying polymer engineering on a part-time basis in 1993. “I’d come across the rotomolding process and saw a need to get proper training and knowledge. It was a five-year journey where I traveled widely, meeting industry pioneers who taught me a lot of things,” he recalls.

The company started rotomolding bins in 1999, and 200-liter chemical drums in 2001, and Sng realized pretty soon that a further level of differentiation was required to keep ahead. “We didn’t want to mold ‘me-too’ products like water tanks. We felt the need to start making our own rotomolding compounds and did so starting in 2003,” he recalls.

These days, Peter’s Polyethylene uses polypropylene and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) in its rotomolded products, as well as film-grade metallocene linear low-density PE. Recent product developments include tubs for airport baggage handling and a modular resin silo system that the company is trialing at its Singapore plant. “You can stack up to seven 2.2m-diameter sections and the cost is around one-third of aluminum silos,” says Sng. “We’re testing a 23-ton silo comprising five sections onsite for six months before we start marketing.”

Peter’s Polyethylene’s venture into compounding saw a business develop where it started to sell material to other processors, presenting another, perhaps unlikely, business opportunity. Sng recalls, “I was unhappy with the stretch film offerings available for shipping our compounds.” Sensing another market gap, Peter’s Polyethylene’s next diversification move was to start producing its own stretch film. “While the norm in Asia right now is 17-µm gauge, we started off with 12 µm and are now producing as thin as 8 µm,” says Sng. “Another key difference in some of our stretch film is that we incorporate a 20% loading of nanoparticle calcium carbonate. Not only do you save on material costs, but also calcium carbonate enables lower processing temperature, faster throughput, and higher film stiffness, while transparency is still sufficient that barcodes remain visible through the film.”

Peter’s Polyethylene shortly plans to double its stretch film capacity, and, according to Sng, “We are looking to the next level with two new lines over and above our current standard of high-performance stretch film.” This will involve use of a new stretch film technology.

In the meantime, Sng has plans to make nanoparticle calcium carbonate more widely available through a major investment in a production facility in Singapore that will turn out 8000 tonnes of compound annually. “We’ve had calls from all over the world about our filled stretch film,” he says.

Despite Peter’s Polyethylene’s diverse interest, Sng says that his real passion is for rotomolding. “Rotomolding is a very simple process but it’s not an easy process,” he notes. “We can all cook pasta but we can’t all cook good pasta. Just because you have the utensils, it doesn’t mean you are a good cook,” he analogizes. And with its own innovative ingredients, Peter’s Polyethylene aims to stay at the forefront of this process and others, and remain more than just a convertor. —Stephen Moore