Canada

In a country that tallied a $43.5 billion trade deficit October, which was actually smaller than September's gap of $44.2 billion, the plastics industry can make the rare claim of exporting more goods and services than it imports. As of October, the U.S. plastics industry's trade surplus had reached $14 billion, and was closing in on 2010's total surplus of $16.2 billion.

BioAmber and Mitsui & Co. announced that the initial phase of their Sarnia, ON facility is expected to have production capacity of 17,000 tonnes of biosuccinic acid and commence commercial production in 2013. In addition, the companies announced plans to jointly build and operate two additional facilities that, together with Sarnia, will have a total cumulative capacity of 165,000 tons of succinic acid and 123,000 tons of butane diol (BDO).

Three-year-old MedPlast (Tempe, AZ) is looking for acquisition candidates in healthcare contract manufacturing in Latin America and Asia, and hopes to expand its global footprint within two years.

Former Milacron President Harold Faig.

Well, you know what they say: If Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy! The same can be said of moldmakers.  While the Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI) appears to be happy - "Plastics industry applauds free-trade agreements" read one headline in an online industry trade magazine (PlasticsToday's coverage here)- well suffice it to say that doesn't speak for ALL of the plastics industry. Perhaps the U.S.

BioAmber Inc. has selected Sarnia, ON as the location for its first North American biosuccinic acid plant, with an initial capacity of 17,000 tonnes that will be commissioned in 2013. Working through its subsidiary Bluewater Biochemicals, BioAmber said permitting work for the plant was initiated in June 2011. BioAmber currently produces and sells biobased succinic acid from a 3000-tonne capacity plant in France.

Dana Holding Corp. (Maumee, OH) has secured a $2 million grant from the Canadian Province of Ontario for the ongoing development and manufacture of lithium-ion battery cooling technologies required for electric and hybrid-electric vehicles.  The grant will further support Dana's efforts to provide solutions that help automakers advance alternative-energy capabilities.

It had been four years since the North American plastics industry turned its attention northwards to Canada's Plast-Ex event, but the show returned to Toronto in June under new owners and with collocated fairs. In October 2009, the former Canon Communications (now part of UBM) acquired the Plast-Ex, Expoplast, and Packex trade shows.

Nearly five years ago, Walmart's introduction of a packaging scorecard forced the entire supply chain of the world's largest retailer to reexamine everything about their products' packaging from where and how it was made to what it was made with. For those who doubted that Big Box's resolve to tackle wasteful packaging, the scorecard is in its third iteration and the retailer's conviction that it, the companies it works with, and even its retail challengers continuously strive towards more sustainable operations is unwavering.

Plastics have taken on wood in the pallet arena for many years now, with injection-molded and thermoformed variants perhaps most visible. Pallets incorporating expanded polystyrene have also made some inroads. Now it's the turn of an interesting combination of polypropylene raffia and formed sheet to take up the challenge.

The Society of the Plastic Industry's environmental stewardship program that aims to keep loose resin pellets out of waterways and, eventually, oceans, has been extended northwards to Canada following a licensing agreement among the Canadian Plastics Industry Assn. (CPIA), SPI, and the Plastics Division of the American Chemistry Council.