South America

Ahead of labor, materials, and energy costs, a new report states that access to talented workers capable of supporting innovation are the key factor driving global competitiveness at manufacturing companies. The 2010 Global Manufacturing Competitiveness Index, a research report from Deloitte's Global Manufacturing Industry group and the U.S.

Dow Chemical's efforts in 2008 to park its basic plastics business in a joint venture with Kuwait's Petrochemical Industries Company (PIC) may have ultimately failed, but its subsequent $18.8 billion deal to acquire Rohm and Haas that same year, and create a specialty chemicals and advanced materials company, is already paying dividends and reinforcing the company's bid to move out of commodities and into specialty products.

Bemis Company Inc. (Neenah, WI) has received all necessary reviews and approvals from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA), clearing the way for it to sell its FreshCase film for fresh beef packaging applications.

A company founded in 2001 by a 19-year-old Princeton University freshman is increasingly finding a home for "un-recyclable" plastics and bridging the gap between consumers of everyday items like drink pouches and the brand owners that create them. Now, Tom Szaky, a grizzled 28-year-old that was named to Inc. magazine's 30 under 30 list at 24, and his company, TerraCycle (Trenton, NJ), are reaching out to the plastics industry.

Ending a lengthy search for the right biodegradable, compostable molding material, the Brazilian company S.R. Promocionais will begin producing its Eko BIO pens using Cereplast (El Segundo, CA) 1001 Compostable resin to mold the pen's structural components, marking yet another application for Cereplast in the Brazilian market.

Protective packaging is hot, as more and more people shop online and shipping increases in both developing and developed regions of the globe. A Freedonia Group report says that world demand for protective packaging is projected to increase 7.8% per year to $22.2 billion in 2014, representing a "notable acceleration" from the 2004-2009 period.

A reduction in interest rates, assistance from the country's national development bank, and booming domestic demand are lifting Brazilian manufacturers of plastics processing equipment, even as a stronger Real impacts its export potential and Chinese machine makers target Brazilian converters.

Brazilian molder and moldmaker Jaguar Indústria e Comércio de Plásticos Ltda. (Jaguariúna) has invested approximately $18 million in 220,000m² of land in its current city where it plans to build a new 35,000m² facility. This summer, it also plans to take delivery of seven new injection molding machines, investing in all-electric and hybrid presses from Demag (four) and Arburg (three).

Brazil-based additive and masterbatch supplier Cromex (São Paulo) has plans to move to a new facility in São Paulo within the next nine months, outfitting the site with nine new compounding extrusion lines in addition to moving some existing equipment. Cesar Ortega, Cromex commercial director, and Enio A. Ferigatto, projects and products manager, revealed the plans to PlasticsToday during a tour of the company's existing site.

São Paulo—Propelled by carbonated soft drinks (CSD), health drinks, and most recently aseptically filled products like milk beverages, Brazil’s polyethylene terephthalate (PET) stretch blowmolding market is heating up, fueled by income gains for large segments of the fifth-most populous nation in the world that are making things like bottled water and soda newly accessible to everyday Brazilians.