Building/construction

Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (Tokyo) has acquired the PVC compounding business of Comtrex, LLC (Warren, MI). This is the second such move made by the company following its offer to purchase the compounding business of the Tessenderlo Group (Brussels, Belgium).

A joint venture of Arabian Chevron Phillips Petrochemical Co. and The Saudi Industrial Investment Group is on track to start up the Middle East's first nylon 66 plant in late 2013. Petrochemical Conversion Company Ltd. (PCC) recently announced the successful transport of four process modules to the Port of Jubail in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the company's new 50,000-tonnes/year plant under construction in Jubail II Industrial City.

"Fully fibrous" is how Eovations describes its wood polymer composite (WPC) product, a technology that originated at a British polymer research institution and was a Dow Chemical project at one time. The patented process results in a composite profile that "replicates the fibrous structure of wood and creates a unique combination of strength, durability, aesthetic and workability properties," according to company information.

Warm floors are welcomed this time of year in cold climates, and Zurn Pex Inc. introduced its new hy-PE-RTube, one of the first radiant floor heating solutions in North America utilizing Dow Chemical’s polyethylene raised temperature-resistance (PE-RT) technology. The hy-PE-RTube was introduced at the International Builder’s Show held recently in Las Vegas, and is the first product resulting from the strategic collaboration of Dow and Zurn Pex focused on delivering next-generation piping solutions for hot and cold pipe applications.

Competition is heating up in the market for plastic materials used in LED lighting market.

Pipe technology was prominent for battenfeld-cincinnati at Interplastica (Jan. 28-31), where the company displayed its twinEX extruders for PVC processing and helix KryoS pipe head. The company's conEX conical twin screw extruder series reportedly offers the largest processing window available on the market with throughputs from 10-270 kg/hr.

A Romanian pipe extruder has been producing single-, double- and three-layer polyethylene (PE) drinking water pipes in diameters ranging between 250 and 450 mm in a fully automated fashion with shift-on-the-fly size changes via a QuickSwitch line from KraussMaffei Berstorff.

With PVC leading the way and Asia's market share growing, plastic pipes are forecast to top global revenues of $80 billion in 2019.  By that year, Asian-Pacific countries are forecast to increase their market share of global demand to more than 60%, with 55% of pipes to be made from vinyl, according to a new report from market research institute Ceresana (Konstanz, Germany).

A new option is available to designers of LED lighting systems for vehicles with the introduction of a series of polycyclohexylene-dimethylene terephthalates (PCT) compounds that reportedly deliver outstanding initial reflectance and reflectance stability, which are attributes required in light-emitting diode (LED) packages found in display backlight and general lighting.

Las Vegas—According to the latest research study from The Freedonia Group, U.S. demand for molding and trim is forecast to rise nearly 11% per year to $9.0 billion in 2016, attributed to a “sharp rebound” in new home construction and a “partial recovery in nonresidential building construction.” However, the study also notes that this revival in new construction activity will still not be sufficient to raise molding and trim demand in 2016 to the level achieved in 2006.