China

DuPont has started ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) production at its Chinese joint venture Beijing Hua Mei Polymer Company Limited, with plans to market the EVA produced there under the Elvax brand. DuPont says the joint venture will supply a broad range of specialty EVAs targeting market segments like packaging, adhesives, wire and cable, footwear, renewable energy, and electronics.

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.

The first plant in China to manufacture polypropylene (PP) from coal-generated olefins will utilize Dow's Unipol gas-phase process. The China Shenhua Coal to Liquid and Chemical Baotou Coal Chemical Co.'s Shenhua Baotou Coal Chemicals business started up the 300,000-tons/yr PP facility in early August. Located in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the plant uses gasification technology to convert coal into a synthesis gas or syngas. That syngas is used to produce methanol, which is transformed into PP building blocks, olefins.

Overview: The spot resin market was noticeably slower this past week as transacted volumes dropped after several weeks of heightened activity, according to spot-trading platform, The Plastics Exchange (TPE). Most grades of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) again saw stable prices, although film-grade PE continues to climb amid tight supplies. Overall resin demand remained strong, but buyers seemed unwilling to chase higher-priced offers.

DuPont and ChemChina will form a 50/50 joint venture to produce and market fluoroelastomer gums and pre-compounds in China. Specifically, DuPont will work with the Chenguang Chemical Research Institute, which is a subsidiary of ChemChina (China National Chemical Corp.). The venture will include a precompounding plant to be constructed in Shanghai that's expected to be operational in the second half of 2011, pending government approval.

For the fifth straight quarter, automotive Tier One supplier Lear Corp. (Southfield, MI) increased its earnings, with sales improving by 33% over the year-ago quarter to $3 billion and a profit realized. In the August 3 release of second-quarter financial results, Lear said core operating earnings had increased by $242 million to $190 million, with the three-year sales backlog up half a billion dollars to $1.9 billion and an improved full-year outlook for core operating earnings and free cash flow.

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.

The United States Business & Industry Council (USBIC) China Import Penetration Survey 2010 just released provides detailed production and China import penetration figures for key U.S. manufacturing industries. The report, compiled by Alan Tonelson, a research fellow at the USBIC, with Paul Moseman, a research assistant, shows that "China's industrial prowess is no longer confined to low-wage, low-tech, labor-intensive industries that have largely disappeared from America's landscape."

Global parts suppliers to the automotive industry are focusing most of their attention on China, reported SupplierBusiness, an IHS Global Insight company. The report (July 5, 2010) noted that, “Faurecia, ZF Friedrichshafen, GKN and Trelleborg announced expansion plans in China and Continental and Federal-Mogul cited improved prospects in the country.”

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.