South America

Polymer costs are up, but monomer costs have risen higher. That was the perspective on the polyolefin market given by LyondellBasell in a March 5 teleconference detailing the company's January performance. Jim Gallogly, LyondellBasell CEO, and Kent Potter, the company's CFO, laid out the financial performance for the firm in the first month of the new year, for the first time utilizing new business units.

Husky Injection Molding Systems (Bolton, ON) finished 2009 with a 19% decline in revenues, watching sales fall from $1.2 billion in 2008 to approximately $1 billion last year. According to the financial filings by the company's private equity owner, Onex Corp. (Toronto), revenues were down in all regions, except Latin America, where they rose 13%. Elsewhere, Asia (-3%), North America (-23%), and Europe (-31%) all experienced declines.

Houston, TX—Massive amounts of new capacity hitting the market at a time when demand for basic plastics and chemicals actually contracted on a year-over-year basis likely mean that pricing power will not return to resin producers until 2013. Gary Adams, president of industry consultant Chemical Market Associates Inc. (CMAI; Houston), delivered that viewpoint during his keynote address to the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) 2010 International Polyolefins Conference (Feb. 21-24; Houston).

What once was "just" a globally active glass packaging manufacturer continues its transition to a multinational glass and plastics processor with the announcement it will build a new site in Brazil to mold parts for insulin pens for one of its current customers, Novo Nordisk. The molding facility is expected to be in operation this spring. Gerresheimer already runs two insulin pen component-molding facilities in Europe.

Demand for bioplastics increasingly is created by the pull of major brand owners and OEMs. In this instance, carton-creating giant Tetra Pak has tasked plastics and chemicals supplier Braskem to supply it with high-density polyethylene (HDPE) derived from sugarcane for closure molding.

A duo of thick-wall injection molded acrylic and a polypropylene-based wood-plastic composite (WPC) combine to present Natura Cosmeticos—Brazil’s largest cosmetics fragrance and personal care products—with an apt solution for its Aquarela line of makeup products.
 

Adding to its already significant presence in silicon products and technology, Dow Corning Corp. (Midland, MI) has acquired Brazilian silicon metal manufacturer Globe Metais Industria e Comercio S.A. (Para, Brazil), which has two chemical grade silicon manufacturing facilities in Brazil. The company is now operating as Dow Corning Metais do Para Ltda.

Overcapacity on the supply side, coupled with stagnating demand, remain the hallmarks of the styrenics field, as reinforced by recent news from Ineos Nova. The supplier reports it will close its 90,000-tonnes/yr polystyrene (PS) plant in Breda, The Netherlands by the end of this year. “We have significant overcapacity in our European PS business,” admitted Martin Pugh, managing director of Ineos Nova, in a statement.

Although often the unsung heroes in a plastics processor’s compound recipe, additives’ pace of development is as swift or swifter than in any other corner of the industry. The benefits of these, too, are as far-reaching as with any other development: Improved mechanical properties, weight savings, energy savings, and improved efficiency are just some of the benefits additives can bring to a processor’s game.

ExxonMobil Chemical, owner of the Santoprene line of thermoplastic vulcanizates and of other specialty elastomers, has tapped Marketing Services of America (MSA; Miami Beach, FL) to help the supplier expand these materials’ reach and use in the shops of Latin American processors. With a primary focus on Santoprene thermoplastic vulcanizate (TPV), MSA will distribute the materials in Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Central America, and the Caribbean.